The Family Religious History of Patrick Oden

A paper I wrote for my American Church History class my junior year, age 20. This was some true history I pursued here, with my having to go hunt down information and seek stories from a variety of relatives. Curiously, these conversations were some of the last I had with certain relatives, sad to say.

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The land of sunshine, the land of plenty. Where shattered lives could be rebuilt and those with nothing could find everything. It is a sun-kissed land where multitudes came to find wealth, and found a fuller life. A place where anything can be tried, where the establishment does not rule. It brought people from all walks of life, from all different parts of the country. They came from states such as North Carolina, Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma. They came to seek a newness of life, a fresh start, and the opportunity that was offered to all. They came to seek the golden life, they came to California. This new state afforded opportunities that could be found no where else. It fostered new ways of life, and new ways of thought. By nature of the diversity of the influx, California has always been a place where traditions mixed and society was not controlled by a dominant establishment. From all backgrounds people came, with the search for independence creating a common, kindred spirit. Those who came brought diverse views on every matter, and religion was no exception. In this paper I will seek to present the story of my family, and the religious views that developed in the burgeoning region of Southern California. I will show the lessening power of denominations, the rise of fundamentalism, and its transformation into neo-evangelicalism. Underlying these issues, however, is the story of a family who earnestly sought, and was led by, God.

Roy Jay Hannah and Sara Emma Galland were born in Colorado. His family had come from Tyrone, Ireland and were Christians as far back as could be remembered. The Hannah family went to the Christian Church in Silverton, Colorado. Roy had four sisters, each one a committed Christian. When he was twenty-one, his father was killed on a deer hunting trip. Sara's family were Methodists who lived in Florence, Colorado. She had one brother and four sisters. Her father had died before she was married. Each of her sisters, and her mother, were committed Christians, her brother, unfortunately, was not. Roy and Sara met, married, and moved with their family to Culver City, California in the twenties. They both became very active in the Mar Vista Community Church. Roy was the head deacon, the Sunday school superintendent, and was considered an outstanding adult Bible Teacher. Sara taught a Sunday school class, was very active in the missionary society, and did whatever was needed in the church. They were considered by many to be "the backbone of the church."

All four of their daughters were committed Christians, married committed Christians, and were very active in church. One daughter, Mildred, worked in Jewish studies with her husband. They worked for three years at a Biblical research school in Jerusalem as well as at Western Bible College in Salem, Oregon. Verl Mae, another daughter, accepted the Lord as her personal savior when she was ten years old at a tent revival meeting held by the Fundamental Evangelistic Association. The Association would put up a large tent on a vacant lot and provide chairs, pianos, and speakers. Local churches would provide manpower and other help. In the afternoons there would be children's meetings followed by the regular meetings in the evening. They would last for about two weeks. It was at the children's meetings that she accepted Christ, and was baptized soon afterwards in her church, which had recently changed its name to the Mar Vista Fundamentalist Church. She was very active there throughout her formative years. Mae participated in the youth group and choir. She also taught Sunday School until she was seventeen, at which time her father found at that she went to shows, which was very frowned on by the fundamentalists. It was at church that she really got to know a boy named Paul Oden.

His parents were both very committed Christians. His father's family were involved in the Church of Christ, and his mother's parents were very active Methodists until the early years of this century when they became influenced by the Plymouth Brethren. Both his mother and father also became more committed Christians at Plymouth Brethren meetings, where they eventually met, and fell in love. They married in 1918. All of his mother's family were very committed Christians, with one of his mother's sisters, Esther, spending twenty seven years as a missionary in northern China. All of his own brothers and sisters became very committed Christians and have lived active church lives.

Both Mae and Paul were very active in their church youth group. They attended weekly Bible study classes together and attended Saturday night youth rallies at the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles. These rallies were the precursor to Youth for Christ. Their involvement in church activities nurtured their own relationship and they were married in 1942. The next December Paul was drafted by the army. He came home for good in 1945. They had their first son, Glenn, in 1944, followed by their daughter, Jeanette, and their youngest son, David. After Paul came home they bought an acre of land in Hacienda Heights, and lived in an old ranch house while they built their own home.

