Lawson's Spiritual Life: Hypocrites

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.