Early American Pentecostalism and the issues of race, gender, war, and poverty : a history of the belief system and social witness of early twentieth century Pentecostalism and its nineteenth century holiness roots

Early American Pentecostalism had an ambiguous social witness, which contained both radical and conservative elements. The millennarian-restorationist core of the Pentecostal belief system was prophetic and counter-cultural in that it inspired adherents to denounce the injustices of the status quo and announce the justice of the soon-coming Kingdom of God. Consequently, in the earliest years of the American movement, many Pentecostals, professed and practiced (1) racial equality, (2) gender equality, (3) pacifism, and (4) anti-capitalism. However, this prophetic social witness co-existed, from the very beginning, with a strong conservative ethos, which defended the norms, beliefs, and values of nineteenth-century 'Evangelical America' against the apparent religious and cultural 'anarchy' of modern society. As Pentecostal groups (especially white Pentecostal groups such as the Assemblies of God) organised, institutionalised, and rose in socioeconomic status, the prophetic voices of early Pentecostalism were increasingly ignored, and the conservative ethos grew to dominate Pentecostal social concerns