They attended Bassettdale Community Church when they first moved, but soon started going to Calvary Baptist church after the pastor visited them. They really liked him and it seemed to them to be "just where the Lord wanted" them. It met in the Veterans Hall while construction of a sanctuary was ongoing. Paul soon became the Sunday School Superintendent, and he and Mae would go to the Hall before the service and clean up the beer cans left from the night before. It was a real strong community. Every family helped to build the church building, with the men coming in after work to do construction. The church continued to grow. After the high school group had grown to about ten kids, Paul and Mae began to work with them. This was an era in which churches only had one pastor, so the multitude of responsibility was often meted out to the faithful churchgoers. Paul also was a deacon, in charge of the Sunday School, and taught a class. Mae also taught a class, worked in the missionary society, and got involved in Child Evangelism.[1]

As youth directors they got involved in a youth organization called Christian Endeavor, which provided lesson material for Sunday night youth meetings, and took everyone to the Youth for Christ meetings on Saturday nights. About this time they attended a Youth Rally that was being held in Long Beach, where they heard an outstanding speaker named Billy Graham. A few years later, in 1949, they volunteered to be personal workers at his Los Angeles revival campaign. It was at this campaign that Billy Graham became very famous as an evangelist.[2]

After spending a few years in Oregon beginning in 1955, Paul and Mae were drawn back to California. They returned to Calvary Baptist and soon worked again with the youth for a couple more years. After the pastor left, the new pastor felt that it was time for a more qualified youth director, noting the lack of Paul and Mae's Bible school training. Paul and Mae soon left the church rather then cause resentment and anger amongst the youth, who valued them. They began to attend Bethany Baptist Church., where they were once again asked to work with the high school group, this time as helpers to the burdened couple in charge. Once again they put their energy into serving the high school kids.

They were asked to be the directors of this fifty person group after the other couple moved away from the area. They also continued to be involved in a myriad of other church related activities. As they have grown older their activities in church have lessened, though their faith has not. They retired from their youth work in 1970, and have slowly become less active since. They still are involved in Bible studies in their current church and spend a good portion of their time in prayer for their church and their family.

Wesley Asbury King was born on November 26, 1852 in Macon, Georgia. He was a Methodist, and a tobacco salesman. Edwina Z. Gibbs was a Baptist of Dutch origin who was born in 1866 in Whittier, North Carolina. Her parents were farmers and slave owners. In 1885, Wesley and Edwina were married, and farmed in Whittier. They were sporadic attenders of the local Methodist church themselves, but made sure that each of their thirteen children went to Sunday school every week. Their children considered them good parents, with one daughter, Florence, saying that "they were kind, never whipped us, never beat us, Mother worked hard." In 1915, Wesley died. Edwina packed, and left North Carolina with her family to go West, to Los Angeles. At some point she remarried, but her second husband was a closed subject in the family, never spoken of by anyone. They attended a Methodist church at first, but it was a long walk and they felt that it was a rather "unfriendly" church.

Their neighbors, the McConnells--whose family had moved to Los Angeles in the 1870s--iattended the local Christian Church. When a visiting evangelist, Brother Wilheight, invited the King family to attend one of his meetings there, they accepted and South Park Christian Church became the church for the King family as well. In 1920, Joseph King, the fourth child of Wesley and Edwina, soon married one of his neighbors, Elsie McConnell. Elsie was an accomplished violin player, playing in the Los Angeles Philharmonic and in church every week. They had one son and four daughters. The King brothers, overall, did not attend church since they had moved to Los Angeles, and Joseph stopped going to church when his children were very young. He did continue to be very supportive of their attendance, however, and was a Christian. He worked as a train conductor for Union Pacific in Los Angeles. They soon moved about twenty miles east to live in the city of Baldwin Park. They then began to attend the nearby Christian Church.

In the state of Missouri, a young James McBride met a young Essie Cheeseman. His father had died when he was nineteen, leaving him as the head of the family. Her parents came to the United States from England. He courted her in "a fine surrey, with stately horses leading." They married, and had a son. A year later they moved to Oklahoma, where they had three more children. In 1921, the family moved to California, where James became a dairy farmer. At this point they began to attend the Church of the Nazarene. James later bought property in the city of Baldwin Park and continued his dairy farming there. While there they attended the nearby First Christian Church, where James became an elder. Following the nervous breakdown of his only daughter, James became disenchanted with the church and stopped attending. Essie attended this church for the rest of her life.

