By Mark Owen - © 2010
Chapter 17 - The hydra-headed monster
Montenegro's two branches of the Orthodox church celebrated Easter on Sunday,
united in wanting peace in Yugoslavia but divided over just about everything else.
The Serb Orthodox Church and Montenegrin Orthodox Church are determined to
sweep each other out of this mountainous Yugoslav republic in a religious battle.
- Newspaper report, April 1999.
Innumerable small groups sprang to life in the USA, flourished for a time, then withered and died. In the mid-1880s a Doctor Kiel founded the Bethel and Aurora Communities. The good doctor thought he was the First Witness recorded in the Book of Revelation. Thirty years later the First Witness had departed the scene, along with his communities. Then there was Eric Janson, a Swede who led a group of pilgrims to the American Promised Land in 1846. He was, they thought, a reincarnation of the Christ-god, through whom the New Jerusalem would be erected. Alas, a marital dispute within the community of believers led to murder - of the prophet himself - and the community died out not long after. There were, of course, many more, too numerous to examine here. And then there were those amazing people - the Shakers.
In some respects the Shakers (also known as the Millennial Church or United Society of Believers) were an offshoot of the Quakers. Their founder was Ann Lee, born in Manchester, England, in 1736. Like other Quakers she suffered a spell in prison and it was while she was there that she, too, received her special revelation from the Ghost. She later said all the mysteries of the universe had been made clear to her there in that prison cell. And there was a nice gender-neutral touch in her doctrines - Yahweh was both male and female. But there was also a glum message - the Original Sin was sexual intercourse! One cannot help but speculate on what in Ann's life produced such a notion. She was already married; perhaps she had found the intimacies of the bed too much to bear and couldn't 'lie back and think of England'. Anyway, she had now found a sound doctrinal reason to separate from her husband, Abraham Stanley. He, poor fellow, continued to follow his deranged wife about, becoming for a time one of her most ardent disciples.
In 1771 Ann received another special revelation from the Ghost. She was commanded to go to America (where else?) and set up the 'Second Christian Church'. Thus it was that six men and two women set sail for the promised land. Regrettably sex-starved Abraham defected along the way, having found satisfaction for his sexual needs with a fellow-passenger on the ship. Ann, now left alone with her small party, occupied her time awaiting further guidance, taking in washing to pay the bills. Four years later the Baptists of New Lebanon were having a revival and somehow became entangled with Mother Ann and her flock. There was one jarring note in all the enthusiastic carryings-on - the notion of celibacy that Ann preached. Never mind that some of the simple-minded believers thought Ann was a second incarnation of Christ and a miracle-worker. Many male Christians found it too hard to accept sexual abstinence.
Persecution followed the Shakers but gradually believers gathered, although no definite community life was established until after Mother Ann died (in 1784). Under the joint leadership of Joseph Meacham and Lucy Wright the group flourished and by 1800 there were about 27 Shaker communities in existence. The hallmark of their worship was the curious practice of 'holy marching and dancing,' sometimes accompanied by sounding forth in tongues. The brothers and sisters danced apart, in rows, rhythmically moving, elbows to the side, and hands held out before them. Like other revivalist faiths, including many modern Pentecostalist groups, they got themselves worked up sometimes, rolling about on the ground as they shook and quivered with the inrush of the Ghost. Or were these sexless beings experiencing orgasm as seems to have been the case in other situations?
With no sexual intercourse permitted (the brothers and sisters lived apart) the only way the Shakers could perpetuate their cult was by adopting children, which they did in large numbers. In this they were in good company; the Essenes of Jesus' time and Abstinentes of 4th century Spain followed similar paths of righteousness. But like those ancient faiths, the Shakers' end was inevitable under such a regime and they eventually died out, although they do appear to have some affinity to the crazy snake-handling cults of the southern United States.
Yet another variant form of Protestant Christianity began to emerge early in the 20th century, although its proponents like to think it has a more ancient lineage. Growing out of the turbulent 19th century American religious milieu, Pentecostalism was a sort of amalgam of 'holiness' teachings, belief in the imminent return of the Christ-god, and faith healing. However, the crowning and distinctive mark was the believer's 'baptism in the Holy Spirit'. From this time forth Christians, however devout, would be earnestly informed that water baptism was insufficient. Pentecostalists assert confidently that their 'charismatic' experiences (they often call themselves Charismatics) mark the True Believer - the so-called Baptism of the Ghost, 'with signs following,' as they fondly say.
