Over at Religion Dispatches, Bill Berkowitz has an interview with Talk To Action‘s Bruce Wilson, whose sleuthing into Sarah Palin’s religious associations helped make Pastor Muthee, well, if not a household name at least familiar to some of us. Actually, much of the interview is taken up with Wilson’s explanations for why the MSM didn’t make more of those associations. Among them: The nondenominational neo-charismatic movement he fingered is pretty unfamiliar; it’s pretty strange; and the story was pretty complex. But as someone who followed the Palin religion story pretty closely, I’d say the most important explanation is Palin’s own effort to obscure her religious identity. She refused to answer even the most straightforward questions, such as what church she belonged to. She wouldn’t say what her beliefs were. And this occultation dated back several years, to when she first ran for statewide office. In the heat of the general election campaign, it was a tough story to nail down–a lot tougher than Wright-Obama or McCain-Hagee.