Last updated on 2022-08-30
Trumpist Secretary of State candidate Monae Johnson, who stole the SDGOP nomination from establishment Republican sinecurist and current Secretary of State Steve Barnett in June on unsubstantiated claims that South Dakota lacks “election integrity”, is a receptionist at Marty Jackley’s law firm in Rapid City. Her bio at Gunderson, Palmer, Nelson, & Ashmore notes that she “is the current South Dakota Area President for Aglow International.” (Johnson’s campaign bio puts her presidency in the past tense.)
No, Aglow is not an Avon competitor. Aglow International started in 1967 as Full Gospel Women’s Fellowship, when the wives of fellows in the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship decided they wanted to keep busy for Jesus, too.
Aglow originated in a firm belief in male headship and women’s God-ordained subordinate place at men’s sides. Aglow cites as its first “Biblical Foundational Truth” its purpose to “promote gender reconciliation between make and female in the Body of Christ as God designed from Genesis 1–3.” Those cited Biblical chapters wrap up with God’s directive to Eve and succeeding womankind that “your husband… will rule over you.”
Contemporary language makes such direct calls to subservience uncomfortable. An FAQ page Aglow created in December 2010 said, “Aglow is proving to be a unique tool in His hands for this crucial time. While being a unique women-to-women ministry, Aglow fully supports pastors and men in their spiritual headship role.” But while I can get the Aglow website’s search feature to pop up that snippet, clicking on the associated link only takes me back to the homepage. The Aglow International Leader’s Digest from 2015 refers to “supporting military wives and moms” as an outreach suggestion. In explaining “Church~Aglow” partnership, the 2015 guide recommends that Aglow members “Invite pastors’ wives to a luncheon to a luncheon….” Both items indicate the default assumption that men will take leadership positions and their wives will need support. However, the guide’s section forming youth groups admits the possibility of have a male or female pastor as an advisor.
In an essay apparently from 2005, Aglow’s president Jane Hansen Hoyt speaks very obtusely on the issue of male headship, but amidst the mumbo-jumbo, the ideas of women’s “place” and male headship persist.
Feminism is a devil’s trick to undermine the “greatness” of manhood. From this deceit, Aglow must awaken and restore women:
Never in history has there been recorded this kind of a worldwide awakening amongst women and we would have to ask ourselves why and why now. So some of what you will hear, some who have been in Aglow for many years, you will think I have heard this before. But I think God wants to breathe a fresh wind of His Spirit upon us. He wants to awaken and reawaken, and bring to a greater depth in our own understandings why it is He has chosen to awaken and restore women at this specific time in history.
…Great illumination has been coming and great intercession has come out of that understanding. And in the throws of our conversation, she said something to me in relation to how the enemy would work in the lives of men to bring a demasculization to men. How are we doing translators? Is that an okay word? To take away the sense of greatness in their manhood, the greatness of who God has called them to be in their homes, in their family, and in the earth. And at the same time how the enemy would come to exalt women in their own minds or in a way that would counter – now stay with me – the original plan and purpose of what God designed for male and female. It would counterfeit.
So we are saying: God is awakening women to the significance of His plans for their lives complete in the body of Christ for women. Are we saying we are unduly exalting women? No. That is why the enemy would come through a back door to undermine the plan of God which has always been His goal. To demasculinize or take away the strength of manhood, maleness as God intended it from the beginning. The beauty of all of it. And He would bring in feminism in a way that brings forth womanhood that looks like strength, but, in fact, is empty without power, without authority, without anointing and there is really no strength there at all. Like a clanging symbol. It is like strident voices that clamor to be heard, demand to have a place when, without the power and the wisdom and the purpose of God behind that, it will fall away to nothingness. Are you with me? [Jane Hansen Hoyt, “Male-Female Reconciliation,” Aglow International: Jane’s Messages, November 2005, retrieved 2022.08.29].
But Aglow women must not be angry or strident in their efforts: such puffery is only for the devil’s trickster feminists:
Now I am not talking about angry strident women that demand to be heard, I am talking about healthiness, wholeness. And in the years since Aglow has come forth, this is part of what God has been doing in your life personally, and in the corporate life of this ministry. Bringing forth wholeness so that we can step into those places of ministry and working alongside our brothers [Hansen Hoyt, 2005].
Hansen Hoyt seems to dismiss men’s domination of women but not women’s submission to men, women’s secondarity:
I think of the scripture in Genesis 3, where the enemy has come in to disrupt the plan of God. He came to the woman first because he knew she had been called to be a help. God had already said man’s aloneness was not good. His aloneness, his functioning alone, his isolation. He needed a help meet to come along side of him that he might come into the fuller plan and purpose of God. So God brought forth the woman. She was created for the man. She was created to stand in a face-to-face healthy relationship with him. Not cowering in fear. Not the kind of submission that takes away her personhood, her value, her significance. It is a healthy relationship God is after. There is a loving, serving and a caring for one another. It isn’t the woman usurping the man’s place, but it isn’t the man dominating the woman. It is a healthy place where the heart, voice and purpose of God is seen and felt in the earth. So the enemy knew man’s aloneness wasn’t good, she was called to be a help. I’ll attack the help God sent so he is still left in his aloneness and she is now crippled. It wasn’t to get at the woman; it was to get at God, and His plan and His purpose [Hansen Hoyt, 2005].
Evidently Monae Johnson got good at her mushy talk about “election integrity” as code for “Trump won!” by hanging out with Aglow’s mealy-mouthed public statements about “male-female reconciliation” as code for “Put women back in their places!”
Of course, if Monae Johnson were completely invested in the idea that men should be in charge, she would never have challenged Steve Barnett, or she’d at least quit campaigning now against Tom Cool for Secretary of State.
Or maybe Johnson is simply carrying out the part of her Aglow mission that sounds a lot like theocracy:
He is calling forth an army of women who, day and night, will stand against the darkness. Who will rise up against the darkness? Who says this can come in, this must go. You’re gatekeepers in your nation; you are gatekeepers in your city. You are allowing what comes in and what goes out. God has given you divine authority to expose the enemy in your nations [Hansen Hoyt, 2005].