The signs are largely based on New Testament texts, notably Mark 16:15-20, the very last verses of that Gospel. However, this section of Mark appears to be spurious, indeed, the whole of this Gospel from 16:9 to the end is not found in the two oldest Greek manuscripts. Be that as it may Pentecostalists remain convinced and conveniently produce to order the necessary 'signs' - speaking in the gibberish called 'tongues' (also known as glossolalia), healing by laying on of hands, together with certain curious physical manifestations of the Ghost's activities, e.g., rolling around on the floor and the exceedingly fey habit of toppling over. Never mind all those who through nineteen centuries thought of themselves as True Believers; they are obviously in error! They didn't manifest the signs, brother (and sister!).
As for the much lauded speaking in tongues, this is no unique phenomenon. It is well-known in many cultures outside the walls of Pentecostalist assemblies. Thomson Jay Hudson in his book The Law of Psychic Phenomena reports on several cases that have been studied. He quotes Sir William Hamilton (Lectures in Metaphysics) as writing about 'cases in which the extinct memory of whole languages was suddenly restored' but, more tellingly, the faculty of 'accurately repeating, in known or unknown tongues, passages which were never within the grasp of conscious memory in the normal state.' Typical was a German woman in her mid-twenties who fell ill and was believed to be 'possessed'. In her ravings she spoke incessantly in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. But she was an uneducated person. A physician was so fascinated by this he wanted to learn more so visited her birthplace and traced her family history. It turned out that as a small child the girl had been orphaned and had been taken into the home of a Protestant pastor who had cared for her. It was the pastor's habit each day to march up and down in a hallway declaiming from Greek and Latin Fathers and Rabbinical writings. Somehow words and phrases, so often reiterated, had lodged in the subconscious of the little girl. She had no conscious knowledge of these languages.
As happened throughout the 19th century, the new movement soon began splitting and forming factions. The original impetus can probably be traced to a revivalist preacher, Charles F. Parham, who in turn influenced a Baptist, William J. Seymour. Seymour's Apostolic Faith Gospel Mission, in Azusa Street, Los Angeles, became the scene of much Pentecostalist excitement, so much so that the nickname 'holy rollers' was coined to describe the activities of members of his congregation. Parham wasn't too happy with this development so a rift developed between the two men - the first of hundreds. So many churches, large and small, sprang from the initial movement that it is difficult to catalog them all. Names such as 'Apostolic', 'Assemblies of God' and 'Church of God' were used and many variants of these, and others.
A major split occurred in 1916 within the Assemblies of God, a coalition of independent congregations that had only sprung into being in 1914. Dissension arose over the nature of the godhead - Trinitarianism as against Unitarianism, the Assemblies affirming a Trinitarian view. Others, the Unitarians, withdrew from the coalition and formed a new coalition - the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. More bodies formed, including the Overcoming Holy Church of God, the Pentecostal Holiness Church, and the Fire-Baptised Holiness Church, which split from the latter. The issue of this particular split was a momentous one: relaxed dress standards for men, including on occasions the wearing of a necktie. What depravity!
By now it was becoming exceedingly difficult for splitters to find a suitable name for their new church. But then (just when you thought it was impossible to find a new name!) someone dreamed up the Four-Square Gospel Church. And undoubtedly this church's most famous and colourful figure was Aimee Semple McPherson. One wonders if she would have become so famous without that middle name. Aimee McPherson doesn't quite have that zing to it. And zing is what Sister Aimee was all about. She was a female version of those latter-day televangelists who have so dominated the American religious landscape in recent times. But they are mere males. Aimee was slim, tall, beautiful, truly a charismatic figure for a charismatic cause. She reigned supreme in the giant Angelus Temple in LA (where else?) and her melodious singsong voice was carried to the far reaches of the nation via the newfangled radio. She was, indeed, a superstar of religion in the 1920s.
The Angelus Temple was a part of the Four Square Gospel Church. Like all Pentecostalists the group administered believer's baptism by full immersion and most conveniently, alongside the Temple, was a lake - a wonderful place to immerse the faithful, whose sins would be washed away along with the dirt from their bodies, thus cleansing and polluting at one and the same time. While Sister Aimee must have got herself somewhat wet on many occasions during the administration of baptism she evidently still enjoyed a dip in the waters of the Pacific now and then and at 2.40 pm on 18 May 1926, while bathing on a crowded beach, she simply disappeared. She was wearing, let it be noted, a swimsuit. Perhaps she had been caught up to meet Him? In her bathing-suit? Her followers despaired. A thorough search failed to locate the prophet. One strong possibility remained - she had been snatched away by dastardly kidnappers, and on 24 May a message arrived, a ransom note demanding $500,000 for the return of the lovely preacher. A stiff price indeed and, one must ask, who would have set such a high price upon Sister Aimee's life? The note was signed 'The Avengers'.
