Sarah Palin Church Fire: Palin's Home Church Burned In Arson Incident

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin's home church was badly damaged by arson, leading the governor to apologize if the fire was connected to "undeserved negative attention" from her failed campaign as the Republican vice presidential nominee.

Damage to the Wasilla Bible Church was estimated at $1 million, authorities said Saturday. No one was injured in the fire, which was set Friday night while a handful of people, including two children, were inside, according to Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele.

He said the blaze was being investigated as an arson but didn't know of any recent threats to the church. Authorities didn't know whether Palin's connection to the church was relevant to the fire, Steele said.

"It's hard to say at this point. Everything is just speculation," he said. "We have no information on intent or motive."

Steele would not comment on the means used to set the fire.

Pastor Larry Kroon declined to say whether the church had received any recent threats.

"There are so many variables," he said. "I don't want to comment in that direction."

Palin, who was not at the church at the time of the fire, stopped by Saturday. Her spokesman, Bill McAllister, said in a statement that Palin told an assistant pastor she was sorry if the fire was connected to the "undeserved negative attention" the church has received since she became the vice presidential candidate Aug. 29.

"Whatever the motives of the arsonist, the governor has faith in the scriptural passage that what was intended for evil will in some way be used for good," McAllister said.

The 1,000-member evangelical church was the subject of intense scrutiny after Palin was named John McCain's running mate. Early in Palin's campaign, the church was criticized for promoting in a Sunday bulletin a Focus on the Family "Love Won Out Conference" in Anchorage. The conference promised to "help men and women dissatisfied with living homosexually understand that same-sex attractions can be overcome."

The fire was set at the entrance of the church and moved inward as a small group of women were working on crafts, Steele said. The group was alerted to the blaze by a fire alarm.

Outside temperatures were minus 20 as firefighters battled the blaze.

Steele said a multi-agency task force was being assembled to investigate the fire.

Wasilla, the governor's hometown, is 40 miles north of Anchorage.

Comments

[deschl]

we should be able to disagree without being disagreable

[bayside]

Yes sarah we know about undeserved negative attention on churchs and pastors. We know all about thank you very much..

[Matt from Italy]

(cont..)

Of course now someone could point put that what matters is not the "exterior aspect", but the inner part and so on and so forth with all that rhetoric and boring stuff. But please (I do not want to get above myself, just say what I've done) I've been studying so much these topics and I live here in this wonderful unlucky country: the hub of this worldwide can.cer, but at least here churches are 300 - 500 - 1000 and much more years old, and above all quite often breathtaking, just because they want to impress, obviously. And even if you know how bad and nasty these big.ots are you can at least still enjoy watching and studying their real estates.

Unfortunately for you in the US, you have got this huge amount of big.ots but none (or at least much less) of these masterpieces.

I feel sorry, indeed, no joke.

Cheers and Ciao0o

[Matt from Italy]

CHURCH or WAREHOUSE?

I'm atheist - thanks god - and I'm from Italy, where the sheer power, richness and awful influence of the Vatican is simply unfathomable, but I've got to tell you: I love art.

I mean, is that eyesore supposed to be a church?!? ..sorry to be brut.ally honest, but we're falling down with laughter, right now..

This is not meant to be a "silly" comparison, at all. Here we have an awful lot of problems, and I do love US. Obviously I dislike big.ots and wa.rmo.ngers either from US or ...

But as I told you that picture is mind-blowing. My fiancée studied in the US and I even got a degree about American Literature (which I do love) but for some reasons I'd forgotten how churches in the US can look like.

Not even a warehouse here is so ugly. Obviously that can be easily tracked back to the huge amount of money that the church had (and still indeed does) in the past (where arts were something different) when it came to express their power through a piece of either (not just) gigantic but primarily exquisite and impressive architectural masterpiece.

(to be cont..)

[HeevenSteven]

Strip Mall McChurches are quite common here in the USA.

[eden4barack08]

LMAO, Matt, you are hilarious about the "church or warehouse", seriously. Having been in Italy myself I understand exactly what you mean. You had me cracking up on the floor.
As for the rest of your loong comment, you sound like a real 'chiaccherone'. ;-§)

[Matt from Italy]

Ciao Eden,

I'm glad you enjoyed my little post, but on the other hand sorry for being 'chiaccherone'!!