The theocratic bent of Johnson’s organization is couched in the same mushy language as its view of the proper roles of men and women. But Aglow is part of the “New Apostolic Reformation,” whose efforts to ban abortion and gay marriage are part of a much broader (and, some Christians say, unbiblical) push for theocracy:
According to NAR leaders, when the church was birthed in the first century A.D., God intended for it to be always governed by living apostles and prophets. Yet, the continuation of these two offices has not been accepted by the vast majority of Christians following the earliest years of the church’s establishment. Today, in place of living apostles and prophets, most Protestant churches are governed by pastors, elders, and denominational executives.
But NAR leaders teach that God began restoring the office of prophet to the church in the 1980s and the office of apostle in the 1990s. C. Peter Wagner — one of the movement’s most influential U.S. apostles — teaches that 2001 A.D. marked the beginning of the “Second Apostolic Age,” when the proper church government — headed by living apostles and prophets — was finally restored.12
Now that the church is under the leadership of living apostles and prophets, it can complete its primary task — the Great Commission, which has been redefined by NAR leaders as a commission to take dominion, or sociopolitical control, of the earth13 [Holly Pivec, “The New Apostolic Reformation: Influence and Teachings,” Apologetics Index, updated 2021.07.22].
Ah, dominion theology. As Aglow International itself says, “As God’s representatives on earth, we walk in authority that He has given to us…. This authority… gives us the right to reign and rule on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Vote for Monae, because God says so—yeesh.
The Secretary of State’s office seems well removed from religious matters. But if Monae Johnson is on a mission from God to expose the enemy in South Dakota (and by “enemy”, Aglow means Satan!) and keep the enemy outside our gates, perhaps the gate is elected office, and her control of our elections would allow her to keep the “enemy” from ever winning an election, or even getting on the ballot, whether that enemy comes in the form of an insufficiently Christian or excessively feminist candidate or in the form of a ballot measure that would affirm women’s right to control their bodies and their pregnancies. Perhaps “election integrity” is just more Aglow International code for “making sure that the ballot and thus the government and the law consist solely of choices that reflect our special Christian integrity.”
Church, State, and Taxes: IRS records show Monae Johnson listed as the contact/”in care of” name for two Aglow International entities with distinct Employer ID Numbers, the Rapid City Neighborhood “Lighthouse” (the term Aglow uses for local chapters) and the South Dakota Area Team. Seven other women are listed as contacts for eight other South Dakota-based Aglow organizations:
- Deann Hilmoe, Pierre: Pierre SD Prison Community
- Jacqueline Rhode, Fort Thompson: Fort Thompson SD Neighborhood
- Janice Waltman, Aberdeen: South Dakota State Prayer Coordinator Position
- Merilyn Beeman, Hot Springs: Hot Springs/Edgemont SD Neighborhood
- Nancy Engler, Rapid City: Rapid City Jail Neighborhood
- Sande Lofberg: Rapid City: Great Plains-Rocky Mtn Region, South Dakota East River
- Theora H Carlson, Bison: Bison SD Neighborhood Lighthouse
All of these Aglow entities are registered with the IRS as churches, even though Aglow’s leadership manual distinguishes Aglow from actual churches in many places. For instance, local chapter leaders and ministry support team members are expected to “attend one church regularly…” and “By ‘church’ we mean a valid Christian assembly, recognized as such in the community and by Christian pastors in the area, having as its pastor or leader a person similarly recognized.”
Related Reading:
- Aglow International opposes LGBT anti-discrimination policies as “demonic“.
- Aglow local chapter leaders, youth group leaders, advisors, Bible study teachers, and prayer ministry team members must show evidence of speaking in tongues. Speakers to local chapters must either speak in tongues or believe in speaking in tongues, with exceptions made for speakers invited to discuss “current or relevant topics, such as Disaster Preparedness.”
This is a lot to digest, but certainly casts a bad, Satanic eye on this young lady. People are going to have to take a hard look at this Mr. Cool fellow who might be a far better choice. Plus it would be cool to have a Secretary Cool. Can you imagine the neato office uniforms? I am thinking of Joe Cool, of course, but Mr. Tom Cool could play off that. This lady is insaner than most and appears to be an overgodder on top of that. She is not viable.
Well, I am viable, vigorous and vexacious. Even Kurt Evans (who had the SDLP nimination for the office, but withdrew) would have been a better choice for SOS than Monae. Even I would be.
I know nothing about Tom Cool other than that if it ain’t him, it’s Monae. Jason Gant, be prepared to be dethroned as the worst SOS ever.
Bob Newland writes:
I’m not sure whether Monae holds all of the beliefs attributed to her in this post, but I’d say most of those beliefs are based on the traditional Christian doctrine that the Bible is true, and Bob may be surprised to find out how libertarian she is.
Hang in there, Monae.
Kurt, some of the Christian critique of the New Apostolic Reformation says that one major problem with the movement is that it does not follow the Bible strictly and instead layers on all sorts of convenient modern mysticism. I leave that for hard-core theologians to argue; for me, a theocrat is a theocrat, no matter which Jesus or other prophets they claim has bestowed on them their divine right.
And I say if you’re going to come preaching the Bible to me, you’d better be preaching truth. And as your first truth test as a candidate to run elections, I have to ask, “Did Joe Biden win the 2020 election fair and square?”
Oog. I recall Jackley cozying up to Christianists like Dale Bartscher which scared me enough to vote against him in the primary. But this lady is even more scary.
I’ve always thought another person’s religious beliefs were none of my business. After 50 years of political domination by the Republican Party in South Dakota we are expected to turn the Executive Branch over to folks believing in snake handling and speaking in tongues. Science is ignored, Biblical Literalness becomes Supreme Law. Centuries of human progress are squelched and we march backward into the Dark Ages, all the while babbling in Hittite, or what our Bible College graduate theologian of choice, says is Hittite. I guess I’d better start taking other people’s religious beliefs as my business rather than believing that tolerance and rationality will ultimately prevail. South Dakota has been swept by a mass, hand waving insanity.
