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This is Speaking of Faith, conversation about belief, meaning, ethics, and ideas.

I'm Krista Tippett.

This hour, Pentecostalism in America today.

Pentecostalism is the largest and most influential religious movement ever to

originate in the United States.

In less than a century, it has grown to hundreds of millions of adherents.

The New York Times reports that 25% of Christians worldwide are Pentecostal.

The word Pentecost is taken from an ancient Jewish observance.

The New Testament says that it was on Pentecost, that the Holy Spirit descended

on the early Christians for the first time.

The first modern Pentecostal was a woman, Agnes Osman.

She spoke in tongues on the first day of the 20th century, at the original Pentecostal

community in Topeka, Kansas.

Then in 1906, an African-American preacher, William Joseph Seymour, led what became known

as the Azusa Street Revival in downtown Los Angeles.

This unprecedented gathering of people from every class and race lasted for three years.

From there, Pentecostalism began to spread across the world.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Pentecostal charismatic movement washed across

...