John McCain has picked as a running-mate someone who is even more of a whacko than George Bush, and it’s not hard to work out why.
We’ve already had a taste of Barack Obama’s nutty former pastor, but meet Ed Kalnins, pastor to Gov. Sarah Palin.
He is the flip-side to Islamism. He also believes that this world is just a manifestation of a clash between gods and devils. I’ll let him explain himself, because I don’t really get this crap:
What you see in a terrorist — that’s called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what’s going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. … We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. … Jesus called us to die. You’re worried about getting hurt? He’s called us to die. Listen, you know we can’t even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. … I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say “war mode.” Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he’s like the good shepherd, he’s loving all the time and he’s kind all the time. Oh yes he is — but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war.
On another occasion he said:
“I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them.”
Indeed, suggests the Huffington Post, this church has shaped the governor’s zany world view. Seriously, folks, we simply cannot have a “Lastdayser” a mere “heartbeat away” (as the US media puts it) from the presidency of the United States.
Certainly, the video of a speech she gave as the special guest at a ‘graduation’ ceremony at the church strongly suggests that the cheese has slipped off her cracker. She believes, she says, that American soldiers fighting in Iraq are carrying out God’s work according to God’s plan. She believes God wants some gas pipeline she’s building. Who is she, Noah?
“What comes from this church has great destiny,” she says in her speech. I am very uncomfortable with politicians who feel that they – or movements they belong to – have a preordained ‘destiny’.
Pastor Kalnins – who she name-checks in her address – has said “I hate criticisms towards the President because it’s like criticisms towards the pastor — it’s almost like, it’s not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That’s what it’ll get you.”
When one of his longtime parishioners is a potential vice-president, who one hopes should be a Riker to the president’s Picard, we can only hope that this notion hasn’t taken root. And if old, sick, McCain should expire while on the job, does America need a president who believes (a) that she’s fulfilling a destiny set out by God, and (b) that her critics will all go to hell?
What the world could do without right now is an (assistant) world leader trying to summon the return of the Messiah. This is the real world. We can’t afford more leaders who have difficulty telling the difference between a foreign policy briefing and a reject script from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The sane people of Planet Earth don’t need to be caught between Islamism and Endofdaysers. We politely request that they ask their rival gods to pick another planet to fight over. How about HD 209458b?