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.” – Barry M. Goldwater https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/777519-mark-my-word-if-and-when-these-preachers-get-control
—
WAPO Oped: The World is Taking America’s Decline Seriously. We Should Too.
HAMBURG — “It’s frightening, what’s happened to you,” a Bavarian civil society organizer shared with me over a stein of German pils. “America has become smaller.”
The theme of this year’s Bucerius Summer School on Global Governance, a Hamburg-based international conference consisting of dozens of young leaders from around the world, was “Facing New Realities: Global Governance Under Strain.” The reality this American observer had to face? That in the eyes of much of the world, the United States’ light has dimmed.
We are still watched intently and remain a major power. But it was clear that to many of the conference’s attendees — hailing from Germany to Mongolia, Ghana to Ukraine — the United States has become shorthand for democratic decline and disinformation, home to citizens who react to dissatisfaction by rejecting reality, and to institutions that are increasingly hollowed out.
“We don’t want the people who lose jobs during the climate transformation to end up as Trump voters or the equivalent,” a European foreign minister said during a discussion of economic retooling amid climate change. My fellow conference-goers looked my way apologetically, pity on their faces.
“I thought about settling in the U.S.,” one attendee, an Ivy League- and Oxbridge-educated internationalist now working for the United Nations, told me. “But I couldn’t imagine living in a place where my children would have to practice” — here, she made mocking quotation marks with her fingers — “active shooter drills.”
The United States’ most famous exports used to be Coca-Cola, Levi’s and jazz — not to mention such ideals as freedom, civil rights and the rule of law. Now, we’re best known for rampant gun violence and gruesome school shootings.
Yet glimmers of respect for what we used to (and sometimes still) stand for do exist.
Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential run was brought up again and again as an example of the American political system’s openness to outsiders and capacity to surprise. The George Floyd protests of 2020 and the successes of the Black Lives Matter movement were commended as rare examples of truly free expression.
A Kenyan participant reminisced fondly about a year studying in the United States, including a summer spent interning in the local offices of a Republican congressman. He remembered his incredulity at realizing that a government official could campaign door to door without a driver or a bodyguard and would personally return his constituents’ phone calls; direct democracy, not as common in his home region, still seemed possible in the United States.
(Incidentally, that congressman, Fred Upton of Michigan, was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. Upton announced his retirement this spring in the face of redistricting and a MAGA-backed primary challenge.)
The United States’ reputation has been deteriorating for at least two decades. During the Iraq War, as Bush-doctrine foreign policy was derided across the globe, the trope of American backpackers abroad pretending to be Canadian to avoid shame by association became something of a cliche.
Yet, the past six years have seen an unprecedented acceleration. Our geopolitical rivals have always had ammunition, but the old embarrassments pale in comparison to the new. The idea that credence is still given to arguments about whether the 2020 election was “stolen” — the settled view of the rest of the world is that this is obvious nonsense — is a source of alarm.
After the 2016 election, European leaders warned that the United States could no longer be relied on as a partner in defense and security. More recently, statements such as those from Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance — “I got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other” — have made their way around the world, reconfirming the United States’ continued unseriousness and withdrawal from international engagement and moral leadership.
Our country is famously self-centered. It’s possible, or perhaps probable, that most Americans, only 20 percent of whom speak a second language — compared with 65 percent of the European Union’s population — don’t care what people in Europe or the rest of the world think.
But they should. As the United States fades, our competitors — a seemingly inexorable China, an unpredictable and aggressive Russia — wait hungrily in the wings.
In 2008, Fareed Zakaria wrote: “At the politico-military level, we remain in a single-superpower world. But in every other dimension — industrial, financial, educational, social, cultural — the distribution of power is shifting, moving away from American dominance.” In 2022, that vision of a “post-American world” has gone from theory to truth.
It might not be too late to effect a reversal. But if we want to preserve our stature, we should begin to act — holding our former president accountable to the rule of law would be a start — and realize that as we do so, the next generation of leaders is watching.
The world is taking our decline seriously. It’s time we did the same.
—
Their ancestors came to America. After Dobbs, they want out
The curtailing of abortion rights and general political turmoil have made many in the U.S. see dual citizenship as an escape hatch
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/08/29/dual-citizenship-european-union-germany-italy/
“On the morning of June 27, Julie Schäfer logged into her work computer and sat stunned at what she saw. The lawyer at Schlun & Elseven in Düsseldorf often helps Americans obtain dual citizenship in Germany, and that Monday morning, she scrolled and scrolled and kept scrolling. A flood of more than 300 inquiries had piled up in the firm’s inbox.
The Friday before, the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned the 49-year-old precedent Roe v. Wade, which protected the right to legal abortion nationwide; in Germany, abortion is decriminalized before 12 weeks with mandatory counseling, and in other cases when a pregnancy is deemed a threat to the pregnant person’s mental or physical health. Following the ruling, which came just as the staff in Germany was clocking out for the night, frantic Americans flocked to the firm’s website, creating a tenfold spike in clicks on its questionnaire to determine eligibility for dual citizenship.”
..
“Many dual-citizenship applicants, like all of those in this story, are seeking it in European Union countries specifically because, as Stoner notes, in the wake of the Dobbs decision, “member states have put out all sorts of affirming statements, saying, you know, ‘We will protect your rights. We have no intention of taking away your right to an abortion or things like marriage.’ ” Plus, citizenship in any E.U. country gives you the right to live and work in any other one. If one nation doesn’t work out, there are others at your immediate disposal.”
..
“Even before the Dobbs bump, agencies that help dual-citizenship seekers were already seeing higher interest levels than usual. Kelly Cordes, the founder and manager of Irish Citizenship Consultants in Elgin, Ill., has seen interest in Irish dual citizenship spike to what she estimates as “twice or three times” the normal rate this year, after both the Dobbs decision and the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde a month before.”
