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Church beliefs, values, and practices

Further information: Assemblies of God, Denomination, Fellowship, and Hierarchy (church)

The Assemblies of God is not a denomination, but rather a fellowship of cooperating churches sharing core beliefs common to many Christian churches, and some core beliefs that are not. The cooperating churches are financially independent, self govern, and self propagate. Assemblies of God Beliefs and many practices may vary among member churches, as compared with a more hierarchical church assembly structures that are more uniform the total set of beliefs, such as in Catholicism, so Wasilla Assembly of God has some practices and beliefs that are universal to most Assemblies of God members, some that are common but not universal, and some that are not common or are specific to a church in Alaska, as below. Wasilla Assembly of God has its beliefs, ethical value system, and practices taught by not only by pastors, but by a long running series of many guest pastors, speakers, and associated school programs; it also promotes congregants to attain positions of government authority where they can implement and spread the beliefs and ethical values, as below. The church practices a more extroverted religion compared with other Wasilla evangelical churches, such as Wasilla Bible Church; for example, members of the Wasilla Assembly of God stand up, shout, clap, sing, and cry during the service.

Physical evidence, creationism, scientific beliefs

Further information: Assemblies of God (Initial Physical Evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit), Physical evidence, Creationism, Science, Logical consistency, and Faith

In Assemblies of God churches, not common to some other Christian denominations, is the interpretations of some physical evidence, such as speaking in tongues as physical evidence of Baptism in the Holy Spirit; at Wasilla Asssembly of God, speaking of tongues is considered a gift, but not a necessity of evidence of Baptism, and Kalnins estimates that only about half of the people in his church have the gift of tongues, as does Kalnins himself. Some Wasilla Assembly of God beliefs regarding some specific physical evidence differ from some Assemblies of God, and some practices and beliefs differ greatly from some other Christian churches. Not universal in all Assemblies of God are particular interpretations of physical evidence to justify creationism, to be taught in schools, and young earth theory, favored over conventional scientific interpretations of physical evidence in geology for a billions of years old earth, in biology for biological evolution evidenced by paleontology, genetics, and molecular biology, and in physics and astronomy with evidence based theories that logically imply that astronomical objects are billions of years old; the earth is taught to be about 6,000 years old and that there is evidence that humans and dinosaurs cohabitated the earth , for example, Philip Munger, a professor at the University of Alaska in Anchorage, said congregant Sarah Palin learned that humans walked the Earth at the same time six thousand years ago, and claimed that she had seen pictures of human footprints inside the tracks of dinosaurs in fossils dating back at least 65 millions of years according to methods of dating fossils based on quantum physics. Kalnins says, that when "you present the facts of creation versus evolution and the truth will come out." Church teachings regarding evidence in physics and astronomy are not universal among Assemblies of God, and contrast sharply with some other Christian denominations, such as Catholicism, which promotes a combination of evolution and intelligent design over creationism, and has working research divisions in the Vatican, with scientists doing conventional research in physics and astronomy , assuming theories such as relativity and quantum physics which imply the universe must necessarily be billions of years old for consistency of the physics theories , and that fossils of dinosaurs are millions of years old.>

End of time (end of the world)

The Assemblies of God have a core belief that we are living in the end times, when the world will end. Wasilla Assembly of God extends this belief to an end in which Alaska plays a special role as a last refuge. Ed Kalnins states, “I believe that Alaska is one of the refuge states… in the Last Days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to this state to seek refuge.” Although petroleum based oil was not in use in Biblical times, Kalnins says that the Bible “specifically mentions oil instability as a sign” of the end of times”, and that “oil wars indicate” the end of time is near.

Values

Further information: Abortion and Puritanism

The church teaches conservative social values, both specific in the Bible and not; prohibiting social dance, teaching the subordination of women to men, opposition to any kind of sex education including teaching abstinence, and opposition to abortion in all cases, including rape and incest, except when necessary to save the life of the mother.

AIDS and homosexuality

The church views homosexuality as a sin, and that it is a personal choice, not genetically based. The church promotes and uses the books and theology of Morningstar ministries head, Rick Joyner, who became famous in the United States for calling AIDS as an "obvious example" of God's penalty for homosexuality, a statement still on the Monringstar Ministries website. Church speakers include coauthors of books with with Joyner from Morningstar Ministries, and church students have been sent to Morningstar Ministries. Ed Kalnins says of homosexuals that he “would like to set them free”, and that in his heart he “loves them” as people, like “alcoholics”, and as people “they are awesome”, and he “does not do this hate thing”, but prays for them.

Criticism of pastors and authorities

Further information: Authoritarianism

The church teaches strictly following an authority without question. Kalnins has stated that critics of a pastor, such as Kalnins, will go to hell, “You criticize the authority, you're literally bringing in hell with the criticism." Kalnins also said, "I hate criticisms towards the President [Bush], because it's like criticisms towards the pastor , it's almost like, it's not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That's what it'll get you."

Pacifism, violence, spiritual warfare, witchcraft

Further information: Assemblies of God (Beliefs, pacifism); Spiritual Warfare (C. Peter Wagner ); and Thomas Muthee

The Assemblies of God were originally strict pacifists, but now allows churches with different views to be members. Mapping is research and prayer to locate individuals, groups, and locations, to either be accused of being a witch, or of being the victims of witchcraft or demonic possession, after which spiritual warfare is then conducted to drive the witch to another location, battle the enemy with a physical war, or to rid the demonic possession by prayer.

According to pastor Ed Kalnins, spiritual warfare may include physical warfare on earth in parallel to the spiritual world, for example, that the physical Iraq War is part of a spiritual war contending for the Christian faith, and that the Iraq War is a “holy war”, “I really think it is a holy war” , and that "what you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world." Accompanied on stage by Kalnins in one 2008, church speaker Palin told congregants to pray that the Iraq War is part of God’s Plan, with the US military being on a task from God in Iraq, and that troops in Iraq were on “a task that is from God”. The church promotes the books and teaching of Rick Joyner, who claimed in a 2006 sermon that a last-day Christian army is now gathering, “In time, the church will actually be organized more as a military force with an army, navy, air force, etc.”

In a recorded video sermon, guest pastor Muthee said, “the more violent you become, the more committed you become, the quicker you will see things happen in this region.”

From an internationally produced and distributed video, guest pastor Muthee was well known for mapping and conducting spiritual warfare in which he claims to have successfully located a woman who was rival Christian pastor, publicly accused her of being a witch who owned a pet python, and publicly accused her of being the cause of traffic accident fatalities in his town because she was a witch; Muthee then claimed to have led his congregation to either convert her to his brand of Christianity, or expel her from the town. (The woman, who was interviewed in 2008 still living at her home in the same town, is an herbalist and a rival pastor of a different denomination, claims never to have moved out of her home compound claims that Muthee led prayers calling for her death, and claims that she never had a “pet python”.) Wasilla Assembly of God distributed the video of Muthee to former congregant Palin, who then thanked Kalnins for having loaned the video to her, and then returned to the church to see Muthee as guest pastor, where Muthee laid hands on her and pray over her, praying that she be protected "from every form of witchcraft" and for assistance from God in her run for Alaskan governor. In a video recorded sermon during a return visit to the church in September 2008, as reported by journalist Max Blumenthal, Muthee urged the congregants to crush “the python spirit” of the unbeliever enemies by “stomping on their necks”. As church members were speaking in tongues and raising their hands, Muthee exclaimed, "We come against the spirit of witchcraft! We come against the python spirits!" Then a Wasilla pastor took the microphone from Muthee and added, "We stomp on the heads of the enemy!"