If you thought Republicans couldn't get any wackier, let me introduce you to E.W. Jackson, the Virginia GOP candidate for lieutenant governor. Among other things, he thinks yoga can open individuals to Satan, says God created the tea party and that he'll stop blessing the military because of gay rights.

Betsy Woodruff posted excerpts of Jackson's 2008 book, "Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life," on National Review Online, which featured this nugget about the dangers of "emptying yourself" with yoga:

When one hears the word meditation, it conjures an image of Maharishi Yoga talking about finding a mantra and striving for nirvana. . . . The purpose of such meditation is to empty oneself. . . . [Satan] is happy to invade the empty vacuum of your soul and possess it. That is why people serve Satan without ever knowing it or deciding to, but no one can be a child of God without making a decision to surrender to him. Beware of systems of spirituality which tell you to empty yourself. You will end up filled with something you probably do not want.

At a 2011 Virginia Family Foundation summit, Jackson told listeners that the 2008 election broke his heart, and couldn't understand why God would allow the "grave danger" of Obama's election, until he discovered it was all part of God's larger plan to create the tea party:

“The Tea Party is a move of God to stir this nation’s back to its conscience and back to its senses,” Jackson told conservative activists. “I remember saying, God we prayed Lord but we didn’t win, but you know what God said to me? ‘You won, you won.’ I couldn’t figure out what that meant until I began to hear some of the things I heard and then I realized what it meant: it meant that maybe the best thing that has ever happened to this country was the election of the last president because he has awakened a sleeping giant and I trust that now that we’re awake we will never go back to sleep again.”

Unfortunately, it doesn't end there. Jackson also told listeners that God will stop blessing the U.S. military because chaplains are now allowed to marry gay service members, warning, “How in the world can we expect our military to be blessed by the hand of almighty God if we allow our military to become the equivalent of Sodom and Gomorrah? God is not pleased.”

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