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Education dominated the last televised governor’s debate between Republican Duke Aiona and Democrat Neil Abercrombie.

But the issue of Aiona’s religion and his relationship with the controversial faith group was a hot topic on KITV’s live blogging of the debate.

Before and during the debate, KITV.com carried a allowing viewers to make comments.

The comments included this one from Seneca at 5:40 p.m.: “Mr. Aiona, do you disavow your membership in ‘International Transformation Network; an controversial organization that has been accused of the anti-gay bill in Uganda called ‘Kill the Gays’? Huffington Post has recently done an article about you as you have spoken out against gay marriage. You are also in an article in The Daily Kos where you embarked on a trip to Argentina in 2006 to an ITN conference and got $7,000 in gifts- apparently in violation of Hawaii’s state ethics rules. Do you think its right for you to be implementing your fundamentalist religious views on people who just want to have equal rights as straight couples, let alone break state ethic rules?”

(Note: The blog postings are presented here as they appeared on KITV.com — that is, unedited; the only change is Civil Beat’s addition of quotation marks.)

Evan chimed in at 5:49 p.m. with this: “Mr. Iona has been seen in videos as Lt. Governor supporting and promoting Transformation Hawaii, a radical Christian group associated with the International Transformation Network. He has denied being a part yet is also seen on video announcing his participation. Has he previously been a participant/member, which is it now and will he pledge to not continue to mix religion and government if elected?”

An anonymous post came at 5:54 p.m.: “Why hasn’t Aiona demanded the stepping down of the Leader of the Hawaii GOP from his post after his comments about Hawaii being for Christians only. I find his lack of talk on the matter or a sharp scolding to him as a sign that Aiona is not Religiously Tolerant, a requirement for living in Hawaii.”

At 6:23 p.m., Juliet Begley wrote, “My question for the candidate debate this evening – directed to Aiona: ‘Should you become Hawaii’s governor, will you continue to allow Transformation Prophets, such as Ed Silvoso, to personally exorcise demons from Hawaii’s Public School children and public schools?'”

At 6:56 p.m., JasonH joined in: “I SECOND THIS: My question for the candidate debate this evening – directed to Aiona: ‘Should you become Hawaii’s governor, will you continue to allow Transformation Prophets, such as Ed Silvoso, to personally exorcise demons from Hawaii’s Public School children and public schools?'”

The debate began at 7 p.m. Not long after KITV reporter Denby Fawcett asked Aiona whether he would continue holding prayer sessions in the governor’s office at the Capitol should he be elected (Aiona said he would), another anonymous comment was made — at 7:30 p.m., to be exact — on the Live Wire:

“To Aiona: Hawaii is a religiously tolerant state. Why should I vote for you when your [sic] a Religious Bigot and in cahoots with Religiously Intolerant people?”

That was followed by a 7:32 post from Audrey: “@Anonymous–Why do those of you who scream tolerance, are the most intolernat. I praise him for being convicted to his belief–more than we can say with our President.”

Dale then wrote, also at 7:32 p.m., “@Anonymous- Why do you think Mr. Aiona is a “bigot”?

Audrey wrote at 7:34 p.m.: “@Dale, thank you–a bigot is one who does not stand up for his beleifs and values.”

Another comment, also attributed to anonymous, came in at 7:36: “@Andrey I am tolerant of other peoples faith, what I’m not tolerant of Religious Bigots like Aiona who use their faith to push their morals and beliefs onto other people. See HB444 for a perfect example of him trying to impose his religious beliefs on others. Hawaii does not deserve those types of people on our islands, and most certainly not one in office.”

At 7:41 p.m., Dee wrote, “Mr.Aiona-what is He’e Nal u? ru connected to it?”

(Hawaii Hee Nalu — Hawaiian for, roughly, “Hawaii, catch the wave” — is another name for Transformation Hawaii.)

Three minutes later, at 7:44 p.m., Speedy wrote, “mr Aiona did NOT answer the question of separation of church and state — religion should NOT be held on state property unless he wants to allow homosexuals, etc., equal time too.”

Dee was back at 7:51 p.m. “b,ut Mr. Aiona-what is He’e Nalu?”

And again at 7:58 p.m.: “No to He’e Nalu =check it out/major discrimination!!”

What Neal Milner, the UH political scientist who helped KITV’s Lara Yamada analyze the debate, thought of the Live Wire stream on Aiona and religion was not clear. No mention of the discussion was made during the debate.

We do have this comment, however, from Brent Suyama, managing editor of KITV.com, who posted at 7:56 p.m., just four minutes before the debate concluded: “I want to thank all of you who participated in our discussion tonight. THank you for the great questions. We unfortunately could not fit in many of them.”