Alma Bridwell White



Alma Bridwell White (June 16, 1862 – June 26, 1946) was the founder, and a 'bishop,' of the Pillar of Fire Church. In 1918, she became the first 'woman bishop' in the United States. She was noted for her association with the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey and her feminism, anti-Catholicism, antisemitism, racism, and hostility to immigrants.

Birth and early years
She was born as Mollie Alma Bridwell on June 16, 1862 in Kinniconick, Lewis County, Kentucky to William Moncure Bridwell (1825–1907) of Virginia; and Mary Ann Harrison (1832–1921) of Kentucky.

William Baxter Godbey converted her to Wesleyan Methodism in a Kentucky schoolhouse revival meeting in 1878. She wrote that "some were so convicted that they left the room and threw up their suppers, and staggered back into the house as pale as death." By 1880 the family was living in Millersburg, Kentucky.

She studied at the Millersburg Female College in Millersburg, Kentucky. An aunt invited one of the seven Bridwell sisters to visit Montana Territory, Alma was her last choice. Each of the others was afraid to make the journey, but in 1882, nineteen-year-old Alma took the chance and went to Bannack, Montana. She stayed to teach, first in public school, and later in Salt Lake City's Methodist seminary. In 1887 she married Kent White (1860–1940), who at the time was a Methodist seminarian. They had two sons, Ray Bridwell White and Arthur Kent White.

Alma and Kent started the Methodist Pentecostal Union Church in Denver, Colorado in December 1901. She led hymns and prayers and at times preached sermons. In 1907 Caroline Garretson, formerly Carolin Van Neste Field, widow of Peter Workman Garretson, donated a farm for a community at Zarephath, New Jersey. In 1918, White was consecrated as a 'bishop' by William Baxter Godbey, an ordained Methodist evangelist. She was now the first 'woman bishop' in the United States.

Politics: Feminism, Intolerance and the KKK
As a feminist, White was a forceful advocate of equality for white Protestant women. However, she was also uncompromising in her persistent and powerful attacks of religious and racial minorities, justifying both equality for white Protestant women and inequality for minorities as biblically mandated. While the vast majority of her most vicious political attacks targeted the Roman Catholic Church, she also promoted antisemitism, white supremacy and intolerance of certain immigrants.

Under White's leadership in the 1920s, the Pillar of Fire Church developed a close and public partnership with the Ku Klux Klan that was unique for a religious denomination. She saw the Klan as a powerful force that could help liberate white Protestant women, while simultaneously keeping minorities in their place. Her support of the Klan was extensive. She allowed and sometimes participated in Klan meetings and cross burnings on some of the numerous Pillar of Fire properties. She published The Good Citizen, a monthly periodical which heavily promoted the Klan and its agenda. Additionally, she published three books, The Ku Klux Klan In Prophecy, Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty, and Heroes of the Fiery Cross, which were compendiums of the essays, speeches and cartoons that had originally been published in The Good Citizen.

While her association with the Klan waned in the early 1930s, she continued to promote her ideology of intolerance for religious and racial minorities. She even republished her three Klan books in 1943, three years before her death and 21 years after her initial association with the Klan. The books were published as a three volume set under the name Guardians of Liberty. Notably, the word Klansmen was removed from the title, suggesting White's distancing from the Klan while continuing to promote the dogma that initially drew her to partner with the Klan. Volumes two and three of Guardians of Liberty have introductions by Arthur Kent White, her son and the Pillar of Fire's second general superintendent.

Rivalry
Time magazine wrote on October 22, 1928: Aimee Semple McPherson [spoke] ... Worst of all, there came a rival female evangelist from New Jersey, a resolute woman with the mien of an inspired laundress — the Reverend "Bishop" Mrs. Mollie Alma White, founder and primate of the Pillar of Fire Church. Bishop White, who has thousands of disciples ("Holy Jumpers") in the British Isles, clearly regarded Mrs. McPherson as a poacher upon her preserves or worse. Squired by two male Deacons, the Reverend Bishop sat herself down in a box at Albert Hall, with an air of purposing to break up the revival. The dread potency of Bishop White, when aroused against another female, may be judged from her scathing criticisms of the Church of Mary Baker Eddy: "The teachings of the so-called Christian Science Church ... have drawn multitudes from the orthodox faith, and blasted their hopes of heaven! ... A person who is thus in the grip of Satanic power is unable to extricate himself ... [and is] left in utter spiritual desolation." Well might buxom Aimee McPherson have quailed as she faced 2,000 tepid Britons, over 8,000 empty seats, the two Deacons and "Bishop" Mrs. White.

