Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson

by Daniel Mark Epstein

The true story of America’s first superstar evangelist that “fills a significant gap in the history of revivalism” (The New York Times Book Review).
 
Once she answered the divine calling, Aimee Semple McPherson rose fast from unfulfilled housewife in Rhode Island to “miracle woman”—the most enigmatic, pioneering, media-savvy Christian evangelist in the country. She preached up and down the United States, traveling in a 1912 Packard with her mother and her children—and without a man to fix flat tires. Her ministry was rolled out in tents, concert halls, boxing rings, and speakeasies. She prayed for the healing of hundreds of thousands of people, founded the Foursquare Church, and built a Pentecostal temple in Los Angeles of Hollywood-epic dimensions (Charlie Chaplin advised her on sets). But this is not just a story of McPherson’s cult of fame. It’s also the story about its exhaustion, insomnia, nervous breakdowns, sexual scandals, loneliness, and the notorious public disgrace that nearly destroyed her.
 
A “powerhouse biography of perhaps the most charismatic and controversial woman in modern religious history,” Sister Aimee is, above all, the life story of a unique woman, of the power of passion that rejects compromise, and a faith that would not be shaken (Kirkus Reviews).
 
“[Told] with insight, empathy and lyrical power . . . Daniel Mark Epstein sees the facts, and feels the mystery, and he has written a remarkable book.” —Los Angeles Times

Genres: Biography, Religion, History, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Christian, American History

502 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice girls in 1908 did not smoke cigarettes or go to cockfights or seek baptism in the Holy Spirit. As a stimulant it might lead to conduct unbecoming a lady." Like speaking in tongues. Or falling madly in love with the latest Pentecostal.

That's what happened to Aimee Kennedy, later to become famous as Sister Aimee, the renowned evangelist. Until the moment when, on a whim, she and her father attended the revival meeting conducted by handsome Robert Semple, Aimee had been a confirmed atheist and typical teenager, confounding her parents by reading novels and dancing, and scandalizing her minister by humiliating him in a debate on evolution. She was also a beautiful seventeen-year-old, a mighty temptation for even the most pious of male souls. And she set her heart on Robert Semple. Unfortunately, Robert felt call ed to minister in China in 1910, not a propitious time for Westerners.

The Boxer Rebellion had led China to the verge of revolution and missionaries were great targets, which did not discourage them in the slightest, none of them being of particularly sound mind to begin with; "the populous shores ... seemed sweetened with the fresh blood of Christian martyrs." Following his death from malaria and dysentery shortly after their second wedding anniversary, Aimee moved back to the States where she was courted and married by a Providence, Rhode Island businessman. The marriage was not a success, and she left him, taking her children, following what she believed to be a direct conversation with the Holy Spirit.

She was truly a charismatic preacher who drew her first crowds by standing on the street corner in what appeared to be a catatonic state or trance. Epstein suggests her direct link with God was related to the" power" that I think Julian Jaynes described in The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. In primitive cultures men and women did not appeal to conscience to make moral choices but relied on inner voice they labeled as divine. Gradually, this ability, and the need for it, declined, remaining only in the minds of "saints and schizophrenics."

Her Pentecostal preaching came at a time when the United States was ready. The twentieth century had caused massive upheaval with large numbers of dispossessed: immigrants, women, and a dwindling farm population. "Aimee's revival would catch fire like a box of dry tinder."

At the time, women evangelists were anathema, a horror. "To Episcopalians, Aimee's meetings appeared like orgies scripted by the Witch of Endor." Her message reflected the power of Manichean theological duality: good versus evil, God versus Satan. The battle was essential to the power she exercised over crowds. "This is the theology of power, the rhetoric of crowd control and it has been thus from the dawn of civilization. There may be wiser beliefs, but none so dynamic. A crowd is not moved by noble ideals, purity of purpose, or by the everlasting truth. The crowd of humankind is moved by raw passion, which catches fire instantly upon identification of a villain. The statesman or preacher who can describe to his audience a simple conflict between themselves and some enemy will have started the engine to drive a crowd where he pleases." The lesson has not been lost on Pat Buchanan.

An unusual element of her ministry was her unique ability to cross racial and social lines. She was equally at home preaching to a rich white neighborhood, then move across town and create an equivalent sensation in the impoverished black community. In 1919, this was most scandalous. Soon the white folk were attending Sister Aimee's black revivals. Often these were the first integrated meetings in the South.
Her audiences began to reach crushing proportions. In one city people climbed on the roof and peered through skylights almost. causing a panic among those underneath who feared the roof would collapse; in another town those who couldn't fit in tore the walls off the building·so they could see Sister Aimee. In Denver she was kidnapped by the Ku Klux Klan who insisted she preach directly to them and demanding that she separate the races. Aimee was not persuaded and to preach the contrary.

