A. A. Allen

Asa Alonso Allen (March 27, 1911 – June 11, 1970), better known as A. A. Allen, was an American Pentecostal evangelist known for his faith healing and deliverance ministry.

He was, for a time, associated with the "Voice of Healing" movement founded by Gordon Lindsay.

Allen died of alcoholism and liver failure in a coma at the age of 59 in San Francisco, California, and was buried at his ministry headquarters in Miracle Valley, Arizona.

A. A. Allen's early life was lived in an often unpleasant environment.

Having been born of mixed race to white and Native American parents, his family was very poor and his father was an alcoholic.

At the age of 23, Allen became a Christian at the Onward Methodist Church in Miller, Missouri.

Later, he learned of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit from a Pentecostal preacher who was conducting meetings in his home.

Allen soon felt the call to preach and affiliated himself with the Assemblies of God, subsequently obtaining ordination from them in 1936.

He then began to pastor a small church in Colorado.

By 1947, Allen was pastoring a large Assemblies of God church in Corpus Christi, Texas.

After attending a tent revival meeting hosted by Oral Roberts in 1949, Allen testified that as he left that meeting he hoped to form a divine healing ministry.

Allen asked his church board to allow him to start a radio program, but they refused.

Allen soon resigned from his church and began holding healing revival meetings.

Stemming in part from many reported healings, Allen established a large following.

He became one of the first ministers to develop a national television ministry, which frequently included excerpts from his "healing line" ministry.

In 1955, Allen purchased a large tent for $8,500.

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) in that meetings were typically characterized by preaching, testimony, music, and praying for the sick.

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.

In 1955, Allen was arrested for suspicion of drunk driving after a controversial incident in Knoxville, Tennessee.

He resigned from the Assemblies of God shortly afterward.

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."

His associate Don Stewart claimed that Allen was occasionally drunk after Knoxville, and that his staff covered for him.

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.

At his peak, Allen appeared on fifty-eight radio stations daily, as well as forty-three television stations.

At the time of his death, his headquarters in Miracle Valley, Arizona was 2400 acre 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.

The magazine included, at times, accounts of healings, but gave a disclaimer that the magazine does not "assume legal responsibility" of its accuracy.

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.

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..."

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.

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."

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."

"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."

In his television programs, Allen or his ministry associates made frequent mention of the fact that his meetings were racially integrated.

African-Americans sat alongside whites in the choir, the ministers' section, and the congregation.