A.J. Tomlinson's Journey Toward Racial Reconciliation

by Harold D. Hunter

From Church of God History and Heritage

Winter/Spring 2003

 

It may be argued that A.J. Tomlinson has been one of the most influential persons in the history of those Church of God denominations that became Pentecostal. As an evangelist, publisher, author, church planter, builder and the first general overseer of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN), his influence continues to this day. In particular the faith community that came to be known (in 1952) as the Church of God of Prophecy has been captive to the spiritual journey of its Indiana Quaker founder. No where is this more evident than the distinction that the Church of God of Prophecy has the most racially inclusive leadership of any Pentecostal denomination in the U.S.A. This stands in stark contrast to the axiom that most Pentecostal groups failed at interracialism within a decade of the fabled 1906 Azusa Street Revival. This racial inclusivism can be tied directly to the spiritual journey of A.J. Tomlinson.

A. J. Tomlinson

The Westfield Years

Having studied at the prestigious Westfield Academy and reared in a moderately well-to-do entrepreneurial family in Westfield, Indiana, the young A.J. Tomlinson experienced forays into the business and political arenas. The gospel call came to overshadow the serene life one would envision in this large, rural Quaker community, however. A.J. would alter course as a result of encounters with Holiness Friends.

Meanwhile the significant African-American community in Westfield meant that among the closest neighbors of the Tomlinsons were two black families. Additionally, freed blacks and slaves who escaped through the Underground Railroad participated in "colored" camp meetings held each summer in Westfield, which also attracted white worshippers as well.1

Before long, J.B. Mitchell, a graduate of Oberlin, introduced A.J. to the views of famous revivalist Charles G. Finney. Founded in 1833, Oberlin College was the first institute of higher education in the U.S.A. to conduct the "joint education of the sexes," and by 1835 race was no longer a barrier to Oberlin admission, either.

In 1894, Mitchell and Tomlinson founded the Book and Tract Company. This colporteur work led to short-term trips to Appalachia but also exposure to more radical holiness figures like Frank Sandford who founded the Shiloh community in Maine and published the Tongues of Fire (1894).

 

A.J. Tomlinson (left) & J. B. Mitchell (right)

Appalachia Beckons

The exposure to Sandford’s Acts 2 commune as practiced by Shiloh, and some awareness of John Alexander Dowie’s Zion City in Illinois, would provide models that A.J.’s family sought to imitate in Culberson, North Carolina. The family move was complete in 1899 and ultimately accounts for the unexpected interaction with B.H. Irwin’s Fire-Baptized Holiness Association. Some of Irwin’s staunch supporters planted what amounted to an emerging national headquarters in a Bradley County, Tennessee, hamlet named Beniah. Evangelists either living in or associated with Beniah carried the Fire Baptized Holiness Association message to W.F. Bryant’s home at Camp Creek, North Carolina.

Various issues of the Fire Baptized Holiness Association’s Live Coals of Fire (1899-1900) reported on common efforts of William M. Martin, R. Frank Porter and Stewart T. Irwin, the son of B.H. Irwin. This same magazine showcased Ruling Elder W.E. Fuller, an African-American pioneer who planted fifty churches in ten years. Fuller would rise to the level of Assistant General Overseer of the Fire Baptized Holiness Association when the group was led by J.H. King, an imposing figure in International Pentecostal Holiness Church history. The seminal organization of the Holiness Church at Camp Creek on May 15, 1902, was carried out by R.G. Spurling and R. Frank Porter. Porter had recently been Ruling Elder for the Fire Baptized Holiness Association in Tennessee.

Pentecost Linked To Reconciliation

Looking back, Tomlinson would say he became "more fully awakened" in January, 1907, about the fledgling Pentecostal Movement. His book, The Last Great Conflict, praised "Dr. Seamore"—actually W.J. Seymour, pastor of the legendary 1906 Azusa St. Revival in Los Angeles—whose message of Pentecost that washed away the "color line" spread around the world.2 The priority of Azusa St. was obvious when A.J. Tomlinson started The Evening Light and Church of God Evangel and later ran a series on Pentecostal history in The Faithful Standard.3 Tomlinson preached on "The baptism with the Holy Ghost and Fire" at the 1907 assembly, but his own personal Pentecost did not come for one full year.