Though he was five years older, Merle Lyle McBride met and was attracted to Elsie Louise McBride. They began to date. Both he and she went to the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA). He began to work at the Bassettdale Community Church for his Christian Service Assignment, while she stayed active at the Christian Church where they were married. They then made the Community Church their home, and were very active there. He was a deacon, Sunday School teacher and bus driver. She was a Sunday school teacher, directed the children's church, and was active in the ladies missionary society. Together, they worked with the youth program. Though they had two children, the Church was their life.

During this time Merle was a farmer, and a very successful one at that. He owned vast tracts of land in West Covina, farming on it a variety of crops, and at one time was the largest tomato producer for Hunt's. Because of the size of his land he required laborers. These laborers were all Mexicans. After a while of working with these men, Merle began to feel a burden for their spiritual lives. He learned Spanish and began a Spanish speaking church. He would have gone to Mexico as a missionary, but for the fact that his oldest daughter had contracted polio and would not have been able to live in Mexico. The farm was eventually lost due to a few years of disasters ruining the crops, but this only opened the door for further work with Mexicans. In addition to the Church, Merle and Louise began the Instituto Evangélico, a Bible Institute to train young workers for churches in Mexico and in the United States. This is a work that still goes on today.

When she was born she was dying. She was very premature, too sick, and too tiny. The doctor gave her no hope for recovery. Yet she did recover, and lived. She was Dena Marie McBride, first child of Merle and Louise. Her struggles did not end at birth. When she was three years old, in 1948, she contracted polio, and was to spend a good portion of her life battling the disease and its effects. Though a hard struggle, she did not let this get in the way of her living. She was a vibrant, energetic young woman. Early on she began to get involved in church activity. She taught Sunday school at the Spanish church, as well as being in charge of "young people's night" beginning in Junior High School. She began to get very involved in Christian Endeavor and Youth for Christ.

When she turned thirteen, Merle and Louise decided to give up the Spanish Church and spend their Sundays raising money for the Institute. Dena absolutely loved the Iglesia Evangélica, and it was very hard for her to give it up. She was an attractive young woman, however, and it was not long before young men with cars began to invite her to their churches. She began to attend Bethany Baptist on a regular basis. Her service in the church continued to blossom throughout high school.. She was an officer in the high school group, camp counselor, and was active in the Christian girls club. Throughout this record of service was the continual dealings with her polio. She had continual surgery. year after year, yet she never let the emotions of this show, and was seemingly without a flaw. Following graduation from high school, she left home to attend the Montana School of the Bible for a year. Her experiences here could alone fill a book. She returned to Southern California, and began to, once again, get involved at Bethany Baptist. She also began school at Biola, and began to date the youngest son of Paul and Mae Oden, who was home after a year at Wheaton College.

His earliest memories are of church. His life was inundated with church work from the beginning. He was very active in church, especially during his high school years at Bethany Baptist., where he served as president of his high school group. He also became active in Young Life. This was never his "life," however. He was also very active in his public high school, serving as freshman class president, junior class president, and student body president, as well as being a successful member of the track team. The director of Christian Education at Bethany was a graduate of Wheaton College, and it was a revered name in Christian circles, so David applied. He was the only one he knew who did so, because even then Wheaton was considered "too hard to get into." He was accepted and, basically, dropped everything in 1966 to attend Wheaton. This ex-surfer guy, popular in both secular and Christian circles fell into an emotional hole upon arriving at Wheaton. He made every attempt to "connect" with people at Wheaton, but nothing worked. In June, 1967 he left Wheaton, not planning on returning. Yet he did, but in 1971. This time he was married to Dena Marie, and had a year old son.

He graduated from Wheaton with a degree in Biblical Studies, and began to attend the Graduate School. Unfortunately, both his oldest son, and his youngest, Patrick, born in 1974, began to show bad reactions to the cold weather. They developed ear problems which could be solved either through surgery or a warmer climate. Dena had no desire to put her kids through the surgical experiences that she went through, and the Oden family moved back to California.

Following this time, Dave and Dena went through a period of disillusionment and searching. They felt that the religion of their youth was missing some vital aspect which they could not identify. Also, the experiences of their lives had created in them certain levels of anger and bitterness towards God and religion which they need to work out. Their hearts held them true to the Lord, but they had some emotional issues to deal with. These feelings led them on an explorative journey. They began attending a Wesleyan Church, where they were very involved as children's ministry teachers. From here, a friend brought them into contact with the charismatic movement, and its emphasis on the Holy Spirit.

