Aimee Semple McPherson

Views on McPherson's work

In 1921, some members of Lodi California's First Congregational Church attended McPherson's tent revival meeting in San Jose California and returned speaking enthusiastically of healings and conversions. Their Oxford-educated Pastor Charles S. Price (1887–1947), believed what they underwent was "metaphysical, psychological, nothing tangible," and "they had been inoculated with a strange serum, had "gotten the hallelujahs." He went to San Jose to learn how to "straighten them out." Price was eventually persuaded by McPherson who "won more people to Jesus Christ in one afternoon" than he could recall in fourteen years of ministry. He became her assistant and starting in 1922 went on to preach as a traveling evangelist who converted tens of thousands along with many instances of miraculous divine healings that were stated to have occurred.

Although he was an agnostic, Charles Chaplin discreetly enjoyed listening to McPherson's Sunday night illustrated sermons. He was astounded by the healings he saw in her services. He thought they might be a combination of McPherson's skilled hypnotism and the power she commanded over the crowds.

In October 1921, crowds filled the auditorium at Canton, Ohio, and many people who were carried to the platform for prayer walked away unassisted. Crutches and braces were left behind while the blind stated they could see and the deaf could hear. Though six local ministers concurred that the work was a "genuine manifestation of God to fulfill his promises," three others did not commit and P.H. Welshimer of First Christian Church, a congregation of 6,000 members, stated the healings were the result of hypnotism and "mesmeric power". According to a church publication, psychologist and hypnotist, Professor D. H. Deamude, who was in town during the campaign, said that, based on his expertise, hypnotism could not account for whatever McPherson was doing.

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.

Biographer Daniel Mark Epstein wrote that 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 suggestion that the healings were simply faked. In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Epstein said:

There is no doubt in my mind that this was a great and courageous woman, whose religious inspiration was totally authentic. I tried to find some evidence in the voluminous newspaper accounts of her healings, of fraud. There is none. Instead, I found hundreds of pages of newspaper documentation of reporters who were overwhelmed by what they saw at the healing services. The famous phrase used back then was 'those who came to scoff stayed to pray.

Years later, Epstein interviewed Rolf McPherson, his mother's appointed successor who 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 speculated that healings occurred because people had more faith in God and less in science, and he could not "imagine this sort of thing happening again."

Cinema

After the kidnapping, McPherson remained nationally famous and continued her ministry, but fell out of favor with the press. The media, which once dubbed her a "miracle worker", focused on disturbances in her household, including difficulties with her mother. Despite this, up to 10% of the population in Los Angeles held Temple membership, and movie studios competed to offer her contracts. Believing that film had the potential to transform Christianity, McPherson explored Hollywood culture and appeared in newsreels alongside Mary Pickford, Frances Perkins, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. She lost weight, cut and dyed her hair, began to wear makeup and jewelry, and became known for her stylish dress. This solicitation of fame was off-putting to some church members who preferred her former uniform of a navy cape over a white servant's dress.

In 1927, McPherson set out on a tour, taking advantage of the publicity from her kidnapping story to preach. 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. She even visited nightclubs, including Texas Guinan's speakeasy, where she addressed the crowd. Her visits to bars added to McPherson's notoriety: newspapers reported heavily on them, and rumors erroneously implied she was drinking, smoking, and dancing.

Problems with Mildred Kennedy

Mildred Kennedy rejected McPherson's strategy of tearing down barriers between the secular and religious. In 1927, Kennedy left the Temple, along with other church members including 300 members of the choir. Attempting to curtail her daughter's influence, Kennedy initiated a staff-member confidence vote against McPherson but lost. The two had argued over management and McPherson's changing dress and appearance. Kennedy's administrative skills had been crucial to growing McPherson's ministry and maintaining Temple activities. A series of management staff replaced Kennedy, and the Temple became involved in various unsuccessful projects such as hotel building, cemetery plots, and land sales, plummeting into debt. In response to the difficulties, Kennedy returned in 1929, but because of continued disagreements with McPherson, resigned again in July 1930. The next month, McPherson had a physical and nervous breakdown. For 10 months, she was absent from the pulpit, diagnosed with acute acidosis.

Resurrection of her career

When McPherson returned, she introduced her "Attar of Roses" sermon, based on the Song of Solomon. In October 1931, she held a revival in Boston, a city with large Unitarian, Episcopalian, and Catholic populations, traditionally hostile to Pentecostal messages. On opening night, McPherson spoke to fewer than 5,000 in the 22,000-seat sports arena. The next day, her campaign's tone shifted and attendance climbed sharply. The final day of afternoon and evening services saw 40,000 attendees, exceeding the stadium venue's capacity and breaking attendance records.

McPherson's revival in New York City was less fruitful because of her sensationalistic reputation. McPherson went on to Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia and visited 21 states. A crew of musicians, scene designers, and costumers accompanied her. Her last national revival tour of 1933-1934 claimed two million persons heard 336 sermons.

