The Pillar of Fire International, also known as the Pillar of Fire Church, is a MethodistChristian denomination with headquarters in Zarephath, New Jersey.[3] The Pillar of Fire Church affirms the Methodist Articles of Religion and as of 1988, had 76 congregations around the world, including the United States, as well as "Great Britain, India, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, the Philippines, Spain, and former Yugoslavia".[1]
In the early 20th century, Pillar of Fire was known for its support for women's rights;[1] in the same century, it was known for supporting the Ku Klux Klan and its racist platform.[4][5] In 1997 and 2009, Pillar of Fire repudiated the denomination's former association with racism and requested forgiveness from God for formerly holding this position.[5][6][7] In the present day, worshippers at the mother church in Zarephath are "young, old, white, black, Asian, Hispanic".[5]
Pillar of Fire missionaries, November 25, 1914Assembly Hall service c. 1965 in Zarephath, New JerseyMissionary homes of the Pillar of Fire Church in 1966
History
Founding
In 1901, the Church was founded as a Methodist denomination by Alma Bridwell White in Denver, Colorado. The Pillar of Fire was originally incorporated as the Pentecostal Union, but changed its name to distance itself from Pentecostalism in 1915.[8] While the Pillar of Fire is Methodist in doctrine, Alma White and her followers believed that the mainline Methodist Church had become corrupt.[9] Alma White and the members of the Pillar of Fire dedicated themselves to the holiness movement in the Wesleyan tradition. Adherents were referred to as "Holy Rollers" and "holy jumpers" because of their religious frenzy.[8][10][11][12][13][14] White was noted for her association with the Ku Klux Klan, her feminism, anti-Catholicism, antisemitism, anti-pentecostalism, racism, and nativism.[15] With its founder being the first woman bishop in the United States, the Pillar of Fire is a supporter of women's rights, printing the periodical Women's Chains to propagate support for the movement until 1970.[1]
Ku Klux Klan, historically intolerant ideologies, and repudiation of the Ku Klux Klan
Klanswomen gather on August 31, 1929 in front of Assembly Hall, Zarephath, New Jersey, for "Patriotic Day" during annual Camp Meeting.
In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the Pillar of Fire Church was vocal in its support of the Ku Klux Klan, to an extent which was unique for a religious denomination.[17][18][19][20] Alma White prolifically spoke and wrote of both her and the Pillar of Fire Church's support of the Klan and many of the Klan's principles including anti-Catholicism, white supremacy, antisemitism, nativism, and temperance. In 1943, shortly before her death, she and the Pillar of Fire Church significantly but not completely distanced themselves from the then discredited and nearly bankrupt Klan organization, but they still continued to promote many of the Klan's intolerant principles. In a 1920s sermon which she republished in 1943, she said
We have no connection with the Klan organization. We endorse them in the principles for which they stand. However there is no room in our hearts for racial prejudice.[21]
However, White and the Pillar of Fire still advocated white supremacy in the same 1943 book-set which asserted their distaste for racial prejudice. In her chapter which was titled "White Supremacy" she wrote
The slaveholder, in many instances, was as much to be pitied as the slaves. He, too, was a victim of the system. ... .Where the slaves were well treated they were happy and contented ... But some radicals could never see this side of the question. They dwelt continually on the cruelties of a few hard taskmasters and ignored the good people who had the welfare of their dependents at heart. No matter what the better class of slave owners might do, they had to bear the stigma of cruelty with the worst of tyrants. ... .Where property rights are involved, supported by the government, the only safe and sane way to make wrongs right is by cool-headed procedure.[22]
She also said to the New Brunswick Daily Home News,
"My people are not members of the Klan, but we agree with some of the things that they stand for to assert our American right of free speech. We have always stood for one hundred percent Americanism and so does the Klan, so naturally we agree there."[23]
Additionally, the Pillar of Fire's pulpit and its printing operation were both extensively used to advocate many of the Klan's most intolerant values. In 1922, Bishop Alma White promoted the Klan in a sermon which she preached at the Pillar of Fire Church in Brooklyn, New York (which was coincidentally incinerated in the 1960 New York air disaster[24]) and published that sermon in The Good Citizen. The speech was titled "Ku Klux Klan and Woman's Causes" and one section was subtitled "White Supremacy".
