I did not grow up in a family that pushed religion, but I have spent mylife in the South – where fundamentalist religion, pentacostalism, evangelicism, snake-handling, etc. are just part of the fabric of life. A harmless aside until the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson united such things into a cancer on the land. Good old time religion was part of our culture, our folk songs, the gospel music morphing into rock and roll. So the notion of God speaking to people in the present, praying for a new refrigerator, sanctified people, those are very familiar things. That Reverend Hegee that got people so upset a few months back could’ve come from any number of churches here along the Georgia\/Alabama border – rural communities where Gospel Quartets sing on Saturday nights and the Holy Spirit moves among people on Sunday Mornings.<\/p>\n
In such congregations, causality is not understood in a very scientific way. Katrina as a punishment for New Orleans decadence makes perfect everyday sense. And in the world where so much is out of control, prayer is exalted to an everyday tool. In this video<\/strong><\/a>, Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin returns to her church in Wasilla and personally demonstrates the nature of this kind of primitivism – talking about God’s plans in Iraq and for Alaska’s Pipeline.<\/p>\n Video of Kalnins and Palin from June 8, 2008 (via wasillaag.net):<\/strong><\/em>
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