Jesus and Witches

The video clip is from 2005, and Sarah Palin, who is running for governor, stands on the dais of a small church; three pastors surround her in a huddle. They are touching her shoulders, her forehead, her back. The would-be governor is stone still, eyes cast down, palms up toward heaven. The man on her left, the one touching her forehead, bends occasionally to whisper in her ear.

This is Ed Kalnins, senior pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God, the church Palin attended from the time she was 4-years-old until 2002. The man behind her is praying loudly, relentlessly and with an intensity rarely seen in America's mainstream churches. This is the Kenyan pastor Thomas Muthee, a Pentecostal powerhouse who has a reputation for being able to cast out demons and witches through prayer.

First, Muthee urges the congregation to pray for Palin's success "even in the political arena ... [to] bring finances her way ... and give her the personnel." And then he offers this cryptic blessing: "In the name of Jesus. Every form of witchcraft is what you rebuke." The laying of hands on the Alaska politician, the invoking of Jesus and witches in the same sentence—what the heck is going on?

The scene has been played on YouTube about half a million times, a kind of Rorschach test for Americans of religious faith. Left-wing observers cite the clip as evidence that Palin is a right-wing Christian nut who believes in witches and exorcisms and, most probably, in crazy end-times scenarios. The right repeats its mantra about Palin's Bible-based values, knowing that her religious background aligns her with at least 20 million of the country's most conservative Christian voters. They know that Pentecostalism, the branch of Protestantism embraced by Muthee and in which Palin was raised, is the fastest growing religious movement in the world. Perhaps they are also aware of a recent Gallup poll, in which ++a fifth of Americans say they believe in witches.

Palin's Christian faith is, well, a matter of faith; that her Christian resume helped earn her a spot on the Republican ticket is understood. But what does she believe about God, really? More important, how does her religious faith affect her life and inform her decision-making day to day, and in crisis? In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network last week, Palin addressed these questions but did not answer them. The governor said she prayed and that she believed that God protected America. She took a swipe at the media for "mocking God" in the campaign and then went on to say, "I don't think that there's anything that I can do about it, so you know, I won't whine or complain about it, but nobody is going to convince me that my foundation of faith is not good for me and for my family. No matter the mocking, no matter what anybody says about it, I'm going to keep plugging away at this, and I'm going to keep seeking God's guidance and his wisdom and his favor and his grace, for me, for my family, for this campaign, for our nation."

Palin left Wasilla Assembly of God in 2002 (though she made frequent visits thereafter), and joined Wasilla Bible Church, a bigger, more conventional congregation nearby. Her former pastor Paul Riley says she chose the Bible church because she preferred the children's programs there; others hint that the Bible church is a safer choice for an ambitious politician. "The Assembly of God is more charismatic, very evangelical. Wasilla Bible is a very conservative church and therefore it's comfortable for politicians to be there and be part of it," says Bill White, a member of Wasilla Bible Church for 20 years.