And thanks for reading…

Rich
BlogRodent

the last link re: walking on water.

the fact that peter stepped out of that boat showed a LACK of faith. maybe we shouldn’t try to display our faith by doing things that indicate our faithlessness.

:)

What is interesting is that Chuck Smith Sr. (the famous pastor of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa), graduated from LIFE Bible College, which was founded by McPherson (LIFE has since changed its name and moved its location, which was once near Angelus Temple).

Back in the early 1970s, I was attending for a short time an old Foursquare church on 11th Street in Riverside, California. In one room, there was a pile of old college yearbooks from LIFE Bible College. I remember my wife and I picking up one of the year books, looking inside, and stumbling across Chuck Smith’s picture in it.

But as flawed as she was in respects, McPherson’s ministry, at least indirectly, is still having repercussions that have lasted up to this very day.

By the way, I was at Angelus Temple on several occasions. It’s a rather impressive building. Above the podium area is a very large mural of XP being worshipped by the angelic host.

Atheist, debater, and defender of evolution at age 13, converted and married by age 18, widowed young mother at 20, remarried at 22, a near-death-experience at 23, a traveling evangelist at 26, newsletter publisher at 27, author at 31 and divorced that same year, founder of the Foursquare Gospel church at 33, nearly kidnapped once at 35, actually kidnapped at 36, indicted and acquitted of “obstruction of justice” by age 37, remarried at 41, divorced at 44, the first woman ever granted a broadcast license and the first woman to ever preach a radio sermon at 44, experienced nervous breakdown at 50, remarried at 51, divorced at 54, and killed by an overdose of prescription medication (accidentally) at 54–less than two weeks before turning 55.

Of course, no timeline can do a life justice. I’ll look into the books you recommended, Oengus.

• Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody’s Sister, by Edith Blumhofer (Grand Rapids: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1993)

  « “Sister” was one of the best-known North American religious figures and media celebrities between the world wars. At long last, an objective and scholarly biography has been written about this controversial old-time religion revival evangelist. In this sensitive and engaging biography, Blumhofer, a historian (Wheaton College) and editor (The Christian Century), depicts not only the woman who mixed piety and pageantry while crossing denominational lines but also the complex social scene of 1930s America. This volume outshines all other McPherson biographies, including Robert Bahr’s Least of All Saints, which is a speculative and dramatic re-creation, and the poet Mark Epstein’s appreciative and noncritical Sister Aimee. An excellent bibliographic essay is included. » (Rrom Library Journal)

• Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson, by Daniel Mark Epstein (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1993)
  

  « Once considered the premier evangelist and faith healer of her day, Sister Aimee built a church in Los Angeles called The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. A mixture of evangelism and the cult of personality, the church is today valued at over $300 million. Upon her death in 1944, recounts her biographer, poet and novelist Epstein, “Eulogies in the world press were lengthy, impassioned and full of praise. In death people did not hesitate to compare her to John Knox, John Wesley, Martin Luther, or Dwight Moody.” Yet modern histories of Christianity do not even mention her or her church. A sympathetic biographer who occasionally juxtaposes a personal and academic tone, Epstein is often reluctant to fault McPherson for poor judgment or zealotry. Still, his labor is exhaustive; the extensive notes, bibliography, and index he has produced should prove useful to students of early 20th-century Christianity, particularly as it flourished on the West Coast. » (From Library Journal)

And perhaps these other texts are informative as well? (Note, some are “pro,” some or “con.”)

• This is that: Personal experiences, sermons and writings of Aimee Semple McPherson, by Aimee Semple McPherson (Echo Park Evangelistic Association, inc., 1923)
• “McPhersonism”: A study of healing cults and modern day “tongues” movements containing summary of facts as to disappearance and re-appearance of Aimee Semple McPherson, by Rev. Bob Shuler (Robert “Bob” Pierce Shuler, 1924)
• Sister Aimee, by Nancy Barr Mavity (1931)
• The Vanishing Evangelist: the Aimee Semple McPherson Kidnapping Affair, by Lately Thomas (Viking Press, 1959)
• Storming Heaven: The Lives and Turmoils of Minnie Kennedy and Aimee Semple McPherson, by Lately Thomas (Ballantine Books, 1973)
• Aimee Semple McPherson, the Story of My Life, by Aimee Semple McPherson (Word Books, 1973)
• Least of All Saints: The Story of Aimee Semple McPherson, by Robert Bahr (Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1979)
• AIMEE Life Story of Aimee Semple McPherson, by Aimee Semple McPherson (Los Angeles: Foursquare Publications, 1979)
• The Verdict is In, by Raymond L Cox (in cooperation with the Heritage Committee, 1983)
• Aimee Semple McPherson (Spiritual Leaders and Thinkers), by Silvia Anne Sheafer and Martin E. Marty (Chelsea House Publications, 2004)
• Aimee Semple McPherson and the remaking of American faith, politics, and culture, by Matthew Avery Sutton (ProQuest / UMI, 2006)
  

  « … McPherson appropriated the sensationalist publicity tactics of Hollywood, established a mass media empire, and engaged in populist politics, hoping to strengthen Protestants’ privileged social position in the face of growing pluralism. She also defied traditional gender and racial hierarchies, and built a state-of-the-art social welfare institution. … This research is significant for the following reasons. It challenges historians’ conclusions regarding conservative religion and the “new woman” of the 1920s by exploring how McPherson, in constructing her own gender identity, drew from the scripts of both tradition and modernity, making herself into a malleable figure that traversed traditional gender boundaries. … [I]t places the infamous McPherson kidnapping sensation in a new context—that of the controversies ravaging Protestantism after World War I. Garnering as much national press coverage as the Scopes evolution trial, skirmishes over the evangelist’s purported kidnapping fueled the ongoing war between fundamentalism and modernism to define the nation’s religious identity. In sum, I argue that McPherson’s willingness to engage with American culture from her Los Angeles-based empire ultimately redefined the relationship among social activism, religion, gender, and the media in the United States. » (From the author)

• Working Miracles: The Incredible Story of Aimee Semple McPherson, by Judith Robinson (Canada: Altitude Publishing, 2006)
• Aimee Semple Mcpherson And the Making of Modern Pentecostalism, by Chas H. Barfot (Equinox Publishing, 2006)

Rich
BlogRodent

I highly recommend that you read up on Aimee Semple McPherson, as I think you will find her biography both interesting and surprising on several levels. Edith L. Blumhofer and Daniel Mark Epstein have written pretty well researched biographies on her life.

I think it is a mistake to merely chalk up McPherson as a “foursquare thing”.

Rich
BlogRodent

Regarding the movie about McPherson:

I’ve read two excellent biographies regarding her life and ministry, and if you check my archives at Lunar Skeletons, you’ll see my reviews of those books.

Regarding the “kidnapping” episode, both biographers basically come to the conclusion that the historical evidence remains ambiguous. Of all the players in that particular espisode, McPherson remained consistent and her story was the only one that didn’t keep changing. In my opinion, that the movie novelization insists on interpreting the event as a “tryst” with Ormiston is very unfortunate. It only serves to perpetuate a threadbare stereotype.

But it’s not surprising that that’s the direction they took: Movie makers will always go for the titillation because it makes for better “BO”.