Expansion
In 1927, a transmitter and radio equipment were installed at Belleview College in Westminster, Colorado to promote the college based in the Westminster Castle. By June 1929, the call letters had been changed to KPOF and the station was broadcasting regular sermons from Alma Temple, the Pillar's Denver Church. In March 1931, WBNY was sold to White and the Pillar of Fire Church for $5,000. The call letters were changed to WAWZ (the letters standing for Alma White, Zarephath. In its initial broadcast, she told listeners, "The station belongs to all regardless of your affiliation." In 1961 Pillar of Fire also started WAKW in Cincinnati.  The AKW represents the name of Arthur Kent White, Alma's son.

Death
She died on June 26, 1946 in Zarephath, New Jersey.

Timeline

 * 1862 Birth of Alma White as "Mollie Alma Bridwell" in Kinniconick, Kentucky on June 16
 * 1870 [[Media:1870 census Bridwell.jpg|1870 US Census]] in Elkfork, Lewis County, Kentucky
 * 1880 [[Media:1880 census Bridwell.jpg|1880 US Census]] in Millersburg, Kentucky
 * 1882 Moved to Bannack, Montana Territory, where she taught school
 * 1887 Marriage to Kent White
 * 1896 Church established in Denver, Colorado
 * 1900 [[Media:1900 census White.gif|1900 US Census]] in Denver, Colorado
 * 1901 Methodist Pentecostal Union Church in Denver, Colorado in December
 * 1902 Ordained an Elder in March
 * 1904 "Pentecostal Union Herald" changed to "Pillar of Fire"
 * 1905 (circa) Separates from Methodist Episcopal Church
 * 1907 Creation of community at Zarephath, New Jersey
 * 1909 Separates from husband after he converts to Pentecostalism
 * 1917 Name of church officially changed to "Pillar of Fire"
 * 1918 Ordained as first 'woman bishop' in the United States
 * 1920 Acquires Westminster, Colorado property and opens Westminster University
 * 1920 [[Media:1920 census Bridwell.jpg|1920 US Census]] in Franklin Township, Somerset County, New Jersey
 * 1921 Alma White College founded in Zarephath, New Jersey
 * 1924 Publishes Woman's Chains, which is in print until 1970
 * 1927 KPOF radio station in Westminster, Colorado
 * 1931 WAWZ radio station in Zarephath, New Jersey
 * 1932 Church established in Morrison, Colorado
 * 1946 Death of Alma White on June 27
 * 1946 Death of Ray Bridwell White on November 5

Publications

 * Demons and Tongues (1910)
 * The Harp of Gold (1911) with Arthur Kent White
 * (1911)
 * The New Testament Church (1911–1912) in two volumes
 * Truth Stranger Than Fiction (1913)
 * The Titanic Tragedy: God Speaking to Nations (1913)
 * (1915)
 * (1917)
 * The Story of My Life (1919–1930) in five volumes
 * "The unrepentant Hebrew is everywhere among us today as the strong ally of Roman Catholicism. ... To think of our Hebrew friends with their millions in gold and silver aiding the Pope in his aspirations for world supremacy, is almost beyond the grasp of ... The Jews in New York City openly boast that they have the money and Rome the power, and that if they decide to rule the city and state, ..."
 * "I believe in white supremacy."
 * (1927)
 * "The Jews are as unrelenting now as they were two thousand years ago."
 * Musings of the Past (1927)
 * The Voice of Nature (1927)
 * Hymns and Poems (1931)
 * Short Sermons (1932)
 * (1933)
 * Demons and Tongues (1936)
 * The Sword of the Spirit (1937)
 * "Who are members of the Invisible Empire? White, gentile, American-born Protestants (the very best citizens of the United States) ..."
 * "Who are members of the Invisible Empire? White, gentile, American-born Protestants (the very best citizens of the United States) ..."