In one of her more controversial appearances in the Wasilla church, Palin told a group of ministry students in June to pray that sending troops to Iraq was part of "God's plan."
In a speech this month at a deployment ceremony for her Iraq-bound soldier son, Palin called the conflict a "righteous cause."
McAllister said Palin did not know that she was being taped when she made the Iraq war remarks at the church. And her practice of turning to local pastors for guidance and prayer is in line with the practices of other American political leaders, he said.
"It's nothing out of the ordinary," McAllister said. "Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan did it."
Palin grew up steeped in Pentecostalism at the Wasilla church, where she learned "memory verses" from the Bible as a young "Missionette" -- the church's equivalent of a Girl Scout.
Theron Horn, the church's youth pastor at the time and now a Minnesota businessman, often told Palin and her classmates that they could grow up to be anything -- including politicians. Horn said he "was just trying to get the kids to see their potential," but Riley said it was a turning point for Palin.
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Worldviews
Palin was accustomed early on to the sight of churchgoers ecstatically declaring their faith by speaking in tongues -- a practice familiar to the more than 6 million Americans who are members of Pentecostal churches.
Neither Riley nor Tim McGraw, who took over as pastor when Riley retired in 1986, recalled seeing Palin taking part in the charismatic prayers.
But "whether she did or not doesn't matter," said McGraw, who now leads the Yosemite Christian Center in Madera, Calif. "We're not some sect on the fringe. This is a reputable denomination of Christianity."
Although she now worships in traditional fundamentalist churches in Wasilla and Juneau, Palin's formative years in Pentecostal churches have been a target for some bloggers and Democratic opponents. They point to controversial statements from some of her pastors about converting gays and Jews and to her own comments about the Iraq war.
"It's legitimate to ask questions about candidates who come from a fundamentalist environment with a black-and-white worldview, and want to know how it would affect their approach on all kinds of issues," said Paul S. Boyer, a retired University of Wisconsin history professor who has written about the role of religious prophecy on public policy.
But Douglas Wead, an author and former aide to President George H.W. Bush, argues that the campaign brush fires over Palin's religious background and pastors' statements ignores or trivializes the emergence of evangelical Christianity in the American mainstream.
"Are we saying they can't participate in public life?" Wead asked.
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steve.braun@latimes.com
