"The Foot Cannot Say"

In November 1906, Charles F. Parham came to Los Angeles at the invitation of William J. Seymour. Parham’s frustration with the cultural differences between them, and his hatred of Glenn Cook, led him to condemn the Los Angeles revival. “God is sick at His stomach,” he declared. When it became known that Parham was teaching that blacks would not be part of the “Bride of Christ,” an outgrowth of his “British-Israel” theory, Seymour and the Board asked him to leave. This cartoon was published on the front cover of The Burning Bush, January 24, 1907, a Wesleyan-Holiness magazine. Just below the cartoon, the caption containing words loosely based upon 1 Corinthians 12:14–26 read, “THE FOOT CANNOT SAY TO THE HEAD, I HAVE NO NEED OF THEE.” The caricatures and stereotypes portrayed in the cartoon are evident, though it is interesting to note that there are no black faces in the crowd. This cover demonstrates how division within the Church carries far reaching ramifications, in this case, from the Apostolic Faith Movement into the Holiness Movement.