"She scares me. She's Jerry Falwell with a pretty face. "

[PeaceNikki]

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

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.

"She scares me," said Bess. "She's Jerry Falwell with a pretty face.

"At this point, people in this country don't grasp what this person is all about. The key to understanding Sarah Palin is understanding her radical theology."

More at link

[MnFats]

1. and didn't McCain once call Falwell an 'agent of intolerance?"

flip flop...flip...flo

we have never had somone so driven by religious ferver in high office...

first thing they'll do when they get into office is start planning for our nation to do all it can to bring on the Rapture....have Georgia tweek Putin's nose? Why not? carpet bomb Iran? Sure! Nuke Mecca? It's the holiest place in Islam, but they need to convert anyway.

[PeaceNikki]

2. I recommend reading that whole piece

Munger also asked Palin if she truly believed in the End of Days, the doomsday scenario when the Messiah will return. "She looked in my eyes and said, 'Yes, I think I will see Jesus come back to earth in my lifetime.'"

Bess is unnerved by the prospect of Palin -- a woman whose mind is given to dogmatic certitude -- standing one step away from the Oval Office. "It's truly frightening that someone like Sarah has risen to the national level," Bess said. "Like all religious fundamentalists -- Christian, Jewish, Muslim -- she is a dualist. They view life as an ongoing struggle to the finish between good and evil. Their mind-set is that you do not do business with evil -- you destroy it. Talking with the enemy is not part of their plan. That puts someone like Obama on the side of evil.

"Forget all this chatter about whether or not she knows what the Bush doctrine is. That's trivial. The real disturbing thing about Sarah is her mind-set. It's her underlying belief system that will influence how she responds in an international crisis, if she's ever in that position, and has the full might of the U.S. military in her hands. She gave some indication of that thinking in her ABC interview, when she suggested how willing she would be to go to war with Russia.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. She gets what she wants. Scary that. n/t

[PeaceNikki]

4. And if anyone thinks women's rights are not at risk, they are very wrong

Soon after the book controversy, Bess found himself again at odds with Palin and her fellow evangelicals. In 1996, evangelical churches mounted a vigorous campaign to take over the local hospital's community board and ban abortion from the valley. When they succeeded, Bess and Dr. Susan Lemagie, a Palmer OB-GYN, fought back, filing suit on behalf of a local woman who had been forced to travel to Seattle for an abortion. The case was finally decided by the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled that the hospital must provide valley women with the abortion option.

At one point during the hospital battle, passions ran so hot that local antiabortion activists organized a boisterous picket line outside Dr. Lemagie's office, in an unassuming professional building across from Palmer's Little League field. According to Bess and another community activist, among the protesters trying to disrupt the physician's practice that day was Sarah Palin.

[kestrel91316]

5. When the BAPTISTS are afraid of somebody, you know there's a problem.....

[PeaceNikki]

6. THESE are the issues we need to address

Her radical theology, hate for homosexuals and the fact that she thinks Jesus will return in her lifetime.

[madcaplaughed]

7. frankenstein\bride of frankenstein '08

a pretty face? hehe, speak for yourself! ;)

frankenstein\bride of frankenstein '08

[BeFree]

8. Let us pray....

....she doesn't get any closer than she is right now.

This thread is the most damning single article showing her true colors.

I'm gonna K&R.

[PeaceNikki]

9. I agree. But the media and DU is consumed with her family.

Meanwhile they ignore her radical theology and fundamentalist ideals.

Why would we want someone in office who believes the rapture will occur in her lifetime? What incentive would she have to improve the country and the world? None. She's too consumed with fighting "God's war".

[spanone]

10. i'll buy the jerry fallwell, but not the pretty face....

[Cha]

11. She's jerry falwell with

lipstick.

[samuraiguppy]

12. people really need to know this nt

[PeaceNikki]

13. Yes they do!

[PeaceNikki]

14. Kick

[eppur_se_muova]

15. Wife. Soccer mom. Helicopter-borne 'sportsman' ... and WHIRLY-EYED FUNDIE !!

Oh, how I wish I had a PhotoShop to go with that phrase -- I'm picturing an oscillating yellow glow in the pupils, with a hypnotic spiral in fluorescent bluish-green pasted onto those glasses ...