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Holy Roller

(Redirected from Holy Rollers)

Holy Roller and Holy Jumper are terms originating in the 18th century that have been used to refer to adherents of the Methodist tradition, such as Free Methodists Wesleyan Methodists, and Calvinistic Methodists.[2][3] The term describes dancing, shaking or other boisterous movements by church attendees who perceive themselves as being under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Methodist preachers are known for promulgating the doctrines of the new birth and entire sanctification to the public at events such as tent revivals and camp meetings, which they believe is the reason that God raised them up into existence.[1]

Holy Rolling is sometimes used derisively by those outside these denominations, as if to describe people literally rolling on the floor in an uncontrolled manner. Those within the Methodist traditions have reclaimed the term as a badge of honor.

Description

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Holy Roller or Holy Jumper are terms used to describe Methodist worship, from its early days and into the holiness movement, including Free Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Calvinistic Methodists.[2][4] During the days of the Evangelical Revival, the Methodists of Wales who experienced the New Birth "could frequently be heard weeping, groaning and shouting out in both agony and ectasy" and engaging in "dancing, jumping, and exuberant singing."[3] Holy Rolling is sometimes used derisively by those outside these denominations, as if to describe people literally rolling on the floor in an uncontrolled manner.[5]

Many individuals in the wider Methodist tradition are also referred to by others as Shouting Methodists due to the ejaculatory prayers congregants often utter during the service of worship, such as "Praise the Lord!", "Hallelujah!", and "Amen![6][7]

Similar disparaging terms directed at outspoken Christians but later embraced by them include Jesus freaks or, from former centuries, Quakers and Shakers.

With the rise of Holiness Pentecostalism in the early 20th century, the term Holy Roller has been applied to Holiness Pentecostals as well.[8] Holiness Pentecostals who reject modern medicine have been referred to as followers of the "pokeweed gospel" or members of the "lightning bug church."[9]

History

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Historians trace the term "Holy Jumper" or "Welsh Jumper" to 1762, when it was used to describe Methodists who experienced the New Birth during the second wave of the Evangelical Revival in Llangeitho in 1762.[3] Merriam-Webster traces the expression "Holy Roller" to 1841.[5] The Oxford English Dictionary cites an 1893 memoir by Charles Godfrey Leland, in which he says "When the Holy Spirit seized them ... the Holy Rollers ... rolled over and over on the floor."[10] The term describes dancing, shaking or other boisterous movements by church attendees who perceive themselves as being under the influence of the Holy Spirit.[11]

Those within related Wesleyan traditions have reclaimed the term as a badge of honor; for example William Branham wrote: "And what the world calls today holy-roller, that's the way I worship Jesus Christ."[12] Gospel singer Andraé Crouch stated, "They call us holy rollers, and what they say is true. But if they knew what we were rollin' about, they'd be rollin' too." Decades earlier, in the notes for his 1960 album Blues & Roots, jazz musician Charles Mingus used the term, seemingly neutrally and as a simple description, to indicate his own religious upbringing.

Usage

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Politics

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  • Gifford Pinchot in 1919: "Apparently no meeting for any purpose is to be tolerated except the Holy Roller meetings themselves. These theoretically and in fact ... The Holy Roller church in this community, as elsewhere, in its total influence promotes immorality. ..."[13]
  • The New York Times on May 2, 1923: "Bound Brook Mob Raids Klan Meeting: Thousand Hostile Citizens Surround Church and Lock In 100 Holy Rollers. ... Until the arrival of eight State troopers to reinforce the local police here at 1 o'clock this morning about one hundred members of the Holy Rollers were ..."[14]
  • Time on October 12, 1936: "When Jesus Christ first appeared to His assembled disciples after His resurrection, He told them that believers 'shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents' (Mark: 16:17, 18). To many a U.S. religionist of the Pentecostal or "Holy Roller" variety, the 'gift of tongues' has long been vivid reality.
  • William L. Shirer in Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941 described the look on the faces of hysterical Nazis calling for Adolf Hitler to come out of his hotel in September 1934: "They reminded me of the crazed expressions I saw once in the back country of Louisiana on the faces of some Holy Rollers who were about to hit the trail."[15]
  • Sarah Palin on January 19, 2016, referred to some in the crowd as "holy rollers" when she endorsed Donald Trump: "Looking around at all of you, you hard working Iowa families, you farm families and teachers and teamsters and cops and cooks, you rock and rollers and holy rollers! You all make the world go around and now our cause is one."[16]

Poetry

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Literature

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Music

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Television

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  • In the 12th episode of the seventh season of The Simpsons, "Team Homer", one of the rival bowling teams, made up of important figures from the local church, is named "The Holy Rollers."[20]
  • In the 11th episode of the third season of Mama's Family, "Where There's Smoke". When asked about a young female convict's religion Mama says. "She's means Holy Rollers." to keep up a charade that the girl can't speak any English and is from Sweden.. Guest star Yeardley Smith.
  • In the episode of Frasier, titled "Wheels of Fortune," Frasier's dad tells Michael Keaton he's a holy roller, after Keaton goes around doing evangelical sermons from his wheelchair.