The Boston Evening Traveller 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... Fundamentally she takes the whole Bible literally, from cover to cover.

McPherson was not a radical literalist. She believed that the creation story in the Book of Genesis allowed great latitude of interpretation, and she did not insist on Young Earth creationism. In a meeting with students, McPherson heard an assertion that Christianity had outlived its usefulness. The encounter persuaded her to travel and gain new perspectives. In 1935, McPherson embarked on a six-month world tour, partly to study the women's movement in connection with India's independence struggle and to speak with Mahatma Gandhi, who gave her a sari made on his spinning wheel. Impressed by Gandhi, McPherson thought he might secretly lean toward Christianity. Other highlights included visiting Shwedagon Pagoda in Burma, hearing Benito Mussolini speak in Italy, and sitting on a wrecked military vehicle on a still-uncleared battlefield in Verdun, France.

In mid-1936, a delegation associated with the 1906 Azusa Street Revival, including African-American evangelist Emma Cotton, asked to use the Angelus Temple for its 30th anniversary celebration. Cotton and McPherson organized a series of meetings, also marking McPherson's re-identification with Pentecostalism. McPherson's experiments with celebrity had been less successful than she hoped, and alliances with other church groups were failing or defunct. Therefore, she looked to her spiritual origins and considered reintroducing Pentecostal elements into her public meetings. Temple officials were concerned that the Azusa people might bring "wildfire and Holy Rollerism".

Out of the Azusa Street Revival, African-American leaders and other minorities appeared on her pulpit, including African-American founder of the Churches of God in Christ Charles Harrison Mason, a significant Pentecostal leader. McPherson recommitted herself to the dissemination of "classic Pentecostalism", expressing concern that the Foursquare approach was in danger of becoming too "churchy". For the first time since the Temple opened, McPherson began to publicly speak in tongues.

Problems with the Temple

McPherson reassigned staff in an effort to address the Temple's financial difficulties. This worsened tensions among staff members. Rumors circulated that charismatic evangelist Rheba Crawford Splivalo, who had been working with McPherson for years, planned to take the Temple from her. McPherson asked Splivalo to "leave town". 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 slander lawsuit against him. Splivalo also sued McPherson for $1,080,000 because of alleged statements calling her a Jezebel and a Judas.

Semple's and Splivalo's lawsuits were unrelated, but McPherson saw both as part of the Temple takeover plot. Her mother sided with Roberta Semple, making unflattering statements about McPherson to the press. McPherson's defense in a public trial was dramatic and theatrical; she testified tearfully about how her daughter conspired against her. Her daughter's lawyer, meanwhile, mocked McPherson by imitating her mannerisms. The trial estranged McPherson from her daughter. The judge ruled for Semple, giving a $2,000 judgment in her favor, and she later relocated to New York. Splivalo and the Temple settled their suit out of court for the "cause of religion and the good of the community."

With Kennedy, Semple, and Splivalo gone, the Temple lost much of its leadership. McPherson found a new administrator in Giles Knight, who brought the Temple out of debt, disposed of 40 or so lawsuits, and eliminated spurious projects. He sequestered McPherson, allowed her to receive only a few personal visitors, and regulated her activities outside the Temple. This period was one of unprecedented creativity for McPherson: no longer distracted by reporters and lawsuits, she developed her illustrative sermon style. The irreligious Charlie Chaplin secretly attended her services, and she later consulted with Chaplin on ways to improve her presentations. McPherson's public image improved and previous critics praised her work. Robert P. Shuler, who had previously attacked McPherson, proclaimed that "Aimee's missionary work was the envy of Methodists". He also expressed his support of her Foursquare Church's 1943 application for admittance into the National Association of Evangelicals for United Action.

Her efforts toward interracial revival continued as she welcomed African-American people into the congregation and pulpit. While race riots burned Detroit in 1943, McPherson publicly converted former African-American heavyweight champion Jack Johnson on the Temple stage and embraced him.

Personal and religious views

When McPherson retired after a long and exhausting faith healing service, she would sometimes suffer from insomnia, a problem she contended with for the rest of her life.

She did not abstain from visiting doctors or using medicine to treat her own illnesses.

When traveling abroad, she paid scrupulous attention to sanitation, concerned that a careless oversight might result in acquiring an exotic disease.

When asked by a journalist about her demonstrations, McPherson said, "the saving of souls is the most important part of my ministry.".

McPherson considered each faith healing incident a sacred gift from God, the glory of Jesus Christ, passed through her to persons healed and not to be taken for granted.

Divine healing, in her view, was a church sacrament rather than entertainment. In her own writings and sermons, McPherson did not refer to divine healing as being accessible by faith and devotion. She disliked being given credit for the healings, considering herself the medium through which the power flowed, with the power of Christ working the cure.