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PNEUMA 39 (2017) 295–317
Pentecostal Experience and the Affirmation of Ethnic Identity
Māori Experience and the Work of the Spirit in the Book of Acts
Michael J. Frost
Alphacrucis College, New Zealand
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to examine the work of the Spirit in the book of Acts in relation to pentecostal experience and cultural identity among Māori in New Zealand. It discusses the many tongues of Pentecost as symbolic of the Spirit’s affirmation of ethno-linguistic diversity and explores the story of Gentile inclusion in Acts 10, where this inclusion must be worked out in the face of ethnic division. This discussion is brought to bear on the context of Māori and pentecostal church communities in New Zealand. Given the ongoing disruption of ethnic and cultural identity for Māori, this article draws on a series of interviews with Māori pentecostal church leaders, demonstrating connections between experiences of the Spirit and divine affirmation of cultural identity. Finally, these observations are discussed in relation to the work of the Spirit and the issue of ethnic identity in both Acts 2 and Acts 10.
Keywords
Māori – cultural identity – Pentecost – Cornelius – experience
Introduction
The book of Acts has long been central to pentecostal self-understanding. Despite the variety in global pentecostal movements, pentecostal spirituality and theology are typically shaped by the Lukan narrative and include the experience of Spirit baptism with an emphasis on the subsequent glossolalia, empowerment, and other spiritual gifts. What is also clear from the Lukan
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material, however, is that the work of the Spirit is intimately connected to notions of social identity and to ethnic and cultural identity in particular. This is an important observation for global Pentecostalism as the movement continues to flourish in a variety of cultural contextswith a multitude of diverse expressions. The purpose of this article is to examine the work of the Spirit as it pertains to ethnic and cultural identity in both the Day of Pentecost narrative in Acts 2 and the Cornelius account in Acts 10 and to explore its theological potential for informing pentecostal practice in the present. What are the implications for pentecostal theology as it relates to cultural identity and diversity, and does this narrative offer anything to the ongoing negotiation of cultural diversity in contemporary Pentecostalism?
To explore this question, this article will also reflect on Pentecostalism in relation to Māori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa–New Zealand.1Māori face a range of social, economic, and political challenges in the twenty-first century and these challenges, largely grounded in the historical and ongoing impact of colonization, have not always been met with a thoughtful or helpful response by New Zealand pentecostal churches. Instead, the Western-dominant per- spectives within the movement have further contributed toward the marginal- ization of Māori and an exacerbation of their sociopolitical challenges. At its best, this is due to the lack of a coherent theological and ethical framework for considering Māori cultural realities, while at its worst, it is due to the presence of an unsatisfactory theological framework that is deeply problematic and has been damaging in its impact. My aim in this article is, therefore, to contribute toward a pentecostal theology in relation to this concern. Taking into consider- ation the Lukan narratives in Acts 2 and Acts 10 and their relevance to cultural identity in pentecostal practice, I will discuss themes derived from an analysis of interviews with Māori pentecostal church leaders and ministers, exploring how this analysis contributes toward a pentecostal understanding of the work of the Spirit vis-à-vis cultural identity.
1 In the bicultural context of New Zealand, the usage of “Aotearoa New Zealand” is sometimes
preferred as a means of incorporating both the Māori and European terminology for the
country. However, given the international readership, this article will usually employ the
commonly understood term New Zealand.
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The Spirit and Ethnic Identity in Acts
Ben Witherington iii proposes that if Luke’s Gospel is focused on how the Gospel reaches up and down the social scale—what he calls “vertical univer- salization”—then Acts is focused on its availability to “all peoples”—in other words, “horizontal universalization.”2Moreover, while New Testament scholars have offered various perspectives on the primary role of the Spirit in the book of Acts—including empowerment, mission, prophetic and inspired speech, and ethics—Aaron Kuecker has recently offered that “sections of the text where group and social identity are at stake contain the highest density of Spirit references in all of Acts.”3 This indicates that whatever we might think about the role of the Spirit in the early church, it appears to be closely related to issues of identity, otherness, and inclusion.
While the Day of Pentecost narrative in Acts 2 has played an important role in the Classical Pentecostal argument for speaking in tongues as the ini- tial physical evidence of Spirit baptism, there are also apparent connections between the experienceof the Spirit, ethnic and cultural identity,and the inclu- sionary nature of the Christian gospel. In this passage the followers of Jesus are filled with the Spirit—symbolized by tongues of fire—and begin to speak “in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability” (Acts 2:1–4). A crowd of devout Jews “from every nation under heaven” gather at the sound and are amazed to hear the disciples speaking in their own native language (Acts 2:5–12). This description of the Pentecost event has similarities with Philo’s description of the Sinai event and the giving of the law to Israel, in which he employs the imagery of fire from heaven out of which emerges a voice that becomes artic- ulate speech.4 Witherington suggests that Luke’s depiction of the Pentecost event in Acts 2 serves to demonstrate that just as the law was defining for the identity formation of the nation of Israel, so too the giving of the Spirit is defining for the New Testament people of God in a way that parallels, or even supersedes, the giving of the law at Sinai.5In this sense, then, a significant element of what is happening in this Pentecost narrative is related to group identity.
2 Ben Witheringtoniii,The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary(Grand Rapids:
Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1998), 69.
3 Aaron Kuecker,The Spirit and the “Other”: Social Identity, Ethnicity and Intergroup Reconcilia-
tion in Luke-Acts(London: T & T Clark International, 2011), 16.
4 Matthias Wenk, Community-Forming Power: The Socio-Ethical Role of the Spirit in Luke-Acts
(Sheffield,uk: Sheffield Academic Press, 2000), 249.
