Activism in an Urban Religious District 415
conservative traditions (Davidson 1985; Rogers 1990; Rooney 1995). Scholars have
taken this scarcity as further evidence of the “otherworldly” inclinations of theologi-
cally conservative people (Davidson 1985; Johnson 1963; Tamney and Johnson 1990;
Johnson and Tamney 1986). The implication is that conservative clergy will join or
establish efforts that fight only for traditional moral concerns, such as those champi-
oned by Christian Right organizations. Otherwise, these clergy will gravitate toward in-
church activities that promote retreat from the world and individual spiritual salvation.
Several of the churches in Four Corners challenge the negative association between
theological conservatism and “worldliness.” Azusa, Holy Road, and Jude Church are
all Pentecostal or Apostolic – two very conservative theological traditions – yet engage
to various degrees in prophetic, socially transformative activism. These churches do
not assumecarte blanche– like other religious organizations, they still face theological
constraints. Even so, they are a testament to the inherent flexibility of conservative
religious traditions, and to the blurriness of world/otherworld distinctions in religious
practice.
All of the pastors came of age during the Civil Rights/Black Power era and were
influenced by the norms of church engagement that crystallized in that era. Also, all of
the clergy have done considerable theological work in order to justify their pastoral and
prophetic stances. Their ability to do such work supports the view that theology is not
a rigid predictor variable but, rather, a cultural resource that believers can use to justify
both activism and retreatism (Mock 1992; Roberts 1990; Dudley and Johnson 1991;
Wood 1999). Pentecostal theology, in particular, contains elements that may restrict
engagement in social activism; but they also contain elements that can facilitate and
complement, rather than obstruct, social engagement (Silva 1984; Alexander 1991;
Warner 1995).
Saving the “Whole Person.”The most powerful enabling element is an understand-
ing of “salvation” that involves the satisfaction of the entire spectrum of human needs,
including physical and social, as well as spiritual ones. This understanding is part and
parcel of Pentecostal theology, which is distinguished in part by its emphasis on the
tangible, or “radically embodied” (Cox 1995) presence of God’s power in the believer’s
life, and by its experience-oriented hermeneutic, or method of scriptural interpreta-
tion. The theologian Mathew Clark (1989:102) writes that the Pentecostal emphasis on
tangibility
contributes a sense of expectation that truth will not only be held in remembrance,
or objectively proclaimed as “pure” doctrine – but thattruth will be realized in the midst
of the people. Liturgy, preaching and missions are all conducted in this expectation –
that sins will be forgiven, bodies and psyches will be healed, spirits will be uplifted,
relationships will be restored, believers will be endowed with spiritual power, etc.
Truth is both personal (i.e., Jesus is the Truth) and empirically realizable, as opposed
to merely conceptual.Simultaneously, the Pentecostal hermeneutic permits the reader of scripture to
identify with the writer by virtue of common spiritual experience....[T]he Bible is
associated with activity and experience rather than viewed as a textbook of doctrine.
Experience after the Biblical pattern takes precedence over confession according to
the supposed theological content of Scripture. (ibid. 101)