A whole agonising month went by when no message came back. Thinking their beloved leader was by now dead the folk at the Angelus Temple staged a massive farewell service. Then, on 23 June, dramatic news. Aimee Semple McPherson had, praise God, been found. She had stumbled across the Mexican border after escaping from her captors who, horror upon horror, had actually tortured her. Is there no respect for religion? The city of Los Angeles went wild. The largest crowd ever seen gathered to welcome back the preacher; the newspapers did a roaring trade with titillating details of Aimee's captivity and torture. Why, the preacher lady even posed thoughtfully for photographs, showing how she had been trussed up and how she had been burnt on the wrist by a cigar.
Aimee, trussed up in her bathing suit? An interesting sight for any voyeur, but one denied the news-hungry public. The reporters and sycophants failed to notice an important fact. Aimee had disappeared from the beach in her bathing costume and barefoot; she had returned fully dressed, shod, and even wearing corsets. Her captors had thoughtfully provided her with a full set of garments. But not everyone was fooled. The police wondered about the clothes and they wondered too about the smart shoes she had worn. These showed no signs of being scuffed, no matter that she had stumbled across miles of rough ground in her flight from Mexico!
When doubt started to creep into the happy scene, the good Christians at the Temple closed ranks behind their leader. But worse was to follow. The police now produced five witnesses who said they had seen the Reverend McPherson at an isolated beach house. And she was not alone. And, what's more, they didn't think the man she was with, by name of Kenneth Ormiston, was a kidnapper. He was, after all, the engineer responsible for Aimee's radio broadcasts. He was, incidentally, aged 30 and was married, with a young son.
But all was not lost! The Christian soldier is not easily defeated. Mr Ormiston now issued a signed statement claiming he had not been with the pretty preacher lady but with another woman who looked like her. A simple mistake anyone could make, even five people, and a good Christian like Mr Ormiston (one must assume he was a good Christian, giving him the benefit of the doubt) would not be lying, would he? To back this claim the woman herself was produced and photographed with Aimee, showing just how alike they were. Faith restored; the preacher vindicated. She had been telling the truth when she related the harrowing tale of her Mexican abduction. And she was obviously a good Christian, wasn't she?
Alas, the happy outcome was not to last very long. The other woman had a change of heart and announced publicly that she had been approached by officials of the Angelus Temple and paid to act out her role! Police now swooped on the hapless evangelist. Not only had a fraud been perpetrated on the public but the 6th Commandment had been broken. The press had a field day at the expense of the Christians. For three or four months the furore continued but at length, like all such affairs, the public and the press tired of making sport of the faithful at Angelus. The police decided not much real damage had been done so all charges were dropped and Aimee was received back into the fold. Immediately she announced she would begin a triumphant vindication tour. The faithful for the most part supported her. It was too hard for them to believe their beloved Aimee could so fall from grace. It is ever hard for Christians, living in their world of unreality, to face the truth.
Pentecostalism has wandered off into many other strange byways. I have already mentioned the theory that was popular in my young days - that the Anglo-Saxon nations (Britain, America and northern European countries) were the Lost Tribes of Israel. It seems absurd now but hundreds of thousands of people believed this. In a later era those of Pentecostalist bent managed to bring together, in their fevered imagination, the two disparate streams of thought - British Israelism and Pentecostalism, and there were formed a number of bodies, differing one from another on particulars, as always, espousing such views. There was, for example, the Commonwealth Revival Crusade and there was a rival group known as the National Revival Crusade. In time, with the troubles of the postwar years, the dream of British greatness faded, and so, too, did the Pentecostalist-British Israel groups. But the stage was not long empty. Other Pentecostalists were active, notably an American evangelist, Oral Roberts, who built a massive empire on miraculous healings, being one of the first electronic evangelists. And the Pentecostalists continued to split into innumerable sub-groups and so it goes on - and on - and on!
Another branch of Pentecostalism was to be wracked by scandal in more recent times. Jim Bakker, an Assemblies of God preacher and televangelist, fell from grace in the mid-1980s and eventually faced a prison term. Bakker ran an outfit known as the PTL ministry. The letters were said to stand for People That Love or Praise The Lord. Cynics said they stood for Pass The Loot. Jim Bakker and his bejewelled wife Tammy Faye ran a hot gospel television show aired through 160 stations and reaching an estimated 13 million homes. There were also offshoots, including Heritage USA, a theme park covering about 1,000 hectares.
