"More info comes out on Palin and dominionism, Armageddon, and book bans"

[kath]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/12/131526/483/698/596291

Also at http://dogemperor.newsvine.com/
and at http://www.talk2action.org/user/dogemperor (see links to articles along right side of page)

Fifth in a series of very informative and well-researched articles by this diarist (an "escapee" from a coercive Dominionist church)
HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

excerpts

After a fair amount of backpedaling on her commentary re Gulf War II being essentially a holy crusade (an idea that is actively promoted in "Joel's Army" circles, incidentially--including the very Assemblies of God church she claims to no longer be a member of but did guest preaching at as recently as June 2008, as we'll see below), she let slip that she'd be quite willing to go to war with the Russians--and furthermore promoted the concept of first strikes against any country that is seen as a potential threat:

* Gibson then brought up Russia's recent invasion of Georgia, an act roundly condemned by the Bush administration and by McCain himself. He asked Gibson if the US would be compelled to answer militarily under the NATO treaty if Russia again invaded Georgia. Palin answered, "Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help."

* Expanding on her answer, Palin said, "e've got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable."
. . .
ABC's Charlie Gibson asked Sarah Palin if she believed that the Iraq war was part of God's plan.

GIBSON: "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?"

PALIN: "In what respect, Charlie?"

GIBSON: "The Bush ... Well, what do you interpret it to be?"

PALIN: "His world view."

GIBSON: "No. The Bush doctrine. Annunciated in September 2002, before the Iraq war."

PALIN: "I believe that what President Bush has attempted to do is rid this world of Islamic extremism, terrorists who are hell-bent on destroying our nation. There have been blunders along the way, though. There have been mistakes made, and with new leadership -- and that's the beauty of American elections of course, and democracy -- is with new leadership comes opportunity to do things better."

GIBSON: "The Bush doctrine, as I understand it, is we have the right of anticipatory self defense. We have the right to a preemptive strike against any country we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that?"

PALIN: "Charlie, if there is legitimate and enough intelligence that tells us that a strike is imminent against American people, we have every right to defend our country."

This is quite a bit disturbing, seeing as:

a) As we went over in our last post, an end-time nuclear war has been a big part of end-time theology in Assemblies churches (and particularly those at the heart of the "Joel's Army" movement) pretty much since the time that nuclear weapons have been around.

Also gives a lot of detail re: the book censorship issue, also detailed accounts of her church's efforts (and her involvement) to ban a book from local bookstores, plus the issue of "censorship-by-theft".

[kath]

1. kick for the Sunday crowd

[kath]

2. More on the attempt to ban books:

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:DDFbxceG_64J:members2.boardhost.com/brockmann/msg/1220972379.html+%22paul+stuart%22+%22palin%27s+attempts%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

He said he also told ABC-TV about Palin's attempts to have three books removed from the Wasilla town library because she felt they were not appropriate.
“I don't remember the name of the third book, but two of them were ‘Pastor I'm Gay’ and ‘Go Ask Alice,’” said Stuart, explaining they were pro-gay books. “I'm not sure if they came out or not, as Wasilla wasn't my town beat at the time, but she was furious,” said Stuart.

hmm - that link comes out a bit wonky, with a smilie in the middle of it. Try Googling the following: "Paul Stuart" "Palin's attempts"

Also contains some interesting quotes from Stuart (an Alaska reporter) such as “The Sarah I knew was like this: If you stepped on her toes, she would hit you with five grenades,” said Stuart. He said in his interview with ABC-TV News, he described the Palin he knew as “autocratic and dictatorial.”

(article referenced in comments section (on Kos) of the article in my OP)

[intheflow]

3. I don't remember "Go Ask Alice" being pro-gay.

Granted, I read it 30 years ago, but it was about a runaway who sinks deep into the drug culture. I can see why Palin's church would want to ban that--wouldn't want children reading any more about drugs than they would want them to read about reproduction freedom or gender equality. But just for the record, I don't remember any homosexuality in that book.

[kath]

4. You're right - it's about drugs. The reporter's memory as to the titles involved seemed to be a bit

fuzzy - it was 12 years ago. He did seem to think that all three involved homosexuality. I've looked at lists of books for kids/teens that are about homosexuality - perhaps it was "Annie on My Mind", which is about lesbians, and he confused the names Annie vs. Alice? Purely conjecture of course.

There is also the "Alice" series of books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, which has been frequently challenged/banned. From what I can tell, though, the books where Alice is questioning her sexuality (and I don't think she is ever actually homosexual or bisexual) were not published until 1999 or 2000.

(yes, I'm a bit of a kids/YA lit junkie and a biblioholic - our house looks like a small library, and I think I need to be a children's librarian in my next life. :-) )

Of course, because of its drug theme, "Go Ask Alice" is always very high on the list of frequently banned/challenged books.

[1monster]

5. My son read it last year in sophomore English and he says there was no

pro gay slant to it at all. In fact, he doesn't remember the subject coming up in the book at all...

Lot of drug use, though...