intentionally embodied an interracial impulse and understood itself as
making a political and moral statement against racism and segregation by
erecting a denominational structure that refl ected the oneness in Christ
Jesus shared by black and white Christians. 9
Unlike the prevailing attitude among other Christian groups of the era
in which “religious bodies were racially homogenous or segregated inter-
nally,” 10 Mason experimented with three denominational alignments that
refl ected his existential commitment to racial equality: “a race-specifi c
clergy fellowship, an interracial structure, and a white minority confer-
ence.” 11 Daniels roots this impulse in at least four factors: Mason’s back-
ground in holiness and Baptist communities that had signifi cant interracial
cooperation, white fellowships in COGIC prior to 1914, his personal
experiences at Azusa, and his reading of Scripture. Similar approaches can
be discerned in the ministries of early black Pentecostal leaders such as
G.T. Haywood and Robert C. Lawson.
What was it about black Pentecostals that enabled them to incorpo-
rate principles and practices of racial diversity into their understanding
of the incipient Pentecostal movement? More broadly, what is it about
black religious refl ection in general that provides space for a relatively
seamless integration of faith and inclusion? What resources indigenous to
Pentecostalism can be called upon to foster a theological interpretation of
culture that explicitly attends to social dynamics such as race? In one sense,
these questions place hermeneutical methodology in the foreground of
discussion. In Sanctifying Interpretation: Vocation, Holiness, and Scripture ,
Chris E.W. Green gently corrects early Pentecostal exegetes, contending
that while they were correct to read Scripture as a source of information
regarding God’s divine will, they failed to attend to the vocational forma-
tion that a proper model of Scripture should encourage. Urging a shift
from epistemological accounts of Scripture to soteriological ones, Green
writes:
In this sense, everything comes down to how we read the Scriptures. We can
read them in ways that sustain and validate our self-righteousness, our wish-
dreams of community, our pretensions to meaning and purpose. Or we can
read them in ways that nurture our shared sanctifi cation and bring about
faithful witness to the triune holiness of God. 12
PENTECOSTAL HERMENEUTICS AND RACE IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH... 231