The Klansmen stand for the supremacy of the white race, which is perfectly legitimate and in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Writ, and anything that has been decreed by the Almighty should not work a hardship on the colored race ... It is within the rights of civilization for the white race to hold the supremacy; and no injustice to the colored man to stay in the environment where he was placed by the Creator. ... When the black man was liberated it was time for women to be enfranchised, without which the colored man with his newly-acquired rank became her political master. ... The white women bore the sting of humiliation for more than half a century in being placed in an inferior position to the black men in the use of the ballot and the rights of citizenship ... To whom shall we look to champion the cause and to protect the rights of women? Is there not evidence that the Knights of the Klu [sic] Klux Klan are the prophets of a new and better age?
The radical belief in human equality which is at the heart of the Christian message eventually caused the organization to repudiate its historical relationship with the KKK on its website in 2009:
Much talk has also arisen over her brief but significant association with the KKK, which has also been publicly condemned and repented of by the POF leadership with a request for full forgiveness. Despite these and other errors in its history, the Lord in His grace and mercy has chosen to bless the ministry.[6]
And in its local paper in 1997:
We regret, repudiate and repent, and ask for full forgiveness for anything in our past that is short of Christian standards based on God's Word, following Jesus' model prayer that teaches us to ever pray and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. (Luke 11:4) We specifically regret mistakes and bad judgement by previous generations or anyone in our membership of the past.[7]
While the Pillar of Fire's repudiation of its association with the Klan characterized it as brief, it continued to promote the Klan's ideologies of intolerance for religious and racial minorities along with the Klan's belief in the equality of all white Protestant women for several decades. In 1943, 22 years after the church started to publicly work with the Klan, it republished Alma White's pro-KKK books as a three-volume set under the title Guardians of Liberty, reaffirming its positions in support of anti-Semitism, white supremacy, nativism and most notably, anti-Catholicism. Volumes II and III of Guardians contained introductions by Arthur White, affirming his support of his mother's intolerant ideologies, primarily but not exclusively in regard to anti-Catholicism. After his mother died in 1946, he was the Pillar of Fire's general superintendent until 1981.
Robert Saydee, the presiding elder of a Pillar of Fire congregation and an immigrant from the African nation of Liberia, stated in 2017 with respect to the denomination's former association with the Ku Klux Klan that "We are not proud of it at all. But it happened in history, and things happen to people, and the organization changed tremendously after that, and we never looked back" and with regard to Bishop Alma White, the Liberian American presbyter stated: "There is no reason to discuss her. We know she is the founder, but there is no discussion or preaching about her. No, we don't do that."[5] In the same vein, Richard Flory, senior director of research and evaluation at the University of Southern California, stated that the Pillar of Fire Church had essentially been "jettisoning their history in favor of looking like essentially everybody else".[5] In 2017, The New York Times stated that members "don't know about the church's history" and that "leaders [of the Pillar of Fire Church] have issued statements denouncing and regretting the church's historic involvement" with the KKK.[5]
1950s–present
Following the death of the founder, under the leadership of her son, Arthur Kent White, the religious fervor declined and the emphasis on outreach evangelization and church planting ended; the organization branches in America fell from a high of around 52 to the current six. The Pillar of Fire, as of 1988, had churches in the United States, as well as "Great Britain, India, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, the Philippines, Spain, and former Yugoslavia".[1] In the United States, the Pillar of Fire has branches in Zarephath, New Jersey; Denver, Colorado; Westminster, Colorado; Cincinnati, Ohio, Los Angeles, California; and Pacifica, California.
In the present-day, worshippers at the Pillar of Fire mother church in Zarephath are "young, old, white, black, Asian, Hispanic".[5]
Name
The name of Pillar of Fire comes from Exodus 13:21–22, which states: "By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people."
