Methodist preachers are known for promulgating the doctrines of the new birth and entire sanctification to the public at events such as tent revivals and camp meetings, which they believe is the reason that God raised them up into existence.
Holy Roller and Holy Jumper are terms originating in the 18th century that have been used to refer to adherents of the Methodist tradition, such as Free Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Calvinistic Methodists. The term describes dancing, shaking or other boisterous movements by church attendees who perceive themselves as being under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Holy Rolling is sometimes used derisively by those outside these denominations, as if to describe people literally rolling on the floor in an uncontrolled manner. Those within the Methodist traditions have reclaimed the term as a badge of honor.
Look up holy roller in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Description
Holy Roller or Holy Jumper are terms used to describe Methodist worship, from its early days and into the holiness movement, including Free Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Calvinistic Methodists. During the days of the Evangelical Revival, the Methodists of Wales who experienced the New Birth "could frequently be heard weeping, groaning and shouting out in both agony and ectasy" and engaging in "dancing, jumping, and exuberant singing." Holy Rolling is sometimes used derisively by those outside these denominations, as if to describe people literally rolling on the floor in an uncontrolled manner.
Many individuals in the wider Methodist tradition are also referred to by others as Shouting Methodists due to the ejaculatory prayers congregants often utter during the service of worship, such as "Praise the Lord!", "Hallelujah!", and "Amen!
Similar disparaging terms directed at outspoken Christians but later embraced by them include Jesus freaks or, from former centuries, Quakers and Shakers.
With the rise of Holiness Pentecostalism in the early 20th century, the term Holy Roller has been applied to Holiness Pentecostals as well. Holiness Pentecostals who reject modern medicine have been referred to as followers of the "pokeweed gospel" or members of the "lightning bug church."
History
Historians trace the term "Holy Jumper" or "Welsh Jumper" to 1762, when it was used to describe Methodists who experienced the New Birth during the second wave of the Evangelical Revival in Llangeitho in 1762. Merriam-Webster traces the expression "Holy Roller" to 1841. The Oxford English Dictionary cites an 1893 memoir by Charles Godfrey Leland, in which he says "When the Holy Spirit seized them ... the Holy Rollers ... rolled over and over on the floor." The term describes dancing, shaking or other boisterous movements by church attendees who perceive themselves as being under the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Those within related Wesleyan traditions have reclaimed the term as a badge of honor; for example William Branham wrote: "And what the world calls today holy-roller, that's the way I worship Jesus Christ." Gospel singer Andraé Crouch stated, "They call us holy rollers, and what they say is true. But if they knew what we were rollin' about, they'd be rollin' too." Decades earlier, in the notes for his 1960 album Blues & Roots, jazz musician Charles Mingus used the term, seemingly neutrally and as a simple description, to indicate his own religious upbringing.
Usage
Politics
Gifford Pinchot in 1919: "Apparently no meeting for any purpose is to be tolerated except the Holy Roller meetings themselves. These theoretically and in fact ... The Holy Roller church in this community, as elsewhere, in its total influence promotes immorality. ..."
The New York Times on May 2, 1923: "Bound Brook Mob Raids Klan Meeting: Thousand Hostile Citizens Surround Church and Lock In 100 Holy Rollers. ... Until the arrival of eight State troopers to reinforce the local police here at 1 o'clock this morning about one hundred members of the Holy Rollers were ..."
Time on October 12, 1936: "When Jesus Christ first appeared to His assembled disciples after His resurrection, He told them that believers 'shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents' (Mark: 16:17, 18). To many a U.S. religionist of the Pentecostal or "Holy Roller" variety, the 'gift of tongues' has long been vivid reality.
William L. Shirer in Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941 described the look on the faces of hysterical Nazis calling for Adolf Hitler to come out of his hotel in September 1934: "They reminded me of the crazed expressions I saw once in the back country of Louisiana on the faces of some Holy Rollers who were about to hit the trail."
Sarah Palin on January 19, 2016, referred to some in the crowd as "holy rollers" when she endorsed Donald Trump: "Looking around at all of you, you hard working Iowa families, you farm families and teachers and teamsters and cops and cooks, you rock and rollers and holy rollers! You all make the world go around and now our cause is one."
The Scottish hard rock band Nazareth has a song titled "Holy Roller"—first officially released 1975 on Greatest Hits—which uses the term throughout the song's lyrics.
"Holy Roller" is a song by Country Joe McDonald from his 1981 album Into the Fray.
In the 1982 stage musical Little Shop of Horrors, the song "Dentist" has the lyrics "When I start extracting those molars, you girls will be screaming like Holy Rollers."
"Holy Rollers" is a song by Canadian alternative rock band Sons of Freedom, from their eponymous 1988 debut album.