5 Witherington,The Acts of the Apostles, 131.
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Although the Pentecost miracle includes the fact that the diverse crowd of Jews hears the disciples speaking in their own language, Kuecker notes that the crowd were likely bilingual and able to speak in a common language if desired.6 Thus, the miracle of speech in Acts 2 is what he calls an “unneces- sary” miracle.7 The meaning of the miracle is therefore not simply related to the effective spreading of the gospel, but functions as an affirmation of “eth- nolinguistic diversity.”8Furthermore, Amos Yong argues that the symbol of the “many tongues of Pentecost” does not only apply in a linguistic sense, but also consequently and unavoidably in a cultural sense.9 In other words, because language and culture are profoundly and inseparably connected, the inclusion and affirmation of multiple languages holds unavoidable intercultural impli- cations.10 This is all the more so given Yong’s argument that the people of the Jewish diaspora, gathered in Jerusalem at this time, were undoubtedly shaped by the linguistic, social, and cultural contexts in which they lived, and within which they had often been located for some centuries.11 Thus, while those present were “devout Jews,” there is nevertheless a profound linguisticandcul- tural diversity. Furthermore, the crowd appears to include proselytes, which amplifies the reality of diversity by including Gentile converts to Judaism in the “unnecessary miracle.”12 Yong claims that “the strong and perhaps unmis- takable inference to be drawn is that the preservation of the many tongues of the Day of Pentecost is an indication that God values not only linguistic diver- sity but also cultural plurality.”13
Despite the diversity among those caught up in the unnecessary miracle on theDayof Pentecost,itisintheCorneliusepisodeinActs10thatweseethereal- ities of this symbolic inclusion brought to bear on the ethnic divisions between Jew and Gentile. In this more radical shift, the narrative moves beyond the Jew- ish community and toward a divinely orchestrated inclusion of nonproselyte Gentiles, the ultimate “other,” into the people of God.14 Peter has a vision in
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Kuecker,The Spirit and the “Other,” 116.
Ibid.
Ibid., 117.
Amos Yong, The Missiological Spirit: Christian Mission Theology in the Third Millennium Global Context (Eugene:or: Cascade Books, 2014), 40–43.
Ibid.
Ibid., 40.
Ibid., 41–42.
Amos Yong,The Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh: Pentecostalism and the Possibility of Global Theology(Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2005), 93.
Luke Timothy Johnson, Prophetic Jesus, Prophetic Church: The Challenge of Luke-Acts to Contemporary Christians(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2011), 153.
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which God challenges him not to call unclean that which God has called clean (Acts 10:9–16). This vision, the meaning of which is not instantly apparent to Peter, is the precursor to Peter’s visit—also instigated by divine intervention— to the household of Cornelius, a Gentile. Peter, aware that his visit to the house of Cornelius transgresses Jewish custom, nevertheless preaches the gospel and nonproselyte Gentiles are filled with the Spirit and speak in tongues—an episode sometimes referred to as the Gentile Pentecost.15 The importance of this passage to the book of Acts is emphasized not only via the narrative space given in Acts 10, but also in the repetition of this account several times in subsequent chapters and the critical role that it plays in the decisions of the Jerusalem council in Acts 15.16It is here that the church itself accepts that which God already appears to have affirmed through the outpouring of the Spirit: that of Gentile inclusion into the gospel of Jesus Christ and of full participation in the church community. Jewish ethnocentric definitions of salvation are dismantled by the Spirit.
In his work on the role of the Spirit in the book of Acts, Aaron Kuecker utilizes theories of social identity to examine the work of the Spirit in relation to ethnic and religious identities.17While Kuecker notes that ethnic identity is affirmed in the Acts 2 and Acts 10 narratives, he argues that the Spirit creates a new social identity that is “superordinate” to Jewish, Gentile, or any other ethnicity. This superordinate identity is grounded in the work of the Spirit who “obliterates” ethnic barriers and is centered on a common identity as the people of God.18Kuecker maintains that in the wake of the Cornelius episode, ethnicity can no longer be used as “a criteria for exclusion.”19 Instead, while ethnic identities are affirmed by the Spirit, such identities must be subordinate to one’s identity as a Jesus follower. In this way Kuecker argues that the Spirit “affirms yet chastens and transcends ethnic identity.”20
What should become evident in this proposal is the question of whether a superordinate identity as the “people of God” can function in this manner within the realities of everyday Christian community. More specifically, we should query whether, in contexts characterized by a dominant cultural frame- work, a superordinate identity as the “people of God” could simply become syn-
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Witherington,The Acts of the Apostles, 354.
Ronald D. Witherup, “Cornelius Over and Over and Over Again: ‘Functional Redundancy’ in the Acts of the Apostles,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament49 (1993): 64. See Kuecker,The Spirit and the “Other.”
Ibid., 196–197.
Ibid., 215.
Ibid., 200.
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onymous with the overarching and dominant cultural reality. Despite Kuecker’s claim that this superordinate identity overcomes ethnic exclusion, for a minor- ity the suggestion that one’s ethnic and cultural identity must be subordinate to one’s identity as belonging to the people of God can very quickly become grounds for being subsumed within a church community shaped by the domi- nant cultural framework. As Samuel Solivan states,
An aspect of being oppressed or colonized is having one’s particularity dissolved into the normative perspective of oppressors who understand themselves as normative, as the matrix through which the rest of the world is to be understood and valued. Their cosmovision becomes the universalizing grid through which worth is established.21
Thus, we must consider whether the Spirit-inspired impulse to dismantle eth- nic barriers to inclusion acts to diminish the importance of ethnic and cultural identity itself. One wonders if the terminology of a “superordinate” identity, to which one’s ethnic identity must be “subordinate,” is unhelpful in this regard. Instead, it may be that Yong’s proposal of a “dual identity” is a more helpful way of understanding one’s ethnic and religious identity.22While we can recognize the desire of Kuecker to eliminate ethnic barriers, it is possible that adherence toone’sethnic identityas a terminalidentityis not theproblemper se.23Rather, it may be feasible to embrace a complementary identity of belonging to the people of God, but alongside one’s ethnic identity rather than superordinate to it. From this perspective, the affirmation of ethno-linguistic diversity in both the Acts 2 and Acts 10 narratives can be understood as a profound statement about the work of the Spirit in dismantling ethnic barriers, not by superseding ethnic identity but by divinely affirming multiple ethnic and cultural identities and therefore the inclusion of all peoples into the church. As Michael Welker offers regarding Acts 2,
Without dissolving the variety and complexity of their backgrounds, without setting aside their forms of expression and understanding as
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Samuel Solivan, Spirit, Pathos and Liberation: Toward an Hispanic Pentecostal Theology (London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 1998), 115.
Amos Yong, Hospitality and the Other (New York: Orbis Books, 2008), 83.