The Zarephath Health Center was opened in 2003[32] and utilizes volunteer physicians, nurses and support people to meet the health care needs of the poor and uninsured on the campus at Zarephath, New Jersey. The Health Center sees 300–400 patients per month who otherwise would not be able to obtain affordable health care. Dr. Eck testified to the Joint Economic Committee on Health Insurance on April 28, 2004, to demonstrate the sustainability of this model.[33]
International missions
There are missions in India, Costa Rica and Liberia as well as:[34]
The oldest of their missions was in HendonLondon, England, and was established in 1904 by Alma White. The mission organized a Charitable Trust on 19 September 1992, and was registered as a charity in December 1992 (Charity No. 1015529). In response to a complaint received by the Charity Commission in 2002, an inquiry was held, the charitable trust dissolved and transferred its assets to the U.S. organization, and the charitable trust was removed from the registry as it had ceased to exist.[35][36] One of the stated aims of this mission was to evangelize the local Jewish population in the vicinity of the mission.[37] Ironically, after the mission was sold, the property became a kosher boutique hotel[38] in 2010.[39]
Reverend Smallridge was given permission to start a Pillar of Fire Church in Nigeria in 1974.[40]
The Pillar of Fire was established in Malawi in 1984 by Reverend Moses Peter K. Phiri.[41]
Reverend Thomas A. Goode, he sued the church in 1920 saying the church "had alienated the affections of his wife and defrauded him of his property"[57]
Bishop Wilber Konkel
Bishop E. Jerry Lawrence
Bishop A. R. Stewart
Reverend Johannes Maas, ordained by Bishop Arthur White in 1956, international president, Worldwide Faith Missions[58][59]
2000 Robert B. Dallenbach begins tenure as fifth general superintendent
2003 Donald Justin Wolfram dies on August 25[54][72]
2008 Robert B. Dallenbach loses vote of confidence at 2008 camp meeting. Vice Superintendent Joseph Gross becomes sixth general superintendent.
2009 Somerset Christian Academy, formerly Alma Preparatory School, closes
In popular culture
Alma White, the Pillar of Fire, and their association with the Klan are dramatized in Libba Bray's New York Times best-selling 2012 murder mystery The Diviners, in a chapter titled "The Good Citizen". The Diviners is being made into a feature film by Paramount Pictures.[citation needed]
Zarephath is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) and located in Franklin Township, in Somerset County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, about 15 mi (24 km) north of Princeton. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 69, an increase of 32 (+86.5%) from the 37 enumerated at the 2010 census.
Alma Bridwell White was the founder and a bishop of the Pillar of Fire Church. In 1918, she became the first woman bishop of Pillar of Fire in the United States. She was a proponent of feminism. She also associated herself with the Ku Klux Klan and was involved in anti-Catholicism, antisemitism, anti-Pentecostalism, racism, and hostility to immigrants. By the time of her death at age 84, she had expanded the sect to "4,000 followers, 61 churches, seven schools, ten periodicals and two broadcasting stations."
WAWZ is a Christian radio station licensed to Zarephath, New Jersey. The station is owned by non-profit Pillar Media, a division of the Pillar of Fire International.
KPOF is a non-profit AM radio station in Denver, Colorado. It is owned by Pillar of Fire and airs a Christian talk and teaching radio format. The studio and transmitter are in Westminster, located on the campus of Belleview Christian Schools in the historic Westminster Castle, just northwest of Denver. KPOF uses the moniker "AM91: The Point of Faith", and is a member of the National Religious Broadcasters, noted for non-profit religious and educational programs and music. KPOF considers itself the "granddaddy" of religious broadcasters, owned by a Christian organization since 1928.
The Westminster Castle, also locally known as "The Pillar of Fire" is a historic landmark located in Westminster, Colorado, northwest of Denver near the intersection of 83rd and Federal. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Westminster University.
Arthur Kent White was a bishop, and the general superintendent of the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, New Jersey, and the president of Belleview College. The church was started by his mother, Alma Bridwell White, in Denver, Colorado.
