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The Cult Dossier · No. 036 · Christian-Derived

International Peace Mission Movement

Father Divine's Peace Mission

c.1907 – present (much reduced) · Georgia, New York (Harlem, Sayville), Philadelphia

IV. THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

Fully religious — a leader claiming to be God

Who led it

FATHER DIVINE, born George Baker Jr. (c.1876–1965), a Black preacher from Rockville, Maryland, who by the 1910s taught that he was GOD IN A BODY. Second wife MOTHER DIVINE (Edna Rose Ritchings, a white Canadian, married 1946), held to be the reincarnation of the first.

What it worshipped and taught

Father Divine as God incarnate. Doctrine: absolute celibacy for all followers including married couples, prohibition of alcohol, tobacco, cosmetics, gifts, tipping, insurance and debt; and the outright abolition of race as a concept — the words Negro, white and black were banned within the movement. Members took new names such as Faithful Mary, Onward Universe and Job Patience. Followers who died were said to have failed, since Father Divine had abolished death.

Who was in it

Father Divine (George Baker); Peninnah, the first Mother Divine; Edna Rose Ritchings, the second; Faithful Mary (Viola Wilson), who defected and published an exposé before returning; Judge Lewis J. Smith, who jailed Divine in 1932 and died four days later; the singer Johnnie Mae Matthews; the Woodmont estate in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania.

How it ended, or where it stands

Survives with roughly 12–35 elderly celibate members across Woodmont, Philadelphia and Sayville, now functioning largely as custodians of a museum. IT FACES EXACTLY THE ARITHMETIC OF THE SHAKERS (see 025): a movement that permits neither proselytisation nor procreation has only one direction to go.

The dead

—

Of note

Genuinely mixed record: a high-control group built on a living-God claim, and simultaneously one of the most effective anti-segregation and famine-relief operations in 1930s America.

Its timeline

  1. c.1907–1912 Preaches in the South as The Messenger; jailed in Valdosta, Georgia in 1914 in a case titled The People vs God.
  2. 1919 Buys a house in Sayville, Long Island, and runs free banquets.
  3. 1931 Arrested for disturbing the peace; convicted in 1932 by Judge Lewis J. Smith, who dies of a heart attack four days later. Divine's reported comment — I hated to do it — makes him nationally famous overnight.
  4. 1930s Peak influence. The movement runs hotels, restaurants and shops, feeds vast numbers during the Depression, and campaigns for federal anti-lynching legislation.
  5. 1946 Marries the 21-year-old Edna Rose Ritchings — an interracial marriage presented as purely spiritual.
  6. 10 September 1965 Father Divine dies at Woodmont. Mother Divine — Edna Rose Ritchings — becomes official leader of the movement and holds the position for FIFTY-TWO YEARS.
  7. 4 MARCH 2017 MOTHER DIVINE DIES AT WOODMONT, aged 91, of complications of old age.
  8. 2017–2026 The surviving followers, celibate and mostly in their EIGHTIES AND NINETIES, take on administration of the estate and run a LIBRARY AND MUSEUM at Woodmont to preserve Father Divine's legacy. Estimates of the remaining membership range from 12–15 living at Woodmont itself to 25–35 across Woodmont, the Circle Mission in Center City Philadelphia, and Sayville, New York.

Its people

Father Divine

George Baker Jr.; the Messenger; Reverend Major Jealous Divine

Founder, the International Peace Mission Movement · c.1876 – 10 September 1965 · active c.1907–1965

A Black preacher from Maryland who by the 1910s taught that he was God in a body. He required total celibacy of all followers including married couples, banned alcohol, tobacco, cosmetics, debt and insurance, and abolished the words 'Negro', 'white' and 'black' inside the movement. Members took names like Faithful Mary and Onward Universe. He became nationally famous in 1932 when the judge who jailed him died of a heart attack four days later, prompting his reported remark: 'I hated to do it.' At its height the movement fed enormous numbers during the Depression and campaigned hard for federal anti-lynching legislation.

Before the law. Multiple convictions for disturbing the peace and related charges; never convicted of fraud.

Where things stand. Deceased 1965. A handful of elderly members remain at Woodmont.

  1. 1914 Tried in Valdosta, Georgia, in a case docketed as 'The People vs God'.
  2. 1919 Buys a house in Sayville, Long Island; begins the free banquets.
  3. 1932 Convicted of disturbing the peace; Judge Lewis J. Smith dies four days later.
  4. 1930s Peak influence; hotels, restaurants and shops across several states.
  5. 1946 Marries 21-year-old Edna Rose Ritchings, a white Canadian.
  6. 10 September 1965 Dies at Woodmont, Pennsylvania.

Checked 2026-08-24

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