"Just Another Queer Sect from Over the Pacific": Anti-Americanism and the Wesleyan-Holiness Churches in Australia, Aldersgate Papers 4 (September 2003). (original) (raw)

When North American Wesleyan-Holiness churches began to arrive in Australia in the years immediately following the Second World War, they faced considerable opposition from Australian Christians who, to some extent, resented American influence on the religious scene. Other evangelicals influenced by earlier forms of ‘Holiness’ teaching were drawn to the new Holiness groups because they recognized an echo of an older, but now almost forgotten tradition. These churches were not instances of American religious imperialism, but authentic movements of Australian Christians finding in their American cousins willing ‘sponsors’ who could provide legitimacy for their efforts by links with recognized and established denominations. The fact that these ‘sponsoring’ denominations were American, far from being seen as an advantage, was seen by Australian and American church leaders alike, as a liability. These groups continued to be marginalized because of their perceived American origins and control. Only as features of American evangelicalism began to be more widely accepted among Australian evangelicals and seen as authentically Australian and not an American import, did the holiness churches become less ‘queer’ and less sect-like.