Ray Bridwell White was the son of Alma White, the leader of the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, New Jersey. He was nominated to be a Bishop shortly after his mother died in 1946, but was too ill to attend the ordination ceremony and died shortly thereafter.
Alma White College was a Bible college in Zarephath, New Jersey from 1921 to 1978. It was an institution of the Pillar of Fire Church. The academic institution is now succeeded by Pillar College.
Robert Barney Dallenbach is a bishop in the Pillar of Fire International. He also was the church's fifth general superintendent until losing a vote of confidence at the 2008 Pillar of Fire annual camp meeting convention. He also served as a director for the North Metro Arts Alliance in Colorado. He was the author of seven books.
Arlene Hart White Lawrence was a bishop and the third president and general superintendent of the Pillar of Fire Church, a Protestant denomination which in 1966 operated church congregations, missionary homes, radio stations, publishing operations, farms, schools and colleges from 54 properties around the world. The denomination was founded in Denver, Colorado, by her grandmother, Alma Bridwell White, the first woman to become a bishop in the US. She believed that "activities such as gambling and dancing take time from the really important activities of life". She was the president of all three church radio stations, KPOF in Westminster, Colorado; WAWZ in the Zarephath section of Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey ; and WAKW in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Heroes of the Fiery Cross is a book in praise of the Ku Klux Klan, published in 1928 by Protestant Bishop Alma Bridwell White, in which she "sounds the alarm about imagined threats to Protestant Americans from Catholics and Jews", according to author Peter Knight. In the book she asks rhetorically, "Who are the enemies of the Klan? They are the bootleggers, law-breakers, corrupt politicians, weak-kneed Protestant church members, white slavers, toe-kissers, wafer-worshippers, and every spineless character who takes the path of least resistance." She also argues that Catholics are removing the Bible from public schools. Another topic is her anti-Catholic stance towards the United States presidential election of 1928, in which Catholic Al Smith was running for president.
The Good Citizen was a sixteen-page monthly political periodical edited by Bishop Alma White and illustrated by Reverend Branford Clarke. The Good Citizen was published from 1913 until 1933 by the Pillar of Fire Church at their headquarters in Zarephath, New Jersey in the United States. White used the publication to expose "political Romanism in its efforts to gain the ascendancy in the U.S."
The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy is a 144-page book written by Bishop Alma Bridwell White in 1925 and illustrated by Reverend Branford Clarke. In the book she uses scripture to rationalize that the Ku Klux Klan is sanctioned by God "through divine illumination and prophetic vision". She also believed that the Apostles and the Good Samaritan were members of the Klan. The book was published by the Pillar of Fire Church, which she founded, at their press in Zarephath, New Jersey. The book sold over 45,000 copies.
Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty was a book published by the Pillar of Fire Church in 1926 by Bishop Alma Bridwell White and illustrated by Branford Clarke. She claims that the Founding Fathers of the United States were members of the Ku Klux Klan, and that Paul Revere made his legendary ride in Klan hood and robes. She said: "Jews are everywhere a separate and distinct people, living apart from the great Gentile masses ... they are not home builders or tillers of the soil." Her book, which contains many anti-Catholic themes, became popular during the United States presidential election of 1928 when Al Smith was the first Catholic presidential candidate from a major party.
Branford Edward Clarke was an Evangelical preacher, poet and artist who promoted the Ku Klux Klan through his art which was drawn for the Pillar of Fire Church and their publications.
Kathleen Merell White was an American minister, author, and senior leader in the Pillar of Fire Church, a Protestant denomination founded in 1901 by Bishop Alma White, Kathleen's mother-in-law.
Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado, was founded in 1890 and is Denver's second oldest operating cemetery after Riverside Cemetery. It is located in land south-east of the intersection of the major Denver roadways Alameda Ave. and Quebec St.. The cemetery was designed by German landscape architect Reinhard Schuetze. The cemetery was patterned after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts. The cemetery occupies 280 acres (110 ha). The first year the cemetery opened over 4500 trees and shrubs were planted by Schuetze. The cemetery is the largest arboretum in the state.
