I recently wrote a paper reflecting on the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 as it relates to racism.
This was in many ways one of the most important events in American Christianity as it spawned the beginnings of American Pentecostalism, of which I am beneficiary of today. Historians rave about the significance and how awesome this event was because of the power of the Spirit witnessed there amongst many other things.
One of the supposed successes of this revival was how it brought together different races to seek God, an unprecedented sight for early 20th century Los Angeles. In the revival meetings, blacks, whites, latinos, asians, young, and old were joined together to experience the Holy Spirit together.
Unfortunately, as I researched in my paper, while it began as a movement of the Spirit as well as one which broke many different social boundaries erected by men, it ultimately was destroyed by the very thing it was trying to rid of–racism.
The revival meetings were ended by three successive conflicts all of which dealt with issues of race. The results were startling: Pentecostalism, while starting off as a multi-ethnic phenomenon ended as one of the most racial divisive denominations for the next decades. The walls of racism were denominationally erected as white churches would reject and frown upon black ministers, churches, and mission that would take years and years to reverse.
In conclusion, I can identify with an astounding question from a South African when reflecting on the Asuza Street Revival: “Can someone be Spirit-filled and racist at the same time?”
Edit: Since people keep emailing me about the original research, here is the paper along with sources I used.
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Sir,
I am posting this from the other side of the Atlantic; South London. I am Asian; have held many jobs at a senior level (with salaries that have afforded a lifestyle immeasurably beyond my childhood poverty). I was born adjacent to the Emperor Hadrian’s wall.
I have asked this question for the last 44 years: why no revival? The question is particularly acute as the major and mainstream denominations are facing extinction. I have attended many churches within different denominations. I am currently attending a Salvation Army church. My interests are discovering why western nations collapse – and my current interest is why mainstream denominations are collapsing (including the Salvation Army).
Two years ago I briefly attended the Church of the Nazarene – and there I met a pastor who had grown up in Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’ between Roman Catholics and Protestants. He told me of a revival amongst the Protestants; his complexion changed when he said that the revival stopped at the front doors of Roman Catholics. At that precise moment I thought about one of my Bible college lecturers who said that “racism was blasphemous”. I put the pastor’s witness and the lecturer’s advice together and for the first time in decades I began to see the answer to why no revival.
Over the decades I have spoken to many Asian professionals (including lawyers) about their experiences of white evangelical churches – they all said that they had experienced persistent racist remarks (all my interviewees were born in Scotland, England and Wales. None were immigrants. They all had a similar upbringing to white middle-class children). Like me they still attend their local predominantly white evangelical churches and sit at the back of the church hall – usually making a rapid exit at the end of the service. I look back over the decades and see such a waste of talent; they could have assisted on the issue of abortion (and now State sanctioned euthanasia).
There is one fear that that they have in common with white evangelical Christians about blacks: they do not want to see their children inter-marry. They know that young black men are statistically more likely to find themselves within the criminal frame of reference: either by the application of police racism and (or) their abandoned hope of ever being accepted by ‘polite’ white society. Is this racism or an attempt by Asian parents to protect and shield their young?
Recently, at a predominantly white (evangelical) Church of England it was suggested (tangentially) that I may have committed a ‘racist’ act. A black chap (portly), always smartly dressed (suit, tie, polished shoes) began sitting next to me. A newly arrived immigrant from Africa. He would (and due to his weight and size) unintentionally impel (not compel) me to surrender one third of my seat to accommodate his posture. He would spread his left leg underneath the seat in front of me and so deny a space for my feet. My initial reaction was to ask him if he was sitting comfortable? After some thought he decided to withdraw his left leg but refused to retreat from the one third of the seat that I was occupying. I tolerated this behaviour for three Sundays. After that, I repeatedly moved (each Sunday he decided to sit next to me) to an unoccupied seat. I ask your readers: is that racist? I was brought up, by my father and school teachers, not to invade another’s personal air space. This chap was not – there was clearly a collision of behavioural values – between I and this new immigrant. Is that racist? He could have, had he thought about it, occupied one and a third chairs in another part of the pews. He elected not to do so. It is not the fact that he is black. It is the fact that we have been schooled in different cultural norms. Having written that I also accept there will be situations where an apparent collision of cultural norms is employed as a defensive shield to excuse the concealed motivation of racism.
During my attendance of various churches within different denominations I have noticed something else: women outnumber men by a ratio of 60:40. The second thing I have noticed is the absence of white working-class men (in your case blue-collar workers).
In my country (Great Britain and Northern Ireland) the whites consist of the majority of the population (they were the king-makers in the great Brexit debate). It was only when I attended a predominantly white middle-class Methodist church that I understood how important this demographic is. On the very first Sunday I attended that church, a notice was issued by one of the ‘Grand Dames’. She explained that the gardener (white working-class old man) had given a year’s notice that he was retiring. I sat there, alone, during the entire service asking myself the question: why would a man give a year’s notice (this is abnormal)? At the end of the service I saw through his eyes, as it were, he must have understood that an ageing church predominated by women was, on the balance of probabilities unlikely to present another male (masculine strength) gardener. One month later the same ‘Grand Dame’ stood up and said, “On this issue we have been defeated.” Result? We had to pay a private contractor to tend the roses.
No other religion has such an imbalance of the sexes and classes. None. It reminded me of what one of my Old Testament lecturer’s said during a candid moment: the Church Fathers would never have accepted women ruling the church – never.
So what is it like to be a blue-collar male in my church? The first thing that you notice, in the pews (not in the brass band) is the predominance of women compared to men. There is something else, I imagined before entering my church that there would be lots of recovering drug addicts, alcoholics and the downtrodden of the impoverished masses – haggard and malnourished. To my astonishment: none were present (in Old England the revivals attracted the poor, Jesus changed their moral standards – and they in turn joined the middle-classes).
Then there is the young female preacher (an officer) whose conduct of services lull you into experiencing what it must be like to be in the study-bedroom of a ‘girly’ Christian. This repels the white-working class male – who is used to drinkin’ and fightin’: masculinity.
If the churches, and the few brave men who are left in them, preach to the white working-class once more: on both sides of the Atlantic you will see revivals. It is the men who will bring in their girlfriends, wives and children. It is those men who will go out and reach their black, Asian and Hispanic friends – they in turn will bring their wives, girlfriends and children. The white blue-collar workers have far more social interaction with different races than do the whit middle-class evangelicals sitting currently in the pews.