While the McCain campaign is touting Sarah Palin’s “hard work” and “determination” and “mom-ness” as key traits that transported her from the mini small-town mayor’s quarters to the governor’s mansion to the halls of the Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin herself says it was the prayers of evangelical Kenyan pastor Thomas Muthee that helped carry her to the governor’s office.

A story today in the U.K. paper Times Online reveals that in June of this year, in an an appearance at the Wasilla Assembly of God, Palin said that pastor Muthee prayed over her in 2005 and opened up the path to the governor’s office. Muthee is an evangelical whose ministry was founded on a witch hunt against a Kenyan woman whom he accused of casting demonic spells and causing car accidents. In video footage of the June speech, Palin says, “As I was mayor and Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and he’s so bold. And he was praying ‘Lord make a way, Lord make a way.’…He said ‘Lord make a way and let her do this next step. And that’s exactly what happened.’”

The issue here is that Muthee isn’t just your typical conservative evangelical whose bigoted ideas could easily be enumerated. The problem for many moderates is Palin’s extremism and her association with and advocation of someone who promotes and defends the idea of taking action against those whose ideas differ. Like, hunting down “fortune tellers” because they’re “demonic.”

With all of the talk and fear mongering about Obama being Muslim (he isn’t), there’s a real fear among moderates and liberals about the role religion plays in Palin’s platform. She has recently called Muthee “awesome,” despite the fact that Pastor Muthee still refers to his witch hunt more than decade ago against the aforementioned Kenyan woman as an example of the power of “spiritual warfare.” And Palin showed her support for Muthee only three months ago at an Assemblies of God event that marked the graduation of students from the Wasilla Assembly of God’s Masters’ Commission, an organization that believes Alaska will be the refuge for American evangelicals upon the coming “End of Days.” Palin holds an honorary diploma in the organization. Read the rest of the story and check out video at Times Online.