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Show tfti'fr'mrirMmmriiiiiini ii a iiiirnum urn TrTI-fm- WORLD NEWS Palin circumspect on subject of religion 2 - DIXIE SUN (MCT) ANCHORAGE, Alaska - In June, long before she was selected as the Republican nominee for vice president, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin attended a religious gathering at the Wasilla Assembly of God, her former church. Standing there on stage and speaking to the college-age- d graduates of the church's Master's Commission ministry, the governor reminisced about growing up in the fellowship - "getting saved here, getting baptized by Pastor Riley in Little Beaver Lake Camp" - and urged the new disciples to help fulfill the church's mission, as well as certain destinies for America and Alaska. Pray for the construction of the $30 billion natural gas pipeline, Palin told them. Pray for the military men and women overseas, "that our leaders, our national leaders, are sending (U.S. soldiers) out on a task that is from God. That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for that there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." Later, senior pastor Ed Kalnin - with Palin standing at his side - spoke about tapping into Alaska's natural resource wealth in order to fulfill the state's destiny of serving as a shelter for Christians at the end of the world "I believe that Alaska is one of the 'refuge states' - come on, you guys - in the Last Days," Kalnin said raising his aim to underscore his point "And hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to this state to seek refuge. And the church has to be ready to minister to them." Now that she's been selected -- as Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate, such comments raise questions: What are Sarah Palin's religious beliefs? What churches does she attend and who are her pas tors? How have her beliefs played out in her public life in Alaska? And what do they portend for a possible vice president? For someone who's been embraced nationally as being exactly what evangelical Christians want in Washington, Palin is surprisingly circumspect these days on the subject of religioa The authorized and recently published biography of her life, "Sarah - How a Hockey Mom Turned Alaska's Political Establishment Upside Down," by Kaylene Johnson, spends a total of three pages on the subject. McCain-Pali- n the Anchorage Daily News on Friday that the candidate wasn't available for an interview. questions on religious subjects weren't returned. The New York Times reported Friday that Cornelia had refused to discuss Palin's religion. So what's on the record? Palin considers herself a n conservative Christian. She supports teaching creationism in the public schools, outlawing nearly all abortions (even in cases of rape or incest) and prohibiting bom-agai- same-se-x marriage. After becoming governor 20 months ago, on the other hand, Palin didn't balk at implementing an Alaska Supreme Court ruling that ordered the state to provide the same benefits to same-se-x partners it provides to married couples. And she has yet to advance legislation that insists that creationism, or "intelligent design," be taught in public school science classes whenever biological evolution is taught - as urged by a plank in the official Alaska Republican Party platform. Nor has she tried so far to eliminate standard classes in public schools Iraq signs (MCT) BAGHDAD The Iraqi government approved in principle a deal potentially worth billions of dollars with Royal Dutch Shell to exploit the immense amount of natural gas in southern Iraq that is now being flared off, the government said in a state -- spokes- woman Maria Cornelia told been active. Not least of all the elder from her own church whom Palin chose to fill the seat vacated last winter by Rep. who's Vic Kohring, now serving three and a half years in prison for bribery, conspiracy and attempted extortion as part of the federal crackdown on Alaska political corruption. His replacement is Wes Keller, one of 10 elders in the Wasilla Bible Church and one of three candidates on a short list that was submitted to Palin by state Republicans. Another of the three finalists, Keller said, was also a member of the church. Keller said he got to know Palin when she and her husband, Todd, joined the Wasilla Bible Church in 2002. He thinks his appointment to the House seat probably had more to do with his own community achievements than his membership in the church. Bom in Sandpoint, Idaho, in 1964 to Chuck and Sally Heath, Palin moved to Alaska with her family when she was only a couple months old. Her father taught science in high school. Her mom worked as a secretary. There's always h on Ojitious Fm Accnwttft Ft pe "That's about the same amount of energy used to provide domestic power to the whole of Iraq," said a Shell official who spoke on background, citT ing company policy. "It's a very valuable resource going wasted in the absence of gathering infrastructure Just Confiditisd Svks t27 vs mna.S'wK . . look on Google Earth, particularly at night it's lit up with gas flares." It was unclear whether the natural gas deal was a production-sharin- GOP vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska greets spectators at mpaign stop on Sept. 5 in Cedarburg, Wis. According to Johnson's biography, Palin and her three siblings were each baptized into the Roman Catholic Church as infants. Later their mother gravitated toward the Wasilla Assembly of God - a Pentecostal church that emphasizes a personal relationship with Christ - and introduced the faith to her family when her children were still young. At the age of 12, Palin joined her brother and two sisters in getting baptized into the Wasilla