MCPHERSON, AIMEE SEMPLE

MCPHERSON, AIMEE SEMPLE (1890–1944), American Pentecostal evangelist and divine healer. McPherson was born Aimee Elizabeth Kennedy on a farm near Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada. Raised in the Salvation Army, she was converted to Pentecostalism through the preaching of Robert James Semple, whom she married in 1908 and accompanied to China, where they served as missionaries until Semple's death in 1910. Two subsequent marriages ended in divorce.

In 1917, McPherson embarked upon an evangelistic and divine healing career in the United States that quickly brought her national and international fame. In 1923, she settled in Los Angeles and built the five-thousand-seat Angelus Temple, a center of welfare services, and in 1927, she incorporated her large network of churches as the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. She also founded a ministerial institute, later named the Lighthouse of International Foursquare Evangelism (LIFE) Bible College.

McPherson's turbulent personal life, involving her alleged kidnapping, rumors of romantic liaisons, dozens of lawsuits, conflicts with her mother and daughter, and divorce from her third husband, brought her much notoriety. Nevertheless, she retained the unswerving loyalty of her followers. Her denomination grew to four hundred congregations in the United States, two hundred mission stations abroad, and a worldwide total of twenty-two thousand members at the time of her death.

McPherson's Foursquare Gospel was a restatement of standard Pentecostal doctrine focusing on Jesus Christ as savior, baptizer in the Holy Spirit, healer, and coming king. She wrote several autobiographical books, published numerous pamphlets and articles, edited two periodicals, and composed some eighty hymns and five sacred operas. In her preaching she avoided condemnation and appeals to fear, emphasizing instead the love and joy that religion provides.

McPherson was unique in her evangelistic style. Her mastery at promoting herself and her work through the media made "Sister Aimee," or simply "Aimee," a household name. She was a pioneer in religious broadcasting, establishing the first church-owned radio station (KFSG) in the United States in 1924. She adapted the techniques of vaudeville and the theater to evangelism, using costumes, lighting, scenery and props, orchestras and brass bands, huge choirs, and dramatizations to achieve an unforgettable emotional impact on her audiences. Endowed with enormous energy and optimism, a powerful, melodious voice, rare acting ability, and a physical attractiveness heightened by an aura of sexuality, she was acclaimed a spellbinding platform personality by the millions to whom she preached.

Bibliography

Bahr, Robert. Least of All Saints: The Story of Aimee Semple McPherson. Englewood Cliffs, N. J., 1979. A popular, fictionalized account that captures much of the whirlwind spirit of McPherson's career and temperament.

McLoughlin, William G. "Aimee Semple McPherson: Your Sister in the King's Glad Service." Journal of Popular Culture 1 (Winter 1968): 193–217. An analysis and evaluation that places McPherson's life and career in their cultural context, by an eminent historian of American religion.

McPherson, Aimee Semple. This Is That: Personal Experiences, Sermons, and Writings. Los Angeles, 1923. A reconstruction of McPherson's early years as she wanted others to see them, and a collection of sermons and tracts that reveal her public message.

McWilliams, Carey. "Aimee Semple McPherson: 'Sunlight in My Soul.'" In The Aspirin Age, 1919–1941, edited by Isabel Leighton, pp. 50–80. Los Angeles, 1949. A sympathetic interpretation of McPherson's life that reveals the tragic element behind the radiant facade.

Robert Mapes Anderson (1987)