An Open Letter to UPCI Ministers: Historical Perspective

(The following letter was written by L. Danny Barba, a minister with the UPCI, and is published here with his consent.)

An Open Letter to UPCI Ministers

A Historical Perspective on Our Conscientious Scruples

January 2012

            The recent discussion about the altering of the principles of UPCI’s articles on conscientious scruples marks a monumental shift in our theology. Have you ever wondered what the founders of the Oneness-Pentecostal movement would say about issues we vote on today? Yes, those very same founders who received the Oneness revelation and practiced Jesus’ name baptism. This is a historical question I took up over a year ago in my PhD history seminar at the University of Michigan. As a very-committed member of the UPCI for over half my life now, a life-long citizen and patriot of the U.S., and now a trained-historian, I wondered how our founders understood their relationship and commitment to the U.S. when our country required them to take up arms with the possibility of taking human life.

Various records clearly show what Pentecostal pioneers did, not just said, when faced with such moral dilemmas about involvement and bearing arms in war. The record overwhelmingly points to pacifism as rooted in the Bible as was the Oneness understanding of the Godhead. Although he declined to join any church body, Azusa Street eyewitness evangelist Frank Bartleman decried the wholesale slaughter of human life and the premature consigning to hell of millions of soldiers.

In fact, a vigorous pacifism, together with the expulsion of Oneness ministers from the Assemblies of God, propelled the need for organization. Looming global war sent early Pentecostal pioneers rushing to form a religious body, in order to be granted Conscientious Objector status. Oneness Pentecostal organization founder  Sam McClain who received the Holy Ghost in 1912 and was of age to serve, recounts the tumultuous time, “the United States was preparing to enter World War I and as we had so recently organized, we could not get noncombatant service for our young men in the draft.” Did they refuse to serve out of sheer cowardice? God forbid. A deep conviction against the possibility of taking human life kept them from serving. In 1919 McClain published an early Oneness position on war in the Apostolic Herald stating,

“The Pentecostal Church,… opposes to its members participating in warfare in any capacity. But in case our government is drawn into a struggle with an enemy threatening or making an invasion on our country, we stand for loyalty to our government and our flag. We would ask for non-combatant service in some capacity that does not require the Christian to bear arms, which would force him to participate in shedding blood and taking human life.”

Writing in 1919 as a leader of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World (PAW), McClain likely knew about the treatment of conscientious objectors (those who refused to fight) in WWI America. Numerous Oneness-Pentecostal pastors and elders served time behind bars for their pacifist position.  One record shows that out of nineteen conscientious objectors detained at Disciplinary Barracks, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas (1919), all identified as “Pentecostals.” Among them were members of the Pentecostals Assemblies of the World, the antecedent of the UPCI. Here are a few of the many specific examples of how earnestly our founders were willing to stand up for their belief in pacifism: Elder Morton of the Detroit area was incarcerated at Kingston Penitentiary; according to the roster of U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, William Smith of Illinois was sentenced to 10 years behind bars; according to the Sacramento Bee, upon the apprehension of Pastor William Reid of Sacramento California for charges of “acts unbecoming of an American” and “remarks that were of seditious nature” the Sacramento Chief of Police spitefully upbraided Reid, “you should be lined up against a wall and shot.” Even worse than all these cases, many were sent to federal penitentiaries where they met a firing squad who had hoped to change the minds of pacifists. When some refused to recant they were fired upon with empty guns in an act of intimidation and violation of their 1^st Amendment rights to coerce them to recant”. Others were tarred and feathered, run out of town; and most despicably, viewed as expendable and thus used as cannon fodder. Dr. Talmadge French has shown how Bureau of Investigation (now called the FBI) authorities even covertly joined churches, and were baptized in Jesus’ name, in order to investigate the PAW’s stance on War. In that same church in Santa Fe, NM, federal authorities arrested two preachers. Later, because of his pacifist stance, federal authorities sought to ban Garfield T. Haywood’s theological publication, The Voice in the Wilderness, but accidently banned another publication by a similar title A Voice in the Wilderness instead.

Why would Oneness Pentecostals have taken such a stance knowing that their members had suffered such persecution? I propose that their holiness convictions remained stronger than their political convictions. These holiness-minded pioneers believed that shedding blood on behalf of their country was unholy, unjust, and unlike Jesus.

Holiness minded pioneers took holiness seriously. The divine injunction, “Be ye holy for I am holy” took precedence over political or national affiliation. When will we like Paul understand that our citizenship (Politeuma) is in heaven (Philippians 3:20), and it is that citizenship that should take precedence citizenship to any country, U.S., Canada, or otherwise? Are the principles of peace in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount an example of cowardly theology? If we move to sanction the killing of individuals, even if in the name of the nation-state, we choose to not only reject the words of the founding fathers of Oneness-Pentecostalism, but also the words of Jesus, our Heavenly Father.

Why this gradual loss of our founders’ beliefs in sticking to the words of Jesus? Historians have noted that the reason leaders of Assemblies of God largely caved in to bearing arms in war and later changed its articles of faith was due to the participation of their boys in the military and their desire to gain acceptance among the rising National Association of Evangelicals. In other words, being Pentecostal took the back seat to being American and accepted by Evangelicals. Are we giving in to the same social pressure? Is our theology of non-violence now weaker because we love America so much? Do we not owe it to our much-vaunted non-U.S. constituencies and sister churches throughout the world to stay the hand of U.S. military power that may result in their destruction and loss of life. Lest we find ourselves on the same moral trajectory as other American church groups who feel at ease in Zion, let us reevaluate the motion at hand.

While it is not unknown to the UPCI to reverse and revise the positions of our earliest founders with regards to salient doctrinal issues, by hastily voting for this new article we nevertheless run the risk of being carried about by every wind of patriotic doctrine. Our Pentecostal history offers us a rich understanding of how Holy-Ghost-filled people ought to view and maintain their relationship to their country. It is my belief that if we do not look closely enough at this issue because of being blinded by our political convictions that we should march in lock-step with, we run the risk of putting something before our God. Thus, putting the commandment of America before the commandment of God Almighty is nothing short of (patriotic) idolatry. Finally, consider how would we respond to this issue if it were being discussed in our churches around the world, especially in communist countries? What makes it permissible to shed blood for one country but not for another? Last time I checked, God’s commandments transcend every people, kindred, tongue, and NATION.

L. Danny Barba