A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

Trinitarian Pentecostal Organizations
wear makeup or jewelry. No woman would wear pants or
cut her hair. Preachers were “death” on the theater. The
AG was not as strict as some groups, for it allowed
engagement and wedding bands. 175
Pictures on display in the historical center at AG
headquarters show that the gradual abandonment of holiness
standards of outward appearance (hair, ornaments,
makeup, dress) took place in the 1950s and especially the
1960s. During this time, many ministers tried to stem the
tide. For example, Call to Holiness, a tabloid published
in Lorain, Ohio, by AG members contained articles
against television, movies, tobacco, alcohol, makeup, and
excessive jewelry (such as beads, bracelets, and earrings).
In 1961 it reprinted an article from the
Pentecostal Evangel (the official AG organ)—“There Is
Beauty in Holiness” by Carl Brumback—that taught
inward and outward holiness and opposed makeup and
jewelry.
In 1963, Ralph Riggs, general superintendent from
1953 to 1959, wrote A Call to Holiness, a tract that was
also printed as an article in Call to Holiness. In it he
urged Christians not to attend movies, use tobacco or
alcohol, wear makeup, or dress immodestly. He also
spoke of a “twilight zone of public ball games, newsreels
in a downtown theater, and public roller-skating rinks
where a person mixes with a crowd of sinners” and recommended
abstaining from such activities also.
In 1961 the Rocky Mountain District of the AG
amended its bylaws to read, “We unitedly declare ourselves
against all forms of worldliness, such as wearing of
slacks and shorts, lipstick, paint, earrings, and excessive
jewelry. We further declare ourselves against mixed
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