Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars
Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected
Jim Price | PentecostalTheology.com
Pentecostalism Through the Eyes of the South
Many of us have formed our pentecostal theology through the eyes of the southern experience.
More than that it has been through the eyes of the poorer class. Looking back we were the people without property, excepting maybe a little patch with a house with less than 1000 sq. ft. of space. Our people were without influence in the county or cities and we did the menial labor and produced the profits for the middle and upper classes. When I was born there were 10 million sharecroppers in 10 southern states, my parents were among them.
George Fitzhugh, writing in the late 1800’s, said that “the only virtues the landowners had was that of economy and management.” “ Otherwise you fail in your moral duty because you screw down their wages so as to keep them just above starvation.” It was in this environment that so many of our ancestors experienced their world and sought help from heaven because no help was coming from their fellow human beings.
Charles Page
Jim, are you wealthy now?
David Lewayne Porter
Psalms 75:4-7
I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn: Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.
Deuteronomy 8:18
But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
Yes we look to God for our help.
He directs us into what we are to do. Not man.
Foster Bell
That is a great observation! I would be interested in the source of the “sharecropper” info, or maybe sharing the “year” you “were born.” Any thoughts about the correlation with the findings of the “Church Growth Movement” (out of Fuller Theological College) research of the 60s that identified the “HOMOGENEITY PRINCIPLE” = “churches grow best when there is a distinct, ONE type of people?” (my paraphrase)
Varnel Watson
Hopefully no more racism in the South any longer !