Your tax dollars, going to support dominionism for kids

In another example of what appears to be some extensive whitewashing at almost all of Palin's former and present churches, there were some very interesting links removed from JCC's site regarding an interesting bit of largesse by Sarah Palin to the church.

Fortunately, an astute blogger happened to archive the material, which included not only documentation of a $25,000 grant to JCC's "The Hub" from Palin's administration, but also a request for $100,000 total in state and federal funding and pictures of Palin actually being at the opening of "The Hub" (which have since been scrubbed from her website).

And all is definitely not as it seems with "The Hub".

"The Hub" is essentially a frontgroup run by JCC for recruitment of future members--much of its activities focus on recruiting kids.  The page itself begins with the phrase "Destiny Has Begun!"--a codephrase commonly used in "Joel's Army" circles to denote the "generation of destiny" (the new rebranding of "Joel's Army" borrowed from an Assemblies-linked church in New Zealand, now that the press is starting to catch onto the "Joel's Army" branding).  "Destiny" in and of itself is a favourite codephrase in these circles--in "Joel's Army" theology, people are "destined" to inherit all manner of wealth and take over the planet and whatnot.

The original blogger has also noted he's received some info to suggest that ongoing prosyletisation may be going on at "The Hub":

I also found some publicly available videos about JCC's "Ground/Zero" youth program through a rather circuitous route that I won't post here to protect the privacy of people in the videos that lead me to believe that more goes on here than what is described in the application.

The "GroundZero" program, too, is worth noting--and even based on its rather scrubbed page, the intent is to essentially set up an army of teen "God Warriors":

groundzero - the center of rapid or intense development or change.

Our name speaks our purpose.  At groundzero we have a vision to develop youth that are marked by purity, passion, and the presence of God.  This vision exists to create young people that will carry groundzero as a movement, not just a meeting.

ground/zero is not a place, it's not a time, but it is a movement transported by people that will impact this generation with a message that instills hope and a purpose.  The movement meets Wednesday nights.

Doors open at 6:00PM and service begins at 6:30PM for Middle and High School service.

Doors open at 8:30PM and service begins at 9:00PM for University service (ages 18-26).

(Last I checked, "ground zero" was the central blast point of explosions.  And also a name that at least the New York community would probably find in extremely poor taste.)

Seeing as it's actually been established through some quite official sources that Juneau Christian Center is an Assemblies church, that means that at least $25,000 of Alaskan taxpayers' money may have gone for active efforts to convert Alaskan teenagers to "Joel's Army" theology.

More evidence of Palin's dallyances with Joel's Army

Possibly some of the more damning info yet on Palin's membership in "Joel's Army" comes from the recent revelations of Palin's speech to a group called "Master's Commission".  The full transcript of her speech has now come out, and it's actually worse than the initial reports of her claiming that Gulf War II was a holy crusade.

Some of the badness is from specific codewords she uses (at the beginning, she literally describes the members as being under the "umbrella of the church"--a codephrase used in orgs that use abusive "cell churches" to denote the cell-church relationship).  And she gives some real zingers, too, including one which notes pretty much why I get alarm bells when I hear neopentecostal dominionist churches ranting about "destiny":

But, um, so, having grown up here, and having little kids growing up here also, this is such a special, special place. The Assembly of God here has been a real center point in the Valley for all these years, and the Valley has been a center point for the state of Alaska. So what comes from this church I think has great destiny. And I say this to the Master's Commission students who have been here under this umbrella, who are going to be sent out now and bringing people in.
. . .
I just want to bless you, and oh, because I didn't know if I was going to get here tonight, I flew in from Juneau last night and I fly again to Juneau tomorrow. So I didn't prepare anything, thinking my schedule wouldn't allow me to be here. But I have a word, but really I'm cheating 'cause it's a, I think it was given to me today but I'm going to give it to the Master's Commission students because I think it's so applicable to they are headed. And this word was given to me, bless his heart, by Pastor Ed Kalnins this morning at our big Valley-wide church service.

