On June 7th, 2008 Sarah Palin interrupted her schedule of state business and spent Alaska state taxpayer money to fly down from Juneau to the Mat-Su Valley where she attended on June 8th two religious events dominated by the Wasilla Assembly of God, which is demonstrably Palin's key Alaska church.
At the end of one those events, young adults in a church Palin had attended for over two decades were presented with Samurai swords. "Warriors of old were considered undressed if they were without their sword... Swords were worn in service to the lord of the realm. Some of the most renounced swordsmen were the Samurai," intoned a church member officiating the sword ceremony, who then quoted Psalms 149 verses 6-9: "May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double edged sword in their hands to inflict vengeance on the nations, and punishment on the peoples, and to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, and to carry out the sentence written against them."
Better to have given them muskets knowing more of their use than the sword. Should have given them a rifle having witnessed how they can persuade. Better to have given them tanks so they could flatten the dying to ashes. Should have given them grenades to lob into the center of a growing crowd.
Better to have given them truth to plunge inside their own empty spirit...
(The following is an excerpt from the blog Talk to Action and written by Bruce Wilson...)
If Sarah Palin may hold apocalyptic end-time beliefs or believes that she has a divine mandate to initiate an end-time conflict, American voters have the right to know about the doctrines taught in Palin's Alaska churches. These churches are closely associated with a movement, called the Third Wave or New Apostolic Reformation, which holds views that are highly controversial, particularly among other conservative Christians who are most aware of this fast growing international phenomenon. The activities of the movement have been condemned as heresy by the General Council of the Assemblies of God, to which two of Palin's churches currently belong. Accusations even stronger than `heresy', decrying the "Third Wave" religious movement, have been launched from Fundamentalist and Evangelical Christian groups.
Our focus on Palin's churches does not "bash religion" and has been praised by conservative Christians for its academic rigor. We are examining the religious views promoted at Palin's churches because the Third Wave / New Apostolic Reformation movement rejects pluralism and its followers believe they have been anointed by God to lead a unified superchurch into the final age - both of which have public policy implications.
They asked me to wait. To wait for God to come laughing, Wait on His voice to destroy the golden temples of man, Hold my tongue until His powerful breath was upon me, And from His loving casualties I’d at last know the Savior.
They asked me to wait. To wait for God to come laughing, Wait for His followers to die away their persuasive babble And the murder of Islam to breach the walls of the earth As the many damned souls drowned under holy laughter.
“O! The Lord God is looming! On his way with God’s wrath! We are to take up swords and send evil howling back to die their well deserved and slow death! Their faces popped and spattered these words as they fell back, Caught in His fiery presence, twisting their tongues into drivel And thrashing their minds in the glory of an Eden unlike any other.
And then the snake planted his venom Through the laughter of their gyrating madness. Tears emptied their pockets, spirits came crashing, And the anointed rapture of their making grew tired, Weary of such euphoric trotting and wheezing And falling over one another in ecstasy.
Side note that might or might not be relative... The Third Wave was an experimental demonstration of Nazism movement undertaken by history teacher Ron Jones with sophomore high school students attending his Contemporary History class as part of a study of Nazi Germany. The experiment took place at Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, during first week of April 1967. Jones, unable to explain to his students why the German citizens allowed the Nazi Party to exterminate millions of Jews and other so-called "undesirables", decided to show them instead. Jones started a movement called "The Third Wave" and convinced his students that the movement is to eliminate democracy. The fact that democracy emphasizes individuality was considered as a drawback of democracy, and Jones emphasized this main point of the movement in its motto: "Strength through discipline, strength through community, strength through action, strength through pride".
The experiment was not well documented. Of contemporary sources, the experiment is only mentioned in Cubberley High School student newspaper "The Cubberley Catamount". It is only briefly mentioned in two issues, and one more issue of the paper has articles about this experiment, but without much detail. The most detailed account of the experiment is an essay written by Jones himself some six years afterward. Several other articles about the experiment exist, but all of them were written after a considerable amount of time had passed.