Although, this movement, as well as the Pentecostal movement, began in Los Angeles Dave and Marie, as she now called herself, had never before heard the message that it taught. The freshness and energy appealed to them, and they realized that Christianity is more than a series of ethical standards and rigid beliefs. The Christian life could also be full of the working of the Spirit in many ways. Though they have since moved on from their involvement with the charismatic movement, their experiences there brought to them a fuller understanding of the Christian life. They followed their yearning for God, and he led them through hard circumstances and times of questioning so that they might have a fuller understanding of who He is. They, and their children, are once again fully entrenched within the evangelical world, but through their explorations and willingness to leave their own tradition for a while have brought a new outlook and vitality to their beliefs.

Throughout the history of my family a theme is seen. Very early on my family became disenchanted with the established denominations, and sought those place where they felt God was working the most. It does not seem that any member consciously followed any particular movement or grasped on to the "popular" religious sects for any other reason than the desire to grow as Christians and to loyally serve God the best way that they could. Early on in the history we see the evidence of following the conservative, orthodox pattern of Christianity wherever that would lead, without making firm commitments to any particular form or institution. The early connection with Methodism that my family possessed seemed to be left in the South from where they came. This movement had lost much of its early passion by the turn of the century and it did not retain enough distinctiveness or warmth for my great-grandparents to stay committed.

They turned to the Church of Christ, whose nineteenth century, frontier roots gave it a freshness that was lacking elsewhere. Both my maternal and paternal sides were influenced by the belief of unity through the simple faith in Christ that this church offers. It itself was rather anti-denominational, and believed that salvation has little to do with church affiliation.[3] It is both very conservative and very progressive, believing strongly in personal interpretation, and holding only the New Testament as an authority.[4] The Churches of Christ were firm congregationalists until the last few decades. The main reason, it seems, that my family, on both sides, left the Christian Church, another name for it, is because it holds to the belief that baptism is essential for salvation. My family disagreed, and so left. They did not keep the commitment that denominations depend on, but rather moved on to where they felt that God's Word was best represented.

For my paternal side they found the activity of God in the Plymouth Brethren. The Brethren, as they like to be called, were firm believers in the unity of all believers, the autonomy of the local congregation, and the commitment to all the fundamentals of orthodox Christianity.[5] With this they felt that the "church" is the gathering of people who meet together, rather than a building, and that the "priesthood of all believers" means that each member uses his or her "gifts" to minister within the community.[6] The Brethren seem to be focused primarily in upscale, centers of population such as New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.[7] This may signify that denominations are very dependent on homogeneous communities, and that where diversity occurs, people tend to drop their religious molds and seek those with similar passions, and are more willing to follow their own personal interpretations and beliefs wherever those convictions might lead.

The Church of Christ and Plymouth Brethren both, over the years, became rather established. So my family, following its trend of independence and faith, sought other church settings. The blend of orthodox Christianity, emphasis on personal salvation, and independent mindedness led them naturally to the fundamentalist movement. Unlike much of the followers of the movement, however, my family did not seem to get caught up in all of the peripheral arguments such as evolution and dispensationalism, but focused fully on the salvation of souls, and the belief in the "Fundamentals." The name was coined by a conservative Baptist editor, Curtis Lee Laws, to designate those Christians who were ready to fight for certain fundamental beliefs.[8] The main beliefs can be stated in five points: the inerrancy of Scripture, the deity of Christ, his Virgin Birth, his substitutionary atonement, and his physical resurrection.[9] The fundamentalists emphasized the saving of souls over all other aspect of Christianity, with the intense desire for all people to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Thus, much of fundamentalism, especially as represented in my family, was very revivalistic in nature.

With this personal aspect of Christianity comes a profound commitment to one another, in order that each Christian might be built up and be able to lead others to Christ. Fundamentalists do not, however, hold to a strong commitment to Church tradition. They are distrustful of denominations, and feel that any group of Christians is just as able to carry out the Lord's work as established churches, hence the rise of para-church organizations that were spawned from this tradition. Many Baptist churches, already very independent in nature, became Fundamentalist without much fighting, unlike the other major denominations. The churches that my grandparents and parents attended were all members of the Independent Fundamentalist Churches of America, yet they were all called Baptist churches.

