Another pastor has been thrust into the spotlight this election since Sarah Palin came onto the scene.

The Huffington Post reviewed sermons preached by Rev. Ed Kalnins, pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God.

"Kalnins has also preached that critics of President Bush will be banished to hell; questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven; charged that the 9/11 terrorist attacks and war in Iraq were part of a war 'contending for your faith;' and said that Jesus 'operated from that position of war mode.'"

"Whether I influenced Sarah, I don't know," Kalnins told Religion News Service's Robert Stern. "You can take any kind of a sermon ... without an introduction and without a conclusion and say that this guy is weird."

A spokesman for the McCain-Palin ticket told RNS that during the last seven years, she and her family have attended a nondenominational evangelical church in Wasilla.

You have reached the end of this Article Preview

To continue reading, subscribe now. Subscribers have full digital access.

Log InSubscribe

Already a CT subscriber? Log in for full digital access.