Aimee Semple McPherson
| Aimee Semple McPherson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy October 9, 1890 Salford, Ontario |
| Died |
September 27, 1944 (aged 53) Oakland, California |
Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery (Glendale) |
| Known for | Founding the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel |
| Spouse(s) |
Robert James Semple (died 1910) Harold Stewart McPherson (divorced 1921) David Hutton (divorced 1934) |
| Children |
Roberta Star Semple Rolf McPherson |
| Parent(s) |
James Morgan Kennedy Mildred Ona Pearce |
Aimee Semple McPherson (October 9, 1890 – September 27, 1944), also known as Sister Aimee, was a Canadian-American Los Angeles–based evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s.[1] She founded the Foursquare Church. McPherson has been noted as a pioneer in the use of modern media, as she used radio to draw on the growing appeal of popular entertainment in North America and incorporated other forms into her weekly sermons at Angelus Temple.[2]
In her time she was the most publicized Christian evangelist, surpassing Billy Sunday and her other predecessors.[3][4] She conducted public faith-healing demonstrations before large crowds; testimonies conveyed tens of thousands of people healed.[5] [6] McPherson's articulation of the United States as a nation founded and sustained by divine inspiration continues to be echoed by many pastors in churches today. News coverage sensationalized her misfortunes with family and church members; particularly inflaming accusations she had fabricated her reported kidnapping, turning it into a national spectacle.[7] McPherson's preaching style, extensive charity work and ecumenical contributions were a major influence in revitalization of American Evangelical Christianity in the 20th century.[8][9]
Biography
Early life
McPherson was born Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy on a farm in Salford, Ontario, Canada.[10] She had early exposure to religion through her mother, Mildred (known as "Minnie") who worked with the poor in Salvation Army soup kitchens.
As a child she would play "Salvation Army" with her classmates, and at home she would gather a congregation with her dolls, giving them a sermon.[11] As a teenager, McPherson strayed from her mother's teachings by reading novels and going to movies and dances, activities which were strongly disapproved of by both the Salvation Army and the religion of her father, James Kennedy, a Methodist. Novels, though, made their way into the Methodist Church library and with guilty delight, McPherson would read them. At the movies, she recognized some of her fellow Methodist church members. She learned too, at a local dance she attended, that her dancing partner was a Presbyterian minister. In high school, she was taught Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution.[12][13] She began to quiz visiting preachers and local pastors about faith and science, but was unhappy with the answers she received.[14] She wrote to the Canadian newspaper, Family Herald and Weekly Star, questioning why taxpayer-funded public schools had courses, such as evolution, which undermined Christianity.[14] This was her first exposure to fame, as people nation-wide responded to her letter.[14] While still in high school, after her Pentecostal conversion, McPherson began a crusade against the concept of evolution, beginning a lifelong passion.
Conversion
While attending a revival meeting in December 1907, Aimee met Robert James Semple, a Pentecostal missionary from Ireland. There, her faith crisis ended as she decided to dedicate her life to God and made the conversion to Pentecostalism.[14]
Marriage and family
At that same revival meeting, Aimee became enraptured not only by the message that Robert Semple gave, but with Robert himself. She decided to dedicate her life to both God and Robert, and after a short courtship, they were married on August 12, 1908 in a Salvation Army ceremony, pledging never to allow their marriage to lessen their devotion to God, affection for comrades or faithfulness in the Army. The pair's notion of "Army" was very broad, encompassing much more than just the Salvation Army. Robert supported them as a foundry worker and preached at the local Pentecostal mission. Together, they studied the Bible and became very knowledgeable. After a few months they moved to Chicago and became part of William Durham's Full Gospel Assembly. There, Aimee was discovered to have a unique ability in the interpretation of speaking in tongues, translating with stylistic eloquence the otherwise indecipherable utterances of glossolalia.[15]
After embarking on an evangelistic tour, both contracted malaria and Robert, dysentery. Robert Semple died of malaria and dysentry. Aimee Semple recovered from malaria and gave birth to their daughter, Roberta Star Semple as a 19-year-old widow. On-board a ship returning to the United States, Aimee Semple started a Sunday school class then held other services as well, oftentimes mentioning her late husband in her sermons. Almost all the passengers attended. On her departure, a collection was taken by the ship's purser and the amount given was just enough to pay for travel to her hometown.
Shortly after her recuperation in the United States, Semple joined her mother Minnie working with the Salvation Army. While in New York City, she met Harold Stewart McPherson, an accountant. They were married on May 5, 1912, moved to Rhode Island and had a son, Rolf Potter Kennedy McPherson in March 1913.
McPherson tried to live the life of the dutiful housewife, had a devoted husband and a fine home, but was instead miserable as she denied her "calling" to go preach. After struggling with emotional distress and OCD, she would fall to weep and pray. [16] [17] She felt the call to preach tug at her even more strongly after the birth of her second child Rolf. Then in 1914, she fell seriously ill, and after a failed operation she was left in the holding room where patients were taken to die. McPherson states she again heard the persistent voice, asking her to go preach. Feeling that either her life was at an end or she would go preach, McPherson accepted the voice's challenge. The astounded nurse looked on as McPherson suddenly opened her eyes and was able to turn over in bed without pain. One spring morning in 1915, her husband returned home from the night shift to discover McPherson had left him and taken the children. A few weeks later, a note was received inviting him to join her in evangelistic work.[18]
McPherson of this period wrote:
"Oh, don't you ever tell me that a woman can not be called to preach the Gospel! If any man ever went through one hundredth part of the hell on earth that I lived in, those months when out of God's will and work, they would never say that again."[19]
Her husband later followed McPherson to take her back home. When he saw her, though, preaching to a crowd, he witnessed her transformation into a radiant, lovely woman. Before long he became her fellow worker in Christ. Their house in Providence was sold and he joined her in setting up tents for revival meetings and even did some preaching himself.[20] Throughout their journey, food and accommodations were uncertain, as they lived out of the "Gospel Car". Her husband, in spite of initial enthusiasm, wanted a life that was more stable and predicable. After arguing with McPherson, he returned to Rhode Island and around 1918 had filed for separation. He petitioned for divorce, citing abandonment; the divorce was granted in 1921.
Some years later after her fame and the Angelus Temple were established in Los Angeles, California, she married again on September 13, 1931 to actor and musician David Hutton, followed by much drama, after which she fainted and fractured her skull.[21]
While McPherson was away in Europe to recover, she was angered to learn Hutton was billing himself as "Aimee's man" in his cabaret singing act and was frequently photographed with scantily clad women. Hutton's much publicized personal scandals were damaging the Foursquare Gospel Church and their leader's credibility with other churches.[22] McPherson and Hutton separated in 1933 and divorced on March 1, 1934. McPherson later publicly repented of the marriage, as wrong from the beginning, for both theological[23] and personal reasons[24] and therefore rejected nationally known gospel singer, Homer Rodeheaver, a more appropriate suitor, when he eventually asked for her hand in 1935.[25][26]
Career
In 1913 McPherson embarked upon a preaching career and began evangelizing and holding tent revivals in June 1915 in the United States and Canada with a rough start of low attendance at her services and persecution for her Pentecostal practices.
McPherson, however, perhaps because of her Methodist upbringing, kept an order to her meetings that came to be much appreciated. She wanted to create the enthusiasm a Pentecostal meeting could provide, with its "Amen Corner" and "Halleluiah Chorus" but also to avoid its unbridled chaos as participants started shouting, trembling on the floor and speaking in tongues; all at once. Because of the negative connotation of the word "pentecostal' and though McPherson practiced speaking in tongues, she rarely emphasized it. McPherson organized her meetings with the general public in mind and yet did not wish to quench any who suddenly came into "the Spirit." To this end she set up a "tarry tent or room" away from the general area for any who suddenly started speaking in tongues or display any other Holy Ghost behavior the larger audience might be put off by.[27] McPherson wrote:
"A woman preacher was a novelty. At the time I began my ministry, women were well in the background.... Orthodox ministers, many of whom disapproved even of men evangelists such as Moody, Spurgeon, Tunda and the rest chiefly because they used novel evangelistic methods, disapproved all the more of a woman minister. especially was this true when my meetings departed from the funeral, sepulchrelike ritual of appointed Sundays...."[28]
After her first successful visits, she had little difficulty with acceptance or attendance. Eager converts filled the pews of local churches which turned many recalcitrant ministers into her enthusiastic supporters. Frequently, she would start a revival meeting in a hall or church and then have to move to a larger building to accommodate the growing crowds. When there were no suitable buildings, she set up a tent, which was often filled past capacity.
In 1916, McPherson embarked on a tour of the Southern United States in her "Gospel Car", first with her husband Harold and later, in 1918, with her mother, Mildred Kennedy. She was an important addition to McPherson's ministry and managed everything, including the money, which gave them an unprecedented degree of financial security. Their vehicle was a 1912 Packard touring car emblazoned with religious slogans. Standing on the back seat of the convertible, McPherson preached sermons over a megaphone. On the road between sermons, she would sit in the back seat typing sermons and other religious materials. She first traveled up and down the eastern United States, then went to other parts of the country.
By 1917 she had started her own magazine, The Bridal Call, for which she wrote many articles about women’s roles in religion; she portrayed the link between Christians and Jesus as a marriage bond. Along with taking seriously the religious role of women, the magazine contributed to transforming Pentecostalism from a movement into an ongoing American religious presence. [29]
Azusa Street Revivals starting in 1906 were noted for their racial diversity as blacks, Hispanics, whites and other minorities openly worshiped together, led by William J. Seymour, an African American preacher. As the participants of the Azusa Street Revivals, dispersed, local Pentecostals were looking for leadership for a new revival and in late 1918, McPherson came to Los Angeles. Minnie Kennedy, her mother, rented the largest hall they could find, the 3,500 seat Philharmonic Auditorium (known then as Temple Auditorium). People waited for hours to get in and McPherson could hardly reach the pulpit without stepping on someone.[30] Afterwards, grateful attendees of her Los Angeles meetings built her a home for her family which included everything from the cellar to a canary bird.[31]
While McPherson had traveled extensively in her evangelical work prior to arriving in Baltimore, she was first "discovered" by the newspapers while sitting with her mother in the red plush parlor of the Belvedere Hotel on December 5, 1919, a day after conducting evangelistic services at the Lyric Opera House.[32] In December 1919, she went to Baltimore’s Lyric Opera House to conduct seventeen days of meetings.[33] The Baltimore Sun ran a thousand-word interview with her in the December 6, 1919, issue.[34] Her mother Mildred Kennedy had booked the 2,500 seating capacity Lyric Opera House at US $3,100,[35] a huge sum compared to earlier engagements. Considering her daughter's success elsewhere, Kennedy thought the risk well worth taking. During the interview, the Sun reporter asked McPherson how she had decided on Baltimore as the site for a revival.
“As soon as I entered the city I saw the need. Women were sitting in the dining room smoking with the men,” McPherson replied. “I took up the newspapers and I saw card parties and dances advertised in connection with the churches. There was a coldness. Card parties, dances, theaters, all represent agencies of the devil to distract the attention of men and women away from spirituality....”[32]
The Baltimore event was one of McPherson's larger engagements yet. The crowds, in their religious ecstasy were barely kept under control as they gave way to manifestations of "the Spirit", and the Lyric Opera House's capacity was constantly tested. Moreover, her alleged faith healings now became part of the public record, and attendees began to focus on that part of her ministry over all else. McPherson considered the Baltimore Revival an important turning point not only for her ministry "but in the history of the outpouring of the Pentecostal power."[36]
The battle between fundamentalists and modernists escalated after World War I, with many modernists seeking less conservative religious faiths.[37] Fundamentalists generally believed their religious faith should influence every aspect of their lives. McPherson sought to eradicate modernism and secularism in homes, churches, schools, and communities. She developed a strong following in what McPherson termed "the Foursquare Gospel" by blending contemporary culture with religious teachings. McPherson was entirely capable of sustaining a protracted intellectual discourse as her Bible students and debate opponents will attest. But she believed in preaching the gospel with simplicity and power, so as to not confuse the message. Her distinct voice and visual descriptions created a crowd excitement "bordering on hysteria."[38]
Her faith-healing demonstrations gained her unexpected allies. When a Romani tribe king and his mother stated they were faith-healed by McPherson, thousands of others came to her as well in caravans from all over the country and were converted. The infusion of crosses and other symbols of Christianity alongside Romani astrology charts and crystal balls was the result of McPherson's influence.[39] Prizing gold and loyalty, the Romani repaid her in part, with heavy bags of gold coin and jewels, which helped fund the construction of the new Angelus Temple.[40] In Wichita, Kansas, in May 29, 1922, where heavy perennial thunderstorms threatened to rain out the thousands who gathered there, McPherson interrupted the speaker, raised her hand to the sky and prayed, "let it fall (the rain) after the message has been delivered to these hungry souls". The rain immediately stopped, an event reported the following day by the Wichita Eagle on May 30: "Evangelist's Prayers Hold Big Rain Back,"[41] For the gathered Romani, it was a further acknowledgement "of the woman's power".[42]
The appeal of McPherson's thirty or so revival events from 1919 to 1922 surpassed any touring event of theater or politics ever presented in American history. "Neither Houdini nor Teddy Roosevelt had such an audience nor PT Barnum."[38] Her one to four-week meetings typically overflowed any building she could find to hold them. She broke attendance records recently set by Billy Sunday[3] and frequently used his temporary tabernacle structures to hold some of her meetings in. Her revivals were often standing-room only. One such revival was held in a boxing ring, with the meeting before and after the match. Throughout the boxing event, she walked about with a sign reading "knock out the Devil." In San Diego, California, the city called in the National Guard and other branches of the armed forces to control a revival crowd of over 30,000 people. She became one of the most photographed persons of her time. She enjoyed the publicity and quotes on almost every subject were sought from her by journalists.
McPherson preached a conservative gospel but used progressive methods, taking advantage of radio, movies, and stage acts. Advocacy for women's rights was on the rise, including women's suffrage through the 19th Amendment. She attracted some women associated with modernism, but others were put off by the contrast between her different theories. By accepting and using such new media outlets, McPherson helped integrate them into people’s daily lives. Sister McPherson used the media to her advantage as she became the "first modern celebrity preacher."[43]
Faith healing ministry
McPherson's faith healing demonstrations were extensively written about in the news media and were a large part of her early career legacy.[44] No one has ever been credited by secular witnesses with anywhere near the numbers of faith healings attributed to McPherson, especially during the years 1919 to 1922.[45] Over time though, she almost withdrew from the faith healing aspect of her services, since it was overwhelming[46] other areas of her ministry. Scheduled healing sessions nevertheless remained highly popular with the public until her death in 1944.
Described incidents of miraculous faith healing are sometimes clinically explained as a result of hysteria or a form of hypnosis. Strong emotions and the mind's ability to trigger the production of opiates, endorphins, and enkephalins; have also been offered as explanations as well as the healings are simply faked. In the case of McPherson, there was no evidence of fraud found.[47] In August 1921, doctors from the American Medical Association in San Francisco secretly investigated some of McPherson's local revival meetings. The subsequent AMA report stated McPherson's healing was "genuine, beneficial and wonderful."[48]
McPherson stated she had experienced several of her own personal faith healing incidents, among them one in 1909, when her broken foot was mended, an event which first served to introduce her to the possibilities of the healing power.[49] Another was an unexpected recovery from an operation in 1914 where hospital staff expected her to die,[50] and in 1916, before a gathered revival tent crowd, swift rejuvenation of blistered skin from a serious flash burn caused by a lamp exploding in her face.[51]
Her reported first successful public faith healing session of another person was demonstrated in Corona, Long Island, New York, 1916. A young woman in the painful, advanced stages of rheumatoid arthritis was brought to the altar by friends just as McPherson preached "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever", meaning, in part, Jesus had the same power to heal now as in ancient times. McPherson, laid hands upon the crippled woman's head and witnesses looked on as she walked out of the church that same night without crutches.[52] Sick and injured people came to her by the tens of thousands. Press clippings, and testimonials became mountainous. To people who traveled with her, the numerous faith healings were routine.[53] Lubricating her hands with spiced oil, McPherson touched and prayed over the infirm and reporters wrote extensively of what they saw. When asked by a journalist about these demonstrations, McPherson indicated, "the saving of souls is the most important part of my ministry."[54]
Not all healings were successful and McPherson had occasional well-publicized failures. But these were apparently few and people in ever increasing numbers came to her. She was invited back again and again to cities that she previously visited.[55] Perhaps one of the more dramatic public faith healing demonstrations of her career occurred starting in late January 1921 at Balboa Park in San Diego, California. The Spreckles Organ Pavilion in the park was site of several earlier revival meetings by many of her predecessors, and there McPherson preached to a huge crowd of 30,000. She had to move to the outdoor site since the 3,000 seat Dreamland Boxing Arena could not hold the thousands who went to see her. To assist the San Diego Police in maintaining order, the Marines and Army had to be called in.
