Re-Scripting Pentecostal Saints: Curious Life of Mother Rosa Horn

July 26, 2014 By Arlene Sánchez-Walsh

This is one in another of my summer series on Pentecostal women, I am off for vacation till August, but in August, I hope to dedicate the next several installments commemorating the 70th anniversary of the death of Foursquare founder, Sister Aimee Semple McPherson. One of the more intriguing stories I’ve included in my long-suffering attempt to finish my book on Pentecostalism in America is the one about Mother Rosa Horn. Horn founded her own denomination, the Pentecostal Faith Church,... Read more

The (Un) Equally Yoked Marriage/Divorce of Rev. Maria W. Atkinson

June 18, 2014 By Arlene Sánchez-Walsh

Another installment of my look at Pentecostal women looks at a Church of God missionary named Maria W. Atkinson, who, like several other better known Pentecostal women, was a widowed and divorced woman during the 1920s and 30s when such things were unheard of. It makes you wonder how certain women were able to find that elusive “wiggle” room to get out of marriages that stifled their careers? Maria Atkinson was born into a Catholic upper-middle class family in Sonora,... Read more

The Confessions of Joyce Meyer

May 30, 2014 By Arlene Sánchez-Walsh

The Confessions of Joyce Meyer So in order to finish this long awaited book, I have immersed myself in the study of Joyce Meyer, I like to call it the Method Acting version of history–reading her words, watching her on t.v., trying to imagine myself as her devotee or, as Meyer herself to see what it is about her that people, particularly evangelical/Pentecostal women find so enticing about her ministry? Meyer, if you don’t know, has quite a testimony. As... Read more

Nothing New Under The (Pew) Sun

May 9, 2014 By Arlene Sánchez-Walsh

A Few (Not So New) Things About the Pew Study: (and its a good study btw, its just not particularly new to us) here it is for your perusal: http://www.pewforum.org/2014/05/07/the-shifting-religious-identity-of-latinos-in-the-united-states/ 1. Latinos/as have been raised in and/or converting to various branches of Protestantism for over a hundred years, and that includes Pentecostalism. 2. One cannot examine the conversion efforts of Protestants towards Latinos/as without confronting the anti-Catholic animus that often lies beneath those efforts, especially in Latin America 3. ... Read more

Happy No. 5 Patheos

May 5, 2014 By Arlene Sánchez-Walsh

In the midst of grading, writing & prepping for more summer teaching, a quick saludos to the folks at Patheos, whom I have had the pleasure of helping out since they first started! #Patheos5yo I remember writing much of the material that forms the basis of their “Pentecostalism” section & now as a (semi) regular blogger on their Progressive Christian channel, I don’t know of another forum that captures the essence of (irr)religious/spiritual life like Patheos. Truly a pleasure to... Read more

Happy Good Friday!

April 18, 2014 By Arlene Sánchez-Walsh

It is that time of the semester when I will be doing very little blogging, in fact for the next few weeks, I think I will focus on poetry, because there is not enough poetry in our lives…today’s sample is from Mary Oliver, one of my favorites…. and it reminds me of today, Good Friday–when altars are traditionally dressed in black…and I understand, like the line below, that this was a present. “Someone I loved once gave me a box... Read more

Sanctifying Music, Sex & Death: Remembering Marvin Gaye

April 4, 2014 By Arlene Sánchez-Walsh

April 2 1984, if I remember correctly, was a cool, crisp Spring morning. waiting for school to begin, students regularly waited in the quad area and just outside the athletic fields on benches waiting for the bell to ring for school to start. This morning was different though, the night before, Marvin Gaye was killed by his father in Los Angeles, the news made its way through school, and a pall was cast over James A. Garfield Sr. High School... Read more

Hunting For Heresy at Regent University…& Hobby Lobby & World Vision (Pt 3)

March 28, 2014 By Arlene Sánchez-Walsh

About a month ago I gave a plenary address at Regent. The conference was well planned, the discussions were stimulating and I left with a renewed sense of my work as an academic. The conference, on Latin American and U.S. Latino/a Pentecostalism, was a first of its kind. As someone who has spent a couple of decades studying the latter, it was heartening that such a conference finally occurred. That it occurred at Regent, I will be honest, was a... Read more

Hunting Heresy at Regent University–Part II (Dress Codes)

March 19, 2014 By Arlene Sánchez-Walsh

When I finished my presentation on Dress Codes and Pentecostal Purity Culture in a class at Regent a few weeks ago, I was genuinely worried because my talk was meant to be subversive. It went well, the class was receptive, and since it was mostly women, the fact that there are few, if any, regulations aimed towards men, they got it. Dress codes, historically and today are rooted in gendered notions of women’s sexual power over men being so overwhelming, that... Read more

Hunting Heresy at Regent University

March 13, 2014 By Arlene Sánchez-Walsh

A few weeks ago, I attended the Renewal Across Americas conference at Regent University. I have been bogged down by grading so this is the first time I have had to write about the many things I learned about life at Regent–The House that Pat Robertson Built. I have learned much about my chosen profession from watching and talking to many colleagues about their experiences. If I can generalize, the academic life of many in my cohort–is one where roots... Read more