For Kuecker, a terminal identity is “the most significant social identity a person pos- sesses.” Kuecker, The Spirit and the “Other,” 50. Kuecker argues that one’s identity as a Jesus-follower must become one’s “terminal identity” and that when ethnic identities are terminal the group malfunctions. Kuecker,The Spirit and the “Other,” 215–220.
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these forms are marked off in relation to other forms, an unbelievable commonality of experience and of understanding occurs. And this dif- ference between the experience of plural inaccessibility to each other and of enduring foreignness, and unfamiliarity, on the one hand, and of utter commonality of the capacity to understand, on the other hand—this is what is truly spectacular and shocking about the Pentecost event.24
Having contended that these Pentecost narratives in Acts emphasize the role of the Spirit in affirming ethnic and cultural identity, it is pertinent to note that Moltmann connects the Pentecost narrative of Acts 2 with the creation account in Genesis 1.
What the first Christians experienced as “Pentecost” in Acts 2 also occurred in the first days of the new creation of the world: the outpour- ing of creative power and of the divine Spirit who gives eternal life—the stormy wind and flaming tongues of the divine breath. Thus Pentecost, as Christians call this event, is not an appendix nor a supplement to “Good Friday”and“Easter” buttheobjectiveof Jesus’self-sacrifice inhis deathon the cross and the goal of his resurrection through God in coming glory.25
The connections between the Day of Pentecost and new creation offer us a way of thinking about the relationship between the Spirit and ethnic identity. The diversity of ethnic and cultural realities forms an inherent feature of God’s good creation and thus flows from the life of the “divine Spirit.” There are profound connections between the life of the Spirit, the creation of multiple ethnic and cultural realities, and the redeeming of these realities through the Pentecost accounts in Acts. These observations remind us that the early pentecostal revivals, including that in Azusa Street, were considered radical not only due to the external manifestations of charismatic experience, but also because of their racial integration and the divine outpouring of the Spirit among those whose ethnic and cultural identities had been pushed to the margins.26 At times the pentecostal emphasis on glossolalia as the initial evidence of Spirit
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Michael Welker, God the Spirit, trans. John F. Hoffmeyer (Eugene, or: Wipf and Stock, 1994), 232–233. [Emphasis as cited.]
Jürgen Moltmann, “A Pentecostal Theology of Life,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 9 (1996): 3–4.
Gastón Espinosa, “Ordinary Prophet: William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival,” in The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy, ed. Harold D. Hunter, and Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. (Cleveland,tn: Pathway Press, 2006), 58.
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baptism has clouded the reality that a critical consequence of Spirit baptism in Acts 2, in Acts 10, and among many pentecostal communities has been racial reconciliation and integration. As Craig Keener notes, what better sign than the Spirit-inspired speaking of other languages to emphasize that the Spirit is involved in ethnic and cultural reconciliation?27
These insights offer us a proposal for thinking theologically and pente- costally about ethnic and cultural diversity and inclusion in church commu- nities. My focus in this article is to consider how such a proposal might play out in the realities of Pentecostalism in New Zealand and the relationship between Māori and Pākehā (a Māori term referring to New Zealanders of Euro- pean descent) Pentecostals. New Zealand is a country dominated by Western cultural realities, despite being founded on a treaty that offers the vision of a bicultural state. Within both wider society and the pentecostal church, Māori ethnic and cultural identity has often been problematized in the face of this dominant Western culture, a reality that contributes to the ongoing challenges facing Māori in the present day. Does the Cornelius narrative in Acts 10 offer us a helpful theological paradigm for how to understand the work of the Spirit in pentecostal communities vis-à-vis Māori ethnic and cultural identity? Further- more, in what way might Māori experiences of the Spirit offer us insight into the affirmation or superseding of ethnic identity in Acts 10?
Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand
The colonization of Aotearoa New Zealand in the early nineteenth century had a profound impact on Māori. While the history of colonization and the relationship between Māori and the incoming settler population is complex, many of the challenges facing Māori in the twenty-first century are still related to the historical and ongoing impact of this colonization. Despite the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) in 1840 between Māori and the Crown—a Treaty that guaranteed Māori rights over their land and other resources—in the ensuing decades vast areas of Māori land were acquired by the Crown and Māori were greatly disadvantaged by various government policies and actions.28By the early twentieth century the Māori population had been decimated by war, disease, and loss of land, and the number of British
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Craig S. Keener, “Why Does Luke Use Tongues as a Sign of the Spirit’s Empowerment?” Journal of Pentecostal Theology15, no. 2 (2007): 178.
For a comprehensive discussion onTe Tiriti o Waitangi, see Claudia Orange,The Treaty of Waitangi (Wellington: Bridget Williams Books, 2011).
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settlers had swollen to many times the size of the indigenous population.29 While at this time some were predicting the extinction of Māori entirely, they proved to be much more resilient and in the present day approximately 15 percent of the New Zealand population identify as Māori.30 Nevertheless, the issues of social concern facing Māori today can be largely attributed to the historical and continuing impact of colonization.31
Despite the numerous ways in which Māori have demonstrated fortitude in the face of systemic marginalization, they remain overrepresented in a range of negative social and economic indicators, and the neoliberal social and eco- nomic reforms aggressively pursued since the 1980s appear to have exacerbated the challenges for Māori in contemporary New Zealand society.32Graham Hin- gangaroa Smith argues that the imposition of a neoliberal framework that relies on individual freedom and personal responsibility can itself be consid- ered a new form of colonization. He argues that the “implicit values embedded within this form of restructuring did not simply reinforce and support domi- nant Pakeha cultural values, behaviors and thinking. They went further; they provided impetus to marginalize, demean, derogate and subjugate Māori peo- ple and their cultural preferences.”33 The ongoing impact of marginalization within a predominantly Pākehā society, as well as the cultural dislocation expe- rienced by many Māori today, are crucial to recognize.34 The contribution of
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Laurie Guy, Shaping Godzone: Public Issues and Church Voices in New Zealand 1840–2000 (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2011), 40; and Ani Mikaere, Colonising Myths— Māori Realities(Wellington: Huia Publishers, 2011), 156.
Statistics New Zealand–Tatauranga Aotearoa, “2013 Census—Major Ethnic Groups in New Zealand” (2013): accessed January 24, 2016, http://stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census/ profile-and-summary-reports/infographic-culture-identity.aspx.
