Father Divine

1912–1914: In the South Father Divine traveled south, where he preached extensively in Georgia. In 1913, conflicts with local ministers led to him being sentenced to 60 days in a chain gang. While he was serving his sentence, several prison inspectors were injured in an auto accident, which he viewed as the direct result of their disbelief.

Upon his release, he attracted a following of mostly black women in Valdosta, Georgia. He taught celibacy and the rejection of gender categorizations.

On February 6, 1914, several followers' husbands and local preachers had Divine arrested for lunacy. This arrest expanded his ministry, with reporters and worshipers deluging his prison cell. Some whites even began calling on him.

Former Mercer University professor and lay preacher, J.R. Moseley of Macon, Georgia befriended Divine and arranged for J.B. Copeland, a Mercer alum and respected Valdosta lawyer, to represent him pro bono. Moseley was interested in what he termed "this unusual man" in his autobiography Manifest Victory.

Decades later, in the 1930s, Moseley met Divine in New York City when he received word that the man going by that name might in fact be the same person he met in Georgia. Father Divine was found mentally sound in spite of "maniacal" beliefs. He had given no name when arrested and was tried as "John Doe (alias God)".

1914–1919: Brooklyn and marriage to Peninniah In 1914, Father Divine travelled to Brooklyn, New York, with a small number of followers and an all-black congregation. Although he claimed to be God incarnate fulfilling biblical prophecies, he lived relatively quietly.

He and his disciples formed a commune in a black, middle-class apartment building. He forbade sex, alcohol, tobacco and gambling among the people living with him. By 1919, he had adopted the name Reverend Major Jealous Divine. "Reverend Major" was chosen as a title of respect and authority, while "Jealous" was a reference to Exodus 34:14, where the Lord says he is a "jealous god" and that God's name is Jealous. His followers affectionately called him Father Divine.

In this period, Father Divine was married to Peninniah (biblical name and the name of Peninnah, first wife of Elkanah the father of the prophet Samuel with variant spellings: Penninah, Peninnah, Penniah), a follower, who was many years older than himself. Like Father Divine, her early life is obscure, but she is believed to be from Macon, Georgia. Harris, who wrote a biography about the Peace movement and its leader said that Father Divine had met Peninah in Georgia and came North with her and that they bought the house in Sayville as a married couple. Penniniah would later claim that Father Divine had healed her from crippling arthritis or rheumatism who had allowed Father Divine to preach in his church after witnessing one of his alleged miracles.

But in an interview with a reporter from the New York Post, Penniniah told a reporter that she had met Father Divine in Baltimore, Maryland, when he was a 'Nazarene' or Holiness preacher. The actual marriage date is unknown but probably occurred between 1914 and 1917. She was first called "Sister Penny" then "Mother Penny" and finally referred to as "Mother Divine" or "Mother of the Faithful".

In addition to lending her dignified look to Father Divine, Peninniah served to defuse rumours of impropriety between him and his many young female followers. Both Penninah and Father Divine would assert that the marriage was never physically consummated.

Peninniah became known for her free dinners, the forerunners of the later lavish "Holy Communion" banquets that helped to attract new followers to the movement. She also played a major part in the Peace Mission's development throughout the 1920s and 1930s, establishing the group's "Promised Land" in Ulster County in upstate New York, where she also attempted to open an orphanage (though the attempt was ultimately unsuccessful).

1919–1931: Sayville, New York

Father Divine and his disciples moved to Sayville, Long Island, New York in 1919. He and his followers were the first black homeowners in town. Father Divine purchased his 72 Macon Avenue house from a resident who wanted to spite the neighbor he was feuding with. The two neighbors, both German Americans, began fighting when one of them changed his name from Felgenhauer to Fellows in response to anti-German sentiment. His neighbor taunted him, and the feud escalated until Fellows decided to move. As a final insult, he specifically advertised his home for sale to a "colored" buyer, presumably to lower his neighbors' property value.

In this period, his movement underwent sustained growth. Father Divine held free weekly banquets and helped newcomers find jobs. He began attracting many white followers as well as black. The integrated environment of Father Divine's communal house and the apparent flaunting of his wealth by his owning a Cadillac infuriated neighbors.

By May 1932, meetings were regularly held at the Rockland Palace and throughout New York and New Jersey. Father Divine had supporters in Washington, California and throughout the world thanks to New Thought devotees like Eugene Del Mar, an early convert and former Harlem journalist, and Henry Joerns, the publisher of New Thought Magazine in Seattle. Although the movement was predominantly black, followers outside the Northeastern United States were mostly middle-class whites.

In this period of expansions, several branch communes were opened in New York and New Jersey. Father Divine's followers finally named the movement the International Peace Mission movement.

Father Divine's trial was held on May 24, 1932. His lawyer, Ellee J. Lovelace, a prominent Harlem African American and former US attorney had requested the trial be moved outside of Suffolk County due to potential jury bias. The court acquiesced, and the trial took place at the Nassau County Supreme Court before Judge Lewis J. Smith. After a long trial, with many witnesses, "Smith instructed the jury to ignore the statements made by witnesses not present on the night of the raid. Smith's order invalidated most of the testimony in Father Divine's favor and severely crippled the defense."

Father Divine ended every sermon or article with the following statement, "Sincerely wishing that you and those with whom you are concerned might be even as I AM for I AM well, healthy, joyful, peaceful, lively, loving, successful, prosperous and happy in spirit, body and mind and in every organ, muscle, sinew, joint, limb, vein and bone and even in every atom, fibre and cell of MY bodily form."

Other eccentricities were drawn from his doctrine. For example, nearly every sermon began with the greeting and exhortation "Peace!" Father Divine believed that peace should replace hello.

Doctrine

Father Divine preached of his divinity even before he was known as "Father Divine" in the late 1910s.

In 2000, the Divine Lorraine Hotel near Temple University on North Broad Street was sold by the international Peace Mission movement. It was a budget hotel with separate floors for men and women in accord with Father Divine's teachings. The Divine Tracy Hotel in West Philadelphia was sold in 2006.