Tomlinson invited G.B. Cashwell to preach in Cleveland at the conclusion of the third general assembly in 1908. A minister with the [Pentecostal] Holiness Church of North Carolina, Cashwell had traveled to Los Angeles to experience the Pentecostal outpouring firsthand. Cashwell’s latent racism resisted the message of racial reconciliation that was part and parcel of Seymour’s Azusa St. Mission. However, after praying five days for deliverance, Cashwell consented to have blacks lay hands on him whereupon he received a fiery baptism in the Holy Spirit with the sign of speaking in tongues. When Cashwell preached in Cleveland on Sunday morning, January 12, 1908, Tomlinson would pen one of the most celebrated accounts of transportation in the Spirit that carried him into countries with ten different languages.4 Here finally the flame was lit for Tomlinson himself that would forever change the destiny of many related in one way or another to the Pentecostal branch of the Church of God movements.

G.B. Cashwell

Illustrating the power of Seymour’s message, Tomlinson arrived in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 12, 1908, in order to participate in a "Pentecostal convention" led by Charles H. Mason, head of the Church of God in Christ.5 Tomlinson personally carried the flame to many locations, but none more important than the Pleasant Grove camp meeting in Florida. His diary dated May 22, 1909, announced the first of several visits by Tomlinson to this venue. Among those who received the Pentecostal message here were Edmond and Rebecca Barr. On May 31, 1909, Tomlinson would grant Evangelist licenses to both of them. By November of that year, the Barrs took the same message to their native Bahamas. It was February, 1911, when Tomlinson held his first international campaign in Nassau.

Later in 1911, the Church of God in New Mexico added to its numbers a congregation of Mexican Americans in Raton. In his diary dated February 27, 1912, Tomlinson reported on a convention he attended in Raton that required the use of a Spanish-speaking interpreter. Minutes of the 1913 assembly counted three Spanish-speaking congregations in New Mexico. Juan B. Padilla, who first assisted T.F. Chávez while pastor of the original congregation in Raton, was ordained a bishop in 1913 and became pastor of Corrumpa, New Mexico.6 Padilla, who did not speak English, served a term (1921-22) on the Council of Seventy. On July 3, 1936, A.J. Tomlinson would grant Church of God of Prophecy ministerial licenses to this same Juan Padilla. In a section of his 1920 annual address titled "The Spanish-Speaking People," Tomlinson advocated translating the Church of God Evangel, books, and tracts into Spanish.7 J.O. Sandoval, an evangelist in Colorado, wrote A.J. Tomlinson late in 1923 pledging his support. Sandoval’s printed stationary read: "Iglesia de Dios, Oficina Principal en Cleveland, Tenn. A.J. Tomlinson, Sobreveedor."

At the 1915 assembly, Edmond Barr began a two-year term as overseer of the "colored" work in Florida. C.F. Bright was appointed overseer of Pennsylvania in 1919 then New Jersey in 1920. A Native American from Oklahoma addressed the 1917 assembly. When Ree, North Dakota, was organized in 1920, it may have been the first Native-American Pentecostal congregation in North Dakota.8 Tomlinson was unsatisfied that prior to 1919, blacks were only called on extemporaneously during the assemblies. He propelled this cause forward in his 1919 annual address by applying the Apostle Paul’s "one blood" to affirm a universal humanity. Tomlinson added, "Our dark skinned brothers and sisters have received the Holy Ghost as well as we, and we have long ago learned that God is no respecter of persons."9

African Americans like T. J. Richardson, African Caribbeans and one Hispanic (Padilla) were part of the Council of Seventy and various assembly committees starting in 1921. The number of blacks present during these assemblies is unknown, but it is known that they were relegated to segregated seating. However, perhaps blacks on the Council of Seventy were not segregated during the 1922 assembly business sessions when the Council of Elders sat on the platform and the Council of Seventy sat in front of the platform.10