During the engagement, a woman paralyzed from the waist down from childhood, was presented for faith healing. Concerned because numerous, previous demonstrations had been before much smaller assemblages, McPherson feared she would be run out of town if this healing did not manifest.[56] Believing in the reality of the living Christ, filled with sincere passion beyond love for humanity, McPherson prayed, and laid hands on her. Before 30,000 people—and captured for all time by photography—the woman got up out of her wheelchair and walked. The large gathering responded with thunderous applause.[57] Other hopefuls presented themselves to the platform McPherson occupied, and though not all were cured,[58] the sick, injured and invalid continued to flood forth for healing. According to news reporters and other witnesses, among the numerous healings that occurred, a goiter shrank, crutches were abandoned, and an abscessed arm was returned to normal.[59] Many hundreds of people wanted her help, more than she could handle and her stay was extended. As with many of her other meetings, McPherson labored and prayed feverishly for hours over the infirm, often without food or stopping for a break. At the day's end, she would eventually be taken away by her staff, dehydrated and unsteady with fatigue; her distinct, booming voice reduced to a whisper. Originally planned for two weeks in the evenings, McPherson's Balboa Park revival meetings lasted over five weeks and went from dawn until dusk.[60][61]
Later in 1921, investigating McPherson's healing services, a survey was sent out by First Baptist Church Pastor William Keeney Towner in San Jose, California, to 3,300 people. 2500 persons responded. Six percent indicated they were immediately and completely healed while 85 percent indicated they were partially healed and continued to improve ever since. Fewer than half of 1 percent did not feel they were at least spiritually uplifted and had their faith strengthened.[62]
Denver Post reporter Frances Wayne writes that while McPherson's "attack" on sin was "uncultured,...the deaf heard, the blind saw, the paralytic walked, the palsied became calm, before the eyes of as many people that could be packed into the largest church auditorium in Denver". In 1922, McPherson returned for a second tour in the Great Revival of Denver[63] and asked about people who have claimed healings from the previous visit. Seventeen people, some well known members of the community, testified, giving credence to McPherson's claim "healing still occurred among modern Christians".[64]
Actor Anthony Quinn, who for a time played in the church's band and was an apprentice preacher, in this partial quote, recalls a service:
"I sat in the orchestra pit of the huge auditorium at the Angelus Temple. Every seat was filled, with the crowd spilling into the aisles. Many were on crutches or in wheelchairs. Suddenly a figure with bright red hair and a flowing white gown walked out to the center of the stage. In a soft voice, almost a whisper, she said, 'Brothers and sisters, is there anyone here who wants to be cured tonight?' Long lines formed to reach her. She stood center stage and greeted each one. One man said, 'I can't see out of one eye.' She asked. 'Do you believe, brother?' And suddenly, the man cried, 'Yes, sister, I can see, I can see!' And the audience went crazy. "To a woman dragging herself across the stage on crutches she said, 'Throw away that crutch!' Suddenly, the woman threw away her crutch and ran into Aimee's open arms. I left that service exhilarated, renewed".[65]
Ironically, when McPherson retired for much needed rest after a long and exhausting faith healing service, she would sometimes suffer from insomnia, a problem she would contend with for the rest of her life.[66] Regarding her own illnesses, she did not abstain from visiting doctors or using medicines.[67] McPherson considered each faith healing incident a sacred gift from God, passed through her to persons healed and not to be taken for granted. In visiting foreign lands, for example, she paid scrupulous attention to sanitation, concerned that a careless oversight might result in acquiring an exotic disease.[68]
In later years, other individuals were identified as having the described faith healing gift. On stage, during Wednesday and Saturday divine healing sessions, she worked among them, or was even absent altogether, diminishing her own singular role. Divine healing, in her view, was not the emergency room, entertainment or something to puzzle scientists, it was a church sacrament.[69] In her own writings and sermons, McPherson did not refer to her own particular personal proficiencies, conveying divine healing was accessible by faith and devotion.
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel
At this time, Los Angeles had become a popular vacation spot. Rather than touring the United States to preach her sermons, McPherson stayed in Los Angeles, drawing audiences from a population which had soared from 100,000 in 1900 to 575,000 people in 1920, and often included many visitors.[70]
Wearied by constant traveling and having nowhere to raise a family, McPherson had settled in Los Angeles, where she maintained both a home and a church. McPherson believed that by creating a church in Los Angeles, her audience would come to her from all over the country. This, she felt, would allow her to plant seeds of the Gospel and tourists would take it home to their communities, still reaching the masses. For several years she continued to travel and raise money for the construction of a large, domed church building at 1100 Glendale Blvd. in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles. The church would be named Angelus Temple, reflecting the Roman Catholic tradition of the Angelus bell, calling the faithful to prayer and as well its reference to the angels.[71] Not wanting to take on debt, McPherson located a construction firm which would work with her as funds were raised "by faith."[72] She started with $5,000.[73] The firm indicated it would be enough to carve out a hole for the foundation.
McPherson began a campaign in earnest and was able to mobilize diverse groups of people to help fund and build the new church. Various fundraising methods were used such as selling chairs for Temple seating at US $25[74] apiece. In exchange, "chairholders" got a miniature chair and encouragement to pray daily for the person who would eventually sit in that chair. Her approach worked to generate enthusiastic giving and to create a sense of ownership and family among the contributors.[75]
Raising more money than she had hoped, McPherson altered the original plans, and built a "megachurch" that would draw many followers throughout the years. The endeavor cost contributors around $250,000[76] in actual money spent. Comparable structures were priced at far more, a nearby smaller auditorium, for example, cost US$1 million.[77] Costs were kept down by donations of building materials and volunteer labor.[71] McPherson sometimes quipped when she first got to California, all she had was a car, ten dollars[78] and a tambourine.[71]
The Class "A" fireproof building was constructed of concrete and steel and designed by Brook Hawkins. The main architectural feature of the structure is its large, unsupported concrete dome coated with a mixture of ground abalone shells. The dome, at the time, was by some reports, the largest in North America, and rises 125 feet from the main floor.[79] The dome's interior was painted azure blue, with fleecy clouds, a reminder to "work while its day" and "to look for His coming". McPherson insisted on a bright joyous setting, avoiding any reminder of sin from either artwork or motto. In back of the pulpit was her theme verse from Hebrews 13:8 "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today and forever." She later conveyed she loved "every stone in Angelus Temple,...I love to touch its walls, its altar,...I look to its high vaulted dome...."[80] but no part of the church pleased her more the magnificent Kimball pipe organ which always soothed and brought her peace of mind.[81] The church was dedicated on January 1, 1923. The auditorium had a seating capacity of 5,300 people and was filled three times each day, seven days a week. Enrollment grew exceeding 10,000, and was claimed to be the largest single Christian congregation in the world[82] According to church records, Angelus Temple received 40 million visitors within the first seven years[83] At first, McPherson preached every service, often in a dramatic scene she put together to attract audiences.
Eventually, the church evolved into its own denomination and became known as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. The new denomination focused on the nature of Christ's character: that he was Savior, baptizer with the Holy Spirit, healer, and coming King. There were four main beliefs: the first being Christ's ability to transform individuals' lives through the act of salvation; the second focused on a holy baptism which includes receiving power to glorify and exalt Christ in a practical way; the third was divine healing, newness of life for both body and spirit; and the fourth was gospel-oriented heed to the pre-millennial return of Jesus Christ.
In August 1925 and away from Los Angeles, McPherson decided to charter a plane so she would not miss giving her Sunday sermon. Aware of the opportunity for publicity, she arranged for at least two thousand followers and members of the press to be present at the airport. The plane failed after takeoff and the landing gear collapsed, sending the nose of the plane into the ground. McPherson boarded another plane and used the experience as the narrative of an illustrated Sunday sermon called "The Heavenly Airplane".[85] The stage in Angelus Temple was set up with two miniature planes and a skyline that looked like Los Angeles. In this sermon, McPherson described how the first plane had the devil for the pilot, sin for the engine, and temptation as the propeller. The other plane, however, was piloted by Jesus and would lead one to the Holy City (the skyline shown on stage). The temple was filled beyond capacity.
On another occasion, she described being pulled over by a police officer, calling the sermon "Arrested for Speeding". Dressed in a traffic cop's uniform, she sat in the saddle of a police motorcycle, earlier placed on the stage, and revved the siren.[85] One author in attendance, insisted she actually drove the motorcycle, with its deafening roar, across the access ramp to the pulpit, slammed on the brakes, then raised a white gloved hand to shout "Stop! You're speeding to Hell!"[86] Since McPherson gave some of her sermons more than once, and with variations, the possibility existed both versions might be true.
McPherson employed a small group of artists, electricians, decorators, and carpenters who built the sets for each Sunday's service. Religious music was played by an orchestra. McPherson also worked on elaborate sacred operas. One production, The Iron Furnace, based on the book of Exodus, told of God’s deliverance as the Israelites fled slavery in Egypt. Some Hollywood movie stars even assisted with obtaining costumes from local studios. The cast was large, perhaps as many as 450 people but so elaborate and expensive, it was presented only one time. Rehearsals for the various productions were time consuming and McPherson "did not tolerate any nonsense." Though described as "always kind and loving," McPherson demanded respect regarding the divine message the sacred operas and her other works were designed to convey.[87]
Even though McPherson condemned theater and film as the devil's workshop, its secrets and effects were co-opted. She became the first woman evangelist to adopt the whole technique of the moving picture star.[88] McPherson desired to avoid the dreary church service where by obligation parishioners would go to fulfill some duty by being present in the pew. She wanted a sacred drama that would compete with the excitement of vaudeville and the movies. The message was serious, but the tone more along the lines of a humorous musical comedy. Missed cues, forgotten or misstated script lines and other mistakes became part of the gag. Animals were frequently incorporated and McPherson, the once farm girl, knew how to handle them. In one incident, a camel was to squeeze through a narrow gate set up on stage, illustrating the Eye of the Needle. McPherson unlimbered one bag of cargo after another labeled "Worldly Pleasure," "Indifference to the Poor" and others, from the camel. Until all the cargo burdens were removed, the camel could not cross through the opening. McPherson gave up to 22 sermons a week and the lavish Sunday night service attracted the largest crowds, extra trolleys and police were needed to help route the traffic through Echo Park to and from Angelus Temple.[89] To finance the Angelus Temple and its projects, collections were taken at every meeting, often with the admonishment, "no coins, please".[90][91][92][93]
Because Pentecostalism was not popular in the U.S. during the 1920s, McPherson avoided the label. She did, though, demonstrate speaking-in-tongues and faith healing in sermons. She also kept a museum of discarded medical fittings from persons faith healed during her services which included crutches, wheelchairs, and other paraphernalia. As evidence of her early influence by the Salvation Army, McPherson adopted a theme of "lighthouses" for the satellite churches, referring to the parent church as the "Salvation Navy." This was the beginning of McPherson working to plant Foursquare Gospel churches around the country.
McPherson published the weekly Foursquare Crusader, along with her monthly magazine, Bridal Call. She began broadcasting on radio in the early 1920s. McPherson was one of the first women to preach a radio sermon. With the opening of Foursquare Gospel-owned KFSG on February 6, 1924, she became the second woman granted a broadcast license by the Department of Commerce, the federal agency that supervised broadcasting in the early 1920s.[94])
McPherson racially integrated her tent meetings and church services. On one occasion, as a response to McPherson's ministry and Angelus Temple being integrated, Ku Klux Klan members were in attendance, but after the service hoods and robes were found on the ground in nearby Echo Park.[95] She is also credited with helping many Hispanic ministries in Los Angeles.[96]
McPherson traveling about the country holding widely popular revival meetings and filling local churches with converts was one thing, settling permanently into their city caused concern among some local Los Angeles churches. Even though she shared many of their fundamentalist beliefs: divine inspiration of the Bible, the classical Trinity, virgin birth of Jesus, historical reality of Christ's miracles, bodily resurrection of Christ and the atoning purpose of his crucifixion; the presentation of lavish sermons, and an effective faith healing ministry presented by a female divorcee who thousands adored and newspapers continuously wrote of, was unexpected. Moreover, the Temple, especially the women, had a look and style uniquely theirs. They would emulate McPherson's style and dress, and a distinct Angeleus Temple uniform came into existence, a white dress with a navy blue cape thrown over it.[97] Men were more discreet, wearing suits. Her voice, projected over the powerful state-of-the-art KFSG radio station and heard by hundreds of thousands, became the most recognized in the western United States.[98]
Her illustrated sermons attracted criticism from some clergy members because they thought it turned the gospel message into mundane theater and entertainment. Divine healing, as McPherson called it, was claimed by many pastors to be a unique dispensation granted only for Apostolic times. Reverend Robert P. Shuler published a pamphlet entitled McPhersonism, which purported that her "most spectacular and advertised program was out of harmony with God's word."[99] Debates such as the Bogard-McPherson Debate in 1934[100] drew further attention to the controversy, but none could really argue effectively against McPherson's results.[101][102][103]
The new developing Assemblies of God denomination, Pentecostal as McPherson was, for a time worked with her, but they encouraged separation from established Protestant faiths. McPherson resisted trends to isolate as a denomination and continued her task of coalition building among evangelicals. McPherson worked hard to attain ecumenical vision of the faith and while she participated in debates, avoided pitched rhetorical battles that divided so many in Christianity. She wanted to work with existing churches on projects and to share with them her visions and beliefs. Assisting in her passion was the speedy establishment of LIFE Bible College adjacent to the Angeles Temple. Ministers trained there were originally intended to go nationally and worldwide to all denominations and share her newly defined "Foursquare Gospel." A well known Methodist minister, Frank Thompson, who never had the Pentecostal experience,[104] was persuaded to run the college; and he taught the students the doctrine of John Wesley. McPherson and others, meanwhile, infused them with Pentecostal ideals. Her efforts eventually led Pentecostals, which were previously unconventional and on the periphery of Christianity, into the mainstream of American evangelicalism.[9]
McPherson herself steadfastly declined to publicly criticize by name any individual with rare exceptions, but those who were converted in her services were not so careful. The testimonies of former prostitutes, drug addicts and others, from stage or broadcast over the radio, frequently revealed the names and locations concerning their past illegal activities. These revelations angered many and McPherson often received hostile letters and death threats. An alleged plot to kidnap her and detailed in the Los Angeles Times was foiled in September, 1925.[105]
Politics and education
By early 1926, McPherson had become one of the most charismatic and influential women and ministers of her time. Her fame equaled, to name a few, Charles Lindbergh, Johnny Weissmuller, Jack Dempsey, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Knute Rockne, Bobby Jones, Louise Brooks, and Rudolph Valentino.[106] She was a major American phenomenon, who along with some other high profile preachers of the time, unlike Hollywood celebrities, could be admired by their adoring public, "without apparently compromising their souls."[107]
According to Carey McWilliams, she had become "more than just a household word: she was a folk hero and a civic institution; an honorary member of the fire and police departments; a patron saint of the service clubs; an official spokesman for the community on problems grave and frivolous."[108] She was influential in many social, educational and political areas. McPherson made personal crusades against anything that she felt threatened her Christian ideals, including the drinking of alcohol and teaching evolution in schools.
