Ed Kalnins, Sarah Palin’s ‘disaster pastor’

Barack Obama is not the only candidate for the White House who has problems with turbulent men of the cloth (his former pastor Jeremiah Wright was accused this week of having an affair with a church worker). In an interview in today's Times, Sarah Palin's (pictured) former pastor Ed Kalnins, who serves the Wasilla Assembly of God Church where the Alaska Governor worshipped until 2002, has revealed that he thinks the end of the world is nigh, a prophecy he bases on the America’s dependence on foreign energy. "Scripture specifically mentions oil instability as a sign of the Rapture," says Pastor Ed. "We’re seeing more and more oil wars. The contractions of the fulfilment of prophecies are getting tighter and tighter."

While Kalnins declined to put an exact date for the Rapture, or the "End of Days" – the belief in a time when Jesus will return, raising up believers to Heaven - he told the Times that he hoped it would be in his lifetime. "I’m looking out the window and I can see it’s going to rain," he said. "I’m just looking at the turmoil of the world, Iraq, other places – everywhere people are fighting against Christ."

Palin, who supports the teaching of Creationism in schools and is an opponent of abortion, stopped attending Kalnin’s sermons in 2002 after 26 years' attendance. It is believed that this decision was not down to a religious schism, but expediency: at this point she had set her sights on running for governor, which she did four years later.

Proof that Palin has not cut her ties with Kalnins altogether came as a video emerged of her delivering a talk at the church in June that linked religion to both energy and war, saying that the US troops fighting in Iraq were on "a task that is from God". She also urged the congregation to pray for the completion of a $30 billion pipeline across the state. Said Palin: "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built."

But if Palin and her minders think her new place of worship, the Wasilla Bible Church, is a safe haven from controversy they may have to think again. The Republican vice-presidential candidate recently attended a service where a guest speaker, David Brickner, suggested that terrorism in Israel was God's judgment against the Jews for failing to accept Christ as the Messiah. The presiding cleric, Pastor Larry Kroons, said that Brickner had a point and that he would invite the "Jews for Jesus" leader back.