People of Praise, Charismatic Catholics, and Fringe Groups

People of Praise. You may never have heard of it before the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett—who is said to be a part of the group—to the Supreme Court. You will probably hear that they are a far-right fringe group, but they are actually part of the charismatic movement, and a bit of history may help us to understand them better.

Charles Parham founded the tiny Bethel Bible School in the heartland of Topeka, Kansas, in 1900. While he invited "all Christians and ministers who were willing to forsake all, sell what they had, give it away, and enter the school for study and prayer," he surely had no idea that 120 years later to the month of its founding, the Pentecostal / charismatic / spirit-filled movement would have 600 million adherents and be arguably the strongest global expression of Christianity across the twentieth century.

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