Further Reflections on

William E. McMahon and James B. Griffis

rnest Angley was born in 1922 in Gastonia, North muttering inaudibly. In the latter the Reverend Angley points Carolina.' He credits his parents with giving him a strict to a section of the auditorium and says something like: "There Ereligious upbringing, which kept him from "sowing his are five people in this section suffering from high blood pres- wild oats" too much. He attended Lee College, a Church of sure. Receive the miracle." Presumably those five people are God institution in , Tennessee, where he met his wife, then relieved of their hypertension. The service concludes with Esther Lee, nicknamed "Angel." He was never ordained, but a Pentecostal ritual in which the same verses are sung over and received a license to preach in 1943. After several years as a over for about thirty minutes. This has a hypnotic effect on traveling evangelist preaching in tents, Angley came to Akron, many people, who begin shaking and "speaking in tongues." A Ohio, in 1954. For three years he continued to preach in a tent notable resemblance between the Reverend Angley and the and sometimes in the old Liberty Theatre; then, in 1957, he old-time revivalists is that the healer, in this case Angley, is the built the Temple of Healing Stripes, renamed Grace Cathedral, sole attraction. Except for a brief introduction by the choir, in the Ellet area of Akron. Angley is the only performer, either sermonizing, healing, or Every Friday evening Angley holds a lengthy service at leading the congregation in speaking in tongues. Grace Cathedral; material from this service is condensed into a A typical production of his "award winning" television pro- one-hour weekly television program, the "Ernest Angley Hour." gram deletes the last part of the service and compresses the rest The Friday service begins with a musical prelude of about half into a one-hour format that includes a few minutes of singing, an hour. A zippy gospel style is employed to warm up the a twenty-five to thirty-minute condensation of the sermon, and audience. Angley then comes out and delivers a sermon that perhaps a half-dozen cases of healing, presumably the most usually runs about two hours, rambling rather aimlessly on striking examples. Angley periodically breaks in with appeals about such nebulous topics as "Trouble" and "The Way Unto for funds. God." Scripture is interpreted quite freely, and there is little In looking into the career of Ernest Angley and his impact substantive theology in the sermon. A key theme is the standard on the Akron area, we conferred with several people, notably revivalist one of the war between God and the devil, with Dr. Margaret Poloma, sociologist of religion at the University salvation coming from giving oneself wholly over to the Holy of Akron; the Reverend Bob Denton of the Furnace Street Spirit. A mildly puritanical view of morality is put forth as the Mission, whose father preceded Angley and in audience is enjoined to avoid profanity and the sins of the the evangelical field in this area; and Laura Haferd, religion flesh. editor of the Akron Beacon Journal. We found that Angley The sermon is followed by a healing session of an hour or was regarded in a different light from the other televangelists, so, during which a number of alleged miracles occur. Alcoholics for several reasons: are cured; backs are healed; the lame move freely again. These 1. He keeps a low profile, and it is difficult to get informa- "miracles" occur either by the "slaying of the spirit," in which tion about him. We could find references to him in only two Angley lays his hand on the ailing person, or from a distance. recent books, Poloma's The Charismatic Movement' and Prime In the former the individual falls backward (usually with Time Preachers by Jeffrey Hadden and Charles Swann.' Except assistance) to the floor and many lie there quivering and for a recent article in Time,4 the mass media have generally ignored Angley. 2. Perhaps the main reason for his relative lack of notoriety William E. McMahon and James B. Griffis are both professors is that Angley is apolitical. He keeps his distance from the of philosophy at the University of Akron. They assisted the Religious Right. In 1984 he registered to vote for the first time Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Religion in its in many years, but gave no indication of his political prefer- investigation of Ernest Angley this past winter (see the Spring ences. He has not taken public stands on any issues of note, 1986 issue of FREE INQUIRY) and have conducted follow-up not even abortion. Whereas the claim by theologian Meredith studies in Akron. Sprunger that "religious and political fundamentalists ... draw within their own comfortable belief beds and pull the covers