Raj Bhopal, “Racism, Socioeconomic Deprivation, and Health in New Zealand,”The Lancet 367 (2006): 1959.
Graham Hingangaroa Smith, “Beyond Political Literacy: From Conscientization to Trans- formative Praxis,” Counterpoints 275 (2005): 32. For a recent summary of the various inequalities between Māori (and Pacific people) and other New Zealanders, see Lisa Mar- riot and Dalice Sim, Indicators of Inequality for Māori and Pacific People (Wellington: Vic- toria University of Wellington, 2014) in which they demonstrate that, in general terms, the disparities have worsened in the years since 2003.
Smith, “Beyond Political Literacy,” 32.
“Te Aka Māori-English, English–Māori Dictionary and Index.” accessed June15, 2016, http://maoridictionary.co.nz. For a discussion on cultural dislocation among young urban Māori, see Toon van Meijl, “Multiple Identifications and the Dialogical Self: Urban Maori Youngsters and the Cultural Renaissance,” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Insti- tute12, no. 4 (2006), 931.
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these concerns to the current challenges for Māori means that any response should not be pursued solely through comparison with Pākehā aspirations and ideals; rather, to do so may further complicate experiences of marginalization and cultural dislocation.35
Several complexities do arise when we discuss notions of Māori ethnic and cultural identity, an identity that involves connections to Māori ancestry, as well as other sociocultural factors that relate to language, cultural customs, tribal membership, self-identification, and so on. There is no fixed definition of Māori identity itself, although research suggests that at the very least, Māori ancestry is pivotal.36 Given this complexity, Māori academic Mason Durie highlights the reality that Māori are not a homogenous group and singular conceptions of Māori identity are not accurate.37 Nevertheless, he also argues that in broad terms Māori flourishing must include the recovery of cultural identity.38He states:
If progress is determined solely by benchmarking Māori performance against non-Māori progress, then the significance of being Māori will be lost and indigeneity will not have been valued. Best outcomes for Māori need to be measured not only against individual performance in health or education or employment, but also against the level of participation in Te Ao Māori—the Māori world. If a state-assisted programme facilitates individual performance but in the process ignores participation in Māori society it may well have created a disadvantage.39
Pentecostalism and Māori
In the context of postcolonial New Zealand society, Pentecostalism has a mixed relationship with Māori. Although pentecostal spirituality is flourishing most evidently among indigenous peoples in non-Western contexts, Pentecostalism
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Tahu Kukutai, “Māori Demography in Aotearoa New Zealand: FiftyYears On,”New Zealand Population Review37 (2011): 49.
For a helpful discussion on defining Māori identity, see Tahu Kukutai, “The Problem of Defining an Ethnic Group for Public Policy: Who is Māori and Why Does it Matter?”Social Policy Journal of New Zealand23 (2004).
Mason Durie, “Te Hoe Nuku Roa Framework: A Maori Identity Measure,” The Journal of the Polynesian Society104, no. 4 (1995): 464.
Mason Durie, Ngā Kāhui Pou: Launching Māori Futures(Huia Publishers, 2007), 97. Durie, Ngā Kāhui Pou, 264.
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has not always prospered among indigenous Māori in New Zealand.40The early New Zealand pentecostal movement emerged into the national consciousness inthe1920sfollowingaseriesof revivalmeetingsbytheBritishevangelistSmith Wigglesworth.41While it is important not to dissolve all pentecostal churches, networks, and denominations into one generalized account, it is also true that the different expressions of Pentecostalism are related through a common emphasis on the experience of the Spirit and the spiritual gifts.42 In broad terms, early New Zealand pentecostal churches were predominantly focused on renewal among an urban Pākehā constituency and so any engagement with Māori was limited.43 This is not to say that some pentecostal revivals among Māori did not occur—indeed, they did—but to note that during the first few decades of Pentecostalism in New Zealand, the various expressions of the movement were often in small and mostly Pākehā churches.44Moreover, when Pentecostals did engage with Māori, success was often limited by Western- oriented paradigms that did not prioritize relationships with Māori elders nor empower Māori leadership.45 Many pentecostal church leaders also held negative attitudes toward Māori culture, characterizing it as demonic and declaring Māori to be in need of liberation from their cultural identity.46
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Simon Moetara, “Māori and Pentecostal Christianity in Aotearoa New Zealand,” in Mana Māori and Christianity, ed. Hugh Morrison et al. (Wellington: Huia Publishers, 2012), 77. Brett Knowles argues that small expressions of Pentecostalism in New Zealand preceded the Wigglesworth visits in the 1920s. See Brett Knowles,Transforming Pentecostalism: The Changing Face of New Zealand Pentecostalism, 1920–2010 (Lexington, ky: Emeth Press, 2014), 10. The Wigglesworth meetings gained public attention through the media and significant interest from revivalist Christians, which resulted in the formation of several pentecostal churches and the more identifiable beginnings of New Zealand Pentecostal- ism.
Allan Anderson, “Varieties, Taxonomies, and Definitions,” in Studying Global Pentecostal- ism:Theories and Methods, ed. Allan Anderson et al. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2010), 15. Anderson’s notion of “family resemblances” is useful in this regard.
Philip D. Carew and Geoff Troughton, “Māori Participation in the Assemblies of God,” in Mana Māori and Christianity, ed. Hugh Morrison et al. (Wellington: Huia Publishers, 2012), 102.
Ibid., 94.
These criticisms are directed specifically at the Assemblies of God denomination in Carew and Troughton, “Māori Participation in the Assemblies of God,” 94–95. It should be noted that the early engagement of the Apostolic Church with Māori are a notable exception to this generalization: see Philip D. Carew, “Māori, Biculturalism and the Assemblies of God in New Zealand, 1970–2008,” Master’s thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 2009), 92. Moetara, “Māori and Pentecostal Christianity,” 78.