In October 1989 in Charlotte, South Carolina, Bakker was found guilty of fraudulently raising $US158 million while heading the by then bankrupt PTL Ministry. He was also found guilty of trying to divert $US3.7 million to his own use. Bakker was convicted on 24 counts and sentenced to 45 years' jail and fined $US500,000, following a six-weeks' circus-trial which featured, among other highlights, his wife of 30 years, Tammy Faye, intoning from the courthouse steps: 'On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand.' Certainly the marriage was on sinking ground: Tammy Fay later divorced Bakker and remarried (she died in 2007). An appeals court reduced the sentence and in November 1994 he was released on probation after serving only five years and two months in prison.
Bakker's downfall shocked the fundamentalist constituency but the bad news continued. It was revealed that in 1980 he'd had a sexual encounter with a 20-year-old church secretary, Jessica Hahn. Adding fuel to the fire was the fact that Bakker paid 'hush money' to Hahn amounting to $US265,000. Bakker later claimed the encounter with Jessica Hahn lasted only 20 minutes and that intercourse did not occur. He also claimed that she was 'the aggressor'. For her part, Hahn claimed publicly that not only did Jim Bakker have intercourse with her but also with another evangelist, John Wesley Fletcher. A third PTL staff member attempted to join the in the fun but failed. Bakker was quoted as asking him: 'Did you get her too?' Later another televangelist, Jerry Falwell, said he had evidence that Bakker also had homosexual encounters with men. One of Bakker's alleged homosexual partners told reporters that their relationship had lasted for three years and that Bakker had made homosexual advances towards five other PTL employees.
According to news reports the very day Jim Bakker left prison - 1 July 1994 - his devoted daughter Tammy Sue sent out an appeal to the faithful, asking people to send in 'love offerings' of $500 to support the disgraced preaching man. In return they would receive a three-volume account of the scandal, presumably written from Mr Bakker's viewpoint, a parchment document no less, My Daily Walk, listing 15 things God had taught her father in prison, and - best of all - a photograph of Jim. A very dutiful and loving daughter was our Tammy Sue; why she even agreed to pose nude in Playboy magazine to raise funds - $250,000 - for her father's legal appeal. The Bakker enterprise, kept floating by Tammy Sue sacrificial devotion, was operating last I heard of it.
Meanwhile another hot gospeller was in trouble. On 12 October 1991, US televangelist Jimmy Swaggart was stopped by police. Travelling with him was a prostitute, Ms. Rosemary Garcia, a lady he had picked up at a truck stop. The woman told police he had asked her if she knew of any porn outlets in the area. And, alleged police, there were porn magazines in the car. Some days later it was announced that Swaggart was stepping down from his 'worldwide ministry' based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The evangelist's son, Donnie Swaggart, was assuming leadership of the body. In an earlier development a rival minister, Marvin Gorman, sued Swaggart in New Orleans for allegedly spreading false rumours about Gorman's sex life. Damages of $US10 million were awarded against Swaggart. What, one must asked, of the Scriptural injunction: 'Dare any of you, having a matter against his neighbour, go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? . . . Nay, already it is altogether a defect in you, that ye have lawsuits one with another. Why not rather take wrong? why not rather be defrauded?' (I Corinthians 6:1,7).
There's a whole industry out there - of evangelists whose pulpits range from fancy structures in massive glass-domed houses of worship down to the dirt floor of a tent in a small town. The practitioners of the art include such undoubtedly sincere, honest and earnest men of God like Billy Graham, but among their number are those charlatans of the airwaves and tent ministries, the emotionally unstable, weeping, cajoling, hysterical, even miracle-working con-men who have played so many citizens for suckers.
A sub-class of the genera evangelist include children, yes, the very young have gotten in on the act. A pint-sized American evangelist, Michael Shaun Walters, for example, toured around driving the Devil out of the souls of his hearers and the illnesses out of their body, well, so he claims. ('The tumour's melting right now, Lord, it is melting, it is drying up, and the devil is saaaad tonight.') On the road preaching before the age of 12, Michael is a Pentecostalist and his tent shows are typical of that denomination - well, denomination is not quite the right word, for the Pentecostalists are forever splitting, like so many others.
The chief mark of the service is the curious toppling over of the faithful, struck down by the force of the Ghost. The toppled ones are laid on the floor to recover from their encounter with the Other World. This strange activity has been observed in many churches around the world. Thoughtful preachers provide for this event by making sure there's someone behind the toppler to ease their path to joy.