In addition to the belief in the importance of personal salvation, fundamentalists also had a very strong ethical system. These ethics were very strict and, as George Marsden stated, "centered on avoiding the vices of the barroom."[10] Thus, one's Christian faith was often measured by one's avoidance of gambling, alcohol, smoking, dancing, and theater attendance. A Christian was measured by what they did not do rather than what they did. The "pledge" of Wheaton College shows clearly its own fundamentalist background. Fundamentalists were strict separatists who did not want any sort of relationship with the outside world. They de-emphasized involvement in social needs and issues, while emphasizing salvific work. The true needs of the world were spiritual in nature and social evil existed on account of personal sinfulness. Thus, the Fundamentalist was solely focused on the salvation of souls. This is certainly seen in my family history. My maternal grandfather worked with migrant workers and was touched by their intense needs. Rather than becoming a ardent labor activist, he began a church and a Bible institute for training Mexican pastors, in order to meet their spiritual needs.

The fundamentalist ethics promoted a legalism that my uncle feels promoted a "rigid, narrow, constrained lifestyle." The emphasis was on the "don'ts" rather the joy of Christianity. In fact, much of Fundamentalism was a reaction against ideas and thoughts, rather than an embracing of what was true and right. As the movement grew older, it also lost its scholastic base, and began to become ineffective in reaching a changing society with the message of Christ. During the 1940s separate scholars throughout the country noticed the tremendous lack of a solid, conservative, scholarly based Christianity. They espoused the main tenets of fundamentalist beliefs, but were disappointed by its growing de-emphasis of academic thought and estrangement with society. The intellectual leaders of this movement included Harold Ockenga, Edward Carnell, and Carl F.H. Henry. They sought to return to the intellectual roots that fundamentalism had lost. They held to the teachings of personal "instant" conversion, the absolute authority of the Bible alone, and the idea that the Bible teaches clear, logical, defensible doctrines which constitute the essence of the Christian faith.[11] Their new movement was called neo-evangelicalism. It sought to enter into society once again, with the idea that conservative, orthodox Christianity was strong enough to stand up to liberal theologians. It began to reassert the social obligations of the Christian gospel.

In addition, it was a transdenominational movement that accepted Christians from all backgrounds. While essentially an academic movement in its outset, neo-evangelicalism found the mainstream with the assistance of a young evangelist by the name of Billy Graham. One can, on a basic level, find the theological opinion of neo-evangelicalism by asking what one thinks of Billy Graham. In my family this is truly the case. On my paternal side, my grandparents moved along with the transformation of fundamentalism to evangelicalism. Though they probably did not consciously know it, their Christian dedication led them while they worked in their church towards the neo-evangelical position. They attended a Youth For Christ sponsored rally in Long Beach, where they first heard Billy Graham. He must have made an impression on them, for they volunteered to be counselors for his Los Angeles crusade in 1949. They supported the ideals of Billy Graham, while also still holding to the basics of Fundamentalism and thus can legitimately be called evangelicals.

My maternal side grew distrustful of Billy Graham, with my grandfather feeling that he had given in to the ideals of the world, and lost his true calling from God. They did not support his efforts, and thus remain to this day as fundamentalists. While these are basic generalizations, one finds that this "litmus test" does seem to be an accurate indicator, at least in my family. Evangelicalism continues to hold the main beliefs of Fundamentalism, but is different in its willingness to explore and more fully define what true Christianity entails. Rather than simply believing in the basic articles of faith, it seeks to explore them more deeply, and is willing to question them on an academic level. The strict legalism has also been left behind, though not quite as rapidly as the anti-intellectualism. Evangelicals are more willing to identify with the culture that exists around them, and hold to a more personally interpreted system of ethics, though with strict lines still drawn in certain matters. The time of reaction has ended, and the role that Fundamentalism played in keeping certain aspects of the faith solidly established in the churchserved was needed and effective, but the danger has past. Evangelicalism realizes that advance is possible in the Christian world, and that salvation of souls will not come about by escape from the culture, but rather by the engagement with the culture.

Within my family history one cannot divorce the events from the location. California is a vital aspect of understanding the occurrences of my family. I believe that several aspects exist within the Californian framework that have influenced the religion in my family, as well as that within the world. The first is the newness of California. The region itself was settled for a long while, almost as long as the eastern part of the continent. Yet, the state did not exist until the mid-nineteenth century and did not really become a major influence until the twentieth. California's freshness means that it has no real establishment that would put burdens on any new thought or idea. Any idea can be put forth without fear of shaking the established practices in California. This fact has helped to foster a myriad of belief systems within Christianity, as well as outside of Christianity, which would have been otherwise stamped out by set institutions. While many of these movements, such as Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism, do not have their roots in California, they did find fertile soil there for great growth. It became a place where new ideas were encouraged and tried out, where anything would at least be tested. Having thrown off the binds of the establishment can lead to great mistakes, but it can also lead to a vitality that is found in few other locales.

