There have been all sorts of ignorant statements and outrageous comments made by the main stream media and 100’s of blogs concerning the Assemblies of God Church that Gov. Sarah Palin was raised in.
Here is a great ‘primer’ and synopsis of the history and beliefs of that denomination–written by Rich Tatum and posted by Christianity Today. Rich does a great job explaining to the religiously challenged MSM that the AG Church is far more mainstream than they suppose and not some weird little cult.
AG is actually a larger denomination than many of the supposed ‘mainstream’ denominations that you may be aware of. According to the latest NCC stats, It is the 10th largest denomination in the USA (2,836,174 members) and one of the fastest growing. It is larger than the Episcopal Church, the UCC (that Obama belongs to), Churches of Christ, The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, any of the Orthodox Churches, 4 of the Baptist denominations, and many others.
The Assemblies of God Church is a member of the National Association of Evangelicals. Theologically they are evangelical, Pentecostal, and squarely orthodox Christian in their beliefs.
Also, the AG is part of the larger Charismatic/Pentecostal movement. A recent Barna study estimated that nearly 36% of the US, around 80 million folks, are part of that movement–not some weird little group ‘out of the mainstream’ after all!