Sports

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See also

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References

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Notes

  1. ↑ Gibson, James. "Wesleyan Heritage Series: Entire Sanctification". South Georgia Confessing Association. Archived from the original on 29 May 2018. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
  2. 1 2 Snyder, C. Albert (1 May 2006). Spiritual Journey. Xulon Press. p. 69. ISBN 9781600340161. Holiness means different things to different people. Our church, the Free Methodist, is a "holiness" church. One doctor said to me: "Free Methodists? I know about them; they are holy rollers. They used to have camp meetings near where I grew up."
  3. 1 2 3 Jones, David Ceri; Schlenther, Boyd Stanley; White, Eryn Mant (15 April 2012). The Elect Methodists: Calvinistic Methodism in England and Wales, 1735-1811. University of Wales Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-7083-2502-5. the early stages of the revival were characterised by profound emotion; converts could frequently be heard weeping, groaning and shouting out in both agony and ecstasy, but it was nto until the second wave of the revival, following the awakening at Llangeitho in 1762, that critics started branding the Methodists the 'Welsh Jumpers', on account of their proclivity for dancing, jumping and exuberant singing.
  4. ↑ Synan, Vinson (25 August 1997). The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-8028-4103-2. At times the emotions of the sanctified Methodists would exceed the limits of control. "Some would be seized with a trembling, and in a few moments drop on the floor as if they were dead; while others were embracing each other with streaming eyes, and all were lose in wonder, love and praise," wrote one observer. Another noted that some wept for grief while others shouted for joy "so that it was hard to distinguish one from the other." At times the congregations would "raise a great shout" that could be heard for miles around.
  5. 1 2 "Holy Roller". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2010-09-14. A member of one of the Protestant sects whose worship meetings are characterized by spontaneous expressions of emotional excitement.
  6. ↑ Armstrong, Chris (1 June 2003). "How John Wesley Changed America". Christianity Today.
  7. ↑ Hudson, Winthrop S. "Shouting Methodists". Alaskan Dreams. Retrieved 28 July 2019.
  8. ↑ Richie, Tony (20 January 2020). Essentials of Pentecostal Theology: An Eternal and Unchanging Lord Powerfully Present & Active by the Holy Spirit. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-5326-3881-7.
  9. ↑ Randolph, Vance (2012-07-31). Ozark Magic and Folklore. Courier Corporation. ISBN 978-0-486-12296-0.
  10. ↑ "roller, n1", definition 17b. The Oxford English Dictionary. (Account required for online access).
  11. ↑ Fahlbusch, Erwin (2008). The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 438. ISBN 9780802824172. The "shouting Methodists" of the early 1800s, and the later Holiness or Pentecostal "holy rollers" in both Caucasian and African-American congregations, insisted that a genuine experience of God's glorious presence called for exuberant, bodily response.
  12. ↑ "Why I Am a Holy-Roller", a sermon by William Marrion Branham, August 1953
  13. ↑ Charles Otis Gill and Gifford Pinchot (1919). Six thousand country churches. p. 23.
  14. ↑ "Bound Brook Mob Raids Klan Meeting: Thousand Hostile Citizens Surround Church and Lock In 100 Holy Rollers". New York Times. May 2, 1923. Retrieved 2010-09-22. Until the arrival of eight State troopers to reinforce the local police here at 1 o'clock this morning about one hundred members of the Holy Rollers were locked up in their church, the Pillar of Fire, in Main Street, surrounded by a mob of nearly 1,000 hostile citizens, several hundred of whom broke up a meeting held by the Holy Rollers to organize a Klan here last night.
  15. ↑ quoted in Waite, Robert G. L. (1978) The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler, New York: New American Library. p.2. ISBN 0-451-62155-7
  16. ↑ "Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump". CNN. 2016-01-20. Retrieved 2016-01-23.
  17. ↑ "Come Together | The Beatles". www.thebeatles.com. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  18. ↑ Panic! At The Disco (2016-01-14). Panic! At The Disco - The Good, The Bad and The Dirty (Official Audio). Retrieved 2025-07-13 – via YouTube.
  19. ↑ "The Big Moon announce second album 'Walking Like We Do' details, share new track 'Your Light'". DIY. 11 September 2019. Archived from the original on 21 November 2019. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  20. ↑ "Frinkiac". Frinkiac. Retrieved 2019-10-21.

Further reading

  • Hawley, Florence (1948). "The Keresan Holy Rollers: An Adaptation to American Individualism". Social Forces. 26 (3): 272–280.
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