User:Krogers2/sandbox

Article Evaluation

I chose to analyze the African Pentecostalism wiki page. I am thinking about writing my page on the influence of Pentecostalism and also how media impacted its spread.

First when reading the article it seemed like the author was making personal statements, rather than something more general about the topic. This is important to avoid when writing the article. Outside of these few instances, I thought the author generalize and summarized main points. In particular, the information regarding the different organizations allowed for me to understand the spread of pentecostalism at both a macro and micro scale. When generalizing this information the author avoided arguing which denomination was better or pitching in favor of one.

I also paid attention to the sources to determine the credibility of the information. The references consisted of both academic journals and actual churches. Even though the churches were used as a source, there was no indication of one being favored over there other. It was clear that the author included a wide range of sources that were unbiased in opinion; allowing the the article to seem credible. Despite the use of credible sources, because the topic is so large I do not think that seven sources is a sufficient enough number of sources to talk about a religion is all of Africa. I would recommend that the author work to find more sources to enhance the overall credibility and specificity of the information. I think this would make the article more informative, rather than general sources covering short summaries for the different countries and regions. Another suggestion would be to condense the overall topic and focus on one particular region. This would allow for a better understand of the particular country and inhibit groups of vastly different people. More information on individual countries could also serve as a sub page to this general page.

Lastly, I think there could have been more information regarding the people that were apart of the pentecostalism. It talks a lot of about the organizations and the numbers of people but not what type of people joined the movement. In my opinion this is the most important part to understanding Pentecostalism in Africa. This reminded me back to the reading we did about writing about Africa and one of the mistakes was not talking about the actual people. There was also mention about the philanthropists and volunteers but never about the people and how the society and culture contribute to the different movements.

Article Selection:

Article 1: Pentecostalism in Ethiopia

This article includes many strong sources that are both reliable and unbiased, however it seems like there is not enough information. Many of the citations reference the charismatic nature of pentecostalism but it is not at all mentioned within the article. This would be incredibly important to discuss, whether just explaining what charismatic pentecostalism is or even how it applies to Ethiopia. There was a brief section on how Pentecostalism was founded within Ethiopia but it does not discuss in depth the continued practice. One of the things I am considering to write about is the role of the Church of God in Christ in Africa. This is a much more recent push to establish churches in Ethiopia and is not found within Wikipedia. This would be a good topic to add to this page or to write an entirely new page about.

Article 2: African Initiated Church

This is a very important topic because much of the information on African Pentecostalism is dominated by missionaries and the establishment of outside churches within African. While these are important, they are not the only churches evident in the pentecostal movement. While this article touches on a less popular topic, I felt that it did not include all of the pertinent information needed. For example I thought there should have been a discussion on the difference between indigenous churches and churches established by missionaries. This would allow for the discussion of the benefits of indigenous church. Additionally talking about how these indigenous churches function would allow us to understand the success of these churches. When talking about the location of these churches all that is stated is southern or West Africa. This is incredibly general and does not include the specific countries where these churches are evident. In terms of citations, there were only 5 courses for such a broad topic. There was also an extensive list of further readings which I thought could have been used more effectively as sources and drawing evidence from these.

Article 3: The Apostolic Church Nigeria

I chose this article because it resembles somewhat of what I want to write about for my wiki page. I am hoping to write about the Church of God in Christ and its missions effort in Africa. When looking at the Apostolic Church page, I thought it was important to include the doctrine and what is believed. This gives insight in the type of practices and how it might interact with different traditional African religious practices. There was mention on the history and establishment of the church but not must about the organization and practices. This is important to conceptualizing the practice of the pentecostalism. There is also no mention of the type of people or how many people are apart of the organization. The references also are not about apostolic churches within Africa. In order to better talk about the topic, it would be important to have sources that talk more about the topic specifically. This made me wonder in the event that more references are not applicable if interviews or other more direct sources would be beneficial when talking about the information.

Article Editing

Pentecostalism in Ethiopia:

Pentecostalism Empowering Africa[edit]
The engaging and uplifting nature of Pentecostalism attract people to the practice as many citizens were looking to enhance their lives. Pentecostalism is rooted in a reciprocal relationship between people and God. Pentecostal churches were found to be the root of finding economic prosperity and contributed to economic growth in the country as a whole. Churches also played a critical a role in fighting corruption within the economic system. Because of seperation of state and religion, Pentecostals relied on public initiatives and a societal presence to continue its influence within the political sphere. The prosperity gospel of Pentecostal resembled the same economic prosperity evident in the gospel. The consistencies between these objectives draw people to Pentecostalism. In pursuit of further economic prosperity, Pentecostal churches for groups to gain wealth. Pentecostals see the need for their presence in the economic sphere due to governmental corruption. This is rooted in the goal of receiving financial blessing. By playing a role in the economy, they are able to prevent or limit some of the corruption. Spiritual growth is paired with economic progress to show the result of living righteously. By making these synonymous,  it inspires people to live the lifestyle prescribed by pentecostalism. There is a reciprocal relationship between faith and financial gain as

Practices incorporate feeling the Holy Spirit. This unique experience is reflected in speaking in tongues and miracles, which is evident in Acts Chapter 2 of the Bible. Pentecostalism is centered around the Bible and the idea of physically experiencing the Holy Spirit.

Persecution[edit]
The appeal for an officially recognized Pentecostal organization was rejected by the royal government. This was only the beginning of political repression which accelerated in the 1970s. On one 1972 Sunday alone, 250 worshipers were arrested. In 1979, the Derg government shut down the Addis Ababa FBGC church. Other evangelicals persecuted Pentecostals with the hope of avoiding any association with the group.

Pentecostal Movement
Pentecostalism gained ground in the 1960's when Ethiopian youth experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is one of the main themes of Pentecostalism, the ability to feel the presence of God.The progress of economic growth has not been fully visible due to the individuality of Pentecostal churches. Often the churches are of separate organizations, which prevent the collective pursuit of economic growth. The use of technology allows for these churches to reach a larger mass and create a community of viewers. In Addis Ababa, despite low attendance at services, church rely on satellite TV and internet to reach a larger audience. This attract ices more young and educated people in urban settings who have access to this technology (Fantini). This also allows people to experience God outside of the scene of the church. By doing so, Pentecostal churches increase the accessibility of their practices. During times of persecution when Pentecostals were confined to closed areas of practice, they also used radio waves to share their message in a way to avoid persecution(Fantini)

There is also an acceptance of outside Christians into the Pentecostalism because they are not obligated to convert. This allows other denotations to experience the presence of God without altering their beliefs. This absorption alludes to their value of both their denominational practices and the practices of being imbued with the spirit; only allowing them to try to feel God more.

Choosing Article To Follow
The article I chose to look closer at was the Pentecostalism in Australia. I thought this was a more complete version of the type of article I am going to produce. This page has a nice flow to it, starting with the history of Pentecostalism in Australia and then moving into more present day information. This article also does a very good job of talking about the form of pentecostalism and how it works without offering a biased opinion. You can tell that the information is presented much more factually. In writing my article I need to first look at how this particular article words things and then I should go back to my page and try to edit some of the things. By following this structure it could really help improve the information given in my article. I also really liked the notable people section. This clarifies to the reader who is most importantly talked about in the article and somewhat offers it as a summary. This could be something constructive for me to utilize in order to make the most important information pop.