"Holy Roller" is the fourth track on the album Apple released in July 1990 by Mother Love Bone.
The 1994 Trance Zomba album by Argentine band Babasónicos features a song called "Patinador Sagrado", which in itself is a mistranslation of the term, using it in the sense of rollerskating, a trend that continues throughout the song's lyrics.
The American rock band Portugal. The Man released a song titled “Holy Roller (Hallelujah)” on their 2013 album Evil Friends.
Spoon's 2014 single "Inside Out" contains the line "I don't make time for holy rollers".
The 2014 Thank You Scientist song "Feed The Horses" contains the line, "I won't be your holy roller..."
"Holy Roller" is the title of the 10th track on the 2015 Awolnation album Run.
The 2016 Panic! at the Disco album Death of a Bachelor contains the line "Turn the memory to stone and carve your shoulder/Hey, holy roller" in the song The Good, the Bad, and the Dirty.
"Holy Roller" is the first single from The Format's 2026 comeback album Boycott Heaven. The song was released on October 6, 2025, after being on hiatus since 2008.
Television
In the 12th episode of the seventh season of The Simpsons, "Team Homer", one of the rival bowling teams, made up of important figures from the local church, is named "The Holy Rollers."
In the 11th episode of the third season of Mama's Family, "Where There's Smoke". When asked about a young female convict's religion Mama says. "She's means Holy Rollers." to keep up a charade that the girl can't speak any English and is from Sweden.. Guest star Yeardley Smith.
In the episode of Frasier, titled "Wheels of Fortune," Frasier's dad tells Michael Keaton he's a holy roller, after Keaton goes around doing evangelical sermons from his wheelchair.
Sports
The "Holy Roller" play was a game-winning play executed by the Oakland Raiders to beat the San Diego Chargers on September 10, 1978. Quarterback Ken Stabler fumbled the ball forward and several Raiders teammates (Pete Banaszak and Dave Casper) aided the ball's roll into the end zone for the game winning touchdown. The NFL amended its rules in the off-season to prevent the recurrence of such a play.
12Snyder, C. Albert (1 May 2006). Spiritual Journey. Xulon Press. p.69. ISBN9781600340161. Holiness means different things to different people. Our church, the Free Methodist, is a "holiness" church. One doctor said to me: "Free Methodists? I know about them; they are holy rollers. They used to have camp meetings near where I grew up."
123Jones, David Ceri; Schlenther, Boyd Stanley; White, Eryn Mant (15 April 2012). The Elect Methodists: Calvinistic Methodism in England and Wales, 1735-1811. University of Wales Press. p.51. ISBN978-0-7083-2502-5. the early stages of the revival were characterised by profound emotion; converts could frequently be heard weeping, groaning and shouting out in both agony and ecstasy, but it was nto until the second wave of the revival, following the awakening at Llangeitho in 1762, that critics started branding the Methodists the 'Welsh Jumpers', on account of their proclivity for dancing, jumping and exuberant singing.
↑Synan, Vinson (25 August 1997). The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition: Charismatic Movements in the Twentieth Century. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p.9. ISBN978-0-8028-4103-2. At times the emotions of the sanctified Methodists would exceed the limits of control. "Some would be seized with a trembling, and in a few moments drop on the floor as if they were dead; while others were embracing each other with streaming eyes, and all were lose in wonder, love and praise," wrote one observer. Another noted that some wept for grief while others shouted for joy "so that it was hard to distinguish one from the other." At times the congregations would "raise a great shout" that could be heard for miles around.
12"Holy Roller". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2010-09-14. A member of one of the Protestant sects whose worship meetings are characterized by spontaneous expressions of emotional excitement.
↑Richie, Tony (20 January 2020). Essentials of Pentecostal Theology: An Eternal and Unchanging Lord Powerfully Present & Active by the Holy Spirit. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p.122. ISBN978-1-5326-3881-7.
↑Fahlbusch, Erwin (2008). The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p.438. ISBN9780802824172. The "shouting Methodists" of the early 1800s, and the later Holiness or Pentecostal "holy rollers" in both Caucasian and African-American congregations, insisted that a genuine experience of God's glorious presence called for exuberant, bodily response.
↑"Bound Brook Mob Raids Klan Meeting: Thousand Hostile Citizens Surround Church and Lock In 100 Holy Rollers". New York Times. May 2, 1923. Retrieved 2010-09-22. Until the arrival of eight State troopers to reinforce the local police here at 1 o'clock this morning about one hundred members of the Holy Rollers were locked up in their church, the Pillar of Fire, in Main Street, surrounded by a mob of nearly 1,000 hostile citizens, several hundred of whom broke up a meeting held by the Holy Rollers to organize a Klan here last night.
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