Six weeks after Nick Tucker's cry for help from rural Alaska Governor Palin decides to respond, and plans trip to the WRONG GODDAMN PLACE!

Gov. Sarah Palin just announced she'll head to the Western Alaska villages of Marshall and Russian Mission tomorrow, and that she's going with the Rev. Franklin Graham -- president of the evangelical Christian aid group Samaritan's Purse.

Graham is the son of evangelist Billy Graham and president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Here's how Samaritan's Purse describes itself on its Web site: An "international Christian relief and evangelism organization (that) provides spiritual and physical aid to victims of war, poverty, natural disaster and disease."

If this were not so incredibly sad it would be laughable.

After all of these weeks of phone calls, news reports, blog posts, and Dennis Zaki's video showing up on KTUU and CNN, NOW she decides it is time to go out to a rural area? And she chooses Marshall and Russian Mission? Why will she not at least go to Emmonak? They are not that far apart. Why not go to the place where everybody knows the people are in desperate need of help?

I will tell you exactly why. She knows that her reception in those places will not be very welcoming. She knows she will be criticized and she knows she will not be able to lie to them and get away with it.

I just got off the phone with Dennis Zaki who told me that he tried everything he could think of to be allowed to tag along on this trip. He was told there would be NO MEDIA! No reporters, no video, and no photos! (Except for the ones that are taken by Palin's people or these Samaritan's Purse yahoos.)

And exactly what kind of help will this evangelical group actually provide? Well I wondered that as well and received the answer in my e-mail box about two hours ago.

This is a copy of a newsletter that was sent out by Rev. Franklin Graham on behalf of Samaritan's Purse after there was a devastating fire in Hooper Bay, Alaska in 2006. The following is the newsletter in its entirety. (With some snarky additions by yours truly):

DEAR FRIENDS,

While I was working out of our Alaskan office in August, a huge fire raged through a poor Eskimo village on the Bering Sea. The blaze gutted the small town of Hooper Bay, burning 35 buildings to the ground, including 14 homes, the grocery store, and the community school.

Like much of rural Alaska, Hooper Bay is as poor as any Third World village I've ever been in. Most of the homes are weathered-gray wooden shacks without running water or sewer. Bathrooms consist of five-gallon "honey buckets" that have to be hauled to the local landfill. Drinking water is collected from local ponds. The conditions are really appalling.

Most of the 1,100 Yupik Eskimos in Hooper Bay survive on fish, seal, and berries, which they store up in the summer. There is no hospital or doctor. The village is only accessible by plane or boat, and the closest community of any size is Bethel, 160 air miles away.


The day after the fire, I was able to fly some local missionaries to Hooper Bay in a Samaritan's Purse plane to see what we could do to help. The smoke was still rising from the charred ruins as we landed. We were met by the local pastor, who introduced us to the tribal council and took us around to view the devastation.

The massive fire broke out early in the morning hours, leaving about 70 people with nothing more than the clothes on their backs—and for some, that was only their pajamas. Many of the houses that burned down had multiple generations and relatives living there. Now most of those people are sleeping on the floor in the homes of friends or relatives.

"We lost everything," said one young mother. "Our valuables. Our baby pictures. … Just nothing is left."

Hooper Bay has only one evangelical church, whose pastor moved there from North Carolina eight years ago. Samaritan's Purse will be working alongside this congregation to help rebuild homes for destitute families. (Only "one" evangelical church, oh this will never do.)

We also want to build a youth center at the church. Young people in Hooper Bay have nothing to do. Depression is rampant, and the community has one of the highest suicide rates in Alaska. You can almost feel the demonic oppression there. (WTF? How does one get from a tragic fire and a high suicide rate to "demonic oppression"?) We pray that this youth center will be a beacon of light and a symbol of hope, enabling the church to reach out to young people not only in this village but also in surrounding villages.