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Given this historical negative perception of Māori culture, along with the pentecostal emphasis on personal renewal rather than systemic change, it is no surprise that many pentecostal churches have not focused their attention on addressing the social challenges for Māori in contemporary New Zealand society. Further, there appears to be little theological reflection among pente- costal communities regarding engagement with Māori, the way in which pente- costal spirituality relates to the historical demonization of Māori, the ongoing systemic causes of social concern for Māori, and an affirmation of Māori iden- tity. To address this challenge, I carried out a series of interviews with Māori pentecostal church ministers and the resultant analysis offers some helpful insights into Māori pentecostal experience. This analysis also provides us with the opportunity to examine the experience of the Spirit among Māori in dia- logue with the model of ethnic and cultural inclusion in the story of Cornelius discussed earlier in this article.
Interviews with Māori Pentecostal Leaders
The incorporation of interview data into pentecostal theological reflection is grounded in two central ideas. First, pentecostal experience should play a cen- tral role in pentecostal approaches to theology. The idea that pentecostal expe- rience forms a vital part of pentecostal identity needs no introduction here. Moreover, as Peter Neumann notes, “if experience is explicitly granted such a central place in pentecostal self-understanding, this implies experience does (and should) occupy a fundamental role in pentecostal theological construc- tion.”47Thus, Pentecostals should not simply develop a theology of experience but must also allow for experience to inform theology.48This is not to say that pentecostal experiences of the Spirit are unmediated and direct encounters with the divine that are able to dictate theological conclusions; rather, pente- costal experience must be understood as mediated by the beliefs and practices of the community within which such experiences take place. Frank Macchia helpfully argues for a dialectical relationship between the “system of symbols involvedintheinterpretationframeworkof religiousexperience”and“thepres- ence of God through the Holy Spirit.”49While pentecostal experience is shaped
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Peter D. Neumann, Pentecostal Experience: An Ecumenical Encounter (Eugene, or: Pick- wick Publications, 2012), 7.
Mark J. Cartledge,The Mediation of the Spirit (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2015), 26–27. Cartledge argues that “experientialist religious discourse should be respected as containing genuine theology.”
Frank D. Macchia, “Christian Experience and Authority in the World,”Ecumenical Trends 31, no. 8 (2002): 12.
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by the cultural-linguistic frameworks of the community, this framework can itself be reshaped by experiences of the Spirit. Second, it has been argued that one of the distinguishing features of pentecostal identity is its ability to take root in a variety of contexts and among indigenous peoples.50 Consider- ing these two claims, the experiences of indigenous Pentecostals hold signif- icant importance and potential not simply for understanding Pentecostalism sociologically, but also for shaping Pentecostalism theologically. Such a stance enables Pentecostalism to take seriously the experiential spirituality that lies at the heart of the movement and also liberates the theological conversation from Western-dominant paradigms. At this juncture, it is important to clarify that I approach this topic and these interviews as a Pākehā New Zealander with a life of participation in pentecostal Christianity; something that carries with it an inherent tension in discussing issues related to Māori. My sociopolitical reality has been shaped by many of the inherent advantages that come from belonging to the dominant cultural group, a culture that is unavoidably impli- cated in the impact of colonization on Māori. The reality of this tension is one that must be continually negotiated, and the research and analysis discussed here is not intended as an attempt to colonize further the ideas and beliefs of the participants but rather offered as a contribution to a much needed conver- sation.
In 2015, I carried out interviews with ten Māori pentecostal church leaders and ministers with the aim of further exploring the relationship between Māori and Pentecostalism as well as to gain insight into the beliefs, perceptions, and experiences of Māori Pentecostals themselves. The participants ranged in age from twenty-nine to seventy-one years and lived in a range of locations around
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For example, see Joel Robbins, “The Globalization of Pentecostal and Charismatic Chris- tianity,”Annual Review of Anthropology33 (2004). Also, see Allan Anderson,To the Ends of the Earth: Pentecostalism and the Transformation of World Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 63. For interesting discussions on indigenous forms of Pente- costalism in Asia and Africa see Paulson Pulikottil, “One God, One Spirit, Two Mem- ories: A Postcolonial Reading of the Encounter Between Western Pentecostalism and Native Pentecostalism in Kerala,” in The Spirit in the World: Emerging Pentecostal The- ologies in Global Contexts, ed. Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2009), Koo Dong Yun, “Pentecostalism From Below: Minjung Liberation and Asian Pen- tecostal Theology,” in The Spirit in the World: Emerging Pentecostal Theologies in Global Contexts, ed. Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2009) and Ogbu U. Kalu, “Sankofa: Pentecostalism and African Cultural Heritage,” inThe Spirit in theWorld: Emerging Pentecostal Theologies in Global Contexts (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2009).
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New Zealand. In this series of interviews, I was interested in how Māori pen- tecostal leaders negotiated the tensions—if there were any—between their Christian faith and cultural identity, as well as in exploring their attitudes toward issues of social concern for Māori in contemporary New Zealand soci- ety. Having carried out a thematic analysis of the transcribed interview data, I identified a number of themes of theological interest and have sought to incor- porate these insights into an ongoing process of theological reflection.51While I identified many themes relevant to pentecostal theology with regard to issues of social concern for Māori in New Zealand, in this article I am interested in one of these in particular: that of the relationship between the Spirit and ethnic and cultural identity. To explore this, I will examine three distinct but related elements: first, the experiences of marginalization and cultural dislocation in New Zealand society; second, the exacerbation of these experiences within the pentecostal church community; and finally, the apparent connections between pentecostal experience of the Spirit and an affirmation of ethnic and cultural identity.
Marginalization and Cultural Dislocation
The interviewees in this study consistently relayed experiences of marginal- ization and cultural dislocation in New Zealand society. In using these terms, I am referring to the alienating experience of being Māori within a Pākehā- dominant society as well as the dislocating experience of losing connection to one’s ethnic and cultural identity through disrupted connections to land, lan- guage, family, and cultural and religious traditions. Norm McLeod, pastor of a nondenominational pentecostal church, spoke of his childhood experience of marginalization (and consequent cultural dislocation):
I always felt marginalized … I remember being the only Māori kid, me and my brothers, we were the only Māori kids at school. So we were different, darkies, n——s, all that stuff. So I wanted to be a Pākehā, so I used to rub talcum powder into my skin, Johnson’s baby talcum powder, me and my brothers, into our knees, legs, into our face. That was my upbringing
51
For a summary of approaches to thematic analysis, see Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology,” Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2006). In this study I engaged in a thematic analysis informed by a contextualist paradigm, an approach that lies between essentialist (realist) and constructionist approaches. See Anna Madill, Abbie Jordan, and Caroline Shirley, “Objectivity and Reliability in Qualitative Anal- ysis: Realist, Contextualist and Radical Constructionist Epistemologies,”British Journal of Psychology91 (2000): 3.