;-)

..by the way your Italian must be excellent.. how did you come across 'chiaccherone'?!? eheh really amazing, but suits perfectly with myself! Probably you must be a kind of chiaccheronA as well, don't you?! ;-)

Being a bit more serious: I post "here" to improve and refresh my English and obviously to stay up-to-date with all is going on in your wonderful, immense and extremely polarized Country!

Did you enjoy your time in Italy? I'm sure you did!

Take care!

ciao0o un abbraccio dal Lago di Como
(Matt)

[JohnJames]

Matt - That look is typical of modern American fundamentalist churches. It's an expression of the bunker mentality that their members harbor and their desire to wall themselves off from a society they regard as evil. It's very ugly but, given the hatred they preach, quite fitting.

[Matt from Italy]

Ciao John,

thanks for reading my post and above all for giving that sublime depiction of "bunker mentality": impressive in all senses, indeed.

I started my post as a kind of "joke" but You've caught what I really meant, deeply, finishing off in such a way.. I wouldn't have been to say something more effective and precise than you have actually done!

(I hope my English is "good" enough to express what I mean..)

Grazie di cuore, ciao!
Matt

[FlamingLibrul]

Have you seen the inside of some of these Arena churches? Seriously, you've got neon lights galore, and enough speakers/stage equipment to rival a Metallica concert. I don't get it at all- It seems completely sterile, bringing to mind assembly-line factory worship or something.

[Matt from Italy]

hehe..

thank you Flaming for the good laugh.. really.. I mean, I know that you're (funnily) serious but what you wrote is both funny and appalling and so I prefer laughing to weeping, at least in this case!

Cheers

[rocko2466]

I think when the Wasilla BibleThumpers said that sinners should burn, I'm pretty sure they didn't mean themselves.

Religion should not be destroyed by the sword - but by the keen knife of logic and reason. Slowly, we will tear them away from their ridiculous fantasies and encourage them to live life as though it is their only chance and that they should be making far more attempts to make it as pleasant as possible for everyone else.

The church should be burnt to the ground, but metaphorically.

[MaybeMilo]

OK, a church with a "million dollars" of damage - that congregation should have invested the $ in good works, not on itself; a church isn't defined by the building it's in, however opulent: it's defined by the people in it and the good they do in the world. What's a million dollar + church doing in Nowhere Alaska?

I wonder if it was near the 17 million $ sports complex? Property values seem kinda skewed up there.

[oncesung]

Wait, wait, wait. Wasn't paying attention...that concrete building suffered a million in damages???? What was in it????? Does concrete cost THAT much in Wasilla???
Is this an insurance scam??? I think for a million dollars they could have had an identical spare (or two) of that building put up on the same lot to serve as backups in case of fire.
Loss of sentimental items is a tragedy, granted. Arson is bad. But it hasn't been proven to be arson yet.
If someone set fire to that church, that is a shame. Yeah. It is.

[Willow207]

Yea, it would cost that much of Sarah is is purchasing and decorating! Kind of like her RNC wardrobe...watch out Alaska taxpayers, you may end up paying the bill....that was hidden in other budgetary expenses..

[JiminNC]

Palin can't wait on official investigations to blame it on campaign fallout? Sorry, but let's look at the heating arrangements and wiring first sister sarah before you martyr yourself.

[Matt from Italy]

(cont...)

Find out more, it'll be quite interesting and surprising (shocking..) enough: just be curious and inquisitive! Above all If you want to understand more about "what" you live in and why some instruments just do not work: simply have some healthy doubts.

2'
Coming back to the article:

It is not even known whether the fire was set or not and she's already jumping to (dangerous) conclusions.. anyway. Knowing that no one was hurt, - thanks Jupiter! - I want to be a bit provocative, but in a constructive way, at least I think so:

"Wasn't she that deemed a (terrible, useless and recent) war (like every war) as a task from god?!"

In my humble opinion that seems to me not just a huge, dangerous, irresponsible and embarrassing b.llshit but also a kind of declaration of war for itself, isn't it?

So if "YOU SOW THE WIND, SHOULDN'T YOU ASPECT TO REAP THE WHIRLWIND?!"

