Salon: The pastor who clashed with Palin

[The Night Owl]

A great piece from Salon...

The pastor who clashed with Palin

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.

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

This Ed Kalnins is a real piece of work. What gave this guy the idea that he can tell reporters who not to interview?

[zbdent]

1. It will take a while for the media to find other people who disagree with Ms. Palin ...

however, with global climate change melting the glaciers, we may not be waiting as long as we originally expected ...

[formernaderite]

2. as outraged as we are

let's not lose focus on the issues that most americans are watching. Whether she banned books or not doesn't interest most people. A lot of "parents" on both the repub and dem side have at one time or another wished certain books weren't featured or stocked. I have always lived in a blue state/ county/ town...and I remember well parents arguing the merits of various fiction, and whether the school library should carry them. Thank goodness we always had strong willed librarians who stood up to the pressures of various parental groups.