# 2026-06-20 Leaving the Message — Hidden Political Roots of Modern Revivalism (Church of God Deep Dive) John Collins delivers a history-of-ideas argument: the early Pentecostal [[Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)]], under first general overseer A. J. Tomlinson, built a centralized "sacred authority structure" that later movements — culminating in the [[New Apostolic Reformation]] — inherited. The throughline runs through revivalist Roy Davis, a newspaper-advertised Klan lecturer linked to John Roach Straton's "Supreme Kingdom" and Gerald Winrod's fundamentalist-fascist network. (Source: `Readwise/Articles/Hidden Political Roots of Modern Revivalism Church of God Deep Dive.md`) > [!note] Source caution > The "connect the dots architecturally" method risks guilt-by-association and over-reads single primary sources (one newspaper ad called "the smoking gun"). The Church of God (Cleveland) association is disputed within the tradition itself, and Collins concedes he doesn't "have a dog in the fight." The political-theology critique is strong; the historical chain leans on suggestive proximity. --- ## Key claims 1. **Architecture over theology.** Collins argues historians err by "connecting the dots theologically." His method traces *structure* — a movement's political position and the variance between its beliefs and "biblical core theology" — which he says reveals "spider webs of connections" between ministries. (Source: this episode) 2. **Tomlinson built a centralized sacred-authority structure.** Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson expanded a small holiness fellowship into a structured denomination with "coordinated assemblies, publications, and missions," organized around a "restored New Testament order" — theocratic order as the test of legitimacy. (Source: this episode) 3. **Roy Davis as connective tissue.** A newspaper ad shows Davis speaking in the Cleveland branch and helping establish a Church of God institution while described as "a lecturer for the Ku Klux Klan" — read as evidence the Cleveland church was "so aligned with the Klan agenda" it advertised a Klansman. (Source: this episode) 4. **A proto–Seven Mountains.** Davis is linked to Rev. John Roach Straton and the "Supreme Kingdom," a Klan spin-off whose ambitions — seizing education, changing government, embedding in media and entertainment — Collins calls "the early stages for the [[Seven Mountain Mandate]]." (Source: this episode) 5. **Winrod and fundamentalist fascism.** Davis's role in the "Fundamentalist Association" links him to Gerald Burton Winrod, who pushed "fascist-type ideology into early fundamentalism" and preached at Aimee Semple McPherson's Foursquare Gospel Church. Klan + Straton + Fundamentalist Association in one revival notice is the "smoking gun connection." (Source: this episode) --- ## The political-theology critique > "Christianity mixed with anything else cannot be Christianity. It becomes something else entirely." (Collins, this episode) Once a movement declares its government "divinely ordered," voting for the "anointed party" becomes divine order and voting otherwise becomes "satanically ordered." This creates a cult-style boundary between you and Christians who vote differently, suppresses critical thinking ("I'm voting because I'm told to vote"), and "robs people of their freedoms." The NAR, Collins says, now runs this "on steroids." This is the same mechanism documented from the insider side in [[readwise-monte-mader-christian-nationalism|Readwise — Inside Christian Nationalism with Monte Mader (Data Over Dogma)]]. (Source: this episode) > [!contradiction] **Normative premise vs. historical finding.** "Christianity mixed with anything else cannot be Christianity" is a theological claim, not a historical one — and it sits awkwardly beside this wiki's mainline sources, where political engagement (immigrant welcome, economic justice in the St. John's Ruth series) is treated as faithful witness. The defensible core of Collins's critique is narrower: when a church sacralizes one *party* as God's order, dissent becomes heresy. That move — not political engagement as such — is what produces the cult boundary. --- ## Why it matters here It pushes the wiki's [[Christian Nationalism]] and [[Seven Mountain Mandate]] coverage backward in time: not recent inventions but the reactivation of a century-old "architecture" that grants "controversial men access, legitimacy, and influence." The Foursquare/McPherson node also appears in today's Potter's House source ([[2026-06-20-leaving-the-message-potters-house-escape-ep636|Leaving the Message — Inside Potter's House: One Man's Escape (Ep. 636)]]), tightening the Pentecostal-origins map. New historical figures (Tomlinson, Roy Davis, John Roach Straton, Gerald Winrod) are documented inside the [[Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)]] entity rather than as separate stubs.