People were actually at the church when the blaze started. They were alerted by the fire alarm, and were able to escape to safety. Firefighters had to work for hours in 20 degrees below zero weather for hours in order to get this fire out. At this time, I should like to point out that though I criticized Sarah Palin a great deal, 1) I never put her in the same boat with George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Nixon, Reagan, Cheney, McCain, Carter, Clinton, or Obama and 2) I never found much of an occasion to criticize Wasilla Bible Church itself. Quite the contrary, I found their statements and behavior that came about by virtue of their being unwillingly thrust into a level of international public scrutiny that they never sought or desired for themselves to be largely commendable. As best as I can tell, Wasilla Bible Church has never sought fame or influence, and they handled being put in what was clearly a very bad situation about as appropriately as one could hope. In particular, their public statement that they very hurriedly had to put out when USA Today tried to make them out as being a “conservative” mirror image of Jeremiah Wright’s evil was flawless. Perfect. It was 100% Biblical and completely unimpeachable. And the fact that they had to come up with a response literally within a couple of hours, upon USA Today’s linking to what they promised was an inflammatory video incriminating the church hosted on their TINY SERVER and USA Today’s doing so WITHOUT INFORMING OR CONTACTING THEM FIRST, was outstanding. It meant that they did not have time to consult with lawyers or public relations people or anything like that, but instead only had time to come up with something reflecting what they truly felt to be true and appropriate. It was a statement that they did not have to retract or claim was quoted out of context. So let it be known that I came away with a much higher opinion of Wasilla Bible Church and its pastor than I had prior based on their prudent and Biblical handl...