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in Oamaru; it shaped my perception about Māori, about Pākehā, I hated being Māori, I despised being Māori.52
Similarly, Assemblies of God pastor Steve Hira recounted his upbringing:
People did view Māori as “down here” rather than on [a] par with Pākehā. So it was better to shut yourself away from it, to cut yourself off from that part of your upbringing, or your culture.53
In such cases, interviewees often expressed sadness or regret at losing connec- tion with their own ethnic and cultural identity. Moreover, eight of the ten interviewees directly connected these experiences of marginalization and cul- tural dislocation with issues of social concern faced by Māori today. Even fur- ther, some of the respondents suggested that issues of identity were themselves theprimary issue of social concern for Māori. Consider the following response from Steve Hira when asked directly about the primary issues of social concern for Māori today: “Probably their identity, knowing who they are.”54
Although many Māori have experienced a dislocation from their Māori identity, independent “apostle” Manu Pohio suggested that the issue of one’s identity as Māori will inevitably surface within a Pākehā dominant society:
Every Māori person hits a crisis, and the crisis is “Who am I?” and he’s faced with his Māoriness. A lot of Māori have gone to Australia and have escaped who they are. They’ve gone for lifestyle … and that’s good, everybody likes lifestyle. But here in New Zealand you can’t do that. More and more and more, it’s evident … you are Māori. I’ve got a grandson who’s going to Hamilton next year to help with a church plant, and I said to him “Look, you’ll be faced with your ‘Māoriness,’ just to look at you, there’s no escape from it.”55
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53 54 55
Norm McLeod, interview by author. Tape recording. Gisborne, December 17, 2015. McLeod’s church in Gisborne had formally been an Elim Church but was now indepen- dent.
Steve Hira, interview by author. Tape recording. Christchurch, December 15, 2015. Ibid.
Manu Pohio, interview by author. Tape recording. Rotorua, December 16, 2015. Mr. Pohio was seventy years old at the time of the interview, and as an independent “apostle” and former pastor within the Apostolic denomination, he had oversight of several small rural churches throughout the Bay of Plenty.
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These experiences and observations cohere with the views of Māori aca- demics who argue that issues of cultural and ethnic identity lie at the heart of various social challenges experienced by Māori in New Zealand.56 In other words, the social, economic, and political challenges for Māori in New Zealand society are symptomatic of the challenges to Māori identity that have occurred as a result of the historical and ongoing impact of colonization and marginal- ization in New Zealand. In this respect, approaches that seek to eliminate socioeconomic disparities between Māori and non-Māori without addressing issues of cultural and ethnic identity are unlikely to be satisfactory to Māori, and indeed may only further intensify experiences of marginalization in a Western-dominant society.
Given these insights, if Pentecostals are to consider an appropriate response to issues of social concern for Māori in New Zealand society, it is vital that issues of ethnic and cultural identity form a central part of any ongoing conversa- tion. Moreover, we should also pay attention to the ways in which pentecostal church communities and pentecostal spirituality may have contributed to the experiences of marginalization and cultural dislocation for Māori, something that was apparent throughout the interview data. At times this was simply due to the experience of being in the ethnic minority within a predominantly non-Māori church community. For example, Assemblies of God minister and National Executive member Mina Acraman spoke thus of her early pentecostal leadership experience:
I’d say to Dennis [Mina’s husband], “Why are there only, like, five Māoris in this church?” … all the time, never went past it. And it just concerned me, but I didn’t really think a lot. It did concern me but I didn’t know what the answer was.57
These experiences of isolation also carried through into the limited empow- erment of Māori leadership within the pentecostal church. Manu Pohio ex- pressed his consternation in recounting that
I’d been hearing prophecies from different people who would come over, “Māori are gonna be this, Māori are gonna be that,” but our biggest prob- lem was that local Pākehā would seem to block it because they … I don’t
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Durie, Ngā Kāhui Pou, 97.
Mina Acraman, interview by author. Tape recording. Auckland, November 9, 2015. Mrs. Acraman was sixty-one years old at the time of recording and had just moved to a small town on the Coromandel Peninsula to pastor ana/gchurch there.
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know … I could understand if [I] was committing adultery, but no there’s never been sin for anything like that. I would have been much better if I had committed adultery, not that that could have ever happened, because I love my wife. I don’t know. It’s crazy.58
Here we can observe Manu Pohio’s confusion at his perception of treatment from Pākehā church leaders, believing that it may have been easier for him to progress in leadership if he had committed adultery rather than being Māori. While the experience as a minority within the church was one level of isolation, there were numerous ways in which Māori within the pentecostal church experienced explicit negativity toward Māori culture and ethnic identity. For example, seventy-one-year-old Peter Hira recalled his early church experiences of Pākehā Pentecostals praying that he might be exorcised from a “Māori spirit”:
In the early days I would be approached, and other Māori would be approached, and prayed for to cast out this Māori spirit, and then I would be asked after the prayer, “was I any different?” and I says, “no” and then they would go on to say that I still needed prayer. And I said “hold it, I know I don’t have any bad spirit, or evil spirit in me, because the Devil can’t make me walk straight!” and so [they said] “how do you know you’ve changed?” and I says “well, you’ve actually told me that all Māori need to be delivered” … I says “I know I don’t have an evil spirit” and they says “how?” and I says “I would have whacked you by now!” I said “you’d be lying on the floor!” And so nothing more was said.59
Interviewees also described occasions on which certain Māori practices and cultural possessions were believed to be demonically influenced. Several par- ticipants spoke of having to destroy various taonga [Māori treasured posses- sions] to avoid demonic curses:
And there was a teaching in the 80s saying anything Māori is evil. Even the ten-cent coin had thetiki[carved figure] on it, you had to throw that away because it was Māori, it was all demon possessed, all that sort of stuff. And
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Manu Pohio, December 16, 2015.