McPherson became a strong supporter of William Jennings Bryan during the 1925 Scopes Trial, in which John Scopes was tried for illegally teaching evolution at a Dayton, Tennessee school. Bryan and McPherson had worked together in the Angelus Temple and they believed Darwinism had undermined students' morality. According to The New Yorker, McPherson said, evolution "is the greatest triumph of Satanic intelligence in 5,931 years of devilish warfare, against the Hosts of Heaven. It is poisoning the minds of the children of the nation."[109] She sent Bryan a telegram saying, "Ten thousand members of Angelus Temple with her millions of radio church membership send grateful appreciation of your lion-hearted championship of the Bible against evolution and throw our hats in the ring with you."[110] She organized "an all-night prayer service, a massive church meeting preceded by a Bible parade through Los Angeles."[111]
While her mother Mildred Kennedy was a registered Democrat, no one was certain of McPherson's registration. She endorsed Herbert Hoover over Franklin D. Roosevelt but enthusiastically threw her support behind the latter and his social programs when he was elected into office.[112] She was a patron of organized labor, preaching a gangster's money was "no more unclean than the dollars of the man who amasses his millions from underpaid factory workers".[113] She was more cautious though when labor strikes resulted in violent uprisings. She saw in them the possible activities of Communism, which sought to infiltrate labor unions and other organizations. McPherson intensely disliked Communism and its derivatives as they sought to rule without God; their ultimate goal, she believed, to remove Christianity from the earth. McPherson's opinion of fascism fared no better; its totalitarian rule wrongly justified by claiming to represent the power of God.[114]
McPherson did not align herself consistently with any broad conservative or liberal political agenda. Instead she explained if Christianity occupied a central place in national life, if the components of God, home, school and government were kept together, everything else would fall into place. "Remove any of these," she warned, "and [civilization] topples, crumbles."[115][116] Current Foursquare Gospel Church leaders qualify the evangelist's views: "McPherson’s passion to see America sustained in spiritual health, which compelled her quest to see the Church influence government, must be interpreted in light of the political and religious climate of the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. It is not accurate to draw a parallel between today’s extreme fundamentalist, right-wing Christianity and the style or focus of Sister McPherson."[117] She was also among the first prominent Christian ministers to defend the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. She related that when Christ returns, the Jews would receive him, their suffering will end "and they will establish at Jerusalem a kingdom more wonderful than the world has known."[118]
Reported kidnapping
On May 18, 1926, McPherson went with her secretary to Ocean Park Beach north of Venice Beach to swim. Soon after arriving, McPherson was nowhere to be found. It was thought she had drowned.
McPherson was scheduled to hold a service that day; her mother Minnie Kennedy preached the sermon instead, saying at the end, "Sister is with Jesus," sending parishioners into a tearful frenzy. Mourners crowded Venice Beach and the commotion sparked days-long media coverage fueled in part by William Randolph Hearst's Los Angeles Examiner and a stirring poem by Upton Sinclair to commemorate the tragedy. Daily updates appeared in newspapers across the country and parishioners held day-and-night seaside vigils. One parishioner drowned while searching for the body, and a diver died of exposure.
Kenneth G. Ormiston, the engineer for KFSG, had taken other assignments around late December 1925 and left his job at the Temple.[119] Newspapers later linked McPherson and Ormiston, the latter seen driving up the coast with an unidentified woman. Some believed McPherson and Ormiston, who was married, had become romantically involved and had run off together. Several ransom notes and other communications were sent to the Temple, some were relayed to the police, who thought they were hoaxes and others dismissed as fraudulent. McPherson "sightings" were abundant, as many as 16 in different cities and other locations on the same day. For a time, Mildred Kennedy, McPherson's mother, offered a $25,000[120] reward for information leading to the return of her daughter.
The ransom demands sent included a note by the "Revengers" who wanted $500,000[121] and another for $25,000[120] conveyed by a lawyer who claimed contact with the kidnappers. The handwritten "Revengers" note later disappeared from the LA Police evidence locker and the lawyer was found dead in a possibly suspicious accident before his claim could be adequately investigated.[122][123][124] A lengthy ransom letter from the "Avengers" arrived around June 19, 1926, also forwarded to the police, demanded $500,000[121] or else kidnappers would sell McPherson into "white slavery." Relating their prisoner was a nuisance because she was incessantly preaching to them, the lengthy, two-page poorly typewritten letter also indicated the kidnappers worked hard to spread the word McPherson was held captive, and not drowned. Kennedy regarded the notes as hoaxes, believing her daughter dead.[125]
Shortly thereafter, on June 23, McPherson stumbled out of the desert in Agua Prieta, Sonora, a Mexican town across the border from Douglas, Arizona. The Mexican couple she approached there thought she had died when McPherson collapsed in front of them. An hour later she stirred and the couple covered her with blankets.[126] She claimed she had been kidnapped, drugged, tortured, and held for ransom in a shack by two men and a woman, "Steve," "Mexicali Rose," and another unnamed man.[56][127][128] She also claimed she had escaped from her captors and walked through the desert for about 13 hours to freedom.
Following her return from Douglas, Arizona, McPherson was greeted at the train station by 30,000–50,000 people, more than for almost any other personage.[129] The parade back to the temple even elicited a greater turnout than President Woodrow Wilson's visit to Los Angeles in 1919, attesting to her popularity and the growing influence of mass media entertainment. Aircraft flew low overhead, dropping roses, which drifted around McPherson as she stood surrounded by white-robed flower girls from Angelus Temple[130][131][132]
The fire department was out in their parade uniforms and high ranking Los Angeles officials formally greeted her return. Already incensed over McPherson's influential public stance on evolution and the Bible, most of the Chamber of Commerce and some other civic leaders, however, saw the event as gaudy display; nationally embarrassing to the city. Many Los Angeles area churches were also annoyed. The divorcee McPherson had settled in their town and many of their parishioners were now attending her church, with its elaborate sermons that, in their view, diminished the dignity of the Gospel. The Chamber of Commerce, together with Reverend Robert P. Shuler leading the Los Angeles Church Federation, and assisted by the press and others, became an informal alliance to determine if her disappearance was caused by other than a kidnapping.[133][134]
In Los Angeles, ahead of any court date, McPherson noticed newspaper stories about her kidnapping becoming more and more sensationalized as the days passed. To maintain excited, continued public interest, she speculated, the newspapers let her original account give way to rain torrents of "new spice and thrill" stories about her being elsewhere "with that one or another one." It did not matter if the material was disproved or wildly contradictory. No correction or apology was given for the previous story as another, even more outrageous tale, took its place.[135]
Her mother, Mildred Kennedy was very cynical of the increased newspaper scrutiny and McPherson's lawyer advised against pursuing the matter further. Since McPherson was the injured party and sole witness to the crime, if she chose not to press her complaint, the case would have to be closed.[136][137] Earlier, when McPherson was interrogated in Douglas, Arizona by Prosecutor District Attorney Asa Keyes and Deputy District Attorney Joseph Ryan, both seemed empathetic to her story. Ryan said he could make the desert trip without scuffing or marking his commissary shoes.[138][139] McPherson therefore presented herself in court as a victim of a crime seeking redress. Pressured by various influential Los Angeles business, media, political and religious interests [134] Keyes and Ryan instead opened the grand jury inquiry with insinuating questions, implying McPherson and her mother were involved in a deception.[140]
Some were skeptical of her story since McPherson seemed in unusually good health for her alleged ordeal; her clothing showing no signs of what they expected of a long walk through the desert. This was disputed by most Douglas, Arizona, residents, the town where McPherson was taken to convalesce, including expert tracker C.E. Cross, who testified that McPherson's physical condition, shoes, and clothing were all consistent with an ordeal such as she described.[141][142][143] A grand jury convened on July 8, 1926, but adjourned 12 days later citing lack of evidence to proceed with any charges against either alleged kidnappers or perjury by McPherson. McPherson was told they would be open to receive any evidence submitted by her should she desire to further substantiate her kidnapping story.[144][145][146][147]
The prosecution collected five witnesses who asserted to have seen McPherson at the Benedict [148] seaside cottage in Carmel-by-the-Sea, with the cottage being rented by Ormiston under an assumed name. It was pointed out that even though most of these witnesses knew of the $25,000[120] reward for McPherson's return, with her pictures prominently appearing in the newspapers, none of the five stepped forward at the time they allegedly saw McPherson to claim it.[149][150] Moreover, several other witnesses, including two the prosecution erroneously thought would testify for them, stated the woman was not McPherson.[151] Ormiston admitted to having rented the cottage but claimed that the woman who had been there with him – known in the press as Mrs. X – was not McPherson but another woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
The grand jury reconvened on August 3 and took further testimony along with documents from hotels, all said by various newspapers to be in McPherson's handwriting. These, though, were later revealed to be Elizabeth Tovey's, a woman traveling with Ormiston, whose handwriting did not at all resemble McPherson's.[152] McPherson steadfastly stuck to her story, that she was approached by a young couple at the beach who had asked her to come over and pray for their sick child, and that she was then shoved into a car and drugged with chloroform.[153]
The Carmel cottage was further checked for fingerprints, but none belonging to McPherson were recovered. Two grocery slips found in the yard of the cottage were studied by a police handwriting expert and determined to be McPherson's penmanship. While the original slips later mysteriously disappeared from the courtroom, photo-stat copies were available.[154] The defense had a handwriting expert of their own who demonstrated the grocery slips were not McPherson's but doctored to look like hers. The slips' suspicious origin was also questioned. The original slips would have been in the yard for two months, surviving dew, fog, and lawn maintenance before their discovery.[155]
California grand jury members are bound by law not to discuss the case to protect the integrity of the process in determining if there is sufficient cause for a formal juried trial. The Reverend Robert P. Shuler was told as much by a newspaper in response to an open demand he made for more disclosure in the ongoing inquiry.[156] In the McPherson case, proceedings became quite public, as observed by journalist H. L. Mencken. A vocal critic of McPherson,[157] Mencken wrote of her, "For years she toured the Bible Belt in a Ford, haranguing the morons nightly, under canvas. It was a depressing life, and its usufructs were scarcely more than three meals a day. The town [he refers to Los Angeles] has more morons in it than the whole State of Mississippi, and thousands of them had nothing to do save gape at the movie dignitaries and go to revivals" (from The American Mercury, 1930). Mencken had been sent to cover the trial and there was every expectation he would continue his searing critiques against the evangelist. Instead, he came away impressed with McPherson and disdainful of the unseemly nature of the prosecution.[158] Mencken later wrote: "The trial, indeed, was an orgy typical of the half-fabulous California courts. The very officers of justice denounced her riotously in the Hearst papers while it was in progress."[157] To combat the bad newspaper publicity, McPherson spoke freely about the court trials on the air during her radio broadcasts.[159]
Theories and innuendo were rampant: that she had run off with a lover, had gone off to have an abortion, was taking time to heal from plastic surgery, or had staged a publicity stunt. Two-inch headlines called her a tart, a conspirator, and a home-wrecker.[160] McPherson's near death medical operation in 1914,[50] which prevented her from having more children, was already part of the public record. When challenged about the abortion claim with a request to pay for the medical exam to prove it, the newspaper which printed the story backed down. Some prosecutor witnesses stated when they saw McPherson in Carmel, she had short hair, and furor ensued she was currently wearing fake hair swatches piled up to give the impression of longer tresses. McPherson, as requested by her lawyer, stood up, unpinned her hair, which fell abundantly around her shoulders, shocking the witnesses and others into embarrassed silence.[160] McPherson learned that in a celebrity crazed-culture fueled by mass media, a leading lady could become a villainess in the blink of an eye.[161]
The defense rested its case on October 28 and the judge, on November 3, decided enough evidence had been garnered against the evangelist and her mother for a jury trial case in Los Angeles, set for mid-January 1927. The charges were a criminal conspiracy to commit acts injurious to public morals, to prevent and obstruct justice, and to prevent the due administration of the laws, and of engaging in a criminal conspiracy to commit the crime of subordination of perjury. If convicted, the counts added up to maximum prison time of forty-two years.[162][163][164]
The chief witness against McPherson was now Lorraine Wiseman-Sielaff. She first stated she was in Carmel as a nurse for Ormiston's mistress; and because she somewhat physically resembled McPherson, it was her that people were misidentifying as the evangelist. Later, after the Angelus Temple refused to post her bail when she was arrested for passing a bad check, Wiseman-Sielaff said McPherson paid her to tell that story. Her testimony was fluidly inconsistent, and it changed significantly yet again in late December, 1926. Prosecutor Asa Keyes eventually concluded Wiseman-Sielaff's story was not true and a "grievous wrong had been done." The Examiner newspaper reported that Los Angeles district attorney Asa Keyes had dropped all charges on January 10, 1927.[165][166][167]
Regardless of the court's decision, months of unfavorable press reports fixed in much of the public's mind a certainty of McPherson's wrongdoing. Many readers were unaware of prosecution evidence having become discredited because it was often placed in the back columns while some new accusation against McPherson held prominence on the headlines. In a letter he wrote to the Los Angeles Times a few months after the case was dropped, the Reverend Robert P. Shuler stated, "Perhaps the most serious thing about this whole situation is the seeming loyalty of thousands to this leader in the face of her evident and positively proven guilt."[168]
Some supporters thought McPherson should have insisted on the jury trial and cleared her name. The grand jury inquiry concluded while enough evidence did not exist to try her, it did not indicate her story was true with its implication of kidnappers still at large.[169] Therefore, anyone could still accuse her of a hoax without fear of slander charges and frequently did so. McPherson, though, was treated harshly in many previous sessions at court, being verbally pressured in every way possible to change her story or elicit some bit of incriminating information.[170] Moreover, court costs to McPherson were estimated as high as US $100,000 dollars.[171][172] A jury trial could take months. McPherson moved on to other projects. In 1927 she published a book about her version of the kidnapping: In the Service of the King: The Story of My Life.
The 1926 grand jury case, the largest of its kind in California, had hundreds of reporters looking for discrediting evidence against McPherson. Almost $500,000[173] was spent[174] (most by newspapers assisting in the investigation), 3,600 pages of transcripts generated,[175] and agencies, officials and others continued to investigate, even years later, but were unable to prove her kidnapping story false.[176][177] In 1929, after a failed request by the state senate to reopen the older 1926 case,[178] Journalist Morrow Mayo noted it was the last chance in California to "ruin that red-headed sorceress", and "she is free to serve the Lord until the Marines are called out." [179]
The tale was later satirized by Pete Seeger in a song called "The Ballad of Aimee McPherson", with lyrics claiming the kidnapping had been unlikely because a hotel love nest revealed "the dents in the mattress fit Aimee's caboose."
