Palin's faith: Subject of discussion!

   
NEW YORK: Sarah Palin's faith has come under close scrutiny after two videos, taken in her former church, surfaced on YouTube became an immediate hit.
   
The first video showed a visiting preacher from Kenya praying fervently over Palin in a gravelly voice and asking God to favor her campaign for governor and protect her from "every form of witchcraft."
   
The second video showed Palin at an event in June praising the African preacher's prayer as "awesome" and "very, very powerful."
   
In an interview this week with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, was asked to "clear up exactly what you believe in" about her religious faith, including her involvement with Pentecostalism.
   
Palin, the New York Times said, responded by speaking generally, but extensively, about how she counts on God for strength, guidance and wisdom. "My faith has always been pretty personal," she said .
   
But she did not talk more specifically about her church affiliation or her beliefs.
   
Since Palin left the Wasilla Assembly of God church six years ago, the paper said, she has not joined another church.    

What is known, however, is that Palin has had long associations with religious leaders who practice a particularly assertive and urgent brand of Pentecostalism known as "spiritual warfare," the daily added.

Its adherents believe that demonic forces can colonise specific geographic areas and individuals, and that "spiritual warriors" must "battle" them to assert God's control, using prayer and evangelism.
    
The movement's fixation on demons, its aggressiveness and its leaders' claims to exalted spiritual authority have troubled even some Pentecostal Christians, the paper says.
    
As governor, Palin appointed Patrick Donelson, a pastor and fishing guide who helped found a spiritual warfare ministry, to the only seat reserved for members of the clergy on the state's Suicide Prevention Council, the paper added.
    
Religious leaders in Alaska, including Donelson, declined interviews, with several saying they had been told by the McCain-Palin campaign not to talk to members of the news media, the Times said.
    
Russell P Spittler, provost emeritus at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, and an eminent scholar of Pentecostalism, was quoted as saying, "Most Christians would accept the view that there are forces and powers in the world that oppose Christian virtues."
    
But, Spittler added, "Spiritual warfare makes a religion of identifying demons by names and ZIP (Postal) codes."     

Promoters of spiritual warfare say its vocabulary sounds more militant than its methods.
    
"The term 'spiritual warfare' sounds scary as all get-out if you're not biblically literate," said George Otis Jr, president of the Sentinel Group, in Seattle, which has helped spread the movement by producing video documentaries of spiritual warfare at work told the paper.

Pentecostalism, is the fastest-growing form of Christianity, both in the United States and internationally, the Times says.
    
Pentecostals believe that the Holy Spirit can touch believers directly through spiritual "gifts" like speaking in tongues, divine healings, casting out demons and the ability to prophesize.
    
Spiritual warfare is only one stream running through Pentecostal and charismatic churches.
    
Of the four churches Palin has attended most frequently, three are either Pentecostal or "charismatic." The latter is a church that adopts Pentecostal practices but is not part of a Pentecostal denomination.
    
Palin, according to the Times, has retained friendly relations with the pastor at the Wasilla Assembly of God church, Ed Kalnins.
    
In June, she and other politicians were blessed by Kalnins in front of thousands at "One Lord Sunday," a multichurch - sponsored event at the Wasilla sports complex.