Demons Fight to Win US Election

As the US election gets underway, one neo-Pentecostal “prophet” makes a shameless bid for the limelight, according to Charisma:

Prominent Pastor Issues ‘Emergency’ Call to Prayer for Today’s Elections

Emergency? Yes – completely unexpectedly, Bush’s rule is being challenged!

Dutch Sheets, who has pastored Springs Harvest Fellowship in Colorado Springs, Colo., for 12 years, said the Holy Spirit had not led him to issue a call to prayer for the elections until last Thursday.

“That began to change this morning, as I sensed clearly that the warfare over this election went to another level — big time,” Sheets said on his Web site (www.dutchsheets.org). “As it was in 2000, it is an all-out war in the spirit realm for the soul of this nation, and I sense in my spirit that we have not yet broken through into victory.

Apparently, they are also voting in the spirit realm, and the voting demons (Sheets is close to Peter Wagner, as if you couldn’t guess) may upset God’s own candidacy. The prophet goes on to warn us:

“Do not make the fatal mistake of laying the results of this election solely on the will and sovereignty of God,” Sheets said. “We must not allow a faulty theology that simply says, ‘We have asked God to intervene, the rest is up to Him,’ to give us a false sense of security. Sometimes asking is all that is necessary, sometimes not. In this battle it absolutely is not.”

However, the fearless latter-day Elijah is mindful of his tax status and quickly adds that

his last-minute call to prayer is not a partisan issue. “It is simply a righteousness issue,” said Sheets, who changed his schedule and traveled to Washington, D.C., to pray for the elections this past weekend. “God must have a man in office who seeks His face. If all of us do our part, we will prevail in this election and see America take another turn toward righteousness and revival.”

No, no, not partisan at all. Which was why back in 2000 Sheets warned that (as reported on Belief.net):

If there is not enough prayer, God’s person will lose the election and the turning of this nation [toward God] will be drastically delayed.

Given that Sheets seems to have been quite happy with Bush over the past four years, no doubt those who believe that Sheets speaks with the very authority of God Himself will draw their own conclusion about which man God wants in office. All perfectly above board.

(By the way, Sheets was my source linking Doug Giles to Mell Winger, who is also based in Colorado, at Ted Haggard’s megachurch. Sheets praised Giles’s “powerful evangelistic ministry”.)

Another Brilliant Visa Decision

Some say that the refusal of the US authorities to grant Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan a work visa shows that there must be some secret evidence that he’s a terrorist supporter (since not even Daniel Pipes could pin anything of any substance on him). It couldn’t possibly be because a) US authorities just discriminate against Arabs and Muslims willy-nilly and/or b) there’s nothing more alarming for the pro-Likud crowd than a prominent Arab Muslim moderate, since such a person undermines their “argument” that any Arab complaints about Israel are based on fanatical anti-Semitism.

But now word comes about the arrest in Syria last month of Nabil Fayyad, a prominent liberal. According to a website highlighting his case:

Fayyad, a chemist by trade and owner of a pharmacy in Damascus, is a Sunni Muslim scholar and linguist who studied theology in Beirut. He has authored a number of books and written extensively about the growing power of Islamic fundamentalism in Syria. He is also an advocate for liberalism, tolerance and individual rights and freedoms.

Perhaps the kind of person the US ought to be consulting? Nope:

Fayyad was planning to visit the United States in September to give lectures about the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalism in Syria but ironically his request for a visa was denied by the U.S. Embassy in Damascus. The reason for the denial of a visa is unknown, but it may have unfortunately emboldened the Syrian government in arresting him without fear of a significant outcry.

Well, suggestion “a” in my first paragraph seems to me to be the most likely reason. The authorship of this article is anonymous, but it seems to be the work of Bassam Darwich, who offered similar sentiments to Joshua Landis. Darwich edits Annaqed, which hosts some of Fayyad’s articles (Alas, Darwich also feels the need to link to various inflammatory anti-Muslim websites and to host articles by one-note demagogues like Pipes and Joseph Farah).