Aimee Elizabeth Semple McPherson (; October 9, 1890 – September 27, 1944), also known as Sister Aimee or Sister, was a Canadian-born American Pentecostal evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s,Obituary Variety, October 4, 1944. famous for founding the Foursquare Church. McPherson pioneered the use of broadcast mass media for wider dissemination of both religious services and appeals for donations, using radio to draw both audience and revenue with the growing appeal of popular entertainment and incorporating stage techniques into her weekly sermons at Angelus Temple, an early megachurch.
In her time, she was the most publicized Protestant evangelist, surpassing Billy Sunday and other predecessors. She conducted public faith healing demonstrations involving tens of thousands of participants.Epstein, Daniel Mark, Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson (Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1993), p. 111."The healings present a monstrous obstacle to scientific historiography. If events transpired as newspapers, letters, and testimonials say they did, then Aimée 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." McPherson's view of the United States as a nation founded and sustained by divine inspiration influenced later pastors.
National news coverage focused on events surrounding her family and church members, including accusations that she fabricated her reported kidnapping. McPherson's preaching style, extensive charity work, and ecumenical contributions were major influences on 20th-century Charismatic Christianity.
Biography Early life McPherson was born Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy in Salford, Ontario, Canada, to James Morgan and Mildred Ona (Pearce) Kennedy (1871–1947).Matthew Avery Sutton, Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007), p. 9 Mark A. Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, US, 1992, pp. 513–514.Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer, Aimee Semple McPherson: everybody's sister (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Inc., 1993), pp. 24, 43–44 From an early age, she was exposed to religion by her mother, who worked with the poor in Salvation Army soup kitchens. When she was a child, she played "Salvation Army" with her classmates and she preached sermons to dolls.Sutton, p. 9
When she was a teenager, McPherson strayed from her mother's teachings by reading novels, watching movies and attending dances, activities which the Salvation Army and her Methodist father disapproved of. In high school, she was taught the theory of evolution.Sutton, pp. 9–10Epstein, pp. 28–29 She began to ask questions about faith and science but she was unsatisfied with the answers.Sutton, p. 10 She wrote to a Canadian newspaper, questioning the taxpayer-funded teaching of evolution. This was her first exposure to fame, as people nationwide responded to her letter, and the beginning of a lifelong anti-evolution crusade.
Conversion, marriage, and family
While she was attending a revival meeting in 1907, McPherson met Robert James Semple, a Pentecostal missionary from Ireland.Michael Wilkinson, Peter Althouse, Winds from the North: Canadian Contributions to the Pentecostal Movement, BRILL, Leiden, 2010, p. 28. She dedicated her life to Jesus and converted to Pentecostalism. At the meeting, she became enraptured by Semple and his message. After a short courtship, they were married in a Salvation Army ceremony in August 1908. Semple supported them as a foundry worker and he also preached at the local Pentecostal mission. They studied the Bible together, then they moved to Chicago and joined William Durham's Full Gospel Assembly. Durham instructed her in the practice of interpretation of tongues.Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer, Aimee Semple McPherson: everybody's sister (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Inc., 1993), pp. 79–81
After embarking on an evangelistic tour in China, both of them contracted malaria. He also contracted dysentery, which he died of in Hong Kong, while she recovered and bore their daughter Roberta Star Semple. Although she claimed that she considered staying in China because she wanted to continue his work, she returned to the United States after her mother sent money for a return ticket.