Peter Hira, interview by author. Tape recording. Christchurch, December 15, 2015. Mr. Hira is a retired pastor but remains an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God and continues in itinerant ministry.
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I’m a baby Christian so I took it on hook, line and sinker. So I burned all my Dad’s carvings, out of an effort to want to honour God … but it broke my heart.60
One day, my Aunt, who was full-blooded Māori, and she was the eldest daughter in our family, and she had all my grandmother’s beautiful taonga, beautiful beautiful greenstone, jewelry and all kinds of beautiful greenstone artifacts and things, and they [Pākehā church members] said “Oh Cecily, you’ll have to get rid of those” … And I was totally perplexed, I didn’t know what to do about it, I felt sick, because they told me it carried things like devils and all that kind of stuff … but they were very adamant about it. And so I went to a couple of the elders, who were also Pākehā, and they told me the same thing … So I took it to a stone grinder, I had all of these beautiful family taonga (thank God my family have never asked for them), and I had them crushed and I took them down to the sea, and I prayed and I said, “God, I don’t know what I should do or what I shouldn’t do, but I’m just offering this to you” and I threw it into the sea. All of my heritage, gone! When I realized later, I felt angry, I was very angry.61
Although Pentecostals have not limited their attribution of demonic influence to things related to Māori, the overriding framework within which this “discern- ing of spirits” has taken place is the dominant cultural context of Pākehā, and so these beliefs and attitudes are inescapably connected to the ethnocentrism of the Pākehā pentecostal world.
While there are more examples we could provide here, these are given to highlight how participation in the pentecostal church has, at times, exacer- bated the experiences of marginalization and cultural dislocation that can occur for Māori in New Zealand society more generally. Moreover, given the claim that marginalization and cultural dislocation are connected to ongoing issuesof socialconcernforMāori,thepentecostalchurchcommunitymayhave contributed to a worsening of such challenges, even if in other ways the pente- costal church sought to minister to the needs of Māori. It is also important to note that most of the explicitly negative experiences took place within a New Zealand context that had itself failed to come to terms with Māori identity. They largely occurred between the 1950s and the 1980s and correspond to a
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Norm McLeod, December 17, 2015.
Cecily Stoneham, interview by author. Tape recording. Whakatane, December 17, 2015. Mrs. Stoneham is a former church pastor who continues to be involved in itinerant ministry in pentecostal churches.
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period in New Zealand history in which many Māori had moved to urban cen- ters to find employment, and so the contrast between Māori and Pākehā social realities had become increasingly apparent.62 Interestingly, the height of pen- tecostal demonization of Māori artefacts appears to have occurred in the 1970s and 1980s, at a time when a “Māori Renaissance” had caused the New Zealand political establishment to finally respond to Māori grievances with an (albeit somewhat flawed) commitment to acknowledging the Treaty of Waitangi and New Zealand biculturalism.
Pentecostal Experience and Divine Affirmation of Ethnic Identity Having outlined the challenges for Māori within the pentecostal church, it is also intriguing to observe the way in which pentecostal spirituality still appeared to contain resources for Māori transformation and for the affirma- tion of Māori ethnic and cultural identity. While this may seem paradoxical with respect to the observations we have just described, many of the inter- viewees spoke of experiences with the Spirit in which their identity as Māori was affirmed by God. They relayed stories of divine revelation, of hearing God’s voice, and of tangible experiences of the Spirit whereby their self-under- standing was transformed.
Psalm 136 [sic: 139] [says] “I fashioned, I formed you.”That was a revelation that dropped into my heart. He made me this way … so all of that identity crisis just left, just like the Devil trying to put a wedge in there so that I would never embrace that part of my life. It disappeared.63
Jefferson Lucas was prompted at a pentecostal event to ask God, “What do you think about me?”
Instantly, I heard back [from God], “Jay, I think you’re Māori.” And I stood still. I froze. Because I was quite stunned, I was like “Whoa! God, that’s what you think about me?” … When I heard God say that about me it was the first time I ever owned my cultural identity, because it mattered to God. Because God was speaking to me … if this is what God thinks about me then I don’t care what any other person says what I am or what I’m not
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Michael Belgrave, “Beyond the Treaty of Waitangi: Māori Tribal Aspirations in an Era of Reform, 1984–2014,”The Journal of Pacific History49, no. 2 (2014): 196. At the end of World Wariiaround 25 percent of Māori lived in urban centers, but by the 1970s that proportion had grown to at least 75 percent.
Norm McLeod, December 17, 2015.
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… it was the defining moment where I now don’t care what people think. People can think what they like but I’ve got something on the inside, God saying to me that within my cultural identity is also my identity in God.64
Mina Acraman relayed a story of needing to organize apōwhiri(Māori welcome ceremony) for a church visitor, and, after twenty years of feeling distanced from her Māori culture, she had an encounter with the Holy Spirit.
I went home, I was lying on the bed exhausted and the Holy Spirit just came into the room, and I felt like He had laid on me and He was saying, “This is who you are!” and every fiber of me was coming alive to the fact that I was Māori … and I remember sobbing for about three hours.65
These examples, among others, demonstrate that despite negative experiences within the pentecostal church community, some interviewees had also experi- enced profound divine affirmation of their ethnic and cultural identity through encounters with the Spirit, encounters that were themselves shaped by pente- costal spirituality. Furthermore, in each case these experiences had a marked impact on their trajectory in life and ministry, propelling them into ministry among Māori communities and toward a reclaiming of their own cultural prac- tices.
Importantly, these experiences also occurred within the wider social and political changes taking place in New Zealand society in the latter part of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century. This includes a renewal of Māori language and culture and the establishment of biculturalism as a com- mon social and political framework for understanding New Zealand society and cultural identity. Interestingly, pentecostal churches and denominations have, for the most part, moved on from the most obvious examples of demo- nizing Māori culture and identity, even as they have simultaneously resisted, or largely ignored, the wider movement toward Treaty recognition and bicul- turalism. Given our earlier recognition of the mediated nature of pentecostal experience, it is important to note that the reported experiences of the Spirit did not emerge in isolation from these wider societal shifts taking place in New Zealand. Of course, as I have also argued, the mediated nature of pentecostal experience does not render it inapplicable in theological reflection. Thus, the
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Jefferson Lucas, interview by author. Tape recording. Auckland, November 18, 2015. Mr. Lucas was a senior leader of an independent neo-pentecostal church in Auckland. Mina Acraman, November 9, 2015.
