Before Sarah Palin, there was "the Dino Pastor"

The road to the White House, 2012, has to begin somewhere, and for me that road is Route 611 in Plumsteadville. The combination of "Sarah Palin" and "Plumstead Christian School" was just too much to resist -- a chance to see if for all the hype about the Tea Party, the real route to the Oval Office still passes through evangelical voters. So that is where I'll be tomorrow night.

That said, Palin may not be the most interesting speaker in the history of the Plumstead Christian School. That honor might remain with the Rev. Paul Veit, the so-called "Dino Pastor," who came to Plumsteadville in October 2008 to tear down the myth of evolution. (From the Bucks County Courier-Times, via Nexis):

For the Dino Pastor, fossil findings over the past few decades that were hailed as the missing links in the evolution of man are flawed with missing bones and faulty suppositions. He says that the artist renderings of what these creatures would look like are not supported by the findings.

"Skip the artwork and look at the bones," Veit said.

The minister said that the Great Flood chronicled in the Book of Genesis is revealed in many mass dinosaur graveyards, pointing to discoveries that show thousands of fossils facing in the same direction as if they were covered with a cataclysmic flow of sediment.

"The Grand Canyon is the loudest screaming graveyard," he said. "It says God doesn't fool around when he deals with sinners."

Even I'm not going to to wade too deep into the great evolution/creation debate, except in this particular case I have to say, whaaaa? Uh, just who exactly were these sinners whom God decided to smite, or smote, or whatever, and what in God's name were they doing in the Grand Canyon millions of years ago? Is the "Dino Pastor" claiming there are human fossils in the Grand Canyon, or are the sinners that we're talking about "crinoids, brachiopods, and sponges"? If so, what kind of sins do brachiopods commit?

Hopefully, Palin -- who did her best to foist the evolution-denying Christine O'Donnell on the people of Delaware and America -- can explain it all tomorrow night.

I'll be there!