Right now we're in a race against time to get as much construction done as possible by November when freezing temperatures really settle in. Pack ice on the frigid Bering Sea stops all access to Hooper Bay except by air during the winter months. One barge has already delivered 329,000 pounds of supplies and another will leave Anchorage this month—the last window of time before severe weather makes shipping impossible.

As we build in partnership with the local church, the people of Hooper Bay will be able to see the love of Jesus Christ in action. They will know that there is a God who cares for them and who sent His Son to be their Savior. In the midst of great spiritual darkness, this project will help shine the light of the Gospel in one of the forgotten corners of the earth. (It is clear to Rev. Graham that the real problem is not abject poverty or a fire, but rather a lack of access to the Gospel. And he is seizing on this terrible incident as a way to proselytize to these people.)

The light of Christ is also shining brightly in another remote area located in the vast interior of Alaska. Situated on the mighty Yukon River, Kokrine Hills Bible Camp hosts as many as 100 young people from a dozen native villages each year, as well as discipleship seminars, pastor conferences, and marriage retreats. Virtually the only way to reach the camp is by traveling for hours by boat through sparsely populated wilderness.

Many of the young people who come to the camp are plagued by the same emptiness and despair that afflict so many native Alaskans. Roger Huntington, a Koyukon Indian who runs the camp, has seen 14 members of his own family decimated by suicide. (First of all the despair that Reverend Graham is talking about is most likely caused by the fine line that many native Alaskans walk to stay true to their heritage while trying to function in a modern world that often comes into direct conflict with the "old ways". Remember that these people survived for tens of thousands of years with no Christianity in their lives and the suicide rate was all but non-existent.)

"We talk a lot about God's grace and forgiveness," Roger told us. "Some of the children come from spiritually dark communities, and the Gospel really is good news to them. It warms my heart to see so many respond to the love of Christ." (The truth is that the native Alaskan culture is rich with a deep spiritual and religious foundation that was purposefully crushed by the early Christian missionaries who came to Alaska and forced the native people to deny their heritage and even punished them for daring to speak their own language.)

Roger barely survived a fiery plane crash 18 years ago that left third-degree burns over much of his body. Even after multiple surgeries, he still bears many visible scars. However, his faith and courage have gained him wide respect among Alaska's native tribes and provided him with many opportunities to boldly proclaim Christ.

Samaritan's Purse is assisting Kokrine Hills Bible Camp in a variety of ways, including furnishing mattresses for the campers, safe heaters for the cabins, and a sawmill to produce lumber on-site. We also want to help build a new kitchen and dining room, as well as an airstrip that will eliminate the long boat ride and enable our planes to land there.

Thanks to your prayers and financial gifts, we are able to maintain a field office in Alaska that supports our aviation ministry in this rugged region near the Arctic Circle. Our planes not only provide assistance to Christian workers in Alaska, but they also reach across the stormy Bering Strait to help missionaries in the Russian province of Chukotka.

God is using our work in Alaska and Far East Russia to introduce many to the Good News of eternal salvation through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Please pray for our staff and ministry partners, as we take this life-changing message "even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8, NASB). ( I am less then impressed by this constant reference to how the "salvation through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ" will solve the very real problems that faced this native community. But I am not willing to condemn any organization who went out to provide help when help was desperately needed.)

I am not willing to say that this Samaritan's Purse group will NOT provide real help to the native people. But if they try to convince these proud people that the crux of their problems is not due to a lack of fuel and fish, but rather a lack of Jesus, then they will simply be wasting their time. And doing nothing to address the real obstacles facing this population of Alaskans.

And since our Governor is going along with this evangelical group to these villages then I have to seriously wonder if she is also so simple minded as to believe that the problems facing rural Alaska are due to "demonic oppression", or if she has any understanding at all as to the complexities of rural Alaskan life.

And is Reverend Franklin Graham serving as a more acceptable stand in for Sarah Palin pal Reverend Thomas Muthee?