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question at this point is to ask what we can say about this theologically, and to consider these insights in light of the preceding discussion on the work of the Spirit in the book of Acts.
Implications for Pentecostal Theology in Relation to Ethnic and Cultural Identity
Thus far in this article I have made three particular claims. First, the role of the Spirit, in both the Day of Pentecost narrative in Acts 2 and the Cornelius episode in Acts 10, demonstrates that the Spirit’s work is connected to the inclu- sion of diverse ethnic and cultural identities into the people of God. Not only was Gentile identity removed as an obstacle to inclusion, but the Spirit affirmed ethno-linguistic and cultural diversity in and of itself. Second, Māori ethnic and cultural identity is a central issue in responding to the many issues of social concern for Māori in contemporary New Zealand society; and third, despite the pentecostal church exacerbating the marginalization and cultural disloca- tion experienced by Māori, pentecostal experiences of the Spirit by some Māori have been connected to a sense of divine affirmation of their ethnic and cul- tural identity. At this juncture, it is helpful to consider the intersection of these three claims. That is, what do the experiences of Māori offer to us theologically in relation to understanding the work of the Spirit in the book of Acts? More- over, how does this offer the pentecostal community a way of understanding connections between the work of the Spirit and ethnic and cultural identity that can contribute to Māori flourishing?
As we have already noted, one of the themes identified in the interviews with Māori pentecostal church leaders and ministers was that of a divine affirmation of their ethnic and cultural identity as Māori. The profundity of this experience for the individuals in question was evident in their claiming, or reclaiming, a sense of Māori ethnic and cultural identity and their belief that this identity was actively affirmed by God, despite their experiences in the church and in New Zealand society that may have suggested otherwise. In all such cases in the interview data, the interviewees described a resultant change in their own life trajectory, demonstrating that the experience had indeed been transformative.
Such experiences invite examination of the Cornelius episode in Acts 10. While the Māori participants were already Christian, and so in this sense differ from the Gentile God-fearers in the household of Cornelius, I propose that there is comparability in their experience of the Spirit and an affirmation of their ethnic and cultural identity. While the focus of interpretation in the Cornelius passage is often on the inclusion of Gentiles into the people of God,
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the experiences of Māori outlined in this article suggest to us that there may be further theological considerations to explore, particularly in relation to ethnic and cultural identity. For the Māori interviewees, the affirmation of their ethnic and cultural identity was important not primarily from the perspective of inclusion in the Christian gospel—indeed, they were already Christian— but rather in a personally transformative sense. They experienced a newfound confidence in their identity as Māori and this confidence was grounded in experiences of the Holy Spirit.
In this light, we should recognize that the inclusion of Gentiles into the peo- ple of God in Acts 10 is of particular importance because God does not require them to abandon their Gentile identity; that is, they remain Gentiles.66This is more than a claim that one can now be included in the people of God “despite” one’s identity as Gentile. Indeed, the more profound implication is that Gentile identity is affirmed by God, an affirmation of ethnic and cultural identity that, while not a carte blanche endorsement of every aspect of one’s cultural prac- tices, beliefs, and values, is nevertheless a profound claim at the level of ethnic and cultural identity. In this respect, it appears that Yong’s proposal of a “dual identity” is a more helpful model than Kuecker’s notion of a “superordinate” identity.The experiences of Māori Pentecostals within the church demonstrate the tendency of church communities shaped by a dominant Western culture to subsume Māori identity even as they make attempts at inclusion. Instead, it was the experience of the Spirit that ultimately affirmed Māori identity, not just by acceptance into the pentecostal community but also as a part of God’s good creation.
Altogether, these observations offer some important resources for thinking pentecostally and theologically about the social challenges facing Māori partic- ularly, and marginalized ethnic minorities more generally. In the first instance, these claims offer a rather obvious but stern challenge to the pentecostal demo- nization of Māori ethnic and cultural realities as related by the interviewees. While all cultures must be self-aware and self-critical, the claim by Pākehā Pentecostals that Māori cultural practices and taonga—not to mention Māori people themselves—are demonized must be rejected. They reveal a deeply problematic theology of culture in historic Pentecostalism in New Zealand in light of the proposed connections among colonization, dislocation from cul- tural identity, and ongoing issues of social concern for Māori. Such attitudes not only generate negative experiences for pentecostal Māori but arguably con- tribute to the systemic causes of social challenges for Māori in New Zealand
66
Witherington,The Acts of the Apostles, 360–361.
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society more broadly. Furthermore, the claim that the Holy Spirit is at work in the affirmation of ethnic and cultural identity for Māori, an observation that coheres with the work of the Spirit in both Acts 2 and Acts 10, also corresponds with Néstor Medina’s claim that “there is an interrelation between the work of the spirit and the legitimation of people’s cultural spaces as a locus of divine activity and disclosure.”67 This insight is of critical importance when consid- ering that the pentecostal church has itself contributed to the delegitimation of Māori Pentecostals’ cultural spaces and has thus worked in contrast to the divine activity of the Spirit.
For the pentecostal church to partner more actively with the Spirit, Pen- tecostals must encourage the affirmation of ethnic and cultural identity, par- ticularly for indigenous peoples who have been marginalized by the forces of colonization and who may have experienced dislocation from their own eth- nic and cultural identity. Any pentecostal framework for focusing on the social challenges faced by Māori in contemporary New Zealand society must think theologically about issues of identity and how these are connected to social, economic, and political concerns for Māori today. In the Acts 10 account of Cor- nelius and Gentile inclusion, as well as in the Azusa Street revival and among Māori Pentecostals in twenty-first-century New Zealand, the Spirit has been at work in the empowerment of ethnic minorities, the disestablishment of ethnic hegemonies, and the affirmation of marginalized ethnic and cultural identities. This “evidence” of the Spirit’s work deserves much greater recognition in pen- tecostal theologies of the Spirit in the future.
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Néstor Medina, “Jürgen Moltmann and Pentecostalism(s): Toward a Cultural Theology of the Spirit,”TorontoJournalof TheologySupplement 1 (2008): 111. (Emphasis in the original.)
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