Who is William J. Seymour? He was a one eyed black man that was a son of slaves with no formal education that God raised up to be the greatest civil rights leader you've never heard of. He is the one person in modern Christian history that causes me to feel "something" (I put it in quotes because I can't explain what that thing I feel is) when I look at his picture. The "something" is a mixture of respect, regard, pity, admiration, and maybe even love. But my musings regarding loving someone that was born 100 years before me and only known through the extant testimonies of other people is a topic for another day.
He may very well have been the founder of modern Pentecostalism but he is rarely more than a footnote in Pentecostal literature. I think he was more significant to the cause of civil rights than Malcolm X, and that is no denigration to Malcolm X.
He is best known for pastoring the church that made glossolalia (speaking in tongues) famous but in my opinion that wasn't the defining mark of the revival.
Tonight I am thankful that I get to tell others a story that I enjoy so much.
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He looks a little bit like "Big Poppy".
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