The Ku Klux Klan has had a history in the U.S. state of New Jersey since the early part of the 1920s. The Klan was active in the areas of Trenton and Camden and it also had a presence in several of the state's northern counties in the 1920s. It had the most members in Monmouth County, and operated a resort in Wall Township.
Guardians of Liberty is a three volume set of books published in 1943 by Bishop Alma Bridwell White, author of over 35 books and founder of the Pillar of Fire Church. Guardians of Liberty is primarily devoted to summarizing White's vehement anti-Catholicism under the guise of patriotism. White also defends her historical support of and association with the Ku Klux Klan while significantly but not completely distancing herself from the Klan. Each of the three volumes corresponds to one of the three books White published in the 1920s promoting the Ku Klux Klan and her political views which in addition to anti-Catholicism also included nativism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy. In Guardians of Liberty, White removed most, but not all of the direct references to the Klan that had existed in her three 1920s books, both in the text and in the illustrations. In Volumes I and II, she removed most of the nativist, anti-Semitic and white supremacist ideology that had appeared in her predecessor books. However, in Guardians Volume III, she did retain edited versions of chapters promoting nativism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy.
Donald Justin Wolfram was the fourth General Superintendent of the Pillar of Fire Church from 1984 to 2000.
References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Kurian, George Thomas; Lamport, Mark A. (10 November 2016). Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield. p.1808. ISBN978-1-4422-4432-0.
↑ "Pillar of Fire". "Tax Exempt Organization Search". Internal Revenue Service. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
↑ Lock, Norman (7 June 2020). American Follies. Bellevue Literary Press. ISBN978-1-942658-49-8. As for the second exception, Alma Bridwell White, founder and bishop of the Pillar of Fire Church in Zarephath, New Jersey, was a zealot of the Klan during th 1920s and 1930s.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Otterman, Sharon (15 September 2017). "A Booming Church and Its Complicated, Ugly Past". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 May 2021. Pillar of Fire long ago moved away from the hate of the Klan, and its leaders have issued statements denouncing and regretting the church's historic involvement with it. In a sign of how different the modern church is, the local presiding elder of the denomination, Robert Saydee, is an African refugee.
1 2 Parsons, Monique (April 24, 1997). "Zarephath repents its past". Home News Tribune. We regret, repudiate and repent, and ask for full forgiveness for anything in our past that is short of Christian standards based on God's Word, following Jesus' model prayer that teaches us to ever pray and forgive us our sins for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. (Luke 11:4) We specifically regret mistakes and bad judgement by previous generations or anyone in our membership of the past.{{cite news}}: External link in |quote= (help)
1 2 "Alma Bridwell White". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 21, 2007. Née Mollie Alma Bridwell. American religious leader who was a founder and major moving force in the evangelical Pentecostal Union, which split from mainstream Methodism in the early 20th century. Alma Bridwell grew up in a dour family of little means. She studied at the Millersburg (Kentucky) Female College and in 1882 moved ...
1 2 "Bound Brook Mob Raids Klan Meeting: Thousand Hostile Citizens Surround Church and Lock In 100 Holy Rollers". The New York Times. May 2, 1923. Retrieved September 22, 2010. Until the arrival of eight State troopers to reinforce the local police here at 1 o'clock this morning about one hundred members of the Holy Rollers were locked up in their church, the Pillar of Fire, in Main Street, surrounded by a mob of nearly 1,000 hostile citizens, several hundred of whom broke up a meeting held by the Holy Rollers to organize a Klan here last night.
↑ "Poor Aimee". Time. October 22, 1928. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved August 21, 2007. Worst of all, there came a rival female evangelist from New Jersey, a resolute woman with the mien of an inspired laundress—the Reverend "Bishop" Mrs. Mollie Alma White, founder and primate of the Pillar of Fire Church. Bishop White, who has thousands of disciples ("Holy Jumpers") in the British Isles, clearly regarded Mrs. McPherson as a poacher upon her preserves or worse.
