A. A. Allen

== Revivalist ==
Stemming in part from many reported healings, Allen established a large following.<ref name=h68>{{harvnb|Harrell|1975|page=68}}</ref> He became one of the first ministers to develop a national [[televangelism|television ministry]], which frequently included excerpts from his "healing line" ministry. By the late 1960s, however, music formed an increasingly dominant part of Allen's programs, which was generally performed by [[African-American]] singer and choir leader Gene Martin.<ref name=b189>{{harvnb|Billingsley|2008|page=189}}</ref>

In 1955, Allen purchased a large tent for $8,500.<ref name=h68 /> He was soon one of the major healing evangelists on the [[healing revival]] circuit. Allen's revival meetings were similar to the other leading evangelists of the time (such as Roberts, [[Jack Coe]], and [[William Branham]])<ref name=h56>{{harvnb|Harrell|1975|page=56}}</ref> in that meetings were typically characterized by preaching, testimony, music, and praying for the sick.<ref name=b189 /><ref name=h69>{{harvnb|Harrell|1975|page=69}}</ref> As was the case with other ministers of the time, Allen's healing ministry was facilitated by the use of "prayer cards" obtained in advance by those requesting prayer for healing.<ref name = lat>{{cite news|last=Powers|first=Charles|title=Rev. A. A. Allen" He Shakes, Sways Hallelujah Trail|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/156379421.html|access-date=November 22, 2011|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=March 8, 1970}}</ref><ref name = church>{{cite journal|last=Brown|first=Candy|title=From Tent Meetings and Store-front Healing Rooms to Walmarts and the Internet: Healing Spaces in the United States, the Americas, and the World, 1906–2006|journal=Church History|year=2006|volume=75|issue=3|pages=631–647|doi=10.1017/S000964070009867X|s2cid=162907680 }}</ref>

In 1955, Allen was arrested for suspicion of [[drunk driving]] after a controversial incident in [[Knoxville, Tennessee|Knoxville]], [[Tennessee]]. He resigned from the Assemblies of God shortly afterward.<ref name = TIME>{{cite journal | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,839798,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214152004/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,839798,00.html  | archive-date=December 14, 2008 | title=Getting Back Double from God | journal=Time Magazine |date=March 7, 1969 | access-date =2007-05-17}}</ref> After paying a fine without contest in order to avoid terminating his Knoxville meetings which were then in progress, Allen was re-ordained by his "Miracle Revival Fellowship."{{r|Randi}} His associate [[Don Stewart (preacher)|Don Stewart]] claimed that Allen was occasionally drunk after Knoxville, and that his staff covered for him.<ref>{{cite book|first=Don|last=Stewart|author-link=Don Stewart (preacher)|title=Only believe: an eyewitness account of the great healing revivals of the 20th century|location=Shippensburg, PA|publisher=Revival Press|date=1999|isbn=1-56043-340-X|page=131}}</ref>

Allen continued on the revival circuit, and in 1958 he purchased a tent previously used by Coe that could seat over 22,000. He became one of the first evangelists to propagate the [[prosperity gospel]], calling poverty a "spirit" and expounding God's ability to perform miracles financially.<ref>{{cite book | last = Robins | first = R. G. | title = Pentecostalism in America | year = 2010 | publisher = [[ABC-CLIO]] | isbn = 978-0-313-35294-2 }}</ref> At his peak, Allen appeared on fifty-eight radio stations daily, as well as forty-three television stations.<ref>{{cite book| last = Randi | first = James | author-link = James Randi | year = 1989 | title = The Faith Healers | url = https://archive.org/details/faithhealers00rand | url-access = registration | publisher = Prometheus Books | isbn = 0-87975-535-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/faithhealers00rand/page/84 84]}}</ref> At the time of his death, his headquarters in [[Miracle Valley, Arizona|Miracle Valley]], [[Arizona]] was {{convert|2400|acre|km2}} with its own airfield.

