Talk:Alma Bridwell White

Coverage in Time magazine

 * Time; October 22, 1928; Poor Aimee
 * Time; November 22, 1937; Legalists & Charismatics. "A woman, Mrs. Alma White, is bishop of the pentecostal Pillar of Fire church, in Zarephath, New Jersey"
 * Time; December 18, 1939; Bishop v. Drink. "'We've been over to Alma Temple and signed the pledge and joined the Dry Legion Crusaders. We shall never drink a drop, and when we're old enough we are going to vote the wicked stuff out of existence.' Author of these plays, written for radio and church performance, and acted last week on the platform in a church in Boulder, Colorado, was a masterful, mannish-voiced gynotheocrat, Bishop Alma White, 77. Once a Methodist, wife of a preacher, Mrs. White read herself out of her church because it frowned on her preaching. She founded a society of her own. That was nearly 40 years ago. Her church became known as the Pillar of Fire. Widowed, Mrs. White started a pious, shouting, camp-meeting community in New Jersey, named it Zarephath after the place where the 'widow woman' sustained Elijah. Alma White was soon acting like a bishop toward her flock; why should she not be "the first woman bishop in the history of the Christian church?" Pillar of Fire consecrated her as such in 1918. Indomitable Bishop White has built 49 churches, three colleges. She edits six magazines, travels continually between Zarephath and the West. She learned to drive an automobile at 50, to swim at 55, to paint in oils at 70. She has two radio stations, WAWZ at Zarephath, KPOF in Denver, where her Alma Temple is also a thriving concern. Her Prohibition plays, written with broadcasting in mind, had their premiere there. Her audience, recruited from Denver churches, thought them pillar-powerful, fiery-fierce."
 * Time; July 8, 1946; Fundamentalist Pillar. "'Political parties yell themselves hoarse when the name of a nominee is mentioned. Why not shout in ecstasy when the name of the Lord is called? If you are happy, let the whole world know it. Do not keep your joy bottled up.' Fundamentalist ecstasy and hallelujah-shouting were a vital part of masterful, deep-voiced Alma White's faith. On it 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. No Catalepsy. Little Alma Bridwell was thought so dull by her Kentucky parents that they gave her ten brothers & sisters a priority on schooling. When an aunt invited one of the seven girls in the family to visit the wild Montana Territory, Alma was her last choice — but each of the others was afraid to venture into the country of cowboys & Indians. Nineteen-year-old Alma took the chance and stayed to teach, first in public school, later in Salt Lake City's Methodist seminary. When she wanted to preach as well, shocked Methodists told her to marry a preacher. At 25 she did. After marrying Methodist Minister Kent White, she occasionally took over his pulpit. But ecclesiastical authorities failed to share her congregation's enthusiasm for Mrs. White's preaching, and in 1901 she organized her own sect. Eventually Preacher White's followers took the name "Pillar of Fire" from the title of a bulletin she published. Though she believed in enthusiastic unbottling of religious emotions, Matriarch White was always stern with pentecostal excesses. "Sometimes our people get happy and skip around a bit," she said, "but . . . we don't have any catalepsy or epilepsy." When some of her southern followers once essayed a bit of holy rolling, Bishop White merely said, "You get right up or I'll stick a pin in you." It worked. No Female Bareleggedness. Her energy was prodigious. She wrote 35 religious tracts and some 200 hymns, wrote and produced two morality plays exposing the evils of drink. At 70 she took up painting, turned out 300-odd canvases, and had three New York exhibitions of her landscapes. During her last years she still fought her good fight against cardplaying and female bareleggedness (because of the "spinelessness" of men). Last week, at Pillar of Fire's thousand-acre (4 km²) colony in New Jersey (named Zarephath after the place where the "widow woman" sustained Elijah), Alma White's son carried on. Handsome, scholarly Arthur K. White, also a bishop, said that this summer he might propose a candidate for Pillar of Fire's No. 2 bishopric."

Siblings
She was born as Mollie Alma Bridwell on June 16, 1862 in Kinniconick, Lewis County, Kentucky to William Moncure Bridwell (1825-1907) of Virginia; and Mary Ann Harrison (1832-1921) of Kentucky. William and Mary married on March 19, 1851. Alma's siblings include: Martha Gertrude Bridwell (1853-?) who was born on March 18, 1852 and married a Davis; James Robert Bridwell (1853-?) who was born on March 18, 1852; Emery Bascom Bridwell (1856-1928) who was born on Valentines Day, February 14, 1856 and died on March 28, 1928; Amanda Frances Bridwell (1857-?) who was born on May 31, 1857, married a Savage, and died on March 23, 1938; Ann Eliza Bridwell (1859-1953) who was born on December 16, 1859, married a Boardman, and died on September 26, 1953; Venora Ella Bridwell (1861-1942) who was born on January 18, 1861, married David E. Metlen in 1887, and died on May 9, 1942 in Dillon, Montana; Teresa West Bridwell (1865-1944) who was born on August 16, 1862, married a Meade, and died on May 30, 1944; Kate Laura Bridwell (1867-1935) who was born on February 22, 1867, married a Ferrell, and died on November 3, 1935; Rollie Taylor Bridwell (1868-1947) who was born on September 3, 1868 and died on May 23, 1947; and Charles William Bridwell (1872-1952) who was born on July 25, 1872 and died on January 21, 1952. By 1880 the family was living in Millersburg, Kentucky. --What are the sources for this information; without sources, it can all be deleted. And do we really want to know who all her siblings married - question.Parkwells (talk) 20:58, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Unsourced and OR removed
"However, her involvement in the Klan and her writings have been condemned and repudiated by the leadership of the organization she founded, the Pillar of Fire. The Pillar of Fire continues to hold her in high regard as is evidenced by various commemorations like the naming of the Denver Pillar Of Fire Church, "Alma Temple".  "