The Court of Historical Review and Appeal in San Francisco, which holds no legal authority, is made up of members of the bench who examine and retry historical cases and controversies. In April 1990, a decision was handed down regarding the matter of McPherson's kidnapping story. George T. Choppelas, the then presiding judge of the San Francisco Municipal Court, ruling for the Court of Historical Review, found the issues involved both serious and fascinating. He concluded that "there was never any substantial evidence to show that her story was untrue. She may not have been a saint, but she certainly was no sinner, either."[180]
Claims of extramarital affairs
Numerous allegations of illicit love affairs[181] were often directed against McPherson. Suspected lovers generally denied involvement.[182] For example, Kenneth Ormiston, a married man with a small son,[183] could have profited immensely from an exposé about himself and McPherson.[184] It was not disputed the two had a good working relationship and were friendly with each other. During the 1926 kidnapping grand jury trial, his privacy in every way was invaded as reporters and investigators tried to link him amorously to McPherson.[185][186] Ormiston told newspapers his name connected in such a way to the evangelist "was a gross insult to a noble and sincere woman."[187][188]
Alarmed by her rapidly changing style of dress and involvement with Hollywood and its "worldly" lifestyle, in 1929, an Angelus Temple official[190] hired detectives to shadow McPherson. Through her windows, the detectives frequently saw McPherson staying up until the early morning hours composing songs, drafting sacred operas and scribbling diagrams of her illustrated sermons.[191] They were looking for evidence of her indiscretions, but found nothing. No confirmation of adulterous misconduct,[182] with perhaps exception of her third marriage as a violation of Church tenets, was ever presented. McPherson herself, aware of numerous accusations leveled at her throughout her career, responded only to a small fraction of them, conveying the only thing she had time for was "preaching Jesus."[192]
Posthumously, unsubstantiated allegations of extramarital affairs continued to emerge, this time by those who stated to have been her partner; claims not mentioned by them or others while she was still alive. Canadian journalist, Gordon Sinclair, implied such a claim in his 1966 autobiography, Will the Real Gordon Sinclair Please Stand Up. Sinclair stated he worked on a story with McPherson and it was during one of those times in 1934, the incident purportedly occurred. Sinclair alludes to a sexual dalliance with McPherson one afternoon along with some gin and ginger.[193]
Thirty years after her death, another claim by comedian Milton Berle, in a 1974 autobiography, alleges a brief affair with the evangelist. In his book, entitled Milton Berle: An Autobiography, Berle asserts he met McPherson at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles where both were doing a charity show. Upon seeing her for the first time, Berle recalled,
"I was both impressed and very curious ... She was all dignity and class when it came her turn. The house went wild when she walked out into the lights." Backstage, she invited him to see Angelus Temple. Instead, Berle wrote, the two of them went to lunch in Santa Monica, then to an apartment of hers where McPherson changed into something "cooler [...] a very thin, pale blue negligee." Berle said he could see she was wearing nothing underneath. She just said, "Come in." Berle said they met for the second and last time at the same apartment a few days later, writing, "This time, she just sent the chauffeur for me to bring me straight to the apartment. We didn't even bother with lunch. When I was dressing to leave, she stuck out her hand. 'Good luck with your show, Milton.' What the hell. I couldn't resist it. 'Good luck with yours, Aimee.' I never saw or heard from Aimee Semple McPherson again. But whenever I hear 'Yes, Sir, That's My Baby', I remember her."[194]
Biographer Matthew Avery Sutton commented, "Berle, a notorious womanizer whose many tales of scandalous affairs were not always true, claimed to have had sex with McPherson on this and one other occasion", both during a year when McPherson was often ill and bedridden. Sutton noted that Berle's story of a crucifix[195] in McPherson's bedroom was not consistent with the coolness of Pentecostal-Catholic relations during that era.[196] Another book by Milton Berle, Laughingly Yours, which had autobiographical content that was published in 1939 while McPherson was still alive, did not have this claim.[197]
Author Raymond L. Cox states: "Mrs. McPherson's daughter, Roberta Salter of New York, told me, 'Mother never had an apartment in her life.' By 1931 she kept herself securely chaperoned to guard against such allegations." During 1930 the evangelist's appearances and whereabouts can be traced almost every day. She was incapacitated with illness a full five months of that year, and there is no place on her schedule as reported in her publications and church and travel records for the benefit Berle alleged. Besides, Roberta also told Cox, "Mother never did a benefit in her life. She had her own charities".[198]
Charitable work
McPherson strove to develop a church organization which could not only provide for the spiritual, but the physical needs of the distressed. Though she fervently believed and preached the imminent return of Jesus Christ,[199] she had no idea of how soon that Second Coming might be. Two thoughts pervaded the mind of most devout Pentecostals of the time, "Jesus is coming, therefore how can I get ready," and "how can I help others to get ready?"
For McPherson, part of the answer was to mobilize her Temple congregation and everyone she could reach through radio, telephone and word of mouth to get involved in substantial amounts of charity and social work. "True Christianity is not only to be good but to do good," she preached. The Charities and Beneficiary Department collected donations for all types of humanitarian relief to include a Japanese disaster as well as a German relief fund. Men released from prison were found jobs by a "brotherhood." A "sisterhood" was created as well, sewing baby clothing for impoverished mothers.[200] Branch churches elsewhere in the country were likewise encouraged to follow the Angelus Temple's example. Even people who considered McPherson's theology almost ridiculous helped out because they saw her church as the best way to assist their community.[201]
In June 1925, after confirming reports of an earthquake in Santa Barbara, McPherson immediately left the parsonage and interrupted a broadcast at a nearby radio station. She took over the microphone from the startled singer and requested food, blankets, clothing, whatever listeners could give for emergency supplies to assist nearby Santa Barbara. As the Red Cross met to discuss and organize aid, McPherson's second convoy had already arrived at the troubled city.[202] In 1928, after a dam failed and the ensuing flood left up to 600 dead in its wake, McPherson's church led the relief effort.[203] Later, in 1933, an earthquake struck and devastated Long Beach. McPherson quickly arranged for volunteers to be on the scene with blankets, coffee and doughnuts.[204]
An unwed mother's home was operated of the parsonage. Roberta Semple Star, McPherson's daughter, shared her room with one troubled or battered runaway girl after another. She recalled they came from all over the country and her mother could spot them in any crowd. McPherson herself would frequently contact the girl's presumably worried parents, offering to facilitate a reconciliation if needed. If the girl stayed on, after the baby arrived, McPherson made another call to the parents, letting them know wonderful news: their daughter just gave birth to a healthy eight pound baby boy or girl. McPherson's enthusiastically sincere, caring approach tended to result in reluctant parents accepting back their wayward daughter with their new grandchild.[205]
While McPherson, her two children and sometimes visitors shared dinner upstairs, frequently they were interrupted by knocks on the downstairs door. The Angelus Temple parsonage received an unknown number of abandoned infants left in all types of containers at its doorstep. People knew a baby left there would be well taken care of.[206] Because many baby abandonments were caused by mothers unable to care for their infants while they worked, she also established a day nursery for children of working mothers.
Drawing from her childhood experience with the Salvation Army, in 1927, McPherson opened a commissary at Angelus Temple which was devised to assist the needy on a much larger, formalized scale. The Commissary was virtually the only place in town a person could get food, clothing, and blankets with no questions asked. It was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and became active in creating soup kitchens, free clinics, and other charitable activities as the Great Depression wore on. It is estimated that she fed 1.5 million people. When the government shut down the free school lunch program, McPherson took it over. Her policy of giving first and investigating afterward allowed waste and a certain amount of deadbeats to leech off the program, but it "alleviated suffering on an epic scale".[207]
McPherson got the fire and police departments to assist in distribution. Doctors, physicians and dentists were persuaded to staff her free clinic that trained 500 nurses to help treat children and the elderly. She encouraged individuals and companies of all types to donate supplies, food, cash or labor. To prevent the power from being turned off to homes of overdue accounts during the winter, a US $2,000[208] cash reserve was set up with the utility company. Many people, who otherwise would have nothing to do with the Angelus Temple, would receive a call from McPherson, and then loot their mansion closets or company stores for something to give. The Yellow Cab Company donated a large building and, in the first month, 80,000 people received meals there.[209][210]
Laboring under a sign "Everybody and anybody is somebody to Jesus", volunteer workers filled commissary baskets with an assortment of food and other items as well as Foursquare Gospel literature and handed them out. Even a complete kit designed to care for newborn babies was available. A reporter writes he had always thought the breadline was a "drab colorless scar on our civilization" but of the Angelus Temple commissary, he observes, was "the warm garment of sympathy and Christian succor."[211] A note, which reflects the sentiment of many of those who received assistance, was left in June, 2010 at McPherson's virtual gravesite:
"My grandpa always talked about when he was a kid, he and his family moved to California from Missouri, during the depression, and his family was starving and they met you and you gave them a bag of vegetables, and some money, he never forgot it." -Anonymous[212]
Establishing an employment bureau as well, McPherson desired to help "the discouraged husband, the despondent widow, or the little mother who wants extra work to bear the burden of a sick husband".[213] She expected everyone in her temple to be involved, 'let us ever strive to lighten our brother's load and dry the tears of a sister; race, creed or status make no difference. We are all one in the eyes of the Lord." She encouraged members to think of the commissary as widening "the spirituality of the whole church".[214]
In 1932, the commissary was raided by police to allegedly locate a still used to make brandy out of donated apricots. Some sauerkraut and salad oil were purportedly observed leaking from their respective storage areas. As a consequence, the commissary was briefly shut down. The press got involved and the public demanded an investigation. Since no one really wanted to stall the temple's charity efforts, the acceptable solution was to replace the immediate management. The staff was let go and students from her Foursquare Gospel Church's LIFE Bible College filled in. The newspaper media, generally cynical of the Temple and in particular, of McPherson, recognized "the excellent features of that organization's efforts" and "the faults of the Angelus Temple are outweighed by its virtues".[215] McPherson issued a statement declaring, "They have clashed loud their cymbals and blown their trumpets about a still and some sauerkraut,... our work is still before us. If...anybody abused his trust, it must not happen again."[216]
As McPherson tried to avoid administrative delays in categorizing the "deserving" from the "undeserving," her temple commissary became known as one of the region's most effective and inclusive aid institutions. Few soup kitchens lasted more than several months, but McPherson's remained open.[211] Even as she transformed herself into a fashionable blonde Hollywood socialite, McPherson's vigor and practicality for social activism did not change, she loved organizing big projects.[217] A 1936 survey indicated the Angelus Temple assisted more family units than any other public or private institution in the city. Because her programs aided non-residents as well, such as migrants from other states and Mexico, she ran afoul of California state regulations. Even though temple guidelines were later officially adjusted to accommodate those policies, helping families in need was a priority, regardless of their place of residence.[218]
Actor Anthony Quinn recalls:
"This was all during the height of the Depression, when hunger and poverty permeated America. Many Mexicans were terrified of appealing for county help because most of them were in the country illegally. When in distress, they were comforted by the fact that they could call one of Aimee's branches at any time of the night. There, they would never be asked any of the embarrassing questions posed by the authorities. The fact that they were hungry or in need of warm clothing was enough. No one even asked if they belonged to Aimee's church or not."[65]
Later life and career
Following her heyday in the 1920s, McPherson carried on with her ministry but fell out of favor with the press. They once dubbed her the "miracle worker"[219] or "miracle woman", reporting extensively on her faith healing demonstrations, but now were anxious to relay every disturbance in her household to the headlines. Her developing difficulties with her mother, Mildred Kennedy, were starting to take the front page. Yet, McPherson emerged from the kidnapping nationally famous. As much as ten percent of the population in Los Angeles held membership in her Temple.[220] For a time, movie studios competed with each other offering McPherson long-term contracts.
Believing that talking pictures had the potential to transform Christianity, McPherson explored Hollywood culture and appeared in newsreels alongside other famous individuals such as Mary Pickford, Frances Perkins, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. She lost weight, cut and dyed her hair, and became stylish and well attired. A critic wrote McPherson "can out-dress the Hollywood stars". The solicitation of fame, justified to draw audiences to her and hence to Christ, was more than some in her church organization could accept. They yearned for Sister Aimee "in the old time dress," referring to her previous "trademarked" uniform of a navy cape over a white servant's dress; both purchased inexpensively in bargain basements.[221] Other members, though, loved it and her Angelus Temple services were as popular as ever and remained so throughout her life. Unless parishioners arrived to a service early, frequently they could not get in, all seats were taken. Now that she could afford it, McPherson thought as well, she wanted her apparel and display to be the best she could present to Jesus.[56][220]
In early 1927, McPherson immediately set out on a "vindication tour", visiting various cities and taking advantage of the publicity her kidnapping story created to preach the Gospel.[222] Her visit to New York in fox-furs and a finely trimmed yellow suit was noted in the society pages. She visited even nightclubs, to include a famous speakeasy in New York: Texas Guinan’s Three Hundred Club on 54th Street. While McPherson sipped water at her table, Guinan asked if she would speak a few words to the patrons. Delighted, McPherson stood and addressed the jazzed and boozy crowd:
"Behind all these beautiful clothes, behind these good times, in the midst of your lovely buildings and shops and pleasures, there is another life. There is something on the other side. “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” With all your getting and playing and good times, do not forget you have a Lord. Take Him into your hearts."
The unexpected speech that did not judge, and had a conciliatory tone between them and the Divine, earned a thoughtful moment of silence from the crowd, then an applause that went on for much longer than the speech took. The revelers were invited to hear her preach at the Glad Tidings Tabernacle on 33rd street. The visits to speakeasies and nightclubs added to McPherson's notoriety; Newspapers reported heavily on them, rumors erroneously conveyed she was drinking, smoking and dancing; and her mother along with some other church members, did not understand McPherson's strategy of tearing down barriers between the secular and religious world, between the sinner and the saved.[223]
In the summer of 1927, Mildred Kennedy, McPherson's mother, left the Angelus Temple. In an attempt to curtail her daughter's influence and officially transfer more power to herself, Kennedy initiated a staff member "vote of confidence" against McPherson, but lost. The two had heatedly argued over management polices and McPherson's changing personal dress and appearance.[224] For similar reasons, 300 members of the choir left as well. The choir could be replaced;[225] however, Kennedy's financial and administrative skills had been of crucial importance in growing McPherson's ministry from tent revivals to satellite churches and maintaining its current activities in the Temple. A series of less able management staff replaced Kennedy and the Temple became involved in various questionable projects such as hotel building, cemetery plots, and land sales. Accordingly, the Angelus Temple plummeted deep into debt. In response to the difficulties, Kennedy came back in late 1929, but because of continued serious disagreements with McPherson, tendered her resignation July 29, 1930.[226] The following month, in August 1930, McPherson suffered a physical and nervous breakdown. For ten months she was absent from the pulpit, diagnosed, in part with acute acidosis.[227]
When she gained strength and returned, it was with renewed vigor that she introduced her moving "Attar of Roses" sermon, based on the Song of Solomon, with its Rose of Charon as the mystical Body of Christ. While journalists attending her Sunday illustrated sermons assumed her language was fit only for slapstick or sentimental entertainment, scholars who have studied her work for Bible students and small prayer groups, found instead the complex discourse of neoplatonic interpretation. The Old Testament book, the Song of Solomon, for example, she had hundreds of pages written about it, each "different from one another as snowflakes".[228]
In September, 1931, on her way to an eight-day revival in Portland, Oregon, she visited former district attorney Asa Keyes, in the San Quentin penitentiary. Keyes, who had been a vigorous prosecutor in attempting to prove her 1926 kidnapping story a fraud, was imprisoned on an unrelated matter. McPherson, with no apparent malice or gloating, wished him well and said he was in her prayers. A grateful Keyes thanked her. Afterwards, she arranged to visit Boston for an ambitious nine-day revival. McPherson trained for it by swimming 3 1/2 miles per day across Lake Elsinore, California, paced by a rowboat.[229]
The October 10–18, 1931 revival in Boston started out sluggishly and many predicted its failure. A Los Angeles newspaper ran headlines of the flop and expected more of the same in the days to come. On opening night, McPherson spoke to less than 5,000 persons in the 22,000 seating sports arena, and safety pins and rubber bands abundantly cluttered the collection baskets. The city had large populations of Unitarians, Episcopalians and Catholics, venerable denominations traditionally hostile to a Pentecostal / fundamentalist message. Afterwards, from her hotel room, McPherson, known to be a sports fan, asked for the afternoon's World Series scores and a Boston Herald reporter sent her a copy of the Sunday edition. The next day, the "Bring Back the Bible to Boston" campaign's tone shifted as McPherson took greater control and attendance climbed sharply.[230][231]
A reporter took note of McPherson's stage presence, different from any other evangelist who spoke there, gesturing with her white Bible for effect as well as preaching. Answering him as to why she presented a dramatic sermon, she stated, "Our God is a dramatic God,... rolling back the Red Sea,... Elijah on the mountaintop,... the crucifixion, the resurrection, His ascension,... tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost." The final day of afternoon and evening services had 40,000 persons attending, the stadium was full and more than 5,000 had to be turned away. A total of 160,000 people attended the meetings; breaking historic attendance records of any nine days of revival services in Boston.[231]
Her revival in New York City was not very fruitful, her sensationalistic reputation preceded her. The third marriage to David Hutton, rumored romances and her kidnapping was what its press and citizens wanted hear about. Therefore, after a brief pause in New York and Washington, DC, she went on Philadelphia and other cities, traveling to 46 of them in 21 states; speaking to as much as two percent of the entire population of the United States. A full crew of musicians, scene designers and costumers accompanied McPherson. In this, her last national revival tour, between September 1933 and December 20, 1934, two million persons heard 336 sermons. Many more were reached by 45 radio stations.[232]
The Boston Evening Traveler newspaper reported:
"Aimee's religion is a religion of joy. There is happiness in it. Her voice is easy to listen to. She does not appeal to the brain and try to hammer religion into the heads of her audience. Rather, she appeals to the hearts of her hearers. She radiates friendliness. She creates an atmosphere that is warming. She is persuasive, rather than forceful; gracious and kindly, rather than compelling. Fundamentally she takes the whole Bible literally, from cover to cover."[231]
Nevertheless, she was not a radical literalist. In an informal meeting with some Harvard students, McPherson told them that Genesis allowed great latitude of interpretation, and that neither she nor the Bible insisted the world was created only 6,000 years ago.[233] In another meeting with students, she heard their assertion the teachings of Christ have outlived their usefulness; education, science and cold reasoning was the new savior of the world. Thus compelled, McPherson decided to travel and look at the world with new eyes.[234] In 1935 McPherson embarked on a worldwide six-month discovery tour to examine the social religious and economic climates of many countries. At one point it was earlier reported she wanted to study the women's movement in connection with the campaign for the Independence of India, and was anxious to have "a chat with Mahatma Gandhi".[4] She received an invitation from him and he gave her a sari made from threads woven from his simple spinning wheel. Impressed with Gandhi and his ideas, McPherson thought he might secretly lean towards Christianity; his dedication possibly coming from catching "a glimpse of the cleansing, lifting, strengthening power of the Nazarene".[235]
Other highlights included traversing barefoot, in Myanmar, the lengthy stone path to the Great Pagoda, a gold covered 325 ft tiered tower enshrining relics of four Buddhas, which caught and reflected the rays of the sun; a "vision of breath-taking glory."[236] She heard Benito Mussolini speak in Italy, and fretted war would again ensue. In the rain, at Verdun, France, she sat on a wrecked military vehicle in mournful contemplation of the hundreds of thousands who died on the still uncleared battlefield. White, bleached, bones of the fallen poked out of the earth, and nearby, laborers toiled carefully at their dangerous iron harvest, collecting old munitions for disposal.
