Father Divine
Father Divine, also known as Reverend M. J. Divine, was an American spiritual leader from about 1907 until his death in 1965. His full self-given name was Reverend Major Jealous Divine, and he was also known as "the Messenger" early in his life. He founded the International Peace Mission movement, formed its doctrine and oversaw its growth from a small and predominantly black congregation into a multiracial and international church. Many consider him to be a cult leader since he claimed to be God.
Life and career
Prior to 1912: Early life and original name
Little is known about Father Divine's early life, or even his real given name. Father Divine and the peace movement he started did not keep many records. Father Divine declined several offers to write his biography, saying that "the history of God would not be useful in mortal terms". He also refused to acknowledge his relationship with any family. Newspapers in the 1930s had to dig up his probable given name: George Baker. This name is not recognized by the Library of Congress, and from 1979, there is no further use of that name as a heading for Father Divine in libraries' catalogs.Federal Bureau of Investigation files record his name as George Baker alias "God". In 1936 Eliza Mayfield claimed to be Father Divine's mother. She stated that his real name was Frederick Edwards from Hendersonville, North Carolina, and he had abandoned a wife and five children, but Mayfield offered no proof and claimed not to remember his father's name. Father Divine replied that "God has no mother."
Father Divine's childhood remains a contentious point. Some, especially earlier researchers, suppose that he was born in the Deep South, most likely in Georgia, as the son of sharecroppers. Newer research by Jill Watts, based on census data, finds evidence for a George Baker Jr. of appropriate age born in an African-American enclave of Rockville, Maryland, called Monkey Run. If this theory is correct, his mother was a former slave named Nancy Baker, who died in May 1897.
Most researchers agree that Father Divine's parents were freed black slaves. Recordkeeping about this generation of African Americans was notoriously poor, so controversy about his upbringing is not likely to be resolved. On the other hand, he and his first wife, Peninniah claimed that they were married on June 6, 1882. This date appears to have a spiritual meaning rather than a literal one.
Father Divine was probably called George Baker around the turn of the century. He worked as a gardener in Baltimore, Maryland. In a 1906 trip to California, Father Divine became acquainted with the ideas of Charles Fillmore and the New Thought movement, a philosophy of positive thinking that would inform his later doctrines. Among other things, this belief system asserted that negative thoughts led to poverty and unhappiness. Songwriter Johnny Mercer credited a Father Divine sermon for inspiring the title of his song "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive".
Father Divine attended a local Baptist Church, often preaching, until 1907, when a traveling preacher named Samuel Morris spoke and was expelled from the congregation. Morris, originally from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, had a soft-spoken and uncontroversial sermon until the end, when he raised his arms and shouted "I am the Eternal Father!" This routine had him thrown out of many churches in Baltimore, and was apparently unsuccessful until Morris happened upon the receptive Father Divine.
In his late 20s, Father Divine became Morris's first follower and adopted a pseudonym, "The Messenger". The Messenger was a Christ figure to Morris's God the Father. Father Divine preached with Morris in Baltimore out of the home of former evangelist Harriette Snowden, who came to accept their divinity. Morris began calling himself "Father Jehovia".
Divine and Father Jehovia were later joined by John A. Hickerson, who called himself Reverend Bishop Saint John the Vine. John the Vine shared the Messenger's excellent speaking ability and his interest in New Thought.
In 1912, the three-man ministry collapsed, as John the Vine denied Father Jehovia's monopoly on godhood, citing 1 John 4:15 to mean God was in everyone:
Father Divine parted ways with his former associates. Denying that Father Jehovia was God, and saying that not everyone could be God, he declared that he himself was God, and the only true expression of God's spirit.
1912–1914: In the South
Father Divine traveled south, where he preached extensively in Georgia. In 1913, conflicts with local ministers led to him being sentenced to 60 days in a chain gang. While he was serving his sentence, several prison inspectors were injured in an auto accident, which he viewed as the direct result of their disbelief.Upon his release, he attracted a following of mostly black women in Valdosta, Georgia. He taught celibacy and the rejection of gender categorizations.
On February 6, 1914, several followers' husbands and local preachers had Divine arrested for lunacy. This arrest expanded his ministry, with reporters and worshipers deluging his prison cell. Some whites even began calling on him.
