Pastor

Deserted by friends when he felt compelled to change from sharing their religious beliefs, he followed his conscience on a revised career path, without regret despite the major loss of money and earlier friendships. 

FAMILY BACKGROUND

Carlton D. Pearson (CP) was born in San Diego, California into a family whose father and grandfather were ministers. His mother was a homemaker.

CHILDHOOD

Raised in the Pentecostal church, CP was forbidden to smoke or drink alcohol, but he found plenty of excitement during the church services: as a teenage participant in a youth revival event, he once “cast the devil” out of a girlfriend. 

EDUCATION

Following his high school graduation, CP attended Oral Roberts University (named for a famous / celebrity- style, fundamental Christian preacher whose sermons were often televised nationally). 

CP left the university before graduating, to start his own ministry. 

FIRST CAREER PATH

While never officially promoted to the post of ‘Bishop’ within the network of fundamentalist Christian churches, CP’s enthusiastic preaching style led to him being recognized within his religious network as one of its ‘leading lights’ – serving as a board member of Oral Roberts University, adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush on faith initiatives and one of the country’s first Black televangelists. 

An annual revival that CP led, the Azusa Conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a mix of ministry and music, drew as many as 20,000 people and spun off best-selling gospel music records. 

At one of the conferences, a group of evangelical leaders declared CP “a Bishop in the Lord’s church.”

EPIPHANY LEADS TO A REVISED CAREER PATH

While watching a TV report on children in Africa starving during a genocide, Bishop Pearson had an ‘epiphany.’ 

(An epiphany is the experience of a sudden, major revelation; usually the term is used to describe a scientific breakthrough or a religious or philosophical discovery, but it can apply in any situation in which a quick realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective. Epiphanies are rare occurrences and generally follow a process of significant thought about a problem, often triggered by a new and key piece of information but most important, a depth of prior knowledge of the general subject is required to allow the leap of understanding. 

A famous epiphany is Isaac Newton’s realization that a falling apple and the orbiting moon are both pulled by the same force: gravity.)

While watching the slaughter of children, CP could not believe that God would consign such innocent souls to hell because the children had not yet had a fully thoughtful, adult opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as savior before they died. He concluded that hell does not exist, except as earthly misery created by human beings; that God loves all mankind; and that everyone is already saved. 

CHALLENGE – DISPUTING CORE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF OTHERS

The denial of hell and belief in being saved at birth were views which CP immediately began to share in interviews and preach in his church, the Higher Dimensions Family Church, which he co-founded in 1981 and which grew into one of the largest in Tulsa, known for its multiracial pews in a city and a faith, evangelic Christianity, that was largely racially segregated at the time. 

“I believe that most people on planet Earth will go to Heaven, because of Calvary (Jesus’ death on the cross), because of the unconditional love of God and the redemptive work of the cross, which is already accomplished,” said the bishop, adding that he included Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists among the loved. “I’m reevaluating everything,” he said.

The religious doctrine which CP was now following is known to some people as ‘Universal Salvation’ but CP called it the “Gospel of Inclusion,” an old theological doctrine which is rejected by many Christian churches, including the conservative denomination that ordained CP, the Church of God in Christ, the nation’s largest Black Pentecostal group. 

CP’s fall from respect and leadership within his first career path was swift and decisive once he questioned the core doctrines of the religious network he had called his pastoral home. The Joint College of African American Pentecostal Bishops declared CP a ‘heretic’, adding that Christians who followed him “put at risk the eternal destiny of their souls.” Oral Roberts denounced him in a 12-page letter. Another celebrity televangelist, T.D. Jakes, said that former bishop CP’s theology was “wrong, false, misleading and an incorrect interpretation of the Bible.”

(A ‘heretic’ believes something at variance with established beliefs or customs.)

Due to CP’s ‘apostasy’ (the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief), most of CP’s congregation left their memberships in the church he had founded. Attendance at his church dwindled from thousands to mere hundreds, associate pastors quit, and he lost the church building in a mortgage foreclosure. Oral Roberts University denied him use of its campus for his Azusa gatherings, and he resigned from the university’s board of trustees. He lost his bid to be elected Mayor of Tulsa, blaming the controversy over his theology.

PUSHING AHEAD THROUGH THE CHALLENGE

Following the logic of universal salvation, CP stopped preaching that homosexuality was a sin. “We just love people,” he told his congregation. “And we are the most radically inclusive worship experience in the city of Tulsa.” 

CP found a new audience among some liberal Christians and in the national news media. After becoming a minister in the United Church of Christ, one of the most liberal Christian denominations in America, his branding as a heretic was covered in detail in an episode of the NPR (national public radio) show, “This American Life.” 

Book publisher Simon & Schuster offered CP a book deal, for which he wrote “The Gospel of Inclusion”, followed by his second book, “God is not a Christian, Nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu….”

LOBBYIST

In 2007, CP and other religious leaders lobbied the U.S. Congress to pass legal protections against hate crimes targeting gay people. “The issue of not special but equal rights for God’s same-gender-loving children is a moral imperative in every community in America,” said CP, addressing supporters across the street from the Capitol complex in Washington, D.C. 

(The measure, which Congress passed, died after a veto threat by President George W. Bush but it was signed into law in 2009 by President Barack Obama.)

CAREER SATISFACTION

After CP died, the televangelist T.D. Jakes, who had been highly critical of CP years earlier said about him, “I will forever be grateful for his public recognition and respect for me at the time when he was so prominent, and I was unknown.”

A friend of CP said he often asked CP whether he regretted the loss of prestige, income and worshipers that followed his turning away from Pentecostal Christian orthodoxy. “I said, ‘You’ve lost a lot of money, don’t you think you should have just shut up?’ But he (CP) would always say, ‘No, I don’t believe I made a mistake.’”

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This career story is based on several sources including an obituary written by Trip Gabriel, published by The New York Times on November 23, 2023, plus internet research including Wikipedia. 

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Editor’s note: After reviewing CP’s career story above, a devout Catholic, VHG Harry Himes, offered his comments: “Catholic Doctrine believes in the Baptism of Blood. So, the children in the ‘killing fields’ were saved. Further, Catholic doctrine distinguishes between ‘Vincible Ignorance’ and ‘Invincible Ignorance’. Thus, if a person – after rational thought analysis – cannot accept Christ as Savior, they are still saved. If, however, they have no desire to pursue a thoughtful analysis of Christ as Savior, they cannot be saved.

The above discussion is essentially a reference to ‘Pre Determinism’ versus ‘Free Will.’ Catholic doctrine believes a person has Free Will, even though God knows what each person will choose. In contrast, Pre Determination believes that some persons are predestined for Heaven, others not.”