Robert Clarence Lawson was raised as part of a large, religious family. He himself ran from religion, even though his father was a preacher and had prophesied the same for him. Approached at times by religious members of his community, Robert saw old age as the only mitigating reason to tolerate a discussion of something he believed was not real.
What had brought Lawson, future churchman, to such an early spiritual nadir? In short, another preacher. In his testimony as recorded in Spellman and Thomas's The Life, Legend, and Legacy of Bishop R.C. Lawson, Lawson mentioned that his "faith was made to stumble" due to a preacher in his hometown whom he labeled a hypocrite. He ran from religion, and eventually left the region of his birth, traveling as far away as Canada as a professional singer, drinking and gambling for fun, and aggressively shedding anything that reminded him of religion or the oppressive South.
On a train ride near the U.S.-Canada border, the Lord approached young Lawson in the witness of an old man of European ancestry. In a departure from habit, Lawson verbally unloaded on this senior, giving his vent to his anger at having witnessed and endured indignities in the South in the name of white supremacy. To Lawson's mind, white Christians were necessarily hypocrites, which implied that Lawson at the time had not had a single memorable encounter with a white person that was positive. Hence, the possibility emerges that the hypocrite preacher that had offended him in childhood may not have been a person of color.
The incident on the train notwithstanding, the Lord continued to call Lawson, but through much more extreme measures. Catching up with a friend at a bar, Lawson was almost wounded when the friend, for laughs, shot through the floor. The bullet went through Lawson's foot, putting brakes on his travel plans.
Not long after that, he began coughing up blood and little lumps of what turned out to be his lungs. Hospitalized in Indianapolis, the young rambler was diagnosed with tuberculosis of both lungs, with a very grim prognosis. He was roomed with a prize fighter, whose mother encouraged Lawson to pray and consider his soul. He took her advice and began attending services at the Apostolic Faith Assembly.
Subsequently, Lawson was saved and miraculously healed of tuberculosis. The spiritual realm had become a reality for Lawson, and when he was called to preach, he worked with all his might to share this reality with others.
Later in life, however, when issues arose, Lawson was quick to address hypocrisy. When racism began to reemerge in the Pentecostal movement, he called the white brothers into account for accommodating the sin of race prejudice and segregation. When it came to his own ministers, Lawson was quick to point out the discrepancies between what they said and what they were actually doing. In his own life, the bishop was not too proud to repent to others. He mentioned having to get matters straight with his wife before he could go into the pulpit, and humbling himself to be prayed for when he couldn't pray through concerning a sickness he endured. Of all, good or bad, that could be said about the bishop, being a hypocrite is certainly not one of them.
Monday, May 23, 2016
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Lawson's Spiritual Life: Roots
Research on Robert Clarence Lawson's life has grown, picking up considerably some 50 years after his demise. The gift of God in him was such that a study of his life and deeds still yields inspiration and opportunities for fruitful reflection about ministry and culture. Appreciation for the contributions he made to his generation has inspired present-day action among white and black, spiritual and secular, and Christians of various denomination, to preserve his memory and add to his work.
Lawson's spiritual roots were in the post-Reconstruction black Baptist church. Born a generation after the first post-slavery generation, Lawson would have been raised among people who had been chattel slaves, people who likely had prayed for deliverance from that horror and were singularly blessed to see deliverance in their lifetime. His father, a preacher and perhaps a former slave, would have been one of the most literate and publicly visible men in his community, a product of the prodigious social, educational, and financial gains made by people of African descent during Reconstruction.
In his testimony as recorded in Spellman and Thomas's The Life, Legend, and Legacy of Bishop R.C. Lawson, the bishop describes a childhood and adolescence surrounded by born-again Christians. His father, a Baptist preacher, left with his mother for a revival in Texas, where he died. Before leaving, the elder Lawson laid his hand on and blessed what we can assume was his last child (there was at least one older brother), foretelling that the younger Lawson would be a preacher.
Years later in reflection, Bishop Lawson refers to the revival as "holy," a reflection perhaps of the Holiness movement that had found a serious following among Baptists in the late 1800s. (C.P. Jones and Charles Mason are prominent examples of Baptist preachers who were also Holiness adherents, later going on to establish Holiness and Pentecostal organizations, respectively.) The father Lawson, by blessing his son by word and by touch, may have been acting out a recapturing of the biblical practice of the laying on of hands.
Overshadowed from infancy by the memory of his father and his prophetic blessing, Lawson was impressed as well by the spirituality of the elders in his community. He lost his faith in in God at a young age, but nevertheless tolerated seniors' emotional pleas to him to get religion (i.e., to receive salvation). Sometimes when they spoke about God, their tears and joyful ecstasy, despite their poor health and old-age poverty, half convinced him that the religion they had was real. Also, Lawson, like many in his community, held the belief that disrespecting seniors could be fatal. He paints the picture by recalling a warning heard in his youth: "Don't mess with old lady Mamby, she'll put bad mouth on you" -- that is to say, if you wrong an old person, they may speak something bad about you and it come to pass. "And some did die," Lawson explains, which tempered him, otherwise an utter skeptic, into a thoroughly irreligious, but mildly curious, agnostic: he wasn't sure there was anything to religion, but if there was, he would rather be on good terms with those who had it.
