The Limits of Tolerance: Alma White and the Pentecostal Union Crusade

• Publication year: 2004
• Pages: 84

33 Colo.Law. 84 Colorado Lawyer 2004.

2004, August, Pg. 84. The Limits of Tolerance: Alma White and the Pentecostal Union Crusade

Vol. 33, No. 8, Pg. 84

The Colorado Lawyer
August 2004
Vol. 33, No. 8 [Page 84]

Departments
Historical Perspectives
The Limits of Tolerance: Alma White and the Pentecostal Union Crusade
by Frank Gibbard

This historical perspective was written by Frank Gibbard, a staff attorney with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and Secretary of the newly formed Tenth Circuit Historical Society. He may be reached at Frank_Gibbard@ca10.uscourts.gov

Both the Colorado and U.S. Constitutions guarantee absolute freedom of religious belief. The parameters of permitted religious conduct are less clear. While Americans tend to tolerate a wide variety of religious expression, the principle of "live and let live" has not always won the day

In 1902 - 03, Denver residents had their religious tolerance tested by a remarkable woman named Alma White. White was the founder of the Pentecostal Union, a charismatic sect. Her church stressed personal holiness and vivid expressions of the spirit, vegetarianism, and women's rights, while discouraging non-procreative sexual activity. White also was a vehement anti-Catholic and a supporter of the Ku Klux Klan

White erected a tent at the corner of Eighteenth and Stout Streets with room for 200 souls. To her neighbors, it must have seemed like a great many more souls than that. The noise from the tent soon proved so loud that a group of the Pentecostal Union's neighbors petitioned the mayor of Denver not to renew the tent permit. The protestors included Denver County Coroner W. P. Horan, who claimed that the noise made by the tent worshipers was almost loud enough to wake his customers. Supporters of the Pentecostal Union filed their own counter-petitions, and Mayor Robert R. Wright renewed the permit.

Encouraged, White took her crusade to the streets. In February 1903, her followers marched down Seventeenth Street from Champa to Larimer Streets, beating a bass drum, waving handkerchiefs, and carrying banners. These activities were not unusual for evangelical groups of the era. What distinguished the Pentecostal Union was their practice of "leaping for joy." "Leaping" produced physical feats rarely seen outside a sports arena. Leapers were known to jump three or four feet into the air, screaming religious sentiments...