Despite Tomlinson’s personal belief in inclusiveness, the 1922 assembly revealed how the era of segregation took its toll inside the church. In this assembly, A.J. Tomlinson pointed to the number of blacks that were leaving the church in order "to be perfectly free in every respect." A loss of 1,744 members was reported in 1921, with perhaps most of the black members going to The Church of God in Christ. Tomlinson lamented that "South of the Mason and Dixon line it is difficult to show them all the courtesy that we would like to" and exclaimed, "I do not like any separations between nationalities and races."11

The Church of Destiny

A.J. Tomlinson’s diary is silent from September 2, 1921, until February 28, 1924, when he wrote: "Much has happened since my last writing, and my time has been so taken that I have not had time."12 This is a considerable understatement about a tumultuous era that saw Tomlinson emerge as general overseer of the newly formed Church of God of Prophecy. The 1923 Church of God of Prophecy records reveal a black constituency in at least Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, New York, Tennessee, and the Bahamas. From this point on, blacks were present on all general assembly programs, not only as singers, but preachers, leaders, and members of important committees. In 1924, the general assembly passed a resolution against the Ku Klux Klan. When the "Titan of the Caribbean," Stanley Ferguson died in 1934, A.J. Tomlinson ordered flags lowered to half-mast and the church observed three days of mourning.

During the 1926 general assembly, A.J. Tomlinson took up the question of blacks having their own sub-organization within the larger organization. Tomlinson said that this approach had been imposed by the 1921 constitution and it resulted in keeping the races apart. Since this constitution had been dismissed by the Church of God of Prophecy in 1923 with support from black leaders Ferguson and Richardson, the segregated structure would be discontinued. Among the results of this decision were ministers put in prison for mixing the races and others who suffered bodily harm for participating in mixed race meetings.

Writing to the state overseers in advance of the 1932 general assembly, Tomlinson added some instructions regarding state marches—a practice where the attendees from each state would march to the platform and greet the assembly, often with a song. According to Tomlinson’s instructions, no one other than the overseer should speak "… except in states where there are colored representatives or Indians or other races."13 During this assembly, Tomlinson would affirm that "The middle wall of partition is broken down between the races …."14 He appropriated Jeremiah’s ‘Speckled Bird’ to exhort the union of "… the whites, the colored, the browns, the Indians, called the red men, the yellow race—and all under one government, one rule, one faith or doctrine—all one." This language may sound offensive to twenty-first century ears, but it was a vehicle used to espouse a ministry of reconciliation.

That same assembly featured sermons by African-Caribbeans Stanley Ferguson and J.R. Smith, while Mexican-American Francisco Olazábal and African-American Pattie K. Scotton led the annual healing service. Mother of Ralph C. Scotton, Pattie K. Scotton led this healing service for several years. Olazábal’s healing crusades have been compared favorably to those by Oral Roberts and Benny Hinn. Dubbed El Azteca, Olazábal joined the Church of God of Prophecy on September 10, 1936, before a spell-bound general assembly thus adding to the rolls a reported body of 50,000 Spanish-speaking adherents. This union was never realized though because Olazábal died tragically in a 1937 automobile accident. Disappointment could not be avoided despite the courting of Frank Olazábal in New York by Homer Tomlinson and A.J. Tomlinson’s appearances before the Council of Latin American Churches which could not keep Olazábal’s coalition together. In 1938, A.J. Tomlinson was joined by his son Homer who spoke to this convention in Spanish. At that meeting, L.A. Moxley, a European-American leader, preached on all races being joined in one body.15

Middle Wall of Partition

At the general assembly in 1935, A.J. Tomlinson spoke of the "middle wall of partition" that had been "broken down by the cross" and spoke of the tragedy of the limited increase of black membership. Mississippi, an example he cited, had 1,022,009 blacks and yet the Church of God of Prophecy had only one small black church.16 The general assembly in 1936 said that an orphanage must be opened for children of color because the church is "for all races." At the next general assembly, W.M. Lowman and L.A. Moxley, European-American state overseers in the South, preached sermons on reaching all races. Others who spoke that year were the fiery African-American Dorothy Deadrick, and African-Caribbeans J.R. Smith and R.C. Smith (Jamaica). In 1938, C.H. Holley preached an assembly sermon on bringing in all races including Cubans. A.J. Tomlinson established churches in Puerto Rico in 1926 that were lost, but a successful campaign was completed there by 1940.