Assembly of God by pastor Paul Riley, a family friend. Later, as a basketball star at Wasilla High School, she would become the leader of the high school's Fellowship of Christian Athletes, writing Bible verses in her fiiends' senior yearbooks. By all accounts, Palin has been an observant evangelical Christian ever since - through g agree- ment, under which Shell and Iraq would share profits, or a service contract similar to one signed last month with a find unsudey stuff. Chinese company under which the company would receive a fixed payment. Last year, Iraq flared off almost half of all the natural gas it produced, far more than the OPEC average, losing millions of dollars in potential income every day. Iraq has the third-largest proven crude-o- il reserves in the world, behind Iran and Saudi Arabia, but years of sanctions and mismanagement left its hydrocarbon infrastructure in disrepair, and violence and sabotage have slowed efforts to improve it. That may be changing. Last month, Iraq signed a $3 billion service contract with China to develop oil fields near Baghdad. Shell is also negotiating contracts to develop the Missan and Kirkuk oil fields. Abdul Jabbar fi, professor of energy studies at the University of Baghdad's Arab Gulf Studies Center, described v ;i v jL.-.l-- d college (attending five separate schools before graduating from the University of Idaho with a degree in journalism). Through the early years of her marriage to Todd Palin, her high school boyfriend (in an elopement to a Palmer court house). Through the births and baptisms of Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig. But the church the Palin family attends these days apparently varies. And the differences tell a tale. In 2002, Palin and her family shifted their allegiance from the Wasilla Assembly of God to the nondenominational Wasilla Bible Church, a move that coincided with Palin's run for lieutenant governor, her first bid for a statewide office From its very modest origins, with only a few families 30 years ago, the Wasilla Bible Church has since grown into a fellowship that now hosts up to 1,000 parishioners a ca- a Sunday, according to senior pastor Larry Kroon, the church's first and now senior minister. They meet in an unadorned boxish building on the gravelly edge of the Parks Highway at the northwest end of town. The Wasilla Bible Church has made waves as well. Two weeks ago, a guest speaker, David Brickner - a conservative Christian who condemn the Jewish faith and tries to convert its adherents throui his Jews for Jesus that terrorism in Israel is God's judgment against Jews. The McCain campaign has acknowledged that Palin was in the audience. But in a pres.' lent leac equ tod; ministry-suggeste- r statement, campaign spokesman Michael Goldfait said the governor did not know Brickner would be speaking, and Palin does not share the views he expressed (c) 2008, McClatchy-Tribun- e Information Services deal; guards shoot pedestrian . Pregnant? Think you might be? V in favor of the abstinence-onl- y programs she prefers. That Palin hasn't yet pushed a religious conservative agenda isn't surprising, said state Rep. Beth Kerttula, a Juneau Democrat and House Minority Leader. So far the governor has been consumed with the complex and contentious legislation involving oil taxes and a proposed natural gas pipeline. "She really didn't have much opportunity" to push a social agenda, Kerttula said. Should Palin return to Juneau and not go to Washington, Kerttula said she expects the governor to focus on cultural and religious issues, like creationism and abortion. Legislative allies have also natural-ga- s ment. Under the agreement approved Sunday, Shell will build the infrastructure to capture and purify the 700 million cubic feet of gas now being burned off every day at the southern oil wells to relieve pressure on the reservoirs below. jvre Tu?--,-- i ' the agreement as a service contract, and said some of the gas would be piped through Turkey to Europe. "I know this is only one step," he said. "We are going to have more con- tracts with more companies British, Dutch, American. The prime minister is trying to have more than one company to avoid a monopoly." Meanwhile in Baghdad, Iraqi government bodyguards shot and killed a pedestrian and wounded a policeman in an incident recalling the assaults in the past year involving U.S. security firms. The guards for the Minister of Displacement and Migration opened fire on drivers and pedestrians on a downtown street after a driver was slow to get out of the way of their convoy, police and eyewitnesses said. One woman was killed and six people injured, according to an official in the Iraqi run Baghdad Operations Center. The Minister was out of the country at the time, and government spokesman Ali Dabagh did not answer repeated requests for comment. "I saw guards carrying machine guns shooting randomly," said a police was at the scene but asked not to be named because he is not authorize! office-wh- to speak to journalists. "First, they killed a wont who was trying to cross to intersection. After that the) opened fire on the traffic policeman who was doing his job. They shot him two and he was injured. He tel! down on the street. Then were they left the cars and gt machine walking with hands. and pistols in their Husam Mazin, another witness, was selling sodas nearby when the shootings took place. "How can we blame Blackwater and the American soldiers for killf Iraqis in cold blood when won'-atoday guards killed a no injured others for reason but to have the str clear for them?" he asked tl'al Iraqi media reported had some of the guards not but this could be confirmed. (c) 2008, McClatchy-TribunInformation Services. ffes of $ ate "oi tinn Pin |