Mainline Protestants in liberal-led denominations are long used to advocacy of GLBT causes. But is this advocacy now even in generally conservative Pentecostalism? Seemingly so, based on presentations at the Society of Pentecostal Studies (SPS) gathering at, ironically, Pat Robertson’s Regent University earlier this year.
The SPS is an academic organization “dedicated to providing a forum of discussion for all academic disciplines as a spiritual service to the kingdom of God.” Started in 1970, the SPS is the oldest academic society in the charismatic movement and was founded principally to serve the mission of the Pentecostal church worldwide. Pentecostals and charismatics take up a unique place in the world of evangelicalism. While charismatic denominations like the Assemblies of God and the World Church of God in Christ are not known for their liberalism, Pentecostalism has birthed its fair share of heresies. The Oneness movement – a Modalist aberrance that imitates the Sabellians of old by denying the three persons of God in favor of three modes – grew out of charismatic circles. And some charismatics are associated with the “Word of Faith” movement that has birthed many a televangelist. However, the SPS seems to have been established as a means to counteract this tendency in Pentecostalism. Applying rigorous academic study to a movement occasionally plagued by fideism is commendable, especially as it continues to grow exponentially in South America and Africa.
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