Alma White, The Racist
To the anonymous poster who keeps adding the racism/cracker sentence/phrase:

Of course she was a racist and more specifically she was a white supremacist. Agreeably, these are important and notable aspects of her life. But there are scholarly and journalistic tools for developing language that presents this in an appropriately balanced light. From having personally read much of her writings, I can assure you there were other more notable and even darker aspects of who she was. Much more notable, I believe, is the volume of vicious and demeaning language and images she published about the Catholic Church and to some extent Catholics themselves. I would estimate the ratio of demeaning language and images she published of Catholics versus African Americans to be something on the order of 50 to 1.

Even more notable, I believe, is her "ends justify the means" approach to her brand of feminism. Alma seemed to believe in a “win equality for protestant white women at any cost, minorities be damned” ideology. This is a view that Kristin E. Kandt seems to share in the article she wrote in 2000. So just to set the record straight, I am no fan of Alma White. But I believe there is a lot we all can learn about intolerance, prejudice and hate by studying her life and legacy.

Additionally, I am also no fan of the Catholic Church either. My perspective of Alma's writings is something like watching two playground bullies enthralled in a knock out fight.

BTW, I do believe this article could be vastly improved and expanded, but hopefully from a scholarly neutral perspective. Buz lightning (talk) 14:39, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

My friend was an ordained Pillar of Fire minister, and lived at Zarephath for 9 years during the reign of Arthur Kent White. I will continue to consult with him as the the accuracy of this article Rak-Tai (talk) 07:02, 16 July 2009 (UTC)

Introductory section
Added her support of the Klan to the introductory section. --Bagration1944 (talk) 18:11, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Misinformation in the article
User:Cathar11 appears to be adding misinformation to the article. He added "(who was neither a pastor nor a presiding elder)" but a reading of the same source material comes to a different conclusion, that is why adding the quote to the reference is so important. Anyone can point to a multi-page article and say their position is supported by the text. Only the most careful editor will read the entire article, sometime multiple times to see if that position is actually supported. I deleted the parenthetical remark because it didn't appear to be supported by the text, User:Smjwalsh found a quote that comes to the opposite conclusion, that Godbey was an elder. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 16:57, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Quote is from Hamilton's book, which I accessed through Google Books in snippet form. I am a fan of the quote function. Hamilton's book is quite explicit that Godbey was both an ordained elder, and a presiding elder. Godbey had as much authority to ordain White as Wesley himself who was an ordained presbyter/priest in the Church of England, and yet ordained Coke and Asbury.(smjwalsh (talk) 17:05, 7 January 2010 (UTC)).

The "misinformation" is from the obituary published by the Kentucky Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, followinghis death which said "“He was neither a pastor nor a presiding elder. He knew nothing of organization and conservation, and gave himself little concern about the management of the affairs of charge or district.  He was an evangelist, and this alone occupied his mind and engaged his effort." he was a minister but his ministry was preaching and is also described as eccentric. Contemporary RS like Time magazine when describing White as a bishop used "bishop" (inverted commas). It is now removed but was not misinformation.Cathar11 (talk) 21:14, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your comments and explanation. If you had put your source material in the article initially, I am sure user Norton would not have characterised your additions as he did. It is frustrating when there is contradiction in sources. Normally the ME Church, South obituary would be regarded as a superior primary source, but Hamilton's scholarly book with excellent sources is conclusive in this case as regards Godbey serving for at least three years as a presiding elder. It could be that the one who wrote the ME Church obit was unfamiliar with this brief period in Godbey's ministry, and did not have access to his service record (it could be that Godbey had changed to a different Conference). Certainly White was ordained in an irregular manner (as Godbey was not a ME Church bishop, nor was he authorised to do so by action of the ME Conference, the usual prerequisite). However, as there were many denominations and congregations that ordained on the authority of a local congregation or collection of congregations, the operative criterion of validity would be that of the organisation where White was ministering. Consequently, while many would not recognise White's ordination as Bishop (and doubtless many who did not recognise her right to be in ministry at all due to her gender), she accepted it and her own denomination did as well.(smjwalsh (talk) 23:44, 7 January 2010 (UTC))
 * If you have that source, we can reword it, so it includes language that would cover both. The best thing to do it to just have a link to his biography and have the more detailed explanation there. Hamilton has a lot of information, its just hard to pick out the commentary from the biographical information. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 23:56, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

The article claims she was antisemetic.
My non expert understanding of this period of the KKK is it was mostly concerned with Catholics. Klansman and Governor of Mississippi James K. Vardaman was very sympathic to Jews in his Weekly Vardman publication. From what I have read of her writings she really does not mention Jews much, which is a sign of not being obsessed which is a sign of not being an antisemite. I think people who call her an antisemite are confusing the various Klan phases and just assuming an organization like the Klan must have been antisemetic in all its various incarnations. People may also be confusing the Klan with other groups, perhaps Whitecapping which may or may not have had antisemitic motivations. Geo8rge (talk) 15:37, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Timeline
This "Timeline" section is kind of eccentric and simply lists a lot of things already stated in the other sections of the article. And what are these references to her appearing in the U.S. Census at different decades for, as if there were some need of proof that, yes, indeed, she did exist in 1900 and in 1920? Pascalulu88 (talk) 20:52, 9 December 2023 (UTC)