As she sailed to New York passing by the Statue of Liberty, McPherson was fascinated by its illumined torch. The flame represented to her some of the things missing from the other countries visited: truth and life; knowledge from schools and colleges, shelter of the Constitution, law, order, and progress. McPherson's concluded from her trip that though the United States might wander, a revival of faith in God would kill the "fatted calf of the Depression" and "again spread the banquet table."[237]
In mid-1936, a delegation who had been involved with the 1906 Azusa Street Mission Revivals asked if they could use the Angelus Temple for their 30th Anniversary Celebration. The original mission building was demolished and its land unavailable. African American Evangelist Emma Cotton and McPherson therefore organized a series of meetings which also marked her enthusiastic re-identification with the Pentecostal movement. McPherson's experiments of Hollywood celebrity ambitions co-existing with her ministry were not as successful she hoped. Alliances with other church groups were failing or no longer in effect and she searched for ways to start again. Therefore, she looked to her spiritual origins and allowed for the possibility of re-introducing even the more alarming aspects of the Pentecostal experience into her public meetings. Temple officials were concerned the Azusa people might bring in some "wildfire and Holy Rollerism." McPherson indicated she would turn hand springs with them as needed to see the power of God manifest.
The Azusa Street Revival commemoration events brought numbers of black leaders to her pulpit. The original attendees of the Azusa revivals filled the Angelus Temple along with every ethnic minority, "the saints who were once smelted together with the fires of Pentecost" were "being reunited re-welded and rejuvenated." McPherson recommitted herself to the dissemination of "classic Pentecostalism," and her concern now was that Foursquaredom was in the danger of becoming too "churchy." For the first time since the Temple opened, McPherson began to publicly deliver some of her messages in tongues. McPherson traversed the line between cold formality and wildfire and now decided it was easier to cool down a hot fanatic than to resuscitate a corpse. Future meetings to celebrate the Azusa Street Revivals included guest Charles H. Mason, a founder of the Churches of God in Christ. Mason, an Azusa leader, was also one of the most significant African American religious figures in United States history and was frequently hosted at the Angelus Temple.[238]
Also in 1936, McPherson reassigned staff responsibilities in an effort to address the Temple's financial difficulties. This, together with other unresolved issues, accelerated simmering tensions among various staff members. Rumors circulated that "Angel of Broadway", charismatic evangelist Rheba Crawford Splivalo, who had been working extensively with McPherson for several years, planned to take the Angelus Temple from her. McPherson asked Splivalo to "leave town".[230] In the course of the staff controversy, McPherson's lawyer issued a strongly worded press release that upset Roberta Star Semple, McPherson's daughter, and led her to initiate a $150,000[239] lawsuit against him for slander. Splivalo also sued McPherson for $1,080,000[240] because of alleged statements calling her a ‘Jezebel and a Judas’ and "unfit to stand in the Angelus Temple pulpit".[241][242]
The two lawsuits filed by Semple and Splivalo were not related, but McPherson did not see it that way. She saw both as part of the Temple takeover plot. Mildred Kennedy, McPherson's mother, was also involved and sided with Semple, her granddaughter, making unflattering statements about McPherson to the press. In these charged circumstances, McPherson's defense of herself and her lawyer in a public trial was dramatic and theatrical. She testified tearfully with swoons and faints about how her daughter conspired with others against her.[243] Her daughter's lawyer, meanwhile, mocked McPherson by imitating her mannerisms and making faces at her.[244] The trial did much to estrange McPherson from her daughter. The judge ruled for Semple giving a $2,000[245] judgement in her favor. Semple then moved to New York. Splivalo and the Temple settled their suit out of court for the "cause of religion and the good of the community."[246]
With Kennedy, Semple, and Splivalo gone, the Temple lost much of its talented leadership. However, McPherson found a competent and firm administrator in Giles Knight, who was able to bring the Temple out of debt, dispose of the 40 or so lawsuits, and eliminate the more spurious projects. He sequestered McPherson, allowed her to receive only a few personal visitors, and carefully regulated her activities outside the Temple. This period was one of unprecedented creativity for McPherson. No longer distracted by waves of reporters, reams of lawsuits, and numberless individuals demanding her attention, she became very accomplished in her illustrative sermon style of gospel preaching. The irreligious Charlie Chaplin would secretly attend her services, enjoying her sermons. She later met and consulted with Chaplin on ways to improve her presentations. McPherson, who earlier blared across newspaper headlines as many as three times a week, in one alleged scandal or another, had her public image much improved. Her adversary, Reverend Robert P. Shuler, who previously attacked her by radio, magazine, pulpit, and pamphlet, proclaimed "Aimee's missionary work was the envy of Methodists".[247] He also expressed his support of her Foursquare Church application admittance into National Association of Evangelicals for United Action in 1943.[9]
Her efforts at making interracial revival a reality at Angelus Temple continued. She welcomed blacks into the congregation and pulpit. While race riots burned Detroit in 1943, McPherson publicly converted the notorious black former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson on the Temple stage and embraced him “as he raised his hand in worship”.[248][249]
War years
Pacifism, which was a component of Pentecostalism, was evaluated by the Foursquare Gospel Church in the 1930s with official statements and documents which were further revised by McPherson. A press quote attributed to McPherson, in reference to Mahatma Gandhi, appears to explore the concept, "I want to incorporate the ideals of India with my own...."[4] Additionally, Clinton Howard, the chairman of the World Peace Commission, was invited to speak at the Angelus Temple. In 1932 she promoted disarmament, "If the nations of the world would stop building warships and equipping armies we would be all but overwhelmed with prosperity."[250]
Foursquare leaders, alarmed at rapid changes of technology, especially sea and air, which challenged the United States isolation and security, decided to officially draw up an amendment inclusive of varied opinions in regards to military service. The idea that one could trust to bear arms in a righteous cause as well as believing the killing of others, even in connection to military service, would endanger their souls; both views were acceptable.[251]
McPherson kept a canny eye on the international events leading up to the Second World War, citing the probability of a much more terrible conflict than the one that passed 20 years earlier. In a sermon, she described a recently conquered country which had the Cross and other religious symbols in their schools removed; in their place was a portrait of a certain man. Instead of prayer, their school day began with a distinctive salute to this person. The destructive apocalypse of John the Apostle, with its expected high civilian casualties, followed by the Second Coming of Christ, it seemed, was at hand. Even if submarines were hiding in the depths of the sea, they could not escape the terror that would befall them.[252]
All night prayer meetings were held Friday nights at the Angelus Temple, starting in 1940, the year when Germany was overrunning Belgium, the Netherlands and France. She asked other Foursquare churches around the country to follow suit. She sent President Franklin D. Roosevelt's secretary, Mr. Stephen Early, as well as some other leaders, an outline of her plans. Prayer, to her, was even more powerful than the implements of war. Various officials expressed their appreciation, including the governor of California.[253] Early passed on a reply back from Roosevelt: a message of thanks for her work. A month later Roosevelt declared a National Day of Prayer to "beseech the Ruler of the Universe to bless our Republic." Foursquare leaders thought McPherson may have inspired it; and perhaps the President of the United States was looking to her for spiritual leadership of the nation.[254]
At the outbreak of World War II, McPherson rejected the Christian pacifism of many in the Pentecostal movement including those of her own church. Her mind was set on doing what ever it took to assist the United States in winning the war, "It is the Bible against Mein Kampf. It is the Cross against the Swastika. It is God against the antichrist of Japan,... This is no time for pacifism."[255] The Angelus Temple itself became a visible symbol of home front sacrifice for the war effort. If necessary, it was announced the building could be used for an air raid shelter. The distinctive white dome was painted over with black paint and its beautiful stained glass windows covered up. The Temple, like other buildings in the city, had to have any opening or window that could emit visible light at night, covered. One evening in May 1942, to advertise the need to conserve gasoline and rubber, McPherson herself drove a horse and buggy to the Angelus Temple.[253]
Rubber and other drives were organized; and unlimited airtime on her radio station, KFSG, was given to the Office of War Information. She asked parishioners and other listeners to donate two hours a day for such tasks as rolling bandages "so that a soldier's bandage could be changed.... And let us give our blood to help every one." Money was raised to provide local military bases with comfortable furnishings and radios. Newsweek published an article about McPherson, "The World's Greatest Living Minister," in July 19, 1943, noting she had collected 2,800 pints of blood for the Red Cross; servicemen in her audience are especially honored, and the climax of her church services is when she reads the National Anthem.[256]
McPherson gave visiting servicemen autographed Bibles. She observed they often had no religious affiliation and did not even own a Bible. She wrote:
"What a privilege it was to invite the servicemen present in every Sunday night meeting to come to the platform, where I greeted them, gave each one a New Testament, and knelt in prayer with them for their spiritual needs, and God’s guidance and protection on their lives. Later, when the altar call would be given, many of these same servicemen would make another trip to the platform publicly to receive Jesus Christ as their personal savior."[253]
She insulted Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tōjō, and became involved in war bond rallies. Pershing Square's Victory House in Los Angeles never saw a bigger crowd. McPherson sold $150,000[257][258][259][260] worth of bonds in one hour on June 20, 1942, breaking all previous records, then repeated the performance again on July 4, 1944.[261][262] The U.S. Treasury awarded her a special citation. The Army made McPherson an honorary colonel.
Her wartime activities included sermons that linked the church and American patriotism.[263] McPherson spoke to the men in uniform of her belief that military action against the Axis powers was long overdue. And more so than in almost any war previously, she felt that if they did not prevail, churches, homes and everything precious and dear to the Christian would absolutely be destroyed.[264]
McPherson's embrace of the total war strategy of the United States, left her open to some criticism. The line between the church as an independent moral authority monitoring government became blurred, perceived instead, as complicit with that same governance. Wrongs being done to Japanese Americans through their internment in relocation camps, were being overlooked, for example. And she refused to allow her denomination to support Christians who remained committed pacifists. Even if conscientious objectors were willing to participate in non-combat roles, more was needed. Church members and leaders had to be willing to take up arms and fight for the United States. The pacifist clause which earlier existed, was by her proposal, voted upon and eliminated by Foursquare Gospel Church leaders.[264]
She articulated the history of Christianity, as a torch ignited first in the Near East with the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus; moving to Europe, then England finally to arrive in the United States. Freedom of speech, assembly, and the press was being blotted out in Asia and Europe; the United States now had total responsibility for Christianity, to carry the Gospel to millions. McPherson announced, "the flag of America and the church stand for the same thing...they stand or fall together!"[265]
Death
On September 26, 1944, McPherson went to Oakland, California, for a series of revivals, planning to preach her popular "Story of My Life" sermon. When McPherson's son went to her hotel room at 10:00 the next morning, he found her unconscious with pills and a half-empty bottle of capsules nearby. She was dead by 11:15. It was later discovered she previously called her doctor that morning to complain about feeling ill from the medicine, but he was in surgery and could not be disturbed. She then phoned another doctor who referred her to yet another physician; however, McPherson apparently lost consciousness before the third could be contacted.[266][267]
The autopsy did not conclusively determine the cause of McPherson's death. She had been taking sleeping pills following numerous health problems – including "tropical fever". Among the pills found in the hotel room was the barbiturate Seconal, a strong sedative which had not been prescribed for her. It was unknown how she obtained them.
The coroner said she most likely died of an accidental overdose compounded by kidney failure. The cause of death is officially listed as unknown.[268] Given the circumstances, there was speculation about suicide, but most sources generally agree the overdose was accidental, as stated in the coroner's report.[269]
Forty-five thousand people waited in long lines, some until 2 am, to file past the evangelist, where, for three days, her body lay in state at the Angelus Temple. Within a mile-and-a-half radius of the church, police had to double park cars. It later took 11 trucks to transport the $50,000[270] worth of flowers to the cemetery which itself received more telegrammed floral orders than at any time since Will Roger's death almost 10 years earlier. A Foursquare leader noted that to watch the long line pass reverently by her casket, and see tears shed by all types of people, regardless of class and color, helped give understanding to the far-reaching influence of her life and ministry.[271]
An observer, Marcus Bach, who was on a spiritual odyssey of personal discovery, wrote:
"Roberta, who had married an orchestra director, flew in from New York. Ma Kennedy was at the grave, Rheba Crawford Splivalo had returned to say that there was never a greater worker for God than Sister. A thousand ministers of the Foursquare Gospel paid their tearful tribute. The curious stood by impressed. The poor who had always been fed at Angelus were there, the lost who had been spirit-filled, the healed, the faithful here they were eager to immortalize the Ontario farm girl who loved the Lord. Here they laid the body of Sister Aimee to rest in the marble sarcophagus guarded by two great angels on Sunrise slope. "[272]
Millions of dollars passed through McPherson's hands. However, when her personal estate was calculated, it amounted to US $10,000.[273] To her daughter, Roberta, went US $2000[274] the remainder to her son Rolf. By contrast, her mother Mildred Kennedy had a 1927 severance settlement of as much as US $200,000[275] in cash and property; the Foursquare Church itself was worth $2.8 million[276][277]
McPherson is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Following her death, the Foursquare Gospel church denomination was led for 44 years by her son Rolf McPherson. The church claims a membership of over 7.9 million worldwide.[278]
Legacy and influence
McPherson's ministry continued to flourish even in the face of scandal. The newspapers which served to propel McPherson to fame and advertise her message, also were used to highlight her faults, real and imagined. Some modern televangelists who transgressed and faded into obscurity because of high profile news coverage, also learned how quickly modern communication media could hurt as well as help them. After her death, the largely negative aspect of her media image persisted, was cultivated[279] and became the dominant factor in defining McPherson for many in the public today.[280]
Reverend Robert P. Shuler, whose caustic view of McPherson softened over the years, wrote he could not figure out why God chose such a person. The flaws he observed in McPherson, were by his opinion, many, yet she ultimately made a positive impact on Christianity, long lasting and enduring . He recognized her appeal was a combination of identifying with the average citizen as well as an ability to explain the gospel in simple, easily understandable terms, drawing them irresistibly to her services:
...while great cathedral churches closed their doors on Sunday night, the crowds pushed through her portals in one ever-flowing stream.
