Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin who was baptised a Catholic now claims to be a "Bible believing" non-denominational Christian. National Catholic Reporter says that Palin, now governor of Alaska, was baptised a Catholic as an infant.
However, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, she and her mother began attending an Assemblies of God Church, a Pentecostal denomination, when she was in her early teens.
She was rebaptised as a Pentecostal, the fastest growing segment of the Christian church in the world, but in 2002, she and her family began attending a number of non-denominational evangelical churches.
Ms Palin's language at times clearly comes out of her earlier Pentecostal formation, the paper says.
However, Ms Palin's language may not be as stark as it may appear, according to Cecil M. Robeck Jr, a Pentecostal and director of the David du Plessis Centre for Christian Spirituality at Fuller Theological Seminary."Her language in (recent) quotations sounds very much like the language one would hear globally within the Pentecostal tradition. We teach and we are taught to seek God's will and to act upon it," Robeck told NCR.
"As an ecumenist, I know that most denominations do similar things, but they may not always couch their language in such graphic terms." Pentecostals, he said, "make no attempt to sound ‘humble' when speaking about the will of God."
In more historic denominations, people may think the same thing and come to the same conclusions, but use different language.
"They might say, 'I feel strongly about this' or 'We are seeking to follow the Bible here' or some other thing. That kind of language, I suppose, spares them from looking foolish or sounding presumptuous about knowing God's will."
Determining the will of God, he said, occurs in a variety of ways, through using Scripture, for instance; or common sense and personal feelings about a situation; or seeking direction in concert with others in the church or family.
Questions such as "Where can I make a difference or where can I do the greatest good?" are also means for discovering the will of God, he said.
"Often times, within our circles," he added, "people will say that they think something is God's will if they have a strong inner sense that something is right."
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(Source: CN)