Another aspect which California possesses is the ideal of independence. Few people in the world were as thirsty for independence as those who came to the American West. Here they found the ability to start over, to build their lives with their own hard work without depending on others for their survival. Though they came for various reasons, they all came to seek a part of the bounty that California offered for those who would put in the time and effort. They did not like the restraints that were placed on them and desired to think their own thoughts and do what they wanted to do. This independent mindedness definitely influenced the religious beliefs in California. Community was never as important as following one's own heart and convictions. If one disagreed with what was going on, and could not enact change, then one moved on. Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism were movements which were fed by this desire for independence and gave to the Conservative Christians of California an opportunity to be both orthodox and independent. A rare combination indeed, but one which truly had a place within our society.

Finally, California is a place of diversity. Like no other region in the nation, California has brought together a cornucopia of thoughts and ideas, of backgrounds and histories, and of races and dreams. This diversity opened all of the inhabitants to new thoughts, and took what each individual had to bring and transformed it into something that was unique in the world. Denominations could not play a strong role in such a heterogeneous society. People were willing to try new things only because these new things were being offered to them. The influx to California was unusual. Unlike other regions, which were settled as the population slowly grew westward, California boomed almost instantly, while being two thousand miles away from the nearest population center. The settlers were driven people. Those who came to California were not a random cross-section of Americans. They tended to be higher educated, better trained, and more willing to face the challenges that faced them.[12] This willingness to learn, and the great variety of new things to learn helped to foster a unique environment indeed.

One's forbears pass on more than physical characteristics. It is a rare person who does not show the thoughts and attitudes of his family in his own life. I am not that kind of rare person. My family has vitally influenced me, in ways which I was not previously aware. In studying my family I see a constant devotion to God. This devotion to conservative, orthodox Christianity grew as my family migrated west to California. It lost its expression within established denominations early on, and grasped on to the independent minded Fundamentalists and then the Neo-Evangelicals.

The people who came to California were certainly shaped by its own attitudes of newness, independence, and diversity. The state of California was itself molded by the courage and new thought of its inhabitants. I see myself continuing on in the family "footsteps." Like my father, and his parents before him, I find myself feeling out of place while away from the Golden State. Like all of my family, I desire to do the will of God, wherever that might lead me. The family pattern of independence and evangelicalism still is present in my generation. I continue to see the changes and progress of Christian thought in California, and am excited about being present in a place where new things happen. It is a rich history from which I come, one in which I am very proud of, and one in which I must continue to uphold. This will be possible only if I continue to follow the pattern of devotion to Christ that my family has exemplified. May God continue to bless us richly as we seek to serve Him, and Him alone.

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[1] Child Evangelism was an outreach ministry designed to reach the children of each community. The leader was trained to teach and use ministerial tools. Each leader would then sponsor after school clubs for their neighborhood called "Good News Clubs." The message of Christ would be spread through these clubs to the children, and as a result from the children to their families.

[2] Due to the nature and scope of this paper, a fuller examination of the life and thought of Billy Graham is not possible. For a quick reference and quality bibliography on this great Christian leader I would recommend two articles: Charles Lippy. "Billy Graham." Twentieth Century Shapers of American Popular Religion. Charles H. Lippy, ed. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989 and J.D. Woodbridge. "William Franklin Graham." Dictionary of Christianity in America. Reid et al., eds. Downer's Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1990.

[3] Mead, Frank. Handbook of Denominations in the U.S. 9 ed. rev. by Samuel Hill. Nashville: Abington Press, 1990. 72.

[4] Ibid., 73.

[5] Ibid., 194-195.

[6] Ibid., 195.

[7] Ibid., 196.

[8] Marsden, George. "Fundamentalism." Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience, v . Charles Lippy and Peter Williams, eds. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. 963.

[9] Ibid., 954

[10] Ibid., 948.

[11] Quebedeaux, Richard. "Conservative and Charismatic Developments of the Later Twentieth Century." Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience, v . Charles Lippy and Peter W. Williams, eds. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988. 963.

[12] Frankiel, Sandra. "Autonomy, Authority, and Society in California." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 30(December 1991): 539.