Choosing the Jesus Way: American Indian Pentecostals and the Fight for the Indigenous Principle

Abstract

Amid a growing number of chronicles of Native American appropriation of Christianity, Angela Tarango's account of the Navajo Pentecostals in the Assemblies of God (AG) is a welcome addition. Her careful research, clear prose, and engaging story of the growth of Native Pentecostal church leadership of the last century helps to place American Pentecostalism alongside that of more fully explored mainline denominations. It is not a new story of indigenous Christians who usurp the rhetoric and practices of the denomination to achieve autonomy and leadership within the larger institution. However, Tarango's book supports much of the prevailing scholarship that points to the agency of American Indians in forging their own Christian and Native identity, despite paternalistic and colonialist pressures from mission boards and leaders. Choosing the Jesus Way provides a compelling narrative that supports her thesis that Navajo Christians in the AG, along with “a few liberal-minded white female missionaries,” used the AG's own “indigenous principle” to their advantage in challenging leadership at the top unwilling to give them a place at the governing table.