It was foretold that a redeemer would come with ice under her wings! It was said that we’d bow to her charge, to her spellbound occasion and her frozen loyalty. She came at the behest of the old man’s superiors, shaking the waters with her wing. I have heard of this legend in books from a simpler time, back before the battle, Before the ice came, after the storm of the century when this land was asleep. Back when ghosts bumped along the tundra like herds of muskox, and the humans were timid and easily gunned down by noble hunters with time on their hands. Ghosts stalking ghosts, wandering pickpockets in a land that never again moved.
Sky-churned rage pushed by the rousing-deep and talons Of blind eddies crept closer, carrying their god-awful devotion, Pawing greed and desperation over any miserable wretch in their way, Screeching “America is here!” and then severing her unfolded appendages, Splattering their power over everything, warring, hanging, sucking The very life out of weedier mongrels, slamming their godless love, raping, Weeping their control and mercy, only to stack our heroes in the sand, And consume Dear John letters demanding they give more of themselves; Ordering them to smack evil’s round rump so the good and the righteous Could remain innocent and the wicked could swill their unjust desserts. It was a time to churn out flag-wavers and anthem choirs and flyers With USA emblazoned on the sleeve of an eagle, and the limbless plea Of soldiers in the wrong war for the wrong reasons with a heroes’ gaze And a love of country and a hate of the world, spewing blood for ink, ghosts For paper, and nationalism as lexicon while slumped in Superman’s wheelchair. Audiences were rapt by the lies forced out of their mouths, dancing reality Sucked under by the force of the flood and discolored by the blood-filled waters. The storm of the century, manmade and ugly, smacked its oily lips over child, Over everyone’s god, over love and honor and bravery and light! The plummeting eagle was expected to make landfall and pierce the heart, Tossing down its watery prayers as the people cried out from their sleep, “Stay, naughty bird, your rape is done!”
(A Poetic Justice Photomontage)
It was foretold that a redeemer would come with ice under her wings! It was said
that we’d bow to her charge, to her spellbound occasion and her frozen loyalty.
She came at the behest of the old man’s superiors, shaking the waters with her wing.
I have heard of this legend in books from a simpler time, back before the battle,
Before the ice came, after the storm of the century when this land was asleep.
Back when ghosts bumped along the tundra like herds of muskox, and the humans
were timid and easily gunned down by noble hunters with time on their hands.
Ghosts stalking ghosts, wandering pickpockets in a land that never again moved.
Sky-churned rage pushed by the rousing-deep and talons
Of blind eddies crept closer, carrying their god-awful devotion,
Pawing greed and desperation over any miserable wretch in their way,
Screeching “America is here!” and then severing her unfolded appendages,
Splattering their power over everything, warring, hanging, sucking
The very life out of weedier mongrels, slamming their godless love, raping,
Weeping their control and mercy, only to stack our heroes in the sand,
And consume Dear John letters demanding they give more of themselves;
Ordering them to smack evil’s round rump so the good and the righteous
Could remain innocent and the wicked could swill their unjust desserts.
It was a time to churn out flag-wavers and anthem choirs and flyers
With USA emblazoned on the sleeve of an eagle, and the limbless plea
Of soldiers in the wrong war for the wrong reasons with a heroes’ gaze
And a love of country and a hate of the world, spewing blood for ink, ghosts
For paper, and nationalism as lexicon while slumped in Superman’s wheelchair.
Audiences were rapt by the lies forced out of their mouths, dancing reality
Sucked under by the force of the flood and discolored by the blood-filled waters.
The storm of the century, manmade and ugly, smacked its oily lips over child,
Over everyone’s god, over love and honor and bravery and light!
The plummeting eagle was expected to make landfall and pierce the heart,
Tossing down its watery prayers as the people cried out from their sleep,
“Stay, naughty bird, your rape is done!”
© 2008 mrp/tpm