..
“Paige thinks her great-grandparents might even be proud of her efforts to find a way out. “They came over looking to the future, right? They probably had a similar thing, where they had to break up with their past,” she says. “In that way, it almost feels like the family tradition.””
Ugh. While most Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Catholics in small communities nationwide just think these ‘holy rollers’ are a little goofy but in general align with their beliefs on family values and government, they fail to understand the ‘holy rollers’ are driving the bus very hard toward the very theocratic oppression that led people to come to America in the first place.
Excellent article Cory. As someone who has spent time in small towns, Lutheran churches, and Pentacostal churches, and now out to agnosticism, I have studied and researched much, and Pentacostals are ABSOLUTELY driving to Theocracy.
They view Jesus as a way for Gentiles to become Jews and live according to the Mosaic Law, as opposed to Jesus being a gateway to be freed from the Mosaic Law (Grace) and live humbly as foreigners on earth.
We already have a Pentacostal Governor, no need for a SOS.
I remember these Aglow wives coming in (some with bruises) to lobby the SD Legislature NOT to increase the penalties on spousal abuse. I mean these ladies are genuine punching bags for male dominance. They really do believe that men are their masters, so seh’s going to be taking orders, probably from Trump. Don’t trust your liberty to someone who doesn’t value their’s. When it comes to subservient degeneracy, these women are broken and to be pitied, but never, never elect one. They will do whatever a sadistic man wants, and for many of them today that man is Trump.
Mr. Pay has it right.
Cory writes:
Well, I’d say the traditional Christian teaching is that God can reveal truth through direct experience, but no such revelation ever contradicts the Bible.
My religious heritage is conservative Bible-believing Methodist Episcopal on my mom’s side and ultraconservative Bible-believing Pietist Lutheran on my dad’s side. If the terms are defined carefully, my own beliefs could probably be described as libertarian Bible-believing Pentecostal Baptist.
There are definitely some sociopathic authoritarians out there who identify as Pentecostals, but the ones I’ve known over the years have generally been great people.
Her ex-husband may be surprised of her membership in Aglow.
Kurt, its all about what ‘Parts’ of the Bible are being emphasized, and what one believes was actually ‘Crucified’ to allow us access to God. I believe our Sins werent crucified, the Law that accuses us of sin was. If most if the texts you talk about are in Leviticus instead of Hebrews, you missed the off ramp.
Sadly though, hard to do the American ‘Business’ of Church without the Law. Cant find Prosperity Gospel in the Apostle Paul. Lots of people making those ‘Payments’ (tithes) on a house that is free.
But, its America, and you and I are free to do and believe as we wish, and I hope we both want to keep it that way.
Cory’s point in this article and mine in my comment are that if you take the time to connect the dots, there is a VERY REAL movement in America towards Theocracy that seems to easily grow in the soils of Pentacostalism. Dominion over your Checkbook today…Dominion over Govt down the road.
Monae is no libertarian, and neither is Kurt.
Thad, who is Monae’s ex-husband? Was he not a fellow Christian?
In further religious inclinations, Monae Johnson also worked as a secretary/receptionist for Catholic Social Services in Rapid City, apparently for the HR, Finance, and Facilities departments.
I can’t even read this religious nutcase crap anymore. It’s absolutely unbelievable that people still talk about the magic man in the sky doing all sorts of weird favors and having weird opinions and plans. These people are adults! I can hardly take this.
As someone I never met once said: I am not nearly smart enough for this many people to be so much dumber than me.
Well, let’s not go overboard. Catholic Social Services does some good work. I might disagree with some of their policy, but a lot of their work helping people is more in line with what Jesus did.
Milking the prosperity gospel for every dollar they can hustle is American capitalism gone rogue. What prevents Mrs. Johnson from purging all the voter rolls in the nine tribal communities?
I recently found the most addictive thing after I reprogrammed my TV to pick up more local channels. I don’t have cable, so had to go through the whole analog process. I gained 2 new broadcasts way back in the weeds called Revival and Family. Revival has Dr. Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne preaching from his tent in Florida 24/7. He shows memes to his enormous congregation, makes fun of Monkeypox and Covid, calls Hunter Biden a crackhead, has people laying on the floor, speaks tongues, has little kids collapsing after touching their heads, and the whole time his parishioners are laughing hysterically over nothing. It is not reruns, he has been going at these people all summer long. It is terrifying and shows exactly what Americans with nothing to do are slurping up for breakfast lunch and dinner. Like I said, its addicting. I cannot believe the stuff this man says. He obviously is evil just by glancing at him. He is from South Africa and makes his sermons all about monetary prosperity and fighting the enemy and kissing up to Trump. It is the epitome of psycho, evil, blasphemous, what our forefathers would batten down the hatches after catching a whiff of. Rodney Howard-Browne is hypnotizing the thousand people sitting in folding chairs on astro turf. Why else would they be laughing so hard uncontrollably and rolling around? Or he is pumping laughing gas into the quonset church. He has them drugged they all look strung out and they live there. I don’t think they came or get to leave on their own volition. I bring this up because this is the sickening picture of what is happening to our country.
Any person who claims they hear God speak to them or tell them what to do or comes to them personally is a false prophet for profit. Jesus says when someone tells you they hear the word of God, you are to kill them on the spot.
Keep all religion out of government or the church of the Flying Spaghetti will match your God and raise you more than you can ante. They’ve done it before and erected their deity’s likeness in the public common spaces, wearing His colander hat and all. They have even opened legislative sessions with their mad prayers as well, just to out-crazy the bible bots.
Warning: if you do take a peek at ol Rodney Howard-Browne’s channels, you will need a shower and the number to report abuse and the FCC hotline.
Arlo Blundt
Hittite!
What ever happened to Chaldean?