He saw her legacy extend far beyond the glamor of Hollywood, exerting itself through the thousands of ministers she trained and churches planted throughout the world. McPherson, together with the alliances she made, worked to reshape the evangelical Christian faith, making it relevant to American culture and personally involving for those in the audience.[281]
In Fresno, California, 1924, nine-year-old Uldine Utley (1912–1995), became a fervent believer. After hearing McPherson's dramatic retelling of the David and Goliath story, the young girl tearfully gave her life over to Christ, and dedicated herself to be "a little David for the lord and fight Goliath, " With her parents as managers, she went on to preach to millions of people and converted many thousands. She frequently used the same metaphors as McPherson, referring to Christ as "the Rose of Charon" and invoking "Bride of Christ" imagery.[282]
Two years later, in New York City, Dr John Sung (1901–1944), described as a brilliant scientist with a PhD in chemistry,[283] was expecting to see the well known Pastor Dr. I. M. Haldeman, who he hoped would intellectually address his current crises of faith. Instead, as part of her extremely successful New York revival crusade, the eleven-year-old Uldine Utley took to the stage. Similar to McPherson's style of simplicity and power, but with childlike innocence, Utley preached her message. Awed, Sung fervently desired the same empowerment of God he saw in the 11-year-old girl. Dr Sung eventually returned to China and became a significant evangelist, leading perhaps as many as 100,000 Chinese to Jesus Christ in three years[284] Though not as extensively media covered as McPherson, both Utley's, and Sung's ministry included many instances alleged faith healing.[285][286]
Together with Billy Sunday, McPherson and Utley were named as the three major names in revivalism in 1927[287] Dr John Sung has been called the "John Wesley of China,"[285] and the "Billy Graham of China."[288] Ironically, the Chinese mission field was where McPherson herself started out, but was forced to abandon after the death of her first husband Robert Semple. McPherson wrote even under the best of circumstances the Chinese mission field was extremely difficult particularly due to cultural and numerous local language differences. Sung knew the culture, being born into it, however, even he preached using a regional language interpreter who relayed his message to the audience.
During the Great Depression years, as a child, Dr. Edwin Louis Cole's mother attended LIFE Bible College and as he grew up, Cole participated in various Angelus Temple activities "witnessing the miraculous."[289] Cole went on to found the Christian Men's Network and influenced many to include Coach Bill McCartney (starter of Promise Keepers), Pat Robertson (president of the 700 Club), John Maxwell (president of Injoy Ministries), Kenneth Copeland, Oliver North and as Chuck Norris, the martial artist and actor, writes, himself.[290]
In the early 1900s it was expected traditional Protestantism would give way to rapidly developing new philosophical ideas and sciences that were being widely taught. McPherson contributed immensely to the forestalling of that predicted inevitability. Liberal Christianity, which enjoyed strong growth starting in the late 19th century, regarded many of the miracles of Jesus to be superstitious interpretations of what actually occurred or metaphors for his teachings. McPherson's faith healing demonstrations instead gave credence to onlookers her claim was true: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. It was easy to deny a God who did something 1,900 years ago, but large crowds of people were now witness to the blind seeing, the lame walking and the deaf hearing. Alleged healings were occurring faster than the journalists could write them down. Crowds clamored to reach her altar to experience a New Testament conversion that transformed many of their lives. Even large portions of the secular public admired her. The old time gospel message was being dramatically marketed by the most technologically advanced means possible, reconstructing it into something far more interesting and desirable than it was previously.[291][292]
McPherson's ecumenical approach assisted Pentecostals in learning how better to explain their faith in the context of historic church doctrine. Mainline churches became exposed to the more unusual gifts of the Holy Spirit. They also benefited by borrowing Pentecostal revival techniques[9] such as more emotive expression, joyful praise worship and testimonials, forerunning the Charismatic Movement.
Defying gender norms, McPherson challenged what was expected from women. Females as preachers and her status as a divorcee with two failed marriages were of particular concern to many of the fundamentalist churches she wanted to work with, but her success could not be easily ignored. Meanwhile, secular society broadly labeled women as either Victorian ladies or whores,[293] and she bounced from one category to the other. She had her extensive relief charities and along with it, titillating scandals. Atheist Charles Lee Smith remarked publicly of McPherson, just before a debate, that she had an extraordinary mind, "particularly for a woman."[294]
Her continual work at church alliance building finally bore fruit in an impressive, official way, though she did not live to see it. Foursquare Gospel Church leaders were at last able to join the National Association of Evangelicals in 1952 and from there helped organize the Pentecostal World Fellowship which worked to keep the fires of religious revival burning into contemporary times.[295] Pentecostalism which once advocated separatism and was on the fringes of Protestantism, became part of mainstream Christianity and grafted itself into American society at every level.[296]
Works about McPherson
Books, periodicals, films, and plays
- The character Sharon Falconer in Sinclair Lewis' Elmer Gantry (1926) was based on McPherson.[297]
- The faith-healing evangelist Big Sister in Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust was based on McPherson.
- Upton Sinclair was fascinated with her history. After writing a poem about her dubious abduction, called "An Evangelist Drowns", he wrote her into his 1927 novel, Oil!, in the character of Eli Watkins, a corrupt small-town minister. That character is called Eli Sunday in the 2007 film There Will Be Blood.[298]
- The character of the American evangelist Mrs. Melrose Ape in Evelyn Waugh's satirical novel Vile Bodies (1930) is thought to be based on McPherson.
- Vanity Fair published a satirical cutout paper doll based on her.[299]
- Aimee Semple McPherson appeared in The Voice of Hollywood No. 9 (1930), one in a series of popular documentaries released by Tiffany Studios.[300]
- Frank Capra's film The Miracle Woman (1931), starring Barbara Stanwyck, was based on John Meehan's play Bless You, Sister which was reportedly inspired by McPherson's life.
- The character of the "sensuous sermonizer" Reno Sweeney in Cole Porter's musical Anything Goes (1934) is thought to be based on McPherson.
- Agnes Moorehead's role as Sister Alma in the 1971 thriller film What's the Matter with Helen? was modeled after McPherson.
- A television film about the events surrounding her 1926 disappearance, The Disappearance of Aimee (1976) starred Faye Dunaway as McPherson and Bette Davis as her mother.
- A film adaptation of the story of her life, entitled Aimee Semple McPherson (2006) was directed by Richard Rossi. The same director filmed a short film Saving Sister Aimee in 2001. (The film was retitled "Sister Aimee: The Aimee Semple McPherson Story" and released on DVD April 22, 2008.) Rossi later penned the prize-winning play "Sister Aimee", honored with a cash award in the 2009 Bottletree One-Act Competition, an international playwriting contest. In 2013, both of Rossi's films on Sister Aimee were released in one collection with new material under the new title, "Richard Rossi 5th Anniversary of Sister Aimee." [301]
- A documentary about McPherson, entitled Sister Aimee, made for the PBS series American Experience, premiered April 2, 2007.[56]
- Several biographies have been written about McPherson.[298]
- In the alternate history novel Back in the USSA, she appears as the Secretary of Manpower Resources under President Al Capone.
- Escape from Hell (novel) by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (Tor, 2009), features "Sister Aimee" in Hell after her death, in a supporting role as a guide and saint who is teaching the damned about Dante's route out of Hell.
- Scandalous is a musical about the life and ministry of McPherson with the book and lyrics written by Kathie Lee Gifford and music written by composer David Friedman and David Pomeranz; the musical ran in 2011 at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, and had 29 performances in 2012 at the Neil Simon Theater on Broadway, with McPherson portrayed by Carolee Carmello.
- "An Evangelist Drowns" (2007) a one-woman play based on McPherson's life. Includes fictionalized accounts of relationships with Charlie Chaplin and David Hutton.
- "Aimee Semple Mcpherson and the Resurrection of Christian America" (2007) A biography by Matthew Avery Sutton that chronicles McPherson's life in context to her influence on culture, politics and religion in America.
- "La disparition de Soeur Aimee" (2011) in Crimes et Procès Sensationnels à Los Angeles, book by Nausica Zaballos, pp. 103–140, Paris, E-Dite, (ISBN 978-2-8460-8310-2)
- The song "Hooray for Hollywood" lyrics by Johnny Mercer, from the film Hollywood Hotel mentions McPherson. "Where anyone at all from Shirley Temple to Aimee Semple is equally understood."[302][303]
- "Aimee: The Gospel Gold Digger", 1932, Rev John D Goben, an Assistant Pastor at Angelus Temple
Theatre
A production of the musical Saving Aimee, with a book and lyrics by Kathie Lee Gifford and music by David Pomeranz and David Friedman, debuted at the White Plains Performing Arts Center in October 2005 and was staged at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, in April and May 2007.[304][305][306] An updated, fully staged production opened September 30, 2011, at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. A revised version of the musical, now called Scandalous – The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson began a broadway run at the Neil Simon Theatre on October 13, 2012, with an official opening date of November 15. The musical starred Carolee Carmello as McPherson, and opened and closed within a month.[307]
A play entitled The Wide Open Ocean, a musical vaudeville, was performed at The Actors' Gang theater in Los Angeles. It was written and directed by playwright, director, actor, and educator Laural Meade.[308]
In 2003, a play entitled Spit Shine Glisten, loosely based on the life of McPherson, was performed at California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. Written and directed by the experimental theatre artist Susan Simpson, the play used life-sized wooden puppets, human beings, and fractured and warped video projection.[309][310]
As Thousands Cheer, a musical revue with a book by Moss Hart and music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, contains satirical sketches and musical numbers loosely based on the news and the lives and affairs of the rich and famous, including Joan Crawford, Noël Coward, Josephine Baker, and McPherson.
The musical, Vanishing Point, written by Rob Hartmann, Liv Cummins, & Scott Keys, intertwines the lives of evangelist McPherson, aviatrix Amelia Earhart, and mystery writer Agatha Christie. It is featured as part of the 2010–2011 season at the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
In 2007, a one-woman play titled An Evangelist Drowns, written by Gregory J. Thompson, debuted at Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma. In 2008, the show was produced at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. The play is partly based on the life of McPherson, but it explores a fictionalized portrayal of her recalling lost loves, regrets, and remorse in the final hours before her death in 1944.
Aimee's Castle
Aimee's Castle is a mansion built by McPherson. She had a house near Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, but McPherson built this mansion in Lake Elsinore, California, as a retreat. McPherson convalesced there after an injury in 1932.[311]
In 1929, Clevelin Realty Corp. purchased land in Lake Elsinore's Country Club Heights District and was marketing the area as a resort destination for the rich and famous. To encourage celebrities to purchase there, the developers offered to give McPherson a parcel of land featuring panoramic views of the lake. She accepted the land and in 1929 commissioned the architect Edwin Bickman to design a 4,400-square-foot (410 m2) Moorish Revival mansion, with art deco details, on the hills above the lake's northeastern shore. The structure's white plaster wall and arches reflect an Irving Gill influence. Its large, cerulean blue-tiled dome over a prayer tower and a second silver-painted dome and faux-minaret give it mosque-like appearance from the exterior; the interior features art-deco wall treatments in several of the rooms. The domed ceiling of the formal dining room rises at least 15 feet (4.6 m). A narrow breakfast nook reflects an American-Indian motif.[312]
To help dispose of Angelus Temple debt, the property was sold in 1939 for an estimated amount of $190,000.[313][314]
Publications
- Aimee Semple McPherson (1921). The Second Coming of Christ: Is He Coming? How is He Coming? When is He Coming? For Whom is He Coming?. A. McPherson. OCLC 8122641.
- Aimee Semple McPherson (1923) [1919]. This is That: Personal Experiences, Sermons and Writings of Aimee Semple McPherson, Evangelist. The Bridal Call Publishing House. OCLC 1053806.
- Aimee Semple McPherson (1927). In the Service of the King: The Story of My Life. Boni and Liveright. OCLC 513458.
- Aimee Semple McPherson (1936). Give Me My Own God. H. C. Kinsey & Company, Inc. OCLC 1910039.
- Aimee Semple McPherson (1951). The Story of My Life: In Memoriam, Echo Park Evangelistic Association, Los Angeles. OCLC 1596212.
See also
- Elmer Gantry
- Elmer Gantry (film)
- Kobus Van Rensburg
- Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson (2012 Broadway musical)
References
- ↑ Obituary Variety, October 4, 1944.
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30148022
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 George Hunston Williams, Rodney Lawrence Petersen, Calvin Augustine Pater, The Contentious Triangle: Church, State, and University, Truman State University Press, 1999 p. 308
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Newspaper Article - AIMEE McPHERSON IN SINGAPORE". Newspapers.nl.sg. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Aimee Semple McPherson Audio Tapes, http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/103.htm#602
- ↑ Epstein, Daniel Mark , Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson (Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993), p. 111. Note: Epstein writes "The healings present a monstrous obstacle to scientific historiography. If events transpired as newspapers, letters, and testimonials say they did, then Aimee Semple McPherson's healing ministry was miraculous.... The documentation is overwhelming: very sick people came to Sister Aimee by the tens of thousands, blind, deaf, paralyzed. Many were healed some temporarily, some forever. She would point to heaven, to Christ the Great Healer and take no credit for the results."
- ↑ "The Incredible Disappearing Evangelist". Smithsonian.com. Retrieved 2014-05-03.
- ↑ "RD10Q: Aimee Semple McPherson, Evangelical Maverick". Religion Dispatches. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 ""Between the refrigerator and the wildfire": Aimee Semple McPherson, pentecostalism, and the fundamentalist-modernist controversy (1). - Free Online Library". Thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Matthew Avery Sutton, Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), page 9
- ↑ Sutton, p. 9
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 9–10
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 28–29
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Sutton, p. 10
- ↑ Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer, Aimee Semple McPherson: everybody's sister (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Inc., 1993), p. 81
- ↑ Sutton, p. 58
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 72–73
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 74–76
- ↑ McPherson, Aimee Semple, This is That, (The Bridal Call Publishing House, Los Angeles, CA, 1921) p. 102
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 91, 95, 128
- ↑ Sutton, p. 172
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 374–375
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 333. Note: in 1932, after having to continuously answer questions about McPherson's marriage to David Hutton, 33 Foursquare ministers thought this was too much of a distraction and seceded from the Temple and formed their own Pentecostal denomination, the Open Bible Evangelistic Association.
- ↑ Epstein, p. 434
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 333. Note: Homer Rodeheaver, former singing master for evangelist Billy Sunday, was refused; even when it was suggested she married the wrong man and to try again to have a loving marriage, she responded negatively and redoubled her evangelistic efforts, forsaking personal fulfillment in relationships. McPherson knew Rodeheaver from working with him at the Angeleus Temple and he introduced her to David Hutton. In the case of Rodeheaver, however, biographer Sutton, according to Roberta Star Semple, stated McPherson liked him but not the way he kissed.
- ↑ Aimee May Marry Homer Rodeheaver (North Tonawanda, NY Evening News June 21, 1935)
- ↑ Epstein, p. 172
- ↑ McPherson, Aimee Semple, Aimee: Life Story of Aimee Semple McPherson (Foursquare Publications, Los Angeles, 1979) p. 98
- ↑ Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Keller, Rosemary Skinner; Ruether, Rosemary Radford (Indiana University Press, 2006) p. 406-407
- ↑ Epstein, p. 151
- ↑ Epstein, p. 153
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 "ProQuest Login - ProQuest". Proquest.umi.com. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer, Aimee Semple McPherson: everybody's sister (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Inc., 1993), p. 147
- ↑ Daniel Mark Epstein, Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson (Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993), p. 157
- ↑ over US $42,000.00 in 2013 dollars
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 170–172
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 79–80
- ↑ 38.0 38.1 Epstein, p. 156
- ↑ Epstein, p. 239
- ↑ Epstein, p. 241
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 184
- ↑ Epstein, p. 240
- ↑ Saunders, Nathan. “Spectacular Evangelist: Aimee Semple McPherson in the Fox Newsreel.” The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists 14, no. 1 (April 1, 2014): 71–90. doi:10.5749/movingimage.14.1.0071.