Summer 1986 15 over their heads pretending the rest of the world does not exist, or exists only as an aberration"' seems applicable to Angley, one cannot see him as fomenting hatred or bigotry. The congre- gation is racially mixed, and his message is relatively mild, i.e., hatred for sin but not any individual or group. 3. There is no evidence of mismanagement of the money taken in, or of its appropriation for personal use. What happens to it is not clear, but presumably much of it is plowed back into the television operation. The Reverend Denton told us that he had friends in the business world who admired the acumen of Angley and his associates; by contrast, Rex Hum- bard seemed incapable of avoiding financial difficulties, which led to his selling his television studio to Angley. Lately, how- ever, Angley has been requesting funding for an "outreach" effort to alleviate starvation in Africa. This operation is likely to face greater scrutiny, as do most relief projects that solicit public donations. 4. There is no obvious trickery at Angley's religious services, such as "curing" people who are known not to be ill, and no mind-reading fakery that we could detect. In short, religious sources in the Akron area appeared to regard Angley's presence as benign, and people who disagree with his style nevertheless believe him to be sincere. The If Angley were only in the entertainment business, the matter Reverend Denton, a more conventional clergyman than his could be left there. But the remaining possibility is of a more father, whose work with victims of crime is highly regarded in serious nature—that he is taking money under false pretenses the social services field, disbelieves in Angley's healing abilities by claiming to do something that he doesn't do and cannot but nevertheless thinks his religious services provide "valuable do—heal the sick. If that is the case, it does not suffice to say therapy" for needy people. (While we were at Grace Cathedral, that it's all right because at least he gives comfort to many Randi commented, "What we are seeing here is a sort of people. Nor does it constitute a justification to say that the morality play.") All of our sources agreed that Angley does not "healer" genuinely believes in the efficacy of his powers, or that advocate a social gospel, but Laura Haferd considers this irrele- most people believe in faith-healing. A recent survey of 560 vant, since this form of religion is aimed mainly at human people conducted by Dr. Poloma in the Akron area indicated desire for personal fulfillment. Dr. Poloma also distinguishes that 73 percent believe in faith-healing of one sort or another between personalistic and social forms of religion, the former and that 12 percent say they actually have been cured thereby placing emphasis on the affective component of experience, the of a "life threatening" ailment. Information of this sort is latter tending toward institutionalization and "creedalism."6 revealing with regard to attitudes, but has little cash value. Angley's irrationalist approach to Christianity is manifested At first glance the question of whether one has the capacity not only in his eschewing of theology but also in his contention to heal (or to be a vehicle for healing) appears to be a simple that the main way the devil corrupts us is through the mind. empirical one, but upon inspection the issue readily becomes Poloma thinks that healing plays a secondary role in this form murky. On the one hand, Dr. Poloma suggested to us that this of religion; what is primary is giving witness and experiencing formulation is a distortion, an attempt to dissociate the phe- conversion,' and as a charismatic Catholic, she sees merit in nomenon from its essential dependence on a context of religious this. experience, which evidently is construed as self-validating. On the other, assuming the existence of truly astounding recoveries "Angley (as do other television healers) claims to following upon faith-healing, one may be inclined to glibly have virtually a one-hundred-percent success write them off as due to psychosomatic causes. Thus on either side of the issue there is an opportunity for question begging, rate." and so we would like to try to clarify the matter somewhat, with special reference to Ernest Angley. iven these considerations, there remain two lines of possi- There is of course a twofold problem here: first with regard Gble criticism of Angley: The first is aesthetic, and as such to the data as such; and, second, regarding its interpretation. it can be dismissed on de gustibus grounds. The consensus is We can start with some simple statistical considerations. Angley that Angley wears a hairpiece; and sophisticated people, even (as do other television healers) claims to have virtually a one- those who are religiously orthodox, find his style either offensive hundred-percent success rate; and, as Poloma notes,8 this is or ludicrous. But this type of objection is akin to a distaste for, clearly gratuitous. Even a disinterested visitor to Grace Cathe- say, Liberace or Tiny Tim. So what if they are garish? People dral will note any number of people, including those "slain in obviously have a right to support a type of entertainment that the spirit," on whom faith-healing has had no noticeable effect. I regard as in bad taste. For example, one of us has a hernia and arthritis in the knees,