The Franciscan Roger Bacon (1214-1292) believed the study of Hebrew, Greek, Arabic and Chaldean was necessary for a complete education.
In his Opus Majus written at the request of Pope Clement IV who wanted to know Bacon’s remedy for an unspecified “great danger,” Bacon discusses reliance upon untrustworthy authorities, custom, and credulous popular opinion.
Those who have ears, let them hear.
https://archive.org/details/opusmajusrogerb01bridgoog/page/n5/mode/2up?q=%22opus+majus%22+translation
Wow! This journalist has completely lost touch with integrity. The mis-information on Aglow and Monae’s stance is misquoted, out of context and used to present the opposite of what is true. It’s too bad this journalist is using this publication as a platform for lies. Public beware. Just because something is published on the web, doesn’t make it true. Search out the facts for yourself. Let Truth prevail.
DaveFN–In the book, Country, by rock critic Nick Tosches, the author relates a story about traveling across country on a tour bus with Jerry Lee Lewis, his band, and Jerry Lee’s father. As you know, Jerry descends from a Pentacostal family in Ferraday Louisiana, which includes a famous television evangelist, and Jerry Lee briefly attended a Pentacostal Seminary before being expelled for taking sexual liberties with entranced coeds. It is a Sunday, and the trip to the next gig is a long one. A case of whiskey appears.
Jerry Lee entertains himself by rolling down the bus window and shooting passing mailboxes with his pistol. Jerry Lee’s father joins the group in draining the whiskey. It’s a convivial group. After an hour or so, Jerry Lee’s father, remembering its Sunday, rises from his seat, waving his arms, and calling to the Deity. He breaks into the aisle, and gyrates into a frenzied dance. (A whole lot of shakin going on.) Dancing spasmodically, he breaks into a speaking of tongues, at first a string of gibberish and then a nonsensical string of consonants and vowels, which the author interprets as ancient Hittite.
Jerry Lee looks up from loading his pistol, swallows a large gouge of whiskey, and says, “The old man must have finished his fifth. After a fifth, the Spirit always touches him.”
Jerry Lee Lewis’s cousins include, among others, television preacher Jimmy Swaggert and the King of the Honky Tonks, Mickey Gilley. Jerry Lee claims that after being expelled from the Pentacostal Seminary he chose to spend his life playing the “devil’s music.”
Truth always prevails on Dakota Free Press. I have nothing to offer but integrity and lots of hyperlinks.
Nancy, you say some big words, but you don’t back any of them up.
In which statements do I misquote Monae’s stance?
I give fairly lengthy quotes, plus links to original sources, providing all available context. Nancy, what context is missing? What context would change the interpretations offered?
I have told no lies. I have read the linked materials (and others that I didn’t link but used for background understanding to direct my reading) and offered my explanation of what I found. I sought to explain things truthfully. If I have misunderstood any of the things I read and come to incorrect conclusions, can you please offer clear correction? Which statements are incorrect, and what evidence can you offer to show they are incorrect?
It is true that not everything published on the Web is true. The majority of the quotes I highlight come directly from Aglow and its president Jane Hansen Hoyt. Which of the items I cite on the Web are “lies”?
Arlo Blundt
Great anecdote. I also have heard individuals claim on occasion that glossolalia was some ancient language. Sometimes there will be a subsequent interpretation proffered by another member of the congregation, should anyone be present who has that particular “gift of the Spirit.” If I do say so myself, the Holy Spirit might do better to speak in plain English in the first place and cut out the middlemen/women. Errors in translation are not uncommon.
Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley are the 8th great grandsons of William Kidd (1589-1647) and Elizabeth Nethercote (1598-1630) of Soham, England, my 11th great grandparents, parents of children who were immigrants to this continent. We believe the children converted to Quakerism, likely upon hearing ‘The Boy Martyr’ James Parnell who preached in the Soham Churchyard. Parnell was to die in 1656 at age 20 in jail. William Kidd II, my Quaker10th great grandfather, owing to persecution in Soham fled to Scotland, but then settled in Virginia but owing to Quaker persecutions in Virginia, left for Maryland.
Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimmy Swaggart had mothers who were sisters, surname Herron. Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley had Lewis siblings as parents. Jerry Lee Lewis’ father was Elmo Kidd Lewis. I’m related to Jerry and Mickey, but not Jimmy.
So, Quaker, skip a good number of generations, then Pentacostal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Parnell
Mark writes:
The claims you and Arlo Blundt are making might seem more credible if the two of you “studied and researched” enough to learn the correct spelling of Pentecostal.
I don’t view Him that way, and I don’t remember ever hearing any Pentecostal say he or she viewed Him that way.
The Bible says explicitly that Christ was bearing our sins in His body on the Cross (1 Peter 2:24), and it quotes Him saying the following during the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17-18):
“Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished.”
I’m definitely working to preserve religious liberty, Mark, but you suggest above that I’m “ABSOLUTELY” driving to theocracy, and I don’t see how you could supposedly “hope” something if you knew it absolutely weren’t true.
DaveFN–fascinating family history…I have read(somewhere??) that within some Pentacostal Sects when seized by the Spirit and lapsing into Glossolalia, the worshiper is joined by experienced members who try to discern just what Biblical era language is being spoken. I have no idea how they do this. Biblical languages are highly valued. The Foursquare Church, attended by Governor Noem (I do not know if she is a member) and founded by Amt Semple McPherson, had faith healing and glossalia as part of their liturgy during Ms. Mcpherson’s founding of the church when she held services in circus tents.
Bob Newland writes:
I’m not sure whether Monae Johnson is a libertarian, Bob, but your claim that I’m not is absurd.
Learn more here:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/liberty-defined-ron-paul/1100090657
I will vouch for Mr Cool and his sanity. … and I believe his father was a man named “Joe”.