- ↑ Epstein, p. 57
- ↑ Epstein, p. 185
- ↑ Epstein, p. 111
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 66, 111, 119
- ↑ Epstein, p. 233
- ↑ Epstein, p. 58
- ↑ 50.0 50.1 Epstein, p. 74
- ↑ Epstein, p. 119
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 107–111
- ↑ Epstein, p. 112
- ↑ Epstein, p. 166
- ↑ Epstein, p. 217
- ↑ 56.0 56.1 56.2 56.3 "American Experience . Sister Aimee". PBS. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 210–211
- ↑ "Unforgettable: When Sister Aimee Came to Town - Part 2". San Diego Reader. 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 184–185. Note: Years later in an interview, Rolf McPherson, his mother's appointed successor, spoke of the period, "more patients were open to the possibilities of faith healing." Next to him, mounted on his office wall; was a hand tinted photo enlargement of his mother helping a woman out her wheelchair in Balboa Park; he postulated that healings occurred because they had more faith in God and less in science, and he could not "imagine this sort of thing happening again".
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 209, 210
- ↑ Blumhofer, pp. 156-164
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 19–20
- ↑ Epstein, p. 237
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 17–18. Note: McPherson herself disliked being given credit for the healings, considering herself the medium through which the power flows, the power of Christ works the cure.
- ↑ 65.0 65.1 Anthony Quinn, The Original Sin: A Self-Portrait, Little, Brown and Company: Boston (1972), pp. 122–132
- ↑ Epstein, p. 234
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 224, 342, 436
- ↑ McPherson, Aimee Semple, Give Me My Own God (H. C. Kinsey & Company, Inc. 1936) p. 88
- ↑ Epstein, p. 400
- ↑ "Aimee McPherson". Aimee McPherson. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ 71.0 71.1 71.2 Blumhofer, p. 246
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 244
- ↑ More than $65,000 in 2012 dollars.
- ↑ over US $320 in 2012
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 245
- ↑ More than $3.2 million in 2012 dollars.
- ↑ over US $13 million in 2012.
- ↑ over US $130 in 2012.
- ↑ "National Register of Historic Places" (PDF). November 13, 1991. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 239
- ↑ Blumhofer, pp. 246–247
- ↑ Thomas, Lately Storming Heaven: The Lives and Turmoils of Minnie Kennedy and Aimee Semple McPherson (Morrow, New York, 1970) p. 32.
- ↑ Bridal Call (Foursquare Publications, 1100 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles.) October 1929, p. 27
- ↑ Sutton, p. 335
- ↑ 85.0 85.1 Sutton, p. 72
- ↑ Bach, Marcus, They Have Found a Faith, (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis / New York, 1946) p. 59
- ↑ "Lessons I Learned From Sister Aimee | Foursquare Legacy | The Foursquare Church". Foursquare.org. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Sutton, p. 74
- ↑ Epstein, p.252
- ↑ "Inflation Calculator". DollarTimes.com. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ $1 of 1920's to 1930's dollars would be worth around US $11–13 in 2013. See subsequent cites for inflation calculator links.
- ↑ "CPI Inflation Calculator". Data.bls.gov. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ http://www.davemanuel.com/inflation-calculator.php>
- ↑ (The first woman to receive a broadcasting license was Mrs. Marie Zimmerman of Vinton, Iowa, in August 1922. See Von Lackum, Karl C. “Vinton Boasts Only Broadcasting Station in U.S. Owned By Woman”, Waterloo Evening Courier, Iowa, October 14, 1922, p. 7.
- ↑ Blumhofer, pp. 275–277
- ↑ Updike, John (30 April 2007). "Famous Aimee: The life of Aimee Semple McPherson". The New Yorker.
- ↑ Epstein, p. 275
- ↑ Epstein, p. 264
- ↑ Schuler, Robert P. McPhersonism: a study of healing cults and modern day tongues movements, January, 1924, p. 3
- ↑ Ben M. Bogard, Bogard-McPherson debate : McPhersonism, Holy Rollerism, miracles, Pentecostalism, divine healing : a debate with both sides presented fully, (Little Rock, Arkansas: Ben M. Bogard, 1934)
- ↑ "Biography of Charles S. Price". Healingandrevival.com. 1947-03-08. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ http://www.earstohear.net/Price/testimony.html Note: Divine Healing was a contentious theological area of McPherson's ministry, but she was not alone. Other pastors already had a ministry with alleged successful healings such as James Moore Hickson (1868–1933), an Episcopalian of international renown. Another pastor, Dr. Charles S Price (1887–1947), went to a series of McPherson revival meetings in San Jose California, to expose the fraud. Instead he himself was converted and preached McPherson's version of Christianity to his congregation. Reports of purported faith healings began to take place. Price went on to preach as a traveling evangelist who converted tens of thousands along with many instances of miraculous divine healings allegedly occurring.
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 185, 240
- ↑ "Spiritual gifts" given by the Holy Spirit, of which the most well known is speaking in "tongues" the spontaneously speaking in a language unknown to the speaker;, also known as Glossolalia. Other gifts include translating the said "tongues."
- ↑ Epstein, p. 300
- ↑ Ralph G. Giordano, Satan in the Dance Hall: Rev. John Roach Straton, Social Dancing, and Morality in 1920's New York City (Scarecrow Press, Oct 23, 2008), p. 167
- ↑ George Hunston Williams, Rodney Lawrence Petersen, Calvin Augustine Pater, The Contentious Triangle: Church, State, and University (Truman State University Press, 1999), p. 308
- ↑ Sutton, Matthew. Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America. London: Harvard University Press, 2007.
- ↑ Sutton, p. 52. Note: Sutton was uncertain if McPherson actually stated the quote as reported by The New Yorker, but she did convey evolution influenced moral-relativist philosophers and believed "survival of the fittest" thinking would have a detrimental effect on society.
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 37, 52
- ↑ Sutton, p. 37
- ↑ Sutton, p. 214
- ↑ Sutton, p. 219
- ↑ Sutton, p. 221
- ↑ Sutton, p. 223
- ↑ "Democratizing the Religious Experience". Xroads.virginia.edu. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ ""Sister Aimee" to Air on PBS | Foursquare News | The Foursquare Church". Foursquare.org. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 165, 395
- ↑ Cox, Raymond L. The Verdict is In, 1983. pp. 37–38. Note: Ormiston presented himself to the police headquarters May 27 to deny he had "went into hiding;" he also indicated his name connected to the evangelist was "a gross insult to a noble and sincere woman." He gave a detailed description of his movements since May 19, 1926, but did not mention Carmel.
- ↑ 120.0 120.1 120.2 about US $315,000.00 in 2012 dollars
- ↑ 121.0 121.1 about US $6.3 million in 2012
- ↑ Lately, Thomas The Vanishing Evangelist: the Aimee Semple McPherson Kidnapping Affair (Viking Press, 1959) p. 26
- ↑ Cox, pp. 17–18
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 295, 312
- ↑ Cox, pp. 41–42
- ↑ Cox, p. 70
- ↑ Cox, p. 58. Note: Epstein refers to the third man as "Jake," Sutton's account does not name the 3rd individual. When asked the ethnicity of the kidnappers, McPherson, though not entirely certain, believed them all to be from the United States.
- ↑ Shuler, Robert, Fighting Bob Shuler of Los Angeles Dog Ear Publishing, 2012 p. 178. Note: Indictments were made against Steve Doe, Rose Doe, and John Doe
- ↑ Melton, J. Gordon The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena, (Visible Ink Press, 2007) p. 218
- ↑ Sutton, p. 103
- ↑ "President Wilson visits L.A. - Framework - Photos and Video - Visual Storytelling from the Los Angeles Times". Framework.latimes.com. 2011-06-20. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Melton, J. Gordon The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena, (Visible Ink Press, 2007) p. 218
- ↑ Epstein, p. 301
- ↑ 134.0 134.1 Sutton, pp. 120–122
- ↑ McPherson, Aimee Semple, In the Service of the King: The Story of My Life (Boni and Liveright, New York, 1927) p. 54
- ↑ Thomas, Vanishing Evangelist, p. 119-120
- ↑ Epstein, p. 303
- ↑ Thomas, Vanishing Evangelist, p. 125
- ↑ Cox, p. 68
- ↑ Thomas, Vanishing Evangelist p. 123
- ↑ Modesto Bee And News-Herald 20 October 1926, Page 1
- ↑ Thomas, Vanishing Evangelist pp. 285-286, 291
- ↑ Cox, pp. 85, 209–211. Note: persons who recovered and drove McPherson to the hospital in Douglas, Arizona, describe she showed much signs of stress. She was emaciated to the point of being unrecognizable by many who saw her. Her shoes were white with desert dust and her hands were covered with grime. A nurse picked some cactus spines from her legs and rubbed some preparation on the toe where a blister had broken. (Cox, pp. 71–72).
- ↑ Sutton, p. 107
- ↑ "History of the FBI". Policyalmanac.org. Retrieved 2013-11-14.Note: Except as an limited resource to local authorities. The FBI did not actively investigate possible kidnappings until 1932; when Congress passed a federal kidnapping statute.
- ↑ Thomas, Vanishing Evangelist, pp. 101, 176. Note: After evaluating the numerous newspaper reports, one Los Angeles Superior Court judge, Carlos Hardy, informally advised McPherson to hire private detectives to assist her. In his view, law enforcement officials were making no effort to find any substantiating evidence of a kidnapping and were only interested in breaking down her end of the story.
- ↑ Cox, pp. 184, 214. Note: Tracks matching the shoes McPherson wore were found as far out as 15 to 18 miles in the remote desert and reported on in some newspapers, but the location of the desert shack McPherson was held in could not be conclusively found at that time. A hidden shack was discovered later in September by Douglas, Arizona authorities, which fit closely the description McPherson provided, however, the Los Angeles police, declined to investigate. It was later reported that McPherson's attorneys would establish the fact that the prison shack is 21 miles below Douglas, Az. The evangelist herself was to be one of the witnesses, identifying photographs of the building (Emporia Gazette, - October 22, 1926, newspaper, Emporia, Kansas, p. 1) (The Miami News - Oct 21, 1926 (Associated Press, Los Angeles, Oct 11)).
- ↑ http://cdsun.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/cornell?a=d&d=CDS19260929.2.21&e=--------20--1-----all----
- ↑ Sutton, p. 124
- ↑ Epstein, p .308
- ↑ Cox, pp. 3, 194–195, 197. Note: The prosecution aided by Joseph Ryan, Deputy District Attorney, obtained the Five Carmel witnesses by first looking for people who at least got a brief glimpse of the woman with Ormiston. Ryan would take a sheath of photographs taken of McPherson, as provided by the newspapers and then show them to the prospective witnesses one photograph at a time. Once the witness finally agreed that a photo resembled the woman with Ormiston, Ryan would have his "identification" that McPherson was seen in Carmel, with Ormiston. This photo-stack trick did not work on people who had actually gotten a closer look at the mystery woman, such as the landlord, H C Benedict, who rented the cottage to the couple. Benedict testified Ryan tried very hard to get him to identify the woman in his rented cottage as McPherson, but "I said I could not." When asked about the photos of McPherson, he answered, "he had a whole squad of them up there...and they been pulling these photographs and saying "do you recognize this" and another one "Do you recognize this?""(Cox, pp. 150, 166)
- ↑ Cox, p. 160
- ↑ McPherson, Aimee Semple, In the Service of the King: The Story of My Life (Boni and Liveright, New York, 1927) p. 265. Note: McPherson did not actually name the substance, but described it as feeling wet and sticky against her skin, smelling pungently sweet. When she awoke afterwards, she felt extremely nauseated. It was postulated by some the drug was most likely chloroform, possibly with an additive.
- ↑ Thomas, Vanishing Evangelist, p. 284
- ↑ Cox, pp. 151, 152
- ↑ Shuler, Robert, Fighting Bob Shuler of Los Angeles Dog Ear Publishing, 2012 p. 179
- ↑ 157.0 157.1 "Isadora Duncan, Aime Semple McPherson - H. L. Mencken". Ralphmag.org. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 120–121. Note: H. L. Mencken determined the evangelist was being persecuted by two powerful groups. The "town clergy" which included Rev. Robert P. Shuler, disliked her, for among other things, poaching their "customers" and for the perceived sexual immorality associated with Pentecostalism. Her other category of enemies were "the Babbits", the power elite of California. McPherson's strong stand on bible fundamentalism was not popular with them, especially after taking a stand during the 1925 Scopes trial which gave "science a bloody nose." In addition McPherson was working to put a bible in every public school classroom and to forbid the teaching of evolution. The Argonaut, a San Francisco newspaper, warned these actions made her a threat to the entire state which could place "California on intellectual parity with Mississippi and Tennessee."
- ↑ Sutton, p. 135. Note: McPherson's preaching and radio delivery style largely avoided judging or accusing others directly. When she announced a sermon, advertised even in the New York Times, to name "the biggest liar in Los Angeles", reporters thought at last she would openly criticize Prosecutor Keys, self-styled religious enemy Reverend Schuler, or perhaps the key witness against her, Lorraine Wiseman-Sielaff. The Angelus Temple was packed with reporters and others awaiting her scathing attack. The biggest liar in LA was none other than the Devil himself.
- ↑ 160.0 160.1 Epstein, p. 309
- ↑ Sutton, p. 176
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 133–134
- ↑ Epstein, p. 312
- ↑ The People vs.Aimee Semple McPherson, et al., Case CR 29181, 10 January 1927, Superior Court of Los Angeles County, County records and Archives
- ↑ Sutton, p. 136. Note: The newspaper, the Record indicated "the McPherson sensation has sold millions of newspapers, generated fat fees for lawyers, stirred up religious antagonism... advertised Los Angeles in a ridiculous way." Keyes added his office was through with perjured testimony, fake evidence and ...he had been duped and a (juried) trial against McPherson would be a futile persecution.
- ↑ It is frequently conveyed by contemporary commentators that the charges were dropped "allegedly because McPherson came up with $30,000 (about US$390,00 in 2013) to appease law enforcement officials.""Popular evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappears — History.com This Day in History — 5/18/1926". History.com. Retrieved 2013-11-14. Author Anthony J. Rudel even asserts "it came to light that McPherson had acquired a hush fund of $800,000 (about US$10.5 million in 2013) some of which had been used to pay off participants in the 1926 hearings including District Attorney Keyes." (Hello, Everybody!: The Dawn of American Radio; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008 p. 196). No mention of the $800,000 is given by biographers of McPherson to include Thomas, Blumhofer, Sutton, Cox, or Epstein. No evidence for the commonly quoted lower figure of $30,000 is found, details and the source of the rumor ambiguous.
- ↑ Author Stephen J. Pullum, conveys, “...some have suggested that he [Keyes] may have been party to a $30,000 bribe.” (Foul Demons, Come Out! Praeger Pub Text, Westport, Conn., 1999). In late 1928, the Los Angeles County Grand Jury began looking into the possibility that Keyes had been bribed to drop charges against McPherson. An investigation was started and Keyes was acquitted (Shaefer, Silvia Anne; Aimee Semple Mcpherson, Infobase Publishing, New York, 2004; p. 71). A November 13 United Press dispatch from London quotes the evangelist as saying: “I never paid a penny. The reason I was freed was that the woman who made the charges confessed she had lied and had been hired to tell the story. With her confession, I was automatically released.” Journalist Rodger M. Grace comments the reality was more complex, Keyes because of inconsistencies in Wiseman-Sielaff’s account, could not vouch for the truthfulness of her testimony, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Albert Lee Stephens Sr. dismissed the charges. Roger M. Grace. "Keyes Drops Prosecution of McPherson After She's Bound Over for Trial". Metnews.com. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Shuler, p. 188. Note: Los Angeles Times, June 1927
- ↑ Meed, Douglas V. "Soldier of Fortune--Adventuring in Latin America and Mexico with Emil Lewis Holmdahl," Halcyon Press Limited, 2003 p. 191. Note: No persons fitting the description of the kidnappers were identified, though, on June 29, 1926, an El Paso Herald reporter asked Emil Lewis Holmdahl, an American infantryman turned soldier of fortune, if he had been involved in the alleged kidnapping of famous California evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. Holmdahl, who fought extensively in earlier Latin American turmoil wars and was cleared by a Mexican judge as a suspect in the February 6, 1926 theft of Pancho Villa's head, enigmatically replied regarding McPherson, "Well, maybe I did and maybe I didn't." In contrast, unless intoxicated, he always emphatically denied participating in a grave robbery that stole Villa's head.
