A video on her hometown church Web site shows Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin being blessed three years ago by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for her protection from “witchcraft” as she prepared to seek higher office.
The video, which made the rounds on Wednesday on the Internet, shows Palin standing before Bishop Thomas Muthee in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from “every form of witchcraft.”
“Come on, talk to God about this woman. We declare, save her from Satan,” Muthee said as two attendants placed their hands on Palin’s shoulders at the Pentacostal church. “Make her way my God. Bring finances her way even for the campaign in the name of Jesus ... Use her to turn this nation the other way around.”
PHOTO: AFP
The date of the sermon listed on the church Web site is Oct. 16, 2005. Palin formally announced her gubernatorial bid two days later and was elected the next year.
Palin does not say anything on the video and keeps her head bowed throughout the blessing. The Republican vice presidential candidate was baptized at the church but stopped attending regularly in 2002.
A spokesman for the McCain campaign declined to comment late on Wednesday. A person who answered the phone at the Wasilla church confirmed the video was from May 2005 but declined further comment.
Palin was baptized Roman Catholic as a newborn.
Pentecostals are conservative in their reading of the Bible.
Unlike most other Christians — including most evangelicals — Pentecostals believe in “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” That can manifest itself through speaking in tongues, modern-day prophecy and faith healing, which includes the laying on of hands.
Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for the McCain-Palin campaign, has said Palin attends different churches and does not consider herself Pentecostal.
On a visit to the church in June this year, Palin spoke fondly of the Kenyan pastor and told a group of young missionaries that Muthee’s prayers had helped her to become governor.
“Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he’s so bold,” she said. “And he was praying ‘Lord make a way, Lord make a way’ ... He said, ‘Lord make a way and let her do this next step.’ And that’s exactly what happened.”
Muthee returned to the Wasilla church last weekend, where he gave a series of sermons over three days. Palin was campaigning in Florida.
The reverend Zipporah Ndiritu, who studied under Muthee in the Kiambu, Kenya-based Word of Faith Church, said the bishop was revered among evangelicals there. In a phone interview from Mombasa, Kenya, she said church doctrine focused on ridding the world of demons — and witches.
“Even in the days of Jesus Christ, according to the Bible there were witches who were manifesting through demonic forces,” she said. “You can seek from the Lord, and if you find demonic forces you cast them out.”
Ndiritu said she did not know Palin.
People accused of being witches have been targeted in parts of present-day Africa. In Congo, children have been thrown out of their homes and in Rwanda alleged witches have been beaten by mobs.
In May, a group of up to 300 young men killed 11 people who were accused of being witches and wizards in western Kenya, in some cases slitting their throats or clubbing them to death before burning their bodies.
Meanwhile, Palin defended a widely ridiculed remark that the close proximity of Russia to her home state of Alaska gives her foreign policy experience, explaining in an interview aired on Thursday that “we have trade missions back and forth.”
Palin has never visited Russia, and until last year the 44-year-old Alaska governor had never traveled outside North America. In her interview with CBS television, she did not offer any examples of having been involved in any negotiations with the Russians.
Palin’s foreign policy experience came up when she gave an interview, on Sept. 11, to ABC News.
Asked what insight she had gained from living so close to Russia, she said: “They’re our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”
The comment met with derision from Palin’s critics and was turned into a punch line for a sketch on the Saturday Night Live comedy show featuring actress Tina Fey.
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