As a boy I spent two summers with a farm family in Hazel, SD who took me with them to the Foursquare Church in Watertown every Sunday. The service lasted several hours and was slightly unorganized due to its length and the number of children in attendance. At first it was strange to me being from the Congregational Church now UCC – United Church of Christ which was the church of the pilgrims but has become probably the most liberal among the Protestant mainstream sects. Foursquare had plenty of people talking in tongues in the pews and rolling on the floor. These actions made my host family smile and comment on how much Jesus was touching those people on that day. After those two summers I craved the lively show of Foursquare Gospel and found similar entertainment on the religious TV at the time. Oral Roberts and Billy Graham fascinated me and influenced my early career in sales. I went by myself, as a teenager, to every Billy Graham event in town, usually once a year. My Pastor chose me to give sermons to his UCC parishioners several times, too. Much of my family was Catholic and I attended mass dozens of times and even went to Catholic elementary school for a while.
That your Governor attends Foursquare isn’t weird, scary, or necessary of criticism. Her family was probably in the same room as me since she grew up near Hazel.
Just sayin’, I’ve had experiences in different churches many on this blog haven’t and a perspective with background to back it up. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus.
Tom Cool advocates neither male headship nor theocracy. He also isn’t stoking the Trumpist Big Lie. Tom Cool is thus the only reliable choice for Secretary of State.
Aimee Semple McPherson was converted by her husband, Robert James Semple, a pentacostal from Ireland. Interestingly, pentacostals of the Assemblies of God and Open Bible denominations claim descent from the Azuza Street Revival, more-or-less contemporaneous with the Foursquare founding by McPherson. Los Angeles must have been quite the place back then.
In any case, Aimee Semple McPherson wasn’t anything like what we are seeing in terms of vicious Christianity today. Her political involvement was comparatively minimal.
P. Aitch
That’s quite the upbringing. Fundamentalism is found in virtually every religion. Fundamentalist Christianity teaches intelligent design based on creationism, as I’m certain you must be aware. That, along with other anti-scientific positions that fundamentalism maintains which go to extremes—including parents refusing to take their child to a hospital for treatment— I do find weird and fully deserving of criticism. Snake-handling is also right up there. “You shall take up any deadly thing and it will not hurt you.” Such is the error of literalism.
I myself happen to be a 1975 graduate of Open Bible College in Des Moines, Iowa among other universities, although no longer a believer. People go through many phases in their lives. That which first brings them dignity can just as easily turn around and entrap them. The best thing about OBC in Des Moines were the Jewish friends I made while working at Younkers Department Store downtown, as well as having the distinct privilege of studying classical piano with Maxine Gambs McCaw.
P.Aitch–I am trying not to be critical of Pentacostals as individuals or of Mrs. Noem, if she does, in fact, practice within the Pentacostal tradition. What I am saying is that some sects of practicing Pentacostals, in my opinion, abandon rational thinking, science, and plain common sense, in adhering to the literal interpretation of the oral history and ancient practices found in some of the books in the Bible. These may be fine people (most who I’ve known are) but their suitability for leadership in this complex age can be questioned. Basically, I believe another person’s religious faith is none of my business unless they try to dictate and pass laws which affect my life.
grudznick is for Mr. Tom Cool.
Well put, Arlo, although the very existence of such pockets of irrationality within any population is a threat to the entire population, particularly when their mission is to win converts and effectively perpetuate that irrationality in the name of their “faith.” I
Fundamentalism is wholly inadequate to address the challenges of the times in which we have now arrived, however much it medicates the souls of the many who adhere to it and who thereby deny reality.
Fundamentalism, and religion in general, is simply a mechanism, one mechanism amongst many, put into place to medicate ourselves from the vicissitudes of our mortal state.
Religion, therefore, has no privileged status other than by those who would employ it.
“DaveFN” writes:
Aimee Semple McPherson didn’t found Foursquare until 1923, nearly 17 years after Azuza began in 1906.
My Lutheran paternal grandmother worked as a Christian missionary to several World War II defense areas in the United States and Canada when she was in her early twenties, and during a stint in California she attended one of McPherson’s services and coincidentally became one of the last people to see her preach in person before McPherson overdosed on sedatives at age 53.
She was actually much more involved in politics than most Christians today.
McPherson strikes me as more a cultural phenomenon than a reliable theologian, but the flaws or perceived flaws of those who profess Pentecostalism seem only slightly more relevant to Monae Johnson’s character than to my grandma’s.
Republicans in Wyoming are so freaked out by the psychotic christian voters elected as SOS they want to take elections away from him.
https://www.wyomingpublicmedia.org/open-spaces/2022-09-02/lawmakers-may-create-a-new-election-agency
I’d responded to “DaveFN”:
*Azusa
“DaveFN” had previously written:
Between Azusa and Foursquare, the Los Angeles alma mater of John Thune published The Fundamentals as a four-volume set in 1917. That title is what ultimately linked the term fundamentalism to the traditional Christian doctrine that the Bible is true.
Kurt Evans
>>>> Interestingly, pentacostals [sic] of the Assemblies of God and Open Bible denominations claim descent from the Azuza Street Revival, more-or-less contemporaneous with the Foursquare founding by McPherson.
>> Aimee Semple McPherson didn’t found Foursquare until 1923, nearly 17 years after Azuza began in 1906.
Please note that my use of the word “contemporaneous” does not mean at the same point in time, but during the same period of time and also note my qualification “more or less” contemporaneous. Your matter-of-fact statement might mislead readers to think the two events were unrelated, unfortunately, so needs be unpacked.
The Azusa Street Revival lasted a good 7 years (some say even 10, from 1906 to 1913 or 1916), and although the revival per se—-fanned by media coverage which eventually tired of covering it—– fizzled out, there were many splinter groups left in its wake to continue it (splinter groups which began to form along racial lines, unlike the original revival; Charles Parham, of whom Seymour had been a student in Parham’s Houston Bible school, and who, in fact, originated the “doctrine of initial evidence”—viz., that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is evidenced by speaking in tongues—was horrified of the mixing of races at Azusa Street). Among others, these included the Apostolic Faith Church founded by Florence L Crawford who was affiliated with William J. Seymour, the Spanish AFM, and the Italian Pentecostal Mission. Already existing holiness denominations including the Church of God in Christ and the Pentecostal Holiness Church also came to adopt the Pentecostal message. The Azusa Street Revival is commonly regarded as the beginning of the modern Pentecostal movement including that of Aimee Semple McPherson. The Azusa Street Revival thus had global influence owing to its many missionary disseminators (see Robeck, Cecil M (2006). The Azusa Street Mission And Revival: The Birth Of The Global Pentecostal Movement). The number of Azusa-inspired missionaries was astounding.
