The Pastor who CLASHED WITH PALIN

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Baptist minister Howard Bess, who wrote a book Palin wanted banned and who fought her on abortion and gay rights, says the country should fear her election.


Sept. 15, 2008 | WASILLA, Alaska -- The Wasilla Assembly of God, the evangelical church where Sarah Palin came of age, was still charged with excitement on Sunday over Palin's sudden ascendance. Pastor Ed Kalnins warned his congregation not to talk with any journalists who might have been lurking in the pews -- and directly warned this reporter not to interview any of his flock. But Kalnins and other speakers at the service reveled in Palin's rise to global stardom.

It confirmed, they said, that God was making use of Wasilla. "She will take our message to the world!" rejoiced an Assembly of God youth ministry leader, as the church band rocked the high-vaulted wooden building with its electric gospel.

That is what scares the Rev. Howard Bess. A retired American Baptist minister who pastors a small congregation in nearby Palmer, Wasilla's twin town in Alaska's Matanuska Valley, Bess has been tangling with Palin and her fellow evangelical activists ever since she was a Wasilla City Council member in the 1990s. Recently, Bess again found himself in the spotlight with Palin, when it was reported that his 1995 book, "Pastor, I Am Gay," was among those Palin tried to have removed from the Wasilla Public Library when she was mayor.


Bess -- a fit-looking, 80-year-old man in a gray University of Illinois sweatshirt and blue jeans – spoke with me over coffee at the Vagabond Blues, a cafe in Palmer with a stunning view of the nearby snow-capped Chugach Mountains. The retired minister moved to the Mat-Su Valley with his wife, Darlene, in 1987, after his outspoken defense of gay rights at Baptist churches in the Santa Barbara, Calif., area and Anchorage landed him in trouble with church officials. In the Mat-Su Valley, Bess plunged into community activism, helping launch an assortment of projects, from an arts council to a shelter for the mentally disabled.

Inevitably, his work brought him into conflict with Palin and other highly politicized Christian fundamentalists in the valley. Things got very intense around here in the '90s -- the culture war was very hot here," Bess said. "The evangelicals were trying to take over the valley. They took over the school board, the community hospital board, even the local electric utility. And Sarah Palin was in the direct center of all these culture battles, along with the churches she belonged to."

Bess's first run-in with Palin's religious forces came when he decided to write his book, "Pastor, I Am Gay." The book was the result of a theological journey that began in the 1970s when Bess was asked for guidance by a closeted homosexual in his Santa Barbara congregation. After deep reflection on the subject, Bess came to the conclusion that "gay people were not sick, nor they were special sinners."



<http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/15/bess/>

[MnFats]

1. God be merciful enough to spare us from this woman holding national office

In four years we will not be able to recognize our country.

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2. I believe theres more to the ' Palin ' story and those who are behind her rise. I don't think you

will have to wait fours years before you're not " able to recognize our country." It will happen sooner.

[Waiting For Everyman]

3. I wonder how she'd react if someone were trying to take away HER rights

to worship as she pleased, or harassing HER? I wonder how much she'd care if her "opinions" caused someone's suicide? No, I forgot, she wouldn't "blink" just for that.

It doesn't need theology training to discredit her beliefs, just the 9th commandment (against false witness, lying). Palin and her church friends (including Kalnins and all of them), and the whole religious right movement are frauds, it's that simple. The Bible says so. Maybe she doesn't know how to read? But no, that's no excuse, the Bible is on audio.

Thanks for the article, I'm collecting each new insight I find. And God bless Rev. Bess and the doctor who stood against Palin.

Her views and actions show a total disrespect and disregard for both the Bible AND our Constitution... that says to me, "the worst sort of unscrupulous power-mad opportunist". And so are her like-minded buddies.

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4. Hatred is hatred and it can be cleverly packaged & disguised to fit

many colorful shapes, sizes & forms but at the end of the day, the stench of hatred will still be lingering for all to see and smell, hopefully, for ALL to to see.