As to my marrying a woman preacher, it is a poor argument for men to criticize a man's family relationship. I do not believe in women preachers or pastors. I never did, and I never will. However, I do not see where there is anything against me for marrying a woman who called herself a preacher, whom I understood would devote herself after marriage to home and husband rather than to the ministry. If such is not the case now, that was my conviction and mistake, and what I looked forward to when I married. (For the Defense, p. 274, par. 3)Mother Lawson died 10 years before this sermon was delievered, but all written and oral accounts of her behavior support what her husband said. When they began to have children, Mother Lawson was known to sit in the back of the church during the services. Though an early participant in the Pentecostal movement, she was more active as a homemaker and hostess to Bishop Lawson's guests than as a church worker. Refuge Temple's annual picnic at the Lawson estate in Peekskills, N.Y., featured meals prepared with vegetables grown in Mother Lawson's garden.
There was one aspect of ministry in which Mother Lawson remained active: prayer. To the post-modern mind, this may seem of little importance. However, the whole of the Pentecostal movement, from Azusa Street to the birthing of Refuge Temple, began by prayer. Prayer was not considered something that just anyone did; indeed, speaking to God on behalf of others was a revered occupation, part of the mystique of becoming a cleric. Whatever Bishop Lawson may have thought of women preachers, he had tremendous respect for women who prayed. He had been saved and healed of tuberculosis through the prayers of an old woman, and though he expected the former evangelist to give up her preaching ministry, he encouraged her prayers.
Known in her time as "the praying mother of the air," Mother Lawson was the featured prayer during Refuge Temple's Sunday night live radio broadcasts. She would stand at the foot of the pulpit when the broadcast opened and wait to be escorted to the microphone by her husband or another minister. While Mother Lawson prayed, it is said that business in certain areas of Harlem would come to a halt. Drink orders dipped, and pool games paused: Mother was praying. She prayed for soldiers at war, for those in hospitals, for all that concerned WWII America. After prayer, she would step down from the pulpit and return to her seat.
Mother Lawson was an anomaly. She was obviously deeply spiritual, and can be viewed as an antecedent of the Department of Women's Missionary Work. However, she shunned the attention that came to so many other "mothers" throughout the Pentecostal movement. Sitting in the back of the church, she would clench her head with both hands, as though in pain. When once asked if she was sick, she answered, "I'm all right; I'm just praying that the message gets through." It is quite inconceivable that Bishop Lawson could have been successfully married to a woman who was not of such a high spiritual caliber.
All told, Bishop Lawson's relationship with his wife was unique. His dealing with other female ministers both within and outside of his organization is more revealing of his outlook on the woman's place in ministry, which is what we will examine next.
Since writing this article, it has come to my attention that Bishop Lawson's second wife, Mrs. Evelyn Burke Lawson, was also an evangelist. Whereas my research on the first Mother Lawson was based on oral account, I found a reference by happenstance in Sherry Sherrod Dupree's bibliography on Pentecostals. The reference alluded to a weeklong revival carried on by the second Mother Lawson in which 12 people were saved (synonymous with 'filled with the Holy Ghost' for Lawson and most Apostolics). Thus, S.E. Williams indictment on Lawson for marrying a woman preacher could apply to either of Lawson's wives. Moreover, we see that revival measures (speaking, altar calls, prayer, perhaps even laying on of hands, etc.) could not have been what Lawson had in mind when he spoke out against women preachers. His opposition, it appears, was strictly against women exercising sacerdotal rites and speaking authoritatively concerning doctrine. Curiously, the reference mentions "Evanglist Evelyn Burke Lawson," not "Mother" or "Missionary..." This reflects the fact that for many (even maybe for Bishop Lawson), the terms were basically synonymous. There are organizations which are different in name and little else (hardly, if at all, different doctrinally) whose called women do not pastor and are known by title as "evangelist," with "missionary" being a concurrent offical title or belonging to a separate auxiliary altogether.
ReplyDeleteIs this blog still active?
Delete