It’s just as important to note that the 1906 Azusa Street Revival did not occur ex nihilo but occurred in the wake of the 1904–1905 Welsh revival whose missionaries were instrumental carrying it. Joseph Smale, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Los Angeles, had traveled to Wales in 1905 to witness the Welsh revival and attempted to implement similar in his own congregation prior to the Azusa Street Revival.
https://ifphc.wordpress.com/2019/10/11/joseph-smale-and-the-lost-sermons-that-prepared-los-angeles-for-the-azusa-street-revival-2/
Additionally, Aimee Semple McPherson didn’t spring up spontaneously any more than did the Azusa Street Revival. Aimee married Pentecostal evangelist Robert J. Semple in 1908 in Oxford, Ontario, Canada, and by the end of the year they moved to Chicago and joined William Durham’s Full Gospel Assembly. Durham himself was a part of the Holiness movement which latter traced its roots back to the Methodists of the 18th century. When word of the Azusa Street Revival spread to Chicago Durham traveled to Los Angeles and experienced speaking in tongues first-hand during the Azusa Street Revival led by William J. Seymour who didn’t die until 1922 (Charles Parham died in 1929). According to McPherson biographer Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer, it was Durham who instructed Aimee Semple McPherson in the practice of interpretation of tongues in Chicago. McPherson was also healed of a broken ankle by Durham in 1910. Ultimately Durham would transfer from Chicago to Los Angeles in order to base his ministry in the heart of Pentecostalism.
Sociologist Max Weber wrote extensively on charismatic authority (as opposed to legal authority and traditional authority), referring to the routinizing of charisma: new religious movements typically begin with freedom and openness, but they soon crystallize into the customary pattern characteristic of most mainstream religious movements. To that effect, the schisms ultimately function to renew denominations that have become stale, a continuing process over time.
In any case, religious movements don’t occur in a vacuum (separate and spontaneous “outpourings of the Spirit” being a mistaken way to understand them) but have a historical context. Their lines of descent are anything but linear but are a complex network of interconnections.
There were myriad connections between Azusa of 1902 and McPherson’s moving to Los Angeles in 1918 with the eventual founding of Foursquare in 1923. The two are not separate events, per se.
>>>> Los Angeles must have been quite the place back then.
>> My Lutheran paternal grandmother worked as a Christian missionary to several World War II defense areas in the United States and Canada when she was in her early twenties, and during a stint in California she attended one of McPherson’s services and coincidentally became one of the last people to see her preach in person before McPherson overdosed on sedatives at age 53.
Did she attend the Angelus Temple? One of McPherson’s Holy Ghost sessions which lasted from 14 to 18 hours? And what did a good Lutheran of Norwegian heritage like Gladys think of the service? Did she experience being slain in the Spirit, glossolalia, etc?
Surprised you haven’t spun a suicide narrative out of McPherson’s death, or have you? Not everyone is in agreement that she overdosed herself. Ella Cruz suggests murder as the reason for McPherson’s death since she was “a pain in the ear of L. A. Politicians and Satanists.”
https://ellacruz.org/2021/07/22/9165/
>>>> In any case, Aimee Semple McPherson wasn’t anything like what we are seeing in terms of vicious Christianity today. Her political involvement was comparatively minimal.
>> She was actually much more involved in politics than most Christians today.
>> McPherson strikes me as more a cultural phenomenon than a reliable theologian, but the flaws or perceived flaws of those who profess Pentecostalism seem only slightly more relevant to Monae Johnson’s character than to my grandma’s.
My golly, who ever equated her with a theologian, reliable or not? Or Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Joel Osteen, Oral Roberts, as far as that goes. And who isn’t a cultural phenomenon, including recognized theologians of the 20th century, eg. Karl Barth, Paul Tilich, Reinhold Niebuhr?
Or was she merely superior in hoodwinking the masses? Insofar as McPherson baptized more than 40,000, she brings to mind the religious leaders of Christ’s day:
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” –Matthew 23:15
Insofar as she and others relied on theatre (eg., riding a motorcycle down the aisle; cf Kristi Noem on her horse in the rodeo arena waving a flag) including tongues and other questionable, staged displays supposedly “of the Spirit,’ recall:
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” –Matthew 7:22,23.
Charles F. Parham of Azusa Street fame who also formulated the doctrine of speaking in tongues as evidence of being baptized by the Holy Spirit (which not everyone believes) was, in fact, responsible for violent exorcisms leading to several deaths.
https://www.themessedupchurch.com/blog/the-parhamite-killings
Finally, just what would constitute a “reliable” theologian, to use your term. Reliable to what end? One upon whom one can rely for what? One who would tell a believer what s/he wanted to hear?
>> Between Azusa and Foursquare, the Los Angeles alma mater of John Thune published The Fundamentals as a four-volume set in 1917. That title is what ultimately linked the term fundamentalism to the traditional Christian doctrine that the Bible is true.
The term “fundamentalism” has several uses, not merely that to which you refer. In the broader sense it is an unwavering attachment to a set of irreducible beliefs and is used by religions other than Christianity. Just like Parham declared that modern day glossolalia was, in fact, the identical phenomenon as recorded in the book of Acts (although where are the ‘tongues of fire’ today that accompanied the gibberish recorded by Acts—and just what occurred then is open to interpretation), Biola forged definitions and got people to believe them.
Kurt Evans
>> She was actually much more involved in politics than most Christians today.
