Aimee Semple McPherson

Aimee Semple McPherson (October 9, 1890 – September 27, 1944), also known as "Sister Aimee" or simply "Sister," was an evangelist and media sensation in the 1920s and 1930s, founder of the Foursquare Church.

Evangelism and Foursquare Gospel

After the birth of her son, McPherson suffered from postpartum depression and several serious health issues. After what she described as a near-death experience in 1913, she embarked upon a preaching career in Canada and the U.S. By June 1915 she had left home and was on the road preaching full-time.

Related Topics:
Postpartum depression - Canada

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In 1916 she made a tour through the southern U.S. in her "Gospel Car," a 1912 Packard touring car with religious slogans painted on the side; standing in the back seat of the convertible, she would give sermons through a bullhorn. On the road between sermons, she would sit in the back seat typing sermons and other religious materials. By 1917 she had started her own newspaper, named The Bridal Call, for which she wrote many of the articles.

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Although her husband initially made efforts to join her on her religious travels, he soon became frustrated with the situation, and by 1918 had filed for separation. His petition for divorce, citing abandonment, was granted in 1921.

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Aimee McPherson spent the four years of 1918 to 1922 as itinerant Pentecostal preacher, finally settling with her mother in Los Angeles, California and founding the Foursquare Gospel church. She supervised construction of a large, domed church building in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles, and it was completed in June 1923. Named Angelus Temple, it had a seating capacity of over 5,000.

Related Topics:
Los Angeles, California - Echo Park - Angelus Temple

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At the time, women in the pulpit ministry were rare—those who wore makeup and jewelry in the pulpit, nonexistent. McPherson's uniqueness in this respect, her flamboyance and her unashamed use of low-key sex appeal to attract converts, endeared her to her crowd of followers in Los Angeles. She would invariably appear before parishioners in a white gown, carrying a bouquet of flowers.

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Since Pentecostalism was not popular in the U.S. during the '20s she avoided the label, but she was heavily influenced by this faith, incorporating demonstrations of speaking-in-tongues and faith healing into her sermons, and keeping a museum of crutches, wheelchairs and so forth as demonstrations of her "success." She was also strongly influenced by the Salvation Army: in a campaign to spread the church nationwide, she adopted a theme of "lighthouses" for the satellite churches, referring to the parent church as the "Salvation Navy."

Related Topics:
Speaking-in-tongues - Faith healing

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Unlike her contemporary Billy Sunday, McPherson was less a fire-and-brimstone preacher than one to endorse charitable work and "ecstatic" facets of worship. These traits also increased her popularity.

Related Topics:
Billy Sunday - Fire-and-brimstone

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Always seeking publicity in the name of gaining converts, McPherson continued publishing with the weekly Foursquare Crusader and a monthly magazine dubbed Bible Call. She also began broadcasting on radio in its infancy of the early '20s. McPherson was first woman in history to preach a radio sermon, and with the opening of Foursquare Gospel-owned KFSG on February 6, 1924, she also became the first woman to be granted a broadcast license by the Federal Communications Commission.

Related Topics:
Radio - February 6 - 1924 - Federal Communications Commission

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McPherson made the most of the show-business atmosphere of Los Angeles to incorporate entertainment into her religious meetings, using stage props, contemporary music, and morality plays (which she called "illustrations"), with elaborate costumes and scenery, to their best advantage to draw listeners. She even wrote and produced a couple of operas, and at one meeting made a dramatic entrance riding a motorcycle down the aisle of Angelus Temple.

Related Topics:
Show-business - Morality play - Opera - Motorcycle

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She was also very skillful at fundraising. Collections were taken at every meeting, usually with the admonishment of "no coins, please." When the $1.5 million Angelus Temple opened its doors, construction was already entirely paid for through private donations.

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McPherson was not universally loved. For example, a group of Ku Klux Klan members once attended one of her meetings expecting a blessing, and were instead rebuked by McPherson for their racism. She also gained the animosity of several government officials and organized crime figures, as a result of the "naming names" which often occurred on her radio shows.

Related Topics:
Ku Klux Klan - Racism - Organized crime

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In 1925, the license for KFSG was suspended by the Commerce Department for deviating from its assigned frequency. Many broadcast histories claim McPherson sent an angry telegram to then-Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover ordering his "minions of Satan" to release her station at once. This may be an urban legend.

Related Topics:
Commerce Department - Herbert Hoover

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McPherson also received several death threats in 1925, and a plot to kidnap her was foiled in September of that year, thus setting the stage for the episode for which she is best known.

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