Though death took both his parents in his childhood, Lawson mentions that he attended the Howe Institute, a nearby boarding school. Benjamin Mays and Joseph William Nicholson relate in The Negro's Church that black preachers would often refer to the schooling they received at local grammar schools or high schools when asked where they had been trained or whence they graduated; Howe Institute seemed to have served a similar purpose for Lawson before he pursued formal education in the Northeast. That he was able to attend Howe speaks both to the financial well-being of his family and to their value for education. True to his rearing, Lawson would make education one of his major goals. He acquired a small boarding school in Southern Pines, North Carolina, that became known as the R.C. Lawson Institute, as well as found the Church of Christ Bible Institute, one of the earliest Pentecostal educational organizations in the Northeast.
In many ways, R.C. Lawson was swimming against the current in Pentecost as he endeavored to realize the vision he had of congregational life. Financial prosperity and educational attainment were often assumed and taught to be mutually exclusive of biblical prosperity and spiritual attainment. We see, though, that a melange of natural and spiritual blessings early in life had exposed Lawson to the possibility of social elevation and financial affluence coinciding with profound Christian piety and belief in the supernatural.
Lawson's spiritual roots were in the post-Reconstruction black Baptist church. Born a generation after the first post-slavery generation, Lawson would have been raised among people who had been chattel slaves, people who likely had prayed for deliverance from that horror and were singularly blessed to see deliverance in their lifetime. His father, a preacher and perhaps a former slave, would have been one of the most literate and publicly visible men in his community, a product of the prodigious social, educational, and financial gains made by people of African descent during Reconstruction.
In his testimony as recorded in Spellman and Thomas's The Life, Legend, and Legacy of Bishop R.C. Lawson, the bishop describes a childhood and adolescence surrounded by born-again Christians. His father, a Baptist preacher, left with his mother for a revival in Texas, where he died. Before leaving, the elder Lawson laid his hand on and blessed what we can assume was his last child (there was at least one older brother), foretelling that the younger Lawson would be a preacher.
Years later in reflection, Bishop Lawson refers to the revival as "holy," a reflection perhaps of the Holiness movement that had found a serious following among Baptists in the late 1800s. (C.P. Jones and Charles Mason are prominent examples of Baptist preachers who were also Holiness adherents, later going on to establish Holiness and Pentecostal organizations, respectively.) The father Lawson, by blessing his son by word and by touch, may have been acting out a recapturing of the biblical practice of the laying on of hands.
Overshadowed from infancy by the memory of his father and his prophetic blessing, Lawson was impressed as well by the spirituality of the elders in his community. He lost his faith in in God at a young age, but nevertheless tolerated seniors' emotional pleas to him to get religion (i.e., to receive salvation). Sometimes when they spoke about God, their tears and joyful ecstasy, despite their poor health and old-age poverty, half convinced him that the religion they had was real. Also, Lawson, like many in his community, held the belief that disrespecting seniors could be fatal. He paints the picture by recalling a warning heard in his youth: "Don't mess with old lady Mamby, she'll put bad mouth on you" -- that is to say, if you wrong an old person, they may speak something bad about you and it come to pass. "And some did die," Lawson explains, which tempered him, otherwise an utter skeptic, into a thoroughly irreligious, but mildly curious, agnostic: he wasn't sure there was anything to religion, but if there was, he would rather be on good terms with those who had it.
Though death took both his parents in his childhood, Lawson mentions that he attended the Howe Institute, a nearby boarding school. Benjamin Mays and Joseph William Nicholson relate in The Negro's Church that black preachers would often refer to the schooling they received at local grammar schools or high schools when asked where they had been trained or whence they graduated; Howe Institute seemed to have served a similar purpose for Lawson before he pursued formal education in the Northeast. That he was able to attend Howe speaks both to the financial well-being of his family and to their value for education. True to his rearing, Lawson would make education one of his major goals. He acquired a small boarding school in Southern Pines, North Carolina, that became known as the R.C. Lawson Institute, as well as found the Church of Christ Bible Institute, one of the earliest Pentecostal educational organizations in the Northeast.
In many ways, R.C. Lawson was swimming against the current in Pentecost as he endeavored to realize the vision he had of congregational life. Financial prosperity and educational attainment were often assumed and taught to be mutually exclusive of biblical prosperity and spiritual attainment. We see, though, that a melange of natural and spiritual blessings early in life had exposed Lawson to the possibility of social elevation and financial affluence coinciding with profound Christian piety and belief in the supernatural.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)