My friend Russ has called my attention to a recent Newsweek article that provides some new insight into Palin’s religious faith. It turns out that Palin was indeed raised Pentecostal and attends the Pentecostal Juneau Christian Center when she is in Juneau. But she considers here “home church” the Church on the Rock in Wasilla, Alaska. According to a spokesperson, she “does not consider herself Pentecostal.”
The Newsweek article confirms an earlier Time interview in which she said she attends a “non-denominational Bible church.” The Church on the Rock certainly fits this description. It was founded in the home of the one its members in 2000 and seems to have grown rapidly. The doctrine of the church is clearly evangelical, but it does not seem overly dogmatic and is written in everday language, probably in attempt to attract spiritual seekers who might be turned off by an overly specific and detailed doctrinal statement.
HOWEVER, the church does seem a bit more pentecostal than more independent churches of this nature. The doctrinal statement notes: “the baptism of the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 2:4, is given to believers who ask for it.” (See my previous post).
Palin may no longer consider herself Pentecostal, but she has not strayed too far from her childhood faith.
Or perhaps she considers herself “Charismatic” instead? Or maybe she considers it’s just unnecessary, unproductive, and maybe even a little divisive to put a label on oneself beyond simply, “Christian.” Certainly being able to pin a Pentecostal label on her might stoke the liberal, godless press to attack her faith (my apologies to all you godly reporters and anchorpeople).
From the Wasilla Assembly of God website…August 30th, 2008Governor Sarah Palin did attend Wasilla Assembly of God since the time she was a teen ager. She and her family were a part of the church up until 2002. Since that time she has maintained a friendship with Wasilla Assembly of God and has attended various conferences and special meetings here. This June, the Governor spoke at the graduation service of our School of Ministry, Master’s Commission Wasilla Alaska.We have had some inquires into Governor Palin’s beliefs. We do know that Gov Palin is a woman of integrity. She is a servant of the people, she is a strong leader. As for her personal beliefs, Governor Palin is well able to speak for herself on those issues.As Alaskans we are excited about our Governor being selected as the nominee for Vice President. As residents of Wasilla, we are ecstatic about one of our own being thrust to the national forefront. However, as a church, it is not appropriate for us to endorse any one candidate over another. As believers, we are reminded in 2 Peter 2.13 that we are to submit to those in authority. 1 Timothy 2.1-2 tells us pray for those in authority. This we will do no matter who is elected. We wish the best to Governor Palin, and Senator McCain, as well as to Senator Obama and Senator Biden.May God continue to bless America.
It might be worthwhile to note that when a church specifically notes in their statement of faith that they believe the baptism in the Holy Spirit is available to those who ask, then they are noting that this experience is separate from that of being born again. In other words, a typical “Bible church” would likely not make that distinction. A “charismatic” or “Pentecostal” church likely would. There is nothing inherently unbiblical about this distinction, though. Many Bible churches lean more to a cessationist or cautious viewpoint, believing that you immediately get everything, including the baptism in the Holy Spirit when you become a Christian, and that you don’t get any overtly supernatural giftings. While this doesn’t reflect the biblical model, it keeps the church “safe.” Apparently, Sarah and Todd Palin’s church gives some latitude to God’s Holy Spirit to move in God’s people. How that is actually manifested in the life of their particular church fellowship remains to be seen.
In my youth, I was very involved in an Assembly of God church. A central belief I was taught was that people who do NOT accept Jesus as their Savior will “burn eternally in hell”. The Assembly of God denomination and a large percentage of it’s members strongly believe this to be a fact. Don’t believe me….. ask them!Although this may be a somewhat commonly held belief, many moderate Christians do NOT believe the Bible is to be taken so literally. These Christians believe in a loving and merciful God who would NOT condemn a human being to “eternal damnation” just because they did not believe.Why is this important? Because (Sarah Palin and John McCain or Barack Obama and Joe Biden) will be faced with the challenge of leading America back to prosperity in a world wide economy and ensuring our security by avoiding unnecessary conflict with people who do not see the world as we see it. They will need to use expert diplomacy to accomplish this feat, and where diplomacy fails, we will be trusting them to use superb judgement and wisdom when asking our young men and women to put their lives on the line to keep us secure! We cannot afford more mistakes and errors in judgement like those we saw leading up to and during the first 3 years of armed conflict in Iraq!In order for this to be achieved, any person applying for these positions MUST answer questions fully and truthfully so we can consider their answers along with their qualifications, judge their attitudes, forth-rightness, historical actions, and yes, their beliefs. Once we know as much as possible about these people we can make an informed decision about who we will trust, to act prudently, have excellent judgement and to abide by OUR laws and OUR Constitution. In my view, this is Barack Obama. Many will agree with me and many will disagree. All I ask is that you consider the qualifications of both tickets and choose carefully based upon the gravity of our situation.Thank you all for you time and attention,Sincerely,Tedd Elie
This is absurd. t-bearman implies that anyone in office who has a conviction about the “lostness” of mankind and their dependence on God’s grace to have hope could jeopardize the U.S.’s ability to negotiate with foreign leaders. I guess he thinks that by having no convictions, government officials gain credibility, especially with the likes of Islamic terrorists, who want to anihilate the Great Satan.In truth, I see a candidate’s faith being a moderating factor in their approach to diplomacy. Christians who know and live Jesus’ message aren’t ready to nuke the world to destroy the pagans. On the contrary, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:43-45).”Personally, I think t-bearman is a liberal unbeliever who’s intentionally trying to misrepresent Christians, specifically Sarah Palin. That dog don’t hunt, t-bearman — even if you used to go to church somewhere when you were a kid. We know better.
Catalyst, although we don’t agree on many things, it is my hope we could find a few things to agree upon and focus on those things. For example, each of the 4 candidates claim they will be a force for “Change”. Do you and I agree that things need changing in Washington? If so would you give me a few examples of what you feel needs to be changed? Some areas I think we as Americans need to do better with are:Being better stewards of the earth.Being better peacemakers.Treating our fellow men/women the way we would like to be treated.(IE with fairness and kindness).I feel if we could turn conversations like this around.. we would be living the meaning of “reaching across the aisle” to find common ground. This is one of the qualities can be easly seen in peoples actions. People who reach out to their fellow man with love and a sincere desire to communicate, knowing each of us has something to learn and something to share.Sincerely,Tedd