Palin's Church Damaged in Suspicious Fire

[tekisui]

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Gov. Sarah Palin's home church has been badly damaged in an arson fire.

Damages to the Wasilla Bible Church were estimated at $1 million, authorities said today. No one was injured in the fire, which was intentionally set while people, including two children, were inside.

"This fire is definitely suspicious," said Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele.

Pastor Larry Kroon declined to say if the Friday night blaze was politically based or directed at Palin, the failed Republican vice presidential candidate. He also declined to say whether the church has received any recent threats.

"There are so many variables," he said. "I don't want to comment in that direction." Palin stopped by the church this morning. Her spokesman, Bill McAllister, said in a statement that Palin told an assistant pastor she apologizes if the fire was connected to the "undeserved negative attention" the church has received since she became the vice presidential candidate on 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.

more: http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_11226119

[Stephanie]

1. The witches strike back?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. My first thought -

Really, how stupid can you be to screw with witches?

[malaise]

11. My first thought was check her first

She'll d anything for attention.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. Aw, see, now

you've put the picture in my head of Palin going up in flames.

It's kind of a nice image.

THANKS!

:yourock:

[Skelly]

21. Not a nice picture

Or image. It would be horrible for this to happen to any person, even Palin. This kind of violence should not be tolerated by anyone.

[chomper68]

13. That was my first thought.

I wonder if they have security cameras, I would love to see her on You Tube running around back with a gallon of gas in her Grand Old Party Clothes.

[malaise]

14. Gas?

She would have used moose or turkey fat :rofl:

[juno jones]

19. Only if they were casting fire spells.

Most neo-pagans don't go in for that sort of thing. Three-fold return and all. I suspect the incident is far more mundane and possibly Springer-esque than that.

[Newsjock]

2. Check the insurance policies and when they were last updated

I'm just sayin'.

[jesus_of_suburbia]

3. If someone did this on purpose, they are terrible. n/t

[Warpy]

7. Pointing the political finger might be just as terrible.

After all, this is a church that thinks god meddles in the affairs of humans to build pipelines. Perhaps someone who thought tithing would make him rich has finally answered the clue phone.

Arson is a lousy way to object, though. It not only put the occupants of the building at risk, it also puts firefighters at risk.

[UTUSN]

4. It was prolly Todd(?) (Tadd?) doing the Reichstag thing and rubbing 2 sticks together

Ain't it GRAND that I have forgotten the Barracuda's hubby's name?!1 It has been GREAT not to see Mc5PLANEs or the other cast of fools on the air since November. The other day that Tweety chose to run TWO FULL campaign advertisements of Mc5PLANEs (to illustrate the current BLOGGO indictment), it seemed like the worst of flashbacks!1

[undeterred]

5. Well, the evil of her candidacy was used for the good of electing a Democrat to the White House.

:shrug:

[Posteritatis]

6. Arson sucks, full stop (nt)

[MazeRat7]

9. That's reprehensible, just like the 16th Street bombing/fire in '63... n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. Meth Lab?

They tend to burn a lot and Wasila is the capital of meth labs.

[alphafemale]

15. For some reason I'm picturing a three-legged wolf with a Bic.

...maybe with an assist from a turkey.

[LiberalFighter]

16. A million dollars for a church in a town with a population under 6,000?

Seems awfully high.

[rainbow4321]

17. Anchorage news reports "1,000 people in the congregation"

Wonder if they do like our local churches around here..they turn the "church" into a small town--all under the tax exempt status, of course. We have one with a coffee shop, mini cafeteria, a gymnasium, another one near my daughter's workplace has a sand volleyball court outside of the "youth center" which is a separate building from the main church building.

[Dappleganger]

20. You may think that figure is high...

but after going through the process with our church building a *very* pragmatic building, I can tell you that money just doesn't go as far these days. We had to have the plans changed four times before coming in under budget, too. The building is not brick, is pre-fab (like those steel storage buildings) too. Very tiny office space, small and limited classrooms and seats 450 with regular chairs (no pews). It's a multi-purpose room and doubles as a community center on many nights. We loan it out to AA twice a week (one of the classrooms), various community meetings (not-religious), MOPS once a month, etc.

Just sayin' that a million bucks doesn't go far in real estate, that's all.

[Faith No More]

18. Gee, the lord does work in mysterious ways..........hee......hee

[Blue_In_AK]

22. More on this fire and the media coverage here

http://progressivealaska.blogspot.com/2008/12/saradise-lost-book-2-chapter-18.html , here http://divasblueoasis.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=359 and here http://divasblueoasis.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=361