Tomlinson’s annual address during the 1941 general assembly returned to the theme of breaking down the "middle wall of partition."17 That same assembly reported on a work among Native Americans in South Dakota and featured a sermon by Ralph C. Scotton on "All Races in One Mighty Church with Christ the Head for All." Scotton, who attended the inaugural session of Bible Training Camp two months earlier, was appointed Field Secretary No. 2 at this assembly. The administrative post of Field Secretary would eventually emerge as the general overseer’s cabinet. The 1942 general assembly heard sermons from Dorothy Deadrick, Pattie K. Scotton and Ralph Scotton on "Work Done by Colored People." The 1943 general assembly, Tomlinson’s last, heard again from Dorothy Deadrick, Alvin Moss (Bahamas) and another Ralph Scotton sermon about black progress.

Epilogue

A. J. Tomlinson’s embrace of all races permeated attitudes toward inclusiveness in the Church of God of Prophecy. In some states, the Church of God of Prophecy may have been the first church to defy Jim Crow laws in their worship services. Today African Caribbeans, African Americans, and Latin Americans are charged with the leadership of states whose composition includes European Americans as the majority. This unprecedented approach distinguishes the Church of God of Prophecy not only among Classical Pentecostals but many denominations in the U.S.A. and serves as a model for the Pentecostal movement.

Notes

1. For a full treatment of the early life of A.J. Tomlinson, see Roger G. Robins, "Plainfolk Modernist: The Radical Holiness World of A.J. Tomlinson" (Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1999).

2. A.J. Tomlinson, The Last Great Conflict (Cleveland, Tenn: Walter E. Rogers, 1913), 137.

3. See: The Evening Light and Church of God Evangel (March 1 and March; 15, 1910); "History of Pentecost," The Faithful Standard, October 1922, 9, 15 and 16.

4. A.J. Tomlinson, diary, vol. 2, January 13, 1908 (Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). Microfilm available at the Dixon Pentecostal Research Center.

5. Tomlinson, diary, vol. 2, November 26, 1908.

6. Juan B. Padilla, Ministers’ Records (Church of God of Prophecy Archives, Cleveland, Tenn.).

7. Historical Annual Addresses: A.J. Tomlinson (Cleveland, Tenn.: White Wing Publishing House & Press, 1970), 1:144-146.

8. Darrin J. Rodgers, Northern Harvest: Pentecostalism in North Dakota (Bismarck, N.D.: North Dakota District Council of the Assemblies of God, 2003), 38f, 241f. The majority of Church of God congregations in North Dakota cast their lot with Tomlinson in 1923, but through the intervention of Paul H. Walker, Ree remained with the Church of God (Cleveland, TN).

9. Historical Annual Addresses, 1:109.

10. In A.J. Tomlinson’s 1924 deposition with the Murray and McCalla law firm in Chattanooga, Tomlinson says that J.B. Ellis made this proposal and the ushers immediately reconfigured the seating arrangements. See also Tomlinson’s testimony in December, 1924, 8:1931f, 1940.

11. Ibid, 1:197.

12. Tomlinson, diary, vol. 4, September 2, 1921.

13.Lillie Duggar, A.J. Tomlinson (Cleveland, Tenn..: White Wing Publishing House, 1964), 793.

14. Historical Annual Addresses, 2:170.

15. Tomlinson, diary, vol. 5, October 31, 1938.

16. Historical Annual Addresses, 2:250.

17. Historical Annual Addresses, 3:209.

Harold D. Hunter, Ph.D., is the Director of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church Archives and Research Center.

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