At that time, A. A. Allen Revivals, Inc. was publishing "well over" 60 million pieces of literature a year. The circulation of ''Miracle Magazine'', published monthly by the Allen ministry, was 450,000 at the time of his death.<ref name="tucsonad">{{cite news | title=A.A. Allen Revivals, Inc., Looks Ahead! (full page ad) | newspaper=[[Tucson Daily Citizen]] |date=July 4, 1970 | page=10}}</ref> The magazine included, at times, accounts of healings, but gave a [[disclaimer]] that the magazine does not "assume legal responsibility" of its accuracy.<ref name="Randi" /> Gerald W. King, the business manager of Miracle Valley, was quoted in 1969, shortly before Allen's death, as saying, "We take in $2 million a year, and our expenses are $2 million a year." He added that Miracle Valley's annual payroll was $84,000.<ref name="mirval">{{cite news|first=Bob|last=Thomas|title=Miracle Valley Base for Allen Revival|newspaper=[[The Arizona Republican]]|location=Phoenix, AZ|date=Nov 30, 1969|page=A-29}}</ref>

Few of Allen's supposed miracles ever underwent "scrutiny of physicians" and at his revivals in small print his disclaimer read: "A. A. Allen Revivals, Inc. assumes no legal responsibility for the veracity of any such report."<ref name=TIME /> One source, ''The Encyclopedia of American Religions'', claims that Allen did not like press coverage, which "resulted in his hiring of 'goon squads' to punch out anyone who showed up for Allen's tent revivals with a notepad or camera."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Encyclopedia of American Religions|location=Tarrytown, NY|publisher=Triumph Books|date=1991|volume=1|pages=258–59}}</ref>

<blockquote>Eventually, most of the evangelists had wheelchairs available for people who had bad backs and couldn't stand in a healing line for hours. But when the evangelist got to them and pulled them up out of the wheelchair, some in the audience thought they were walking for the first time or that they had come to the revival in that wheelchair.<ref>{{cite book|first=Don|last=Stewart|author-link=Don Stewart (preacher)|title=Only believe: an eyewitness account of the great healing revivals of the 20th century|location=Shippensburg, PA|publisher=Revival Press|date=1999|isbn=1-56043-340-X|page=115}}</ref></blockquote>

In his television programs, Allen or his ministry associates made frequent mention of the fact that his meetings were [[racial integration|racially integrated]]. African-Americans sat alongside whites in the choir, the ministers' section, and the congregation. African-American musical talent was frequently highlighted in Allen's television programs, especially in the 1960s. This racial attitude also found its expression in Allen's sermon record album titled, ''Did God Call the Apostle Paul to Preach the Gospel to the Black Man?'' The album cover refers to Allen as "no doubt the first evangelist on a great national or international scale to preach integration to huge crowds in the North and the South{{nbsp}}..."<ref>[http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tbIrONlKCFU/TK8AAYnvMrI/AAAAAAAACAI/1znPt4-K_QE/s1600/aa_allen_white_power1.jpg Did God Call the Apostle Paul to Preach the Gospel to the Black Man?] (album cover)</ref> This was something of an exaggeration, though perhaps in keeping with Allen's personality. Mainstream revivalist [[Billy Graham]], while not always consistent, had desegregated many of his revivals as early as 1953 in [[Chattanooga, Tennessee|Chattanooga]], [[Tennessee]], and integrated all his revivals following the ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' decision in 1954.<ref>{{cite book|first=Steven Patrick|last=Miller|title=Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South|url=https://archive.org/details/billygrahamriseo0000mill|url-access=registration|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|date=2009|pages=[https://archive.org/details/billygrahamriseo0000mill/page/26 26–30]|isbn=978-0-8122-4151-8 }}</ref>

Another major theme in Allen's ministry was his unrelenting attacks on what he characterized as dead, formal, denominational religion. This was a theme of a number of his televised messages and of such Miracle Valley publications as Allen's book titled ''Let My People Go!''<ref>A.A. Allen, [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tbIrONlKCFU/TK8AAYnvMrI/AAAAAAAACAI/1znPt4-K_QE/s1600/aa_allen_white_power1.jpg ''Let My People Go''] (digital text)</ref> This was also the theme of a book authored by Clarence G. Mitchell and published by Allen's ministry, titled ''Starving Sheep and Overfed Shepherds'' (1963). Allen regarded "denominationalism" as a sin. This is reflected in the subtitle of Mitchell's book: "Takes the Cover Off! Brings the Sin of Denominationalism Out into the Open!"