↑ Kandt, Kristin E. (2000). "Historical Essay: In the Name of God; An American Story of Feminism, Racism, and Religious Intolerance: The Story of Alma Bridwell White". Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law. 8: 753. Alma White and the Pillar of Fire were unique, however, in their public alliance with the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, the Pillar of Fire was the only religious group to publicly associate itself with the Klan.
↑ Lawrence, L.S. (October 1929). White, Alma (ed.). "Patriotic Day at Zarephath Camp-Meeting". The Good Citizen. Pillar of Fire Church: 10. The Assembly Hall was filled in the evening, with about 100 klanswomen and a few klansmen in robes. The first speaker of the evening was Bishop White. She gave a fiery message on the topic of race and social equality. ... She expressed hope that the Klan would do its part in keeping the blood of America pure
↑ Neal, Lynn (June 2009). "Christianizing the Klan: Alma White, Branford Clarke, and the Art of Religious Intolerance". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. 78 (2): 350–378. doi:10.1017/S0009640709000523. S2CID162426152. White's words and Clarke's imagery were combined in various ways as a means to spread a message of religious intolerance which was both persuasive and powerful.
↑ Blee, Kathleen (1991). Women of the Klan. University of California Press. ISBN978-0-520-07876-5. Bishop White's transformation from minister to Klan propagandist is detailed in voluminous autobiographical and political writings. [Bishop] White's anti-Catholic, anti-semitic, and racist message fit well into the Klan's efforts to convince white Protestant women that their collective interests as women. ... were best served by joining the Klan.
↑ Dean, Clarence (December 17, 1960). "Brooklyn Scene: A Quiet Byway Is Invaded by Death and Chaos"(PDF). New York Times. Retrieved December 18, 2010. The gray stucco church into which the plane rammed was a three-story, gabled structure known as the Pillar of Fire Church.
↑ White, Alma (August 1929). "America---the White Man's Heritage". The Good Citizen. Pillar of Fire Church: 3. Where people seek for social equality between the black and white races, they violate the edicts of the Holy Writ and every social and moral code ... Segregation is our only hope. Social and political equality would plunge the world into an Inferno as black as the regions of night and as far from the teachings of the New Testament as heaven is from hell. The presumption of the colored people under such conditions would know no bounds ... This is white man's country by every law of God and man, and was so determined from the beginning of Creation. Let us not therefore surrender our heritage to the sons of Ham. Perhaps it would be well for white people to take the advice of a great American patriot, Dr. Hiram Wesley Evans and repeal the Fifteenth Amendment. The editor of The Good Citizen would be with him in this.
↑ Wagner, Albin. "Westminster University Princeton of the West"(PDF). Retrieved November 21, 2009. The church established a junior college and bible seminary there, which after 1925 was called Belleview College. The campus of the school was frequently used for meetings of the Ku Klux Klan during its hey-day in Denver, and residents recall burning crosses high on the hill.
↑ "The Pillar of Fire Mission". Christian Science Monitor. May 21, 1920. London, England. Mrs. Alma White, president of the American organization 'The Pillar of Fire,' which aims at curbing present tendencies in women's dress, and supports a 'dry' program, recently opened her ...
↑ "Missions: Great Britain". Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved March 30, 2011. Hendon is predominantly a Jewish area. This makes the subject of Jewish evangelism a priority to us in Hendon.
↑ "Pillar Missions in Nigeria". Pillar of Fire Church. Archived from the original on June 14, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2010. Reverend Smallridge introduced Essien to Pillar of Fire leadership, and in 1974, was given permission to start a Pillar of Fire Church in Nigeria.
↑ "Pillar Missions in Malawi". Pillar of Fire Church. Archived from the original on June 14, 2011. Retrieved January 23, 2010. The Pillar of Fire Church was established in Malawi in 1984, when Reverend Moses Peter K. Phiri, a native of Malawi, contacted Pillar of Fire to discuss African missions.