Cheers and Ciao0o

[23skidoo]

uh, 'eye for n eye' is OLD Testament

[Matt from Italy]

Hi there!,

sorry you got me.. :-)

I wasn't that accurate, English is not my mother tongue just apoligise me.

Yes indeed you're that is the Old Testament..

Old one + New one = (Bible right?!)

But to be honest you COULD have done much better, are you capable of highlighting that one?!

nevermind..

[Matt from Italy]

2 MAIN aspects:

(sorry this is apparently OT, but just hold on to the end, please..)

1',
Reading through the comments: It is quite AMAZING how in America the concept of PUNISHMENT (even in Europe where obviously was born, but over there reaches its zenith, if you like), mainly the PRISON is so deeply and culturally rooted.

To put in a nutshell, because of the New Testament doctrine: 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth..' which interestingly and curiously enough turned the tables of The Bible: 'Turn the other cheek.. and so on'. "Probably" because by the time the New Testament "refurbished" The (old) Bible the Christians and above all who ruled them weren't a weak and politically uninfluential minority anymore, but quite the opposite, as it is today: painfully rich, super powerful and arm-in-arm with politic power, (guess why!).

BUT WHAT I'D LOVE TO HIGHLIGHT is another aspect:
..just by any chance has anyone here found out more about the HISTORY of prisons, how this "technology" has become kind of "solution" and an untouchable panacea for what "society" or better said for whom rule society define as "criminal"?

AND YET AGAIN:
Have you ever read any (long-term) research carried out by social scientists or philosophers (such as the highly-regarded Thomas Mathiesen) about the effective costs (money but not just that obviously..) of prison for society and whether actually prison works or not, before have your say?!

(to be cont...)

[Willow207]

While you are busy referring to scripture to enforce Palin and buddies behavior, here is one you and your ilk should also take into account:

"Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor"....False claims about Obama and Ayers ring a bell?

My statement to the "do gooder" fundamentalists, "practice what you preach" if not you are a lying hypocrite whose voices ring hollow.

[skeeto]

Bottom line-If it was Arson, Arson is a crime.

[haval2]

i don't like her but i like church burnings and arson much less. disgusting and just plain wrong.

[billbee]

Agreed.

[mostimpressive]

It is reprehensible and sad that this act took place, putting people in harm's way and the destruction of a religious center. Although, I don't think finding humor in the circumstance is completely out of the question, given that Sarah Palin inappropriately injects religion in to much of what she says, often to an absurd degree, as well as her ever present egotistical self-promotion.

[maikonen]

What act? Are you sure it was arson? And if it were arson indeed, why does it have to have anything to do with SarahPalin? Based on her clever statement it's disgusting to be insinuating that she finds herself so threatening to those who WON THE ELECTIONS that they would travel to Wasila to set fire to her church. Please.

If it's arson, it's highly likely to be attributable to the meth users. Wasilla just happens to be in the borough known as the meth capital of Alaska..

[Willow207]

Actually Palin's "inappropriate acts" of injecting herself into the conversation is totally with in the delusional thinking of the Dumbest Woman in America, who thinks all life revolves around her. That is what you would call a "disproportionate ego"....and Palin certainly has the lions share and more EGO! She needs psychiatric therapy, and probably that entire dysfunctional family of hers....

[Paralogos]

This is appalling, mindless, cowardly violence. And no doubt the work of witches.

[HC4BO]

lol at that last part ...

[bluguy8]

the work of witches ? give me a break .

[eden4barack08]

As you said "we do not know what happened here". But the first mistake is made by Palin accusing "political opponents", instead of waiting for the facts to be known first.
It's wrong and criminal for ANYONE to commit arson, for ANY reason, period. But for all we know it could be a deranged pyromaniac, an ex church member, kids having "fun", a bigot, an inside job, etc., etc., who knows?
She should not open her mouth and deliberately polarize each time she does, until there's more info, otherwise this is what she causes, animosity. Some comments are wrong, just as her accusation is wrong.

[eva belle]

It's all about you Sarah Palin, init? They burnt it down because of you, eh? And how do you qualify it that the attention is undeserved, eh? How about we wait for an investigation to conclude before you can throw out some red meat, eh?