At a revival meeting on January 1, 1958, in [[Phoenix, Arizona]], recent convert Urbane Leiendecker approached Allen and offered him {{convert|1280|acre|km2}} of land.<ref>{{cite book| last = Randi | first = James | author-link = James Randi | year = 1989 | title = The Faith Healers | url = https://archive.org/details/faithhealers00rand | url-access = registration | publisher = Prometheus Books | isbn = 0-87975-535-0 | page = [https://archive.org/details/faithhealers00rand/page/83 83]}}</ref> This property, later expanded, was then named "Miracle Valley." As such, it served as the ministry headquarters for A. A. Allen Revivals, Inc. This location housed Miracle Valley Bible College and its dorms and classrooms; a domed church; administrative buildings; a large warehouse; a residential neighborhood called Miracle Valley Estates; a publishing and printing plant; a four-press [[phonograph record]] plant; and Miracle Valley Fellowship, which served as a ministerial fellowship with about 10,000 ministers as members.<ref name="tucsonad" /> In spite of the presence of its own print shop, however, Miracle Valley business manager Gerald King said in 1969 that the ministry spent $27,000 per month "farming out" jobs to other print shops that could not be handled on site.<ref name="mirval" />

In 1963, A. A. Allen Revivals, Inc. successfully sued the [[Internal Revenue Service]] (IRS)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.fastcase.com/Google/Start.aspx?C=967fce6498f5f3d47977b5beca60a1a2a9905033e5bbc190&D=6b2d6fd01dba1a81f6244664d27e77f585b8d4b3b9d551ff |title=A. A. Allen Revivals, Inc. v. Commissioner |publisher=[[United States Tax Court]] |date=October 11, 1963 |access-date=2007-05-17 }}{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> in an attempt to get the government to refund collections of the [[Federal Insurance Contributions Act]] taxes for 1958–59.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.fastcase.com/Google/Documents/ViewDocument.aspx?C=930d1f5edeb34458e4ef65941d770adc62c414be91dab28f&D=92dddf2dcca6d720dce5b956260f6525d6a1f69053d5609a |title=A. A. ALLEN REVIVALS, INC., Appellant, v. Ellis CAMPBELL, Jr., District Director of Internal Revenue, Appellee. |publisher=[[United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit]] |date=November 26, 1965 |access-date=2007-05-17 }}{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="Revoked">{{cite news|quote=This refers back to 1960 when the IRS denied tax exemption for the association's predecessor, A. A. Allen Revivals Inc. But in 1963 the Tax Court, after a trial, ruled that the IRS had been wrong. In 1965, the IRS granted the exemption. The IRS says the association "has completely mischaracterized" the court's opinion in that case and that it is not barred from "challenging the association's entitlement to exemption or its status as a church.|first=William M. Jr.|last=Ringle|url=http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/1997/09/22/story6.html?page=2|title=Church loses tax exempt status|newspaper=The Business Journal|date=Sep 22, 1997}}</ref>

In 1967, Allen and his wife, Lexie E. (Scriven) Allen, were divorced.<ref name="dictionary">{{cite book|first1=Stanley M.|last1=Burgess|first2=Eduard M.|last2=Van Der Maas|title=The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements|location=Grand Rapids|publisher= Zondervan|date=June 1, 2002|page=312}}</ref> They had four children. One of them, Paul Asa Allen, is the author of ''In the Shadow of Greatness – Growing Up Allen''.