↑ "Local Church and Partner in Ministry". Pillar of Fire Church. Archived from the original on October 8, 2007. Retrieved September 25, 2007. Our school and church belong to a group of national and international ministries founded and directed by the Pillar of Fire, International. The Pillar of Fire provides us with oversight, advice, and material support, and gives us opportunities to participate in congregational, educational, media, and missions ministries around the world.
↑ "Klan Buys College Close to Princeton". The Harvard Crimson. October 31, 1923. Retrieved July 6, 2009. Bishop Alma White, the founder of the Pillar of Fire Church, and an author of various religious works, is President of the institution under the new regime. In an interview for the Princetonian today Bishop White deplored the present indifference of the undergraduate to the Klan and predicted that in the near future "it will sweep through the intellectual student classes as through the masses of the people."
↑ AM91 & Castle HistoryArchived 2006-08-20 at the Wayback Machine , accessed September 1, 2006 - "KPOF is the oldest station of the Pillar of Fire Network, which is the oldest network of Christian Stations in the World."
↑ 93.3 Cincinnati Ohio Christian Radio, accessed September 1, 2006 - "93.3 WAKW is a service of Pillar of Fire, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization"
1 2 "Donald Wolfram moved souls during street services". Denver Post. Retrieved July 21, 2007. Donald Wolfram, who was an early participant in religious street meetings in Lower Downtown Denver, died Monday of pancreatic cancer. Wolfram, 83, was a lifelong member of the Pillar of Fire Church, and as a young man, he joined other members for religious meetings in downtown Denver. The meetings resembled those of the Salvation Army, with a band and speaker. Wolfram usually played the trumpet or trombone, said his daughter, Suzanne Wolfram. Eventually, he learned to play about a ...
↑ "Preacher, racer are two of a kind. Dallenbach brothers follow different roads that intersect with love". Denver Post. April 30, 1990. Retrieved July 21, 2007. It's quite a spin from Wally's life as a race-car driver to the Rev. Robert Dallenbach's small Pillar of Fire Church, where drinking, dancing and smoking are forbidden. While Wally directs Denver's Grand Prix races this August, his older brother likely will be a few blocks away, preaching at Alma Temple. The Reverend Bob wears a charcoal-gray suit and Roman collar. His 8-year-old, church-owned Ford station wagon bears license tag ... But things aren't always what they seem with the brothers Dallenbach ...
↑ "Fundamentalist Pillar". Time. July 8, 1946. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-25. [She] built a sect called Pillar of Fire — with 4,000 followers, 61 churches, seven schools, ten periodicals and two broadcasting stations. Last week, as it must even to 'the only woman bishop in the world,' Death came to the Pillar of Fire's 84-year-old founder.
1 2 3 "Promoted to Glory: Donald Justin Wolfram, 83, Bishop". Belleview College. Retrieved 2007-08-26. Dr. Donald J. Wolfram left this life on August 25, 2003, after a brief bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 83. He was immediate past president and general superintendent of the Pillar of Fire International Christian denomination, an office he held from 1985 through 2000. He was laid to rest at Belleview Cemetery, Westminster, Colorado, on the campus where he had labored so faithfully for the Lord. Dr. Wolfram was born November 13, 1919, at Zarephath, New Jersey, to Rev. Albert and Rev. Gertrude Metlen Wolfram, pioneer missionaries in the Pillar of Fire. He was ordained to the ministry at age 16, later was consecrated a bishop, and spent his life working for the cause of Christ and holiness of heart and life.
Further reading
Cyril Edwin Mitchinson; The Babbitt Warren (1927)
Charles Wright Ferguson; The New Books of Revelations: The Inside Story of America's Astounding Religious Cults (1929)
Alma White's Evangelism Press Reports, compiled by C. R. Paige and C.K. Ingler (1939)
Susie Cunningham Stanley; Feminist Pillar of Fire: The Life of Alma White; Cleveland, Ohio; The Pilgrim Press, (1993) ISBN0-8298-0950-3
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