16 FREE INQUIRY and, although Angley addressed these ailments specifically, no Occam's razor, there is no need to posit supernatural causes. cure . ensued. Similarly, a former student of ours, Patrick Perhaps the following comments of Rawcliffe's express the Nicolino (now a Catholic priest), visited Grace Cathedral on a bottom line on faith-healing: research project. Being nearly blind, he would have been delighted to have his condition alleviated, but of course it In all types of disease, injury and ill-health there can be traced wasn't. Among Angley's failures are two documented cases of mental factors which exert a definite and often vital influence, death at his services.' One could even add the death of his wife, for good or evil, upon the patient's condition. Sometimes the except that he has provided an "explanation" of that.10 The patient's physical disorders are purely psychological in origin obvious "out" for the healer is to claim that those who aren't and are directly amenable to cure by suggestion. In other types of disease, psychological factors play an important though healed didn't have enough faith. The Reverend Denton ex- secondary role, and here again psychotherapeutic suggestion pressed to us his concern that Pentecostals could do consider- may vitally influence the course of the disease. In the case of able psychological damage to someone by taking that ap- incurable diseases suggestion may give rise to illusions of proach," but added that he has not found Angley relying on it. healing by the banishment or alleviation of pain, the removal Poloma has suggested that success in even a few cases could be of overt symptoms, by inducing compensative reactions or evidence of healing powers, and she cites a personal ac- simply by inducing a fixed belief in the patient's mind that he quaintance who was so healed, although not by Angley.12 is cured! All these cures and alleviations of suffering-both As has been shown, there is ample reason for skepticism real and illusory-are open to supernatural interpretation by regarding Angley, although as yet his "cures" have not been ignorant or uninformed people.16 studied sufficiently. Laura Haferd conducted preliminary inquiries into three cases of reported healings by Angley, but was unable to corroborate these stories with medical evidence. Rawcliffe concludes by saying that despite the many stories Assuming that only the most favorable cases are shown on of instantaneous cures of broken bones and incurable disease, television, even they are not very convincing. In a recent pro- none of these have been scientifically validated. Such proof gram seven were presented, three dealing with deafness and would require "irrefutable evidence of a competent diagnosis four with "back conditions." The actual nature and extent of before the `cure,' together with a doctor's certificate stating that the maladies from a clinical standpoint was of course not made the patient no longer exhibits the disease or injury in question." clear, and some of the "cures" themselves appeared to be inter- In addition, "It must . . . be established that the patient's preted in a most gratuitous manner. For example, the allegedly recovery took place within a time limit which renders all possi- deaf people claimed to be deaf in only one ear. When Angley bility of a cure through the natural processes of healing out of ask them to confirm that they had been healed, they replied, the question."" Ernest Angley claims to be able to regenerate "I can hear," but this could well have been mere prompting, limbs and heal terminal illnesses, and expects us to accept such with the hearing occurring via the good ear. Angley claimed to claims on face value. One should be very reluctant to do so have reconstructed one person's defective ear, and, regarding without substantial evidence. one person with back trouble, he said its sources was the right kidney. These cases illustrate that belief in faith-healing is Notes generally based on hearsay evidence and unverifiable claims. 1. We are especially grateful to Laura Haferd and the Akron Beach Until we obtain data of a more reliable nature, we shall continue Journal for the use of their files on Angley. See also Margaret Poloma, The to be skeptical of Angley. Charismatic Movement: Is There a New Pentecost? (Boston: Twayne Pub- Even accepting the claims of Dr. Poloma and others that lishers, 1982), pp. 89-91. incredible examples of faith-healing occur, there is still the 2. Poloma, op. cit., 87-91,99-100,175. 3. Jeffrey K. Hadden and Charles E. Swann, Prime Time Preachers problem of interpretation, of finding the genuine cause of the (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1981), pp. 44-45,49,53,92-93. unusual event. Among the most important considerations is 4. Richard N. Ostling, "Power, Glory-And Politics," Time, February the nature of the illness. In an older but still quite valuable 17, 1986, pp. 68-69. study, D. H. Rawcliffe distinguishes between functional and 5. Meredith J. Sprunger, "The Urantia Book and Religious Studies." organic disorders." A functional disorder is one in which the Paper presented at the American Academy of Religion Meeting, Anaheim, Calif., November 25, 1985, p. 3. function of an organ is affected without there being an ostensi- 6. Poloma, op. cit., pp. 86, 107-108, 111-114. ble organic cause. Functional disorders include some types of 7. Ibid., pp. 87, 96. paralysis, blindness, and loss of speech or hearing. Rawcliffe 8. Ibid., p. 110. maintains that these maladies can be cured through the power 9. The first death during one of Angley's healing services occurred on of suggestion, and such suggestion is especially potent in an January I, 1978, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the second on July 8, 1984, in Zurich, Switzerland. emotional setting, like that at Grace Cathedral.14 Even organic 10. See Poloma, op. cit., 99-100. disorders have their mental aspects, and hence suggestion can l I. Ibid., pp. 98-100. alleviate a symptom like pain as well as speed up recovery 12. Ibid., p. 91. from injury.' This "psychosomatic" approach to the problem 13. D. H. Rawcliffe, Illusions and Delusions of the Supernatural and the of faith-healing avoids question-begging by pointing out that Occult (New York: Dover, 1959), pp. 198ff. See also Poloma, pp. 92-95. 14. Rawcliffe, pp. 207-211. the same effects seen in a faith-healing session can be achieved 15. Ibid., pp. 216-230. through psychiatry, hypnosis, and other methods that do not 16. Ibid., pp. 23I-232. invoke mysterious agencies. So if one chooses to employ 17. Ibid., pp. 232-233. •

Summer 1986 17