After recuperating in the United States, Semple joined her mother Mildred by working with the Salvation Army. While she was in New York City, she met accountant Harold Stewart McPherson. They married in 1912, moved to Providence, Rhode Island, and had a son, Rolf Potter Kennedy McPherson.Krist, p. 146 During that time, McPherson believed that she had denied her "calling" to go and preach. Struggling with emotional distress and obsessive–compulsive disorder, she wept and prayed.Sutton, p. 58Epstein, pp. 72–73 In 1914, she fell seriously ill with appendicitis. She later said that after a failed operation, she heard a voice which was asking her to go and preach. After accepting the voice's challenge, she said, she could turn over in bed without pain. In 1915, her husband returned home and discovered that she had left him and she had also taken the children. A few weeks later, he received a note from her and in it, she invited him to join her in evangelistic work.Epstein, pp. 74–76
Harold McPherson followed her in an attempt to bring her home but he changed his mind after he saw her preach. He joined her in evangelism, setting up tents for revival meetings and preaching.Epstein, pp. 91, 95, 128 The couple sold their house and lived in their "gospel car". Despite his initial feeling of enthusiasm, Harold began leaving the crusade for long periods of time in the late 1910s. Initially attempting to launch his own career as a traveling evangelist, he eventually returned to Rhode Island and he also returned to his secular job. The couple divorced in 1921.Krist, p. 151
In 1932, McPherson married actor and musician David Hutton. After she fell and fractured her skull,Sutton, p. 172 she visited Europe to recover. While she was there, she was angered to learn that Hutton was billing himself as "Aimee's man" in his cabaret singing act and he was frequently photographed with scantily clad women. Hutton's personal scandals were damaging the reputation of the Foursquare Church and its leader.Epstein, pp. 374–375 McPherson and Hutton separated in 1933 and divorced in 1934. McPherson later publicly repented of the marriage for both theologicalBlumhofer, p. 333. Note: In 1932, after having to continuously answer questions about McPherson's marriage to Hutton, 33 Foursquare ministers thought this was too much of a distraction and in response, they seceded from the Temple and formed their own Pentecostal denomination, the Open Bible Evangelistic Association. and personal reasonsEpstein, p. 434 and rejected gospel singer Homer Rodeheaver when he proposed marriage in 1935.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 that McPherson liked him but not the way he kissed.Aimee May Marry Homer Rodeheaver (North Tonawanda, NY Evening News June 21, 1935)
Ministry As part of Durham's Full Gospel Assembly in Chicago, McPherson became known for interpreting tongues, translating the words of people speaking in tongues. In 1913 McPherson began evangelizing, holding tent revivals across the sawdust trail. McPherson quickly amassed a large following, often relocating to larger buildings to accommodate growing crowds. She emulated the enthusiasm of Pentecostal meetings but sought to avoid excesses, in which participants would shout, tremble on the floor, and speak in tongues. McPherson set up a separate tent area for such displays of religious fervor, which could be off-putting to larger audiences.Epstein, p. 172
Evangelist and faith healer Maria Woodworth-Etter greatly influenced McPherson. Etter had broken the glass ceiling for popular female preachers, drawing crowds of thousands, and her style influenced the Pentecostal Movement. The two met in person on several occasions prior to Etter's death in 1924.
In 1916, McPherson embarked on a tour of the southern United States, and again in 1918 with Mildred Kennedy. Standing on the back seat of their convertible, McPherson preached sermons over a megaphone.Epstein, pp. 141 In 1917, she started a magazine, Bridal Call, for which she wrote articles about women's roles in religion; she portrayed the link between Christians and Jesus as a marriage bond. Along with taking women's roles seriously, the magazine contributed to transforming Pentecostalism into an ongoing American religious presence.Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Keller, Rosemary Skinner; Ruether, Rosemary Radford (Indiana University Press, 2006) pp. 406–407
In Baltimore in 1919 she was first "discovered" by newspapers after conducting evangelistic services at the Lyric Opera House, where she performed faith-healing demonstrations. During these events the crowds in their religious ecstasy were barely kept under control. Baltimore became a pivotal point for her early career.Edith Waldvogel Blumhofer, Aimee Semple McPherson: everybody's sister (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, Inc., 1993), p. 147
She was ordained as an evangelist by the Assemblies of God USA in 1919.Randall Herbert Balmer, Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism: Revised and expanded edition, Baylor University Press, 2004, p. 441 However, she ended her association with the Assemblies of God in 1922.
Career in Los Angeles In 1918, McPherson and her daughter Roberta contracted Spanish influenza. While McPherson's case was not serious, Roberta was near death. According to McPherson, while praying over her daughter she experienced a vision in which God told her he would give her a home in California. In October 1918 McPherson and her family drove from New York to Los Angeles over two months, with McPherson preaching revivals along the way.Krist, p. 151-152 McPherson's first revival in Los Angeles was held at Victoria Hall, a 1,000-seat auditorium downtown. She soon reached capacity there and had to relocate to the 3,500 capacity Temple Auditorium on Pershing Square, where people waited for hours to enter the crowded venue.Krist, p. 154Epstein, p. 151 Afterwards, attendees of her meetings built a home for her family.Epstein, p. 153 At this time, Los Angeles was a popular vacation destination. Rather than touring the United States, McPherson chose to stay in Los Angeles, drawing audiences from both tourists and the city's burgeoning population.
For several years, she traveled and raised money for the construction of a large, domed church in Echo Park, named Angelus Temple, in reference to the Angelus bells and to angels.Blumhofer, p. 246 Not wanting to incur debt, McPherson found a construction firm willing to work with her as funds were raised "by faith",Blumhofer, p. 244 beginning with $5,000 for the foundation. McPherson mobilized diverse groups to fund and build the church, by means such as selling chairs for Temple seating.Blumhofer, p. 245 In his book, Growing up in Hollywood, Robert Parrish describes in detail attending one of her services.