Former Mercer University professor and lay preacher, J.R. Moseley of Macon, Georgia befriended Divine and arranged for J.B. Copeland, a Mercer alum and respected Valdosta lawyer, to represent him pro bono. Moseley was interested in what he termed "this unusual man" in his autobiography Manifest Victory.
Decades later, in the 1930s, Moseley met Divine in New York City when he received word that the man going by that name might in fact be the same person he met in Georgia. Father Divine was found mentally sound in spite of "maniacal" beliefs. He had given no name when arrested and was tried as "John Doe ".
1914–1919: Brooklyn and marriage to Peninniah
In 1914, Father Divine travelled to Brooklyn, New York, with a small number of followers and an all-black congregation. Although he claimed to be God incarnate fulfilling biblical prophecies, he lived relatively quietly.He and his disciples formed a commune in a black, middle-class apartment building. He forbade sex, alcohol, tobacco and gambling among the people living with him. By 1919, he had adopted the name Reverend Major Jealous Divine. "Reverend Major" was chosen as a title of respect and authority, while "Jealous" was a reference to Exodus 34:14, where the Lord says he is a "jealous god" and that God's name is Jealous. His followers affectionately called him Father Divine.
In this period, Father Divine was married to Peninniah, a follower, who was many years older than himself. Like Father Divine, her early life is obscure, but she is believed to be from Macon, Georgia. Harris, who wrote a biography about the Peace movement and its leader said that Father Divine had met Peninah in Georgia and came North with her and that they bought the house in Sayville as a married couple. Penniniah would later claim that Father Divine had healed her from crippling arthritis or rheumatism and after this she became one of his early followers. She would also witness in churches and in the street about her miraculous recovery. According to this account Penniniah was a member of a Methodist church in Valdosta led by Rev. Joseph Gabriel, who had allowed Father Divine to preach in his church after witnessing one of his alleged miracles.
But in an interview with a reporter from the New York Post, Penniniah told a reporter that she had met Father Divine in Baltimore, Maryland, when he was a 'Nazarene' or Holiness preacher. The actual marriage date is unknown but probably occurred between 1914 and 1917. She was first called "Sister Penny" then "Mother Penny" and finally referred to as "Mother Divine" or "Mother of the Faithful".
In addition to lending her dignified look to Father Divine, Peninniah served to defuse rumours of impropriety between him and his many young female followers. Both Penninah and Father Divine would assert that the marriage was never physically consummated.
Peninniah became known for her free dinners, the forerunners of the later lavish "Holy Communion" banquets that helped to attract new followers to the movement. She also played a major part in the Peace Mission's development throughout the 1920s and 1930s, establishing the group's "Promised Land" in Ulster County in upstate New York, where she also attempted to open an orphanage.
1919–1931: Sayville, New York
Father Divine and his disciples moved to Sayville, New York in 1919. He and his followers were the first black homeowners in town. Father Divine purchased his 72 Macon Avenue house from a resident who wanted to spite the neighbor he was feuding with. The two neighbors, both German Americans, began fighting when one of them changed his name from Felgenhauer to Fellows in response to anti-German sentiment. His neighbor taunted him, and the feud escalated until Fellows decided to move. As a final insult, he specifically advertised his home for sale to a "colored" buyer, presumably to lower his neighbors' property value.In this period, his movement underwent sustained growth. Father Divine held free weekly banquets and helped newcomers find jobs. He began attracting many white followers as well as black. The integrated environment of Father Divine's communal house and the apparent flaunting of his wealth by his owning a Cadillac infuriated neighbors.
Members of the overwhelmingly white community accused him of maintaining a large harem and engaging in scandalous sex, but the district attorney's office in Suffolk County found the claims baseless. To try to please his neighbors, he had a sign posted at his driveway warning guests: NOTICE—Smoking—Intoxicating Liquors—Profane Language—Strictly Prohibited. Contrary to the charges of Sayville residents, Angels claimed that Father Divine prohibited singing after 8 p.m., and by 10 p.m. had closed all windows and blinds." Nonetheless, the neighbors continued to complain.