'Where she was saved'

"The church where Sarah Palin grew up and was baptized preaches some of the most extreme religious views in the nation." Story here.

The McCain campaign has downplayed Palin's Pentecostal roots. But as her testimony at the Wasilla Assembly of God demonstrates, she is motivated by the idea that godly forces are locked in spiritual warfare with satanic forces. For many with a Pentecostal upbringing like Palin's, fighting that battle is part of God's plan for the end of days, when war will end the world as we know it, Jesus will come back, and non-Christians will convert or perish. . . .

With regard to creation, the Assemblies of God's official position is that "even though the Bible is not primarily a book of science, it is as trustworthy in the area of science as when it speaks to any other subject" and its "account of creation is intended to be taken as factual and historical." . . .

Belief in the rapture and end-times is part of the official position of the Assemblies of God. That puts the church in tune with the 90 percent of Pentecostals who believe in the rapture, compared to 59 percent of other Christians. (During the rapture, believers will be whisked off to heaven to sit out the bloody tribulation period and final battle before Jesus returns.) John Hagee, the white evangelical pastor of a Texas mega-church, who endorsed John McCain, believes that war against Iran is a necessary fulfillment of biblical prophecy of how the end-times scenario will unfold. (McCain later rejected Hagee's endorsement over Hagee's controversial statements that the Holocaust was God's will.) . . .

At the end of her speech to the Wasilla Assembly of God youth missionaries, Palin prayed for a spiritual revival in the state of Alaska. "I'm just praying for an outpouring of God's spirit, for a revival to be here in Alaska," she declared. After the pastors prayed over the governor, and described Alaska as a "refuge state in the last days," Palin explained that when she attends other churches, the pastors apologize in advance for parishioners who might raise their hands or clap, in the spirit of Pentecostal worship. "And I say," said Palin, bursting with pride and laughter, "I grew up in Wasilla Assembly of God. Nothing freaks me out!"