^PARA VPAR@ ` ÄTEXT ` ÇWhite, Alma Bridwell1862╨1946religious leaderBorn in Kinniconick, Lewis County, Kentucky, on June 16, 1862, Mollie Alma Bridwell grew up in a dour family of little means. She attended local schools and after a short time at the nearby Vanceburg Seminary became a schoolteacher. She studied for another year at the Millersburg Female College and then in 1882 moved to Bannack, Montana Territory, where she taught school for a time. In December 1887 she married Kent White, a Methodist seminarian. The marriage allowed her abiding attraction to evangelical religion to flourish. In a succession of small, out-of-the-way pastorates in Colorado, she led hymns and prayers and occasionally preached. Her tall, homely appearance and commanding voice proved of great effect, and she soon discovered the ability to move congregations to tears or to shouts of joy. An intense experience of personal sanctification in March 1893 induced White to take the lead from her husband in organizing a series of revival meetings at which she attempted to recover the fervor and piety of primitive Methodism. Her zealous emotionalism, together with her outspoken criticisms of the decorous accommodations of the Methodist hierarchy, brought down the wrath of conservative churchmen on her and her husband, who was transferred to a still less desirable pastorate. She eventually persuaded him to resign altogether. For a time they traveled and evangelized together in Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, and in December 1901 Alma White founded the Methodist Pentecostal Union Church in Denver. She was ordained an elder of the new sect in March 1902. In 1902 she published Looking Back from Beulah on the course of her life leading to the founding of her church, and a short time later she founded the Pentecostal Union Herald, which in 1904 was renamed the Pillar of Fire. In 1907 the headquarters of the church was moved to Zarephath, New Jersey, where a tract of land had been donated by a follower. The sect grew rapidly. In 1904╨1905 she made the first of 29 evangelizing missions to Great Britain. Evangelists and missionaries of the sect adopted military uniforms similar to those of the Salvation Army. In 1917 the church changed its name to the Pillar of Fire, a change reflecting Alma White╒s firm opposition to the rise of more primitive and undisciplined forms of pentecostalism. In 1918 she was consecrated senior bishop of the Pillar of Fire, becoming the first woman bishop of any Christian church. In addition to a constant round of revivals, the church grew to operate two radio stations (in Denver and in New Jersey), established seven schools and, in 1921, Alma White College in Zarephath, and carried on a large program of publishing books, pamphlets, and magazines for the faithful. Among Alma White╒s own books were Golden Sunbeams, 1909, Demons and Tongues, 1910, The New Testament Church, two volumes, 1911╨1912, Truth Stranger than Fiction, 1913, Why I Do Not Eat Meat, 1914, Restoration of Israel, the Hope of the World, 1917, The Story of My Life in five volumes, 1919╨1930, My Heart and My Husband, 1923, The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy, in which she outlined Biblical sanctions for the Klan, 1925, Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty, 1926, The Voice of Nature, 1927, Hymns and Poems, 1931, Radio Sermons and Lectures, 1936, and The Sword of the Spirit, 1937. By 1936 the Pillar of Fire church owned property worth an estimated $4 million and had over 4,000 members in 46 congregations. Alma White died in Zarephath, New Jersey, on June 26, 1946. Her husband had left the church in 1909; she was succeeded as senior bishop by her son, Ray Bridwell White, who died five months later. ªstyl ` . ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ 1 !I c 5¬ d !I é 5¬ â !I â !I ¢ !I !I !I < !I J !I ╙ 5¬ ╘ !I
° 5¬
∙ !I !I * !I 2 !I D !I L !I d !I ~ !I Ö !I í !I ╢ !I ╛ !I Ω !I ≥ !I !I # !I : !I B !I ^ !I ¥ !I ╗ !I ├ !I ╓ !I ▐ !I φ !I ⌡ !I !I !I 2 !I link `