Matthew Avery Sutton’s superb 2007 biography “Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America” makes that case, as he also does his 2005 article, “Clutching to “Christian” America: Aimee Semple McPherson, the Great Depression, and the Origins of Pentecostal Political Activism,” writing “What can be confirmed from abundant new sources is that McPherson was far more politically active and her influence far greater than historians have realized.” He cites McPherson’s 1934 national preaching tour to promote her political sermon “America Awake!” and notes that her “political activism marked the beginning of pentecostalism’s advance from separatism to engagement, from the margins of American Protestantism to the mainstream.” Be that as it may, preaching isn’t political involvement, as far as I’m concerned. Sutton’s scholarship focuses specificaly on political involvement and he would be expected to make a case for Aimee Semple McPherson. https://history.wsu.edu/faculty/matthew-a-sutton/
McPherson’s earlier biographers [Pentecostal historian Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer in ‘Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody’s Sister’ (Eerdmans, 1993) and Daniel Mark Epstein in ‘Wonderful Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson’ (Harcourt Brace & Co., 1993)] don’t make such a case for McPherson’s political activity. Grant Wacker in ‘Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture’ (Harvard University Press, 2003) views McPherson as more apolitical than political with politics not conspicuous enough to merit comment. More recently, Gerald W. King and Allan H. Anderson in “Disfellowshiped: Pentecostal Responses to Fundamentalism in the United States, 1906-1943” (Pickwick, 2011) regard allegations of McPherson’s affairs, her claim of having been kidnapped by Mexican drug dealers with a subsequent civil lawsuit, as actually forcing McPherson to withdraw from political involvement.
In any case, my original comment was not with regard to her political influence but in regard to her political involvement. McPherson was far too busy a flamboyant a prophet of redemption engaged in ministry to have time to be politically involved. A strident anti-commie, she was conflicted when it came to the down-trodden, be they immigrants or exploited workers. On one hand they had her sympathy, while on the other she was suspicious that the commies had infiltrated the immigrants as well as were mobilizing labor strikes. McPherson was agile and adept in mobilizing both the technologies and the hobgoblins of her day (today, we might say “weaponizing” them). Hobgoblins of the time included the Scopes trial of 1925 and the threat of liberal theologians such as Harry Emerson Fosdick. She did, of course, visit Gandhi. None of this stands out to me as political involvement.
As far as McPherson being more involved in politics that Christians today, McPherson was far from an “average” Christian. I don’t consider what was amazing about her to be her Christianity, however, but the person herself.
I’d responded to “DaveFN”:
“Dave FN” asks me:
Yes.
No.
She thought it was enjoyable.
No.
I have, but there are several possible ways of understanding her overdose, and I’m not sure which one is true.
Millions of people have equated one or more of those leaders with theologians.
Parham is overrated, but it’s far from a “fact” that he was directly responsible for any deaths.
A reliable theologian is a theologian upon whom one can rely for precise theology.
I’d written:
“DaveFN” writes:
Many on the political left started applying the term to non-Christian radicals during the 1990s, apparently to smear traditional Christians by association.
The institute eventually published The Fundamentals, but it wasn’t the author.
Yes, she was actually much more involved in politics than most Christians today.
Mr. Evans, while as all know I have a deep, manly, affection for you, your overuse or even use at all of the blather quotes renders your bloggings completely unreadable. Even grudznick could only get through like 2 of your blather quotes before having to mock you.
Kurt Evans
>>>> A reliable theologian is a theologian upon whom one can rely for precise theology.
Circular reasoning.
“precise (adjective):
mid-15th century., “neither more nor less than, with no error; exactly stated or marked off; definitely or strictly expressed; distinguished with precision from all others,” from Old French précis “condensed, cut short” (14c.) and directly from Medieval Latin precisus, from Latin praecisus “abrupt, abridged, cut off,” past participle of praecidere “to cut off, shorten,” from prae “before” (see pre-) + -cidere, combining form of caedere “to cut” ”
https://www.etymonline.com/word/precise
“With no error” leads to a theology which tells one absolutely what to believe and/or engages in circular reasoning, reiterating what one wants to hear.
See the article in Scientific American, “The Certainty Bias: A Potentially Dangerous Mental Flaw: A neurologist explains why you shouldn’t believe in political candidates that sound too sure of themselves.” I maintain this goes not only for political candidates but for “precise theology,” its theologians, and its fundamentalist believers. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-certainty-bias/
Or should we look at the definition of “precise” as that which is condensed and abridged, ie., a theology which leaves a great deal out of the picture–for whatever reason?
Language is polysemic, other than in the fantasized world of rectitude where we force words to have a single, fixed definition, definitions preconditioned by and predicated on our own confirmation bias as to what we want them to say. I’ve known many engineers and mathematicians who thought language was supposed to be like numbers, with precise operations and outcomes. But then, mathematical talent is genetically linked to autism, as autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen has found (“Autism, Hypersystemizing, and Truth,” Q J Exp Psychol, 2008 Jan; 61(1):64-75). Engineering professions come in a close second.
>>>> The institute eventually published The Fundamentals, but it wasn’t the author.
To be matter-of-fact and literal, the project had 64 different authors and was conceived and funded by Biola’s founder, Lyman Stewart.
On a different note, hope you have a great time with the upcoming wagon train!
“DaveFN” had asked me:
I’d written:
“DaveFN” responds:
No, there’s no circular reasoning in my answer.
Yes, precise theology leaves many things out of the picture because they aren’t true.
Yes, the project was cofunded by one of Biola’s cofounders, but Stewart wasn’t the author.
To the best of my recollection no representative of the Kyle Evans Memorial Wagon Train has ever communicated with me about it, and I probably wouldn’t participate anyway, but those who do seem to enjoy it, and I wish them happy trails.
Here is the fourth installment of what happens when women lose their rights and freedoms to religious zealots.
https://www.myblackhillscountry.com/content/assisting-escape-part-iv