walking closely with the spirit

This has been doing the rounds since Bartholomew’s notes featured it last week. It’s a thrilling account of the occult warfare waged against the McCain/Palin campaign by Kenyan witches working on behalf of Obama:

Minutes ago I spoke with friend Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D. and he is so concerned at what he has learned about Barack Obama’s family in Kenya that he is calling a special prayer meeting in his home to pray against the witchcraft curses attempted by them against John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Dr. Marvin sent me the below e-mail from Flo Ellers. Flo is credentialed with the International Fellowship of Ministries which is based in Washington State. She is also a member of EndTime Handmaidens and Servants of Jasper, Arkansas.

IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO SPIRITUAL WARFARE, PLEASE PRAY TODAY AND CONTINUALLY THAT ALL SUCH CURSES BE BROKEN AND SATAN’S PLAN FOR AMERICA BE DEFEATED, IN JESUS’ NAME. PRAY AND COVER MCCAIN AND PALIN WITH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO SPIRITUAL WARFARE, IT IS TIME YOU LEARN!!!”

OK, this is by now a standard part of the craziness swirling around the Republican Gotterdammerung. No official connection to the campaign itself. And yet, and yet…

Ms. Palin’s faith has come under scrutiny after two videos taken in her former church surfaced on YouTube and became immediate sensations. The first showed a visiting preacher from Kenya praying fervently over Ms. Palin in a gravelly voice and asking God to favor her campaign for governor and protect her from “every form of witchcraft.”

The second showed Ms. Palin at an event in June praising the African preacher’s prayer as “awesome” and “very, very powerful.” …What is known, however, is that Ms. Palin has had long associations with religious leaders who practice a particularly assertive and urgent brand of Pentecostalism known as “spiritual warfare.”

It’s no surprise that spiritual warriors endorse someone who endorses spiritual warfare. But then it follows from that that Ms Palin actually believes that the US presidential campaign is being conducted under the influence of Kenyan witch doctors.

We’re probably going to be hearing a lot about how the outcome of the US elections vindicates its position in the world. Yet even if it loses, the McCain/Palin ticket may win more states than Kerry in 04, and will almost certainly win more than Dole in ‘96, Carter in 1980, Mondale in ’84 and McGovern in ’72. It’s not absolutely impossible that the Office of the Vice President – the vice President to an old, frail incumbent - will be home to the hosts of the spirit legions of righteousness. What an Obama victory means is that the rest of the world dodged a bullet. This is not especially reassuring.