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 313–314
- ↑ about US $1,300,000 in 2013 dollars
- ↑ Epstein, p. 308
- ↑ about US $6.4 million in 2013
- ↑ Epstein, p. 289
- ↑ Thomas, Vanishing Evangelist, p. vii, NOTE Sutton writes 36,000, p. 133
- ↑ Sutton, p. 143
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 298–299, 309, 314
- ↑ Sutton, p. 140; Epstein, p. 332. NOTE: In 1929 the California state senate conducted an impeachment trial of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carlos S. Hardy for providing legal aid to McPherson, violating the rules of office. McPherson was called to testify, but little interest was shown in prosecuting Hardy. The same witnesses and other persons from the earlier 1926 grand jury trial appeared; and McPherson was again in the headlines, being investigated. The impeachment trial cost another $50,000,(About US $660,000 in 2012) presumably borne largely by the Los Angeles Times, with the exception of the $25,000(About US $330,000 in 2012) taxpayer money it cost to print the 1,300 page trial transcript. McPherson had to endure the same humiliation she had endured in the 1926 trial, when the discussion was primarily about her hair, legs, and morals. Charges against Hardy were dropped and the state assembly instead called for Los Angeles prosecutors to reopen the case to criminally charge McPherson. The Los Angeles offices declined.
- ↑ Sutton, p. 141
- ↑ "Faithful of 'Sister Aimee' Say Mock Court Has Redeemed Her - Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. 1990-10-09. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Epstein, p. 386
- ↑ 182.0 182.1 Sutton, p. 175
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 264, 287
- ↑ Cox, p. 234. Note: Kenneth Ormiston did eventually sell his story to the press, identifying his companion as Elizabeth Tovey.
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 289, 307
- ↑ Sutton, p.135
- ↑ Thomas Vanishing p. 31
- ↑ Cox, pp. 37–38.
- ↑ "McPherson Charged for Slander - U373542ACME - Rights Managed - Stock Photo - Corbis". Corbisimages.com. 1936-12-12. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ "John Goben • Webjournals". Webjournals.ac.edu.au. Retrieved 2013-11-15., Blumhofer, p. 311, Note: Reverend John D. Goben was a successful Midwestern evangelist when he joined the Angeles Temple in 1927. A revival campaign in 1930 by Goben led to the establishment the Stone Church in Toronto, Canada. Goben served as treasurer to the International Foursquare Gospel Lighthouses, an association of satellite churches he helped manage. Because of a dispute with McPherson and her legal counsel, over property ownership by the churches, he was ousted as treasurer. His mounting discontent along with encouragement of some of the Church board members, in part, precipitated his expensive private investigation of McPherson. One evening at a board meeting, Goben, hoping to elicit a confession in lieu of evidence he could not obtain, confronted McPherson with his surveillance. But McPherson, so shocked by what he did, fainted. The board members turned against Goben and he was fired. His bitter departure resulted in his publication of a pamphlet entitled Aimee, the Gospel Gold-Digger. Aimed at Temple supporters, he detailed alleged financial irregularities. A brief grand jury investigation was started, but come to nothing.
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 334, 337
- ↑ "A Lasting Legacy | Foursquare Legacy | The Foursquare Church". Foursquare.org. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 175, 312
- ↑ "Milton Berle with Frank Haskel. Milton Berle: An Autobiography". Delacorte Press. 1974. pp. 123–29.
- ↑ Cox, p. 241. Note: McPherson was frequently photographed with the image of the Christian Cross, which differs from the crucifix, with its hanging figure of Jesus and its common association with Catholicism. Cox states anecdotally some persons adversarial to McPherson, who heard the Berle story wanted to believe it was true, "but that bit about the crucifix" convinced them otherwise.
- ↑ Sutton, p. 174
- ↑ Cox, p. 241
- ↑ Cox, Raymond L. The Verdict is In, 1983, p. 241
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 210
- ↑ Epstein, p. 249
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 186–191
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 269
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 189, 315. Note: author states over 400 dead
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 348. Note: author indicates 1934 but probably a typo
- ↑ Epstein, p. 279
- ↑ Epstein, p. 280
- ↑ Epstein, p. 369
- ↑ about US $28,000 in 2012
- ↑ Epstein, p. 370
- ↑ Sutton, p. 316
- ↑ 211.0 211.1 Sutton, p. 317
- ↑ "Aimee Semple McPherson (1890 - 1944) - Find A Grave Flowers". Findagrave.com. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 346
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 348
- ↑ Sutton, p. 194
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 375–376
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 191–192
- ↑ Sutton, p. 195
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 205
- ↑ 220.0 220.1 Roberts Liardon, God's Generals: Vol. 7, DVD 2005
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 153–160
- ↑ She also traveled to England, Scotland and Wales for five weeks of revival services. Press reports, depending upon the sources, described her audiences as either lacking enthusiasm or multitudes filling the altars anxiously awaiting a return visit. "Poor Aimee". Time. October 22, 1928. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
Those of the nobility and gentry and middle classes who reflected upon the matter appeared to feel that the Holy Bible still offers a sufficient choice of Gospels. But of course the London mob, the lower classes, rushed to attend the evangelistic First Night of Aimee Semple McPherson
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 318–320
- ↑ Epstein, p. 325
- ↑ Blumhofer, pp. 308, 317. Note: A month later most of the choir members returned. Their leader, Gladwyn Nichols later returned as well, after publicly apologizing to McPherson.
- ↑ Epstein, p. 341
- ↑ Epstein, p. 343
- ↑ Epstein, p. 356
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 366–367
- ↑ 230.0 230.1 Epstein, p. 368
- ↑ 231.0 231.1 231.2 "Dr. Raymond L. Cox : The Greatest Nine Days". oocities.org. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Epstein, p. 388
- ↑ "Today in History: 15 October 1931: Aimee Semple McPherson Uninvited to Speak at Harvard". Skepticism.org. 1931-10-15. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ McPherson, Aimee Semple, Give me my Own God, H. C. Kinsey & Company, Inc., 1936
- ↑ Matthew Avery Sutton, Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), p. 233
- ↑ McPherson, Give me my Own God, pp. 88–89
- ↑ McPherson, Give me my Own God, p. 310
- ↑ "Dr. Raymond L. Cox : Was Aimee Semple McPherson Pentecostal?". oocities.org. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ US $2.3 million in 2012
- ↑ US $17 million in 2012
- ↑ Thomas, Storming, pp. 282-284, 297 NOTE: Splivalo did earn a loyal following of disciples at the Angelus Temple; one in particular who was in contentious strife with McPherson. Splivalo gathered a list of purported damaging statements together with the witnesses, places and times they were allegedly made by McPherson. However, the vocabulary of accused slanderous remarks as stated the lawsuit, were inconsistent with McPherson's known public sermons, writings, and statements.
- ↑ Herald-Journal – May 11, 1937
- ↑ United Press, April 15, 1937.
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 413–414
- ↑ US $31,000 in 2012
- ↑ Epstein, p. 416
- ↑ Epstein, p. 427
- ↑ Updike, John. "Famous Aimee". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ "Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America — Matthew Avery Sutton | Harvard University Press". Hup.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Sutton, p. 256
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 256–257
- ↑ Aimee Semple McPherson Audio Tapes, Zero Hour Sermon, http://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/103.htm#602
- ↑ 253.0 253.1 253.2 "World War II and Angelus Temple | Foursquare Legacy | The Foursquare Church". Foursquare.org. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Sutton, p. 258
- ↑ Aimee Semple McPherson, "Foursquaredom and Uncle Sam," Foursquare Crusader, 14 (February 1942) p. 24
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 264, 333
- ↑ Note: A P47 Thunderbolt fighter was then priced about $85,000, P51 Mustang $50,000, M4 Sherman tank $50,000, B17 Flying Fortress $240,00
- ↑ "Product Prices". Panzerworld.net. 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ "Sherman tank - improved M4 models with 76mm gun, protection". Ww2total.com. 1945-04-26. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ US 2 million dollars in 2012
- ↑ Blumhofer, p. 373
- ↑ Sutton, p. 264
- ↑ Sutton, Matthew. Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America, London: Harvard University Press, 2007
- ↑ 264.0 264.1 Sutton, p. 263
- ↑ Sutton, p. 266
- ↑ Epstein, p. 438
- ↑ Robinson, Judith Working Miracles The Drama and Passion of Aimee Semple McPherson (James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers, Toronto, 2008) p.104-105
- ↑ Note: In the 1993 obituary for her daughter-in-law, McPherson's life and death are mentioned. "Lorna McPherson, 82, Of the Angelus Temple.". New York Times. June 18, 1993. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
Aimee Semple McPherson founded Angelus Temple in the early 1920s, when her brand of fundamentalist Christianity, stressing the "born-again" experience, divine healing and evangelism, was popular in the United States. She died on Sept. 27, 1944, of shock and respiratory failure attributed to an overdose of sleeping pills.
- ↑ "Sister Aimee's' Death Is Ruled An Accident". United Press International in The Washington Post. October 14, 1944. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
Aimee Semple McPherson, famous evangelist who occupied the headlines almost as often as the pulpit, died of shock and respiratory failure "from an accidental over-dosage" of sleeping capsules, a coroner's jury decided today.
- ↑ US $630,000 in 2012 dollars
- ↑ Sutton, p. 270
- ↑ Bach, Marcus, They Have Found a Faith, (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis / New York, 1946) p. 74
- ↑ about $130,000 in 2013
- ↑ about US$26,000 in 2013 dollars
- ↑ about US$2.5 million in 2013 dollars
- ↑ about US$36 million in 2013 dollars
- ↑ Epstein, p. 440
- ↑ http://www.foursquare.org
- ↑ Cox, p. 3. Note: as one example Cox lists, a reporter for The Los Angeles Times, Dial Torgerson, May 18, 1969; writes in his Aimee's Disappearance Remains a Mystery, story, that HC Benedict, owner of the Carmel cottage, was expected to be a witness against McPherson, but died apparently of heart trouble before he could testify. Cox notes that HC Benedict did indeed testify, but on her behalf, denying vehemently the woman with Ormiston was McPherson. HC Benedict died on November 20, 1926, some weeks after all testimony had been concluded.
- ↑ Sutton, p. 278
- ↑ Sutton, p. 275
- ↑ George Hunston Williams, Rodney Lawrence Petersen, Calvin Augustine Pater, The Contentious Triangle: Church, State, and University, Truman State University Press, 1999, p. 308
- ↑ "The Taiwanese 台灣人 Tâi-Oân Lâng: Dr. John Sung 宋尚節 博士". Thetaiwanese.blogspot.com. 2009-02-13. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ "Timothy Tow - John Sung and the Asian Awakening". Articles.ochristian.com. 1927-02-10. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ 285.0 285.1 "Awake and Go! Global Prayer Network - John Sung". Towel.mysitehosted.com. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ "The Real Conversion Of Dr. John Sung". Rlhymersjr.com. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ 1927 NYTIMES Oct 27 1927, SM4
- ↑ Dr. Paul Lee Tan. "Dr. John Sung - "Billy Graham of China"" (PDF). Biblesnet.com. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ "Dr. Edwin Louis Cole". Christianmensnetwork.com. 1981-04-24. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ "Who is more powerful than the president?". Mobile.wnd.com. 2012-06-10. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 277–280
- ↑ Epstein, pp. 229–231
- ↑ Sutton, p. 150
- ↑ There is a God: Debate between Aimee Semple McPherson, Fundamentalist and Charles Lee Smith, Atheist (Foursquare Publications, 1100 Glendale BLVD Los Angeles. CA), 1934
- ↑ Sutton, pp. 275–276
- ↑ Sutton, p. 280
- ↑ Lingeman, p. 283.
- ↑ 298.0 298.1 Caleb Crain (2007-06-29). "Notebook: Aimee Semple McPherson". Steamboats Are Ruining Everything. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
- ↑ "Vanity Fair's Cutout Dolls – no. 2". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 7 February 2008. Retrieved 2008-01-06.
- ↑ The Voice of Hollywood No. 9 (1930) at the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ "Sister Aimee by Richard Rossi". Bottletreeinc.com. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ Gottlieb, Robert; Kimball, Robert; Reading Lyrics (Random House LLC, 2000) p. 438
- ↑ Osborne, Jerry; Mr Music column; Lakeland Ledger - Dec 20, 2001 p. 21
- ↑ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/evitas-lacey-to-join-carmello-for-saving-aimee-musical-complete-cast-announ-128141/print
- ↑ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/musical-premiere-of-saving-aimee-part-of-dc-signatures-ambitious-new-season-131494
- ↑ http://www.playbill.com/news/article/carolee-carmello-to-reprise-performance-in-saving-aimee-at-5th-avenue-theat-181239
- ↑ "Broadway flop 'Scandalous' a costly investment for Foursquare Church - Los Angeles Times". Latimes.com. 2013-02-14. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ↑ http://articles.latimes.com/2000/may/25/entertainment/ca-33709/2
- ↑ http://theater.calarts.edu/resources/cotsen-center
- ↑ http://www.susanwsimpson.com/#/spit-shine-glisten/
- ↑ "All Visitors Barred from Mutton Castle; Physician Fears Any Shock to California Evangelist Might Prove to Be Fatal.". New York Times. July 18, 1932.
- ↑ Marshutz, Scott (May 9, 2010). "Home of the Week: Sister Aimee's castle in Lake Elsinore". Los Angeles Times.
- ↑ about 2.6 million in 2013 dollars
- ↑ Thomas, Lately Storming p. 311.
- Richard R. Lingeman, Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street, Minnesota Historical Society Press, June 2005, ISBN 978-0-87351-541-2.
Further reading
- Bahr, Robert (April 1979). Least of All Saints: the Story of Aimee Semple McPherson. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-527978-6. OCLC 4493103.
- Blumhofer, Edith L. (1993). Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-0-8028-0155-5. OCLC 29184439.
- Cox, Raymond L. (1983). The Verdict is In. R.L. Cox. OCLC 11315268.
- Epstein, Daniel Mark (1 July 1994). Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-15-600093-2. OCLC 26300194.
- Morris, James; Morris, Jan (1973). The Preachers. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-900997-41-9. OCLC 704687.
- Sutton, Matthew Avery (31 May 2009). Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America. (at Harvard University Press). ISBN 978-0-674-03253-8. OCLC 77504335.
- Thomas, Lately (1959). The Vanishing Evangelist: the Aimee Semple McPherson Kidnapping Affair. Viking Press. OCLC 1575665.
- Thomas, Lately (1970). Storming Heaven: The Lives and Turmoils of Minnie Kennedy and Aimee Semple McPherson. Morrow. OCLC 92194.
- Zaballos, Nausica La disparition de Soeur Aimee (23 November 2011) in Crimes et procès sensationnels à Los Angeles 1922-1962: Au-delà du Dahlia noir, pages 103-140, Paris, E-Dite, (ISBN 978-2-84608-310-2)
External links
- "Aimee McPherson" Old Time Radio
- Foursquare Gospel church
- Aimee Semple McPherson biography
- Biography from Liberty Harbor Foursquare Gospel Church
- Song about the McPherson kidnapping scandal, dating from when it was a current news story. Pete Seeger recorded this on the 1961 album Story Songs.
- Woman Thou Art God: Female Empowerment, Spirituality & a biography on Aimee.
- The Ballad of Aimee McPherson.
- Aimee Semple McPherson on The California Museum's California Legacy Trails
- The theatricality of revivalism as exemplified in the artistry of Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple McPherson.
- Did McPherson send a "Minions of Satan" message to Herbert Hoover, and another article by the same historian later concluding she did not send such a message.
- Aimee Semple McPherson at the Internet Movie Database
- "Aimee Semple McPherson". Find a Grave. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
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