It was called Ephesians 1:17, and this is what I want to pray over you guys too: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you a spirit wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, and that spirit of revelation also including a spirit of prophecy, that God's going to tell you what is going on and what is going to go on, and you guys are going to have that within you, and it's just going to bubble up and bubble over and, and it's going to pour out over the state of Alaska. Again, good good things in store for the state of Alaska. Let us pray for God's will to be done here, for all of your destinies to be met in this state.

(Yes, you're reading this right--Palin is stating, flat out, that the whole reason that Alaska is rick in natural resources and why people are moving there is so that neopentes can hold the Great-Grandmother Of All Revivals.)

However, this isn't all of why this is disturbing.  For the rest of it, you have to do a little bit of digging into Master's Commission itself.

The efforts at whitewashing haven't been so successful with Master's Commission, as a fellow blogger has recorded, but even more enlightenment is found via some Google-massaging.

There are a number of groups using this name (and a surprising number of them are Joel's Army connected, indicating this may be one of the "rebrandings" we need to keep an eye on), but in this particular case, the "Master's Commission" we're concerned about is a post of an Assemblies frontgroup at Wasilla A/G that is connected to Phoenix A/G (Ted Haggard's present church).  Whilst the main headquarters are now in Texas, the group did have its origins in the largest Assemblies church in the US (and one of the largest megachurches in the country).

The group promotes itself as a "discipling and shepherding" group (which is bad enough), but the info on Wasilla A/G's site--amazingly, not yet redacted--is even worse.

A preview of just how far we're going to be going into the rabbit hole becomes obvious on the website for Master's Commission North Pole (the state org--which, incidentially, has one of the most annoying Flash-based websites known).  Aside from all the "sword" imagery and spouting off "destiny" every five seconds, it's let out that participants engage in "marathon fasting" of the type popularly promoted in Assemblies circles (which is to say, 21- and 40-day fasts with nothing but water, no food); in comparison, Lent just drops certain food groups, and Ramadhan only has daytime fasting.  Such extreme fasts are considered quite unhealthy by medical personnel, and are seen as one major "warning sign" of a potentially abusive religious group.

Have I also mentioned the fun of the group targeting Native Alaskan and Inuit communities for conversion?  And this is just baby steps, really, compared to what we're about to dive into.

The truth is, the group exists primarily as an ordination mill for the Assemblies of God:

Q: What sort of materials will I be taught?

    A:
-Berean School of the Bible (work towards being credentialed with Assemblies of God)
-Scripture Memory (hidding God's word in our hearts)
-John Bevere Curriculum (Under Cover and Bait of Satan)
-Francis Frangipane (In Christ's Image Training)
-Steve Thompson (developing and operating in prophetic ministry)

Of note, that "Berean School of the Bible" is the Assemblies of God's mail-order correspondence school--and the Assemblies tends to have particularly lax standards for ordination (you can get by with two good words from other Assemblies preachers, a multiple choice "Bible quiz", and two years of "ministerial experience" without setting foot in a seminary hall).

Another sign that Something Is Not Right is the fact that a big part of the work of "Master's Commission" is working with another Assemblies front--namely, the "Dream Center" chain of "faith based rehabs":

Here at Masters Commission Wasilla Alaska you will be involved in many different ministries. Here are just some of them:

. . .

Dream Center: You will be serving Rob and Cherise Hyslip who are taking on the vision of a dream center here in Wasilla. Like the one Pastors Matthew and Tommy Barnett have started in L.A., it is a shelter and resource for those facing homelessness, poverty, drug addiciton, and hopelessness.

Ah, yes, Dream Center. :P  Dream Center is one of several chains of "Faith Based Rehabs" that the Assemblies of God operates; in Dream Center's case, it is largely the Western District of the Assemblies promoting it, but it has spread to areas outside the Western District (such as Alaska).  Past readers may remember Dream Center Phoenix as the site of Ted Haggard's so-far-unsuccessful degaying (he was ultimately dismissed from the program, as expected).

And--much like other Assemblies-operated "faith based rehab" chains such as Teen Challenge and Mercy Ministries, there have been reports of abuse...some egregrious.

One of the