She built an enormous Temple in Los Angeles, raising huge amounts of money and decided to leave the peripatetic Pentecostal tent revival life for good and remain there. This would create problems. There is no question that she was a good person, who also did much good, aside from the healing. Unfortunately, as she became more famous, she created a story for the media; and with fame comes power which attracted many less scrupulous adherents. Because of this power, she could have no special friends for to do so would have created jealousies; "power isolates a person from normal human relations." She also created lots of enemies, many of them fellow churchmen who resented her siphoning away many of their members. They also resented her inclusionary theology: "Reconciliation and Love" that excluded neither Jew nor black nor heathen, while theirs represented "Fear, Hellfire, and Damnation" and excluded damn near everybody except thee and me and we're not so sure about thee.

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sister Aimee Semple McPherson (1890 - 1944) was a traveling evangelist in Canada and America in the 1910s and 1920s. She founded radio station KFSG in 1924, an early broadcaster of Christian content. This book tells her life story, including reports on the massive numbers of people who attended her revivals and the stories of healing. She preached to people in all walks of life and of all backgrounds. She had a few bizarre experiences, such as being kidnapped by the Ku Klux Klan (who took exception to her preaching to black audiences), but she stood her ground. She became a celebrity of the time period and established the Angelus Temple (Foursquare Gospel) in Los Angeles. She was also allegedly kidnapped a second time, which became the subject of a sensational trial.

It is very thorough, documenting almost every revival she conducted (perhaps some of this could have been consolidated). The author covers the history of this unusual woman, her strong belief in the power of prayer in healing, her personal life (three marriages and two children), and the controversies she generated. It is, for the most part, an objective account. I put this book on my list after reading about Sister Aimee in another book (it’s been a while and I can’t recall which one) and wanted to find out more about her. It is worth reading if you are interested in history of the early twentieth century.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is simply the best general biography of Sister Aimee. Edith Blumhoffer's book is excellent, but Epstein writes not as a fellow religionist, but as an appreciative outsider. It's simply a joy to read this life of one of America's most intriguing religious leaders!

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's amazing what a difference a century can make. Aimee Semple McPherson was a major star in the public eye of the 1920s and today she's nearly forgotten. Each year I enter Modern Mrs. Darcy's reading challenge in order to vary my literary diet. This year one of the categories is a biography, and so I turned to Daniel Mark Epstein's account of McPherson's life. Many parts of the story are gripping. I read on my commute, and there were times I looked up with surprise to find I was nearly home. At other points the story dragged.

Who was Aimee Semple McPherson? The simple answer is she was an evangelist. One of the first women evangelists. She was a superstar of her day, as noted on my blog post about this book (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World). She pioneered radio evangelism, and she may have been the first woman to drive across country without a man to help in case of breakdowns. A strong, complex woman, she was a Fundamentalist and a show-woman. More famous than many in Hollywood, she moved to Los Angeles from her native Canada, and became a sensation. Her creative way of preaching earned the ire of other evangelists such as Robert Shuler. Involved in scandal after scandal in her mature years—she was thrice married and twice divorced, she was kidnapped and once claimed to be kidnapped, she ended up being repeatedly sued—she nevertheless truly believed in the gospel she preached. In many ways she exemplifies the life of later televangelists who can't live up to their own impossible standards.

The book is well written for the most part. It borders on hagiography now and again, but the story of McPherson as a lonely woman pulls the reader in. The parts about her theology grow plodding, as theology generally does, but her life is utterly fascinating. The book suffers from the lack of an index, but it goes quickly for a large volume. This is a good starting point to learn about Sister Aimee's life, and it meets the requirements of this year's reading challenge.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As biographies go this one alternates between fawning and dry. For all the granularity about Aimee Semple McPherson's ministry and illustrated sermons her overall impact on culture, both secular and evangelical, is understated.

[Fred Forbes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a particularly religious person despite my grandfathers both being ministers - Baptist and Episcopal and Mom converting the family to Catholicism when I was a kid. I tend to prefer things that are provable, scientific and less constructed of suspicion and myth. Still, as Thomas Jefferson said, "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." So, while I am not much of a believer, I do have an interest in the topic so when my hair stylist mentioned Sister Aimee. I had to go "who?" Well, she told me who. A female evangelist with the power of healing who was really in the forefront of the use of media (radio, in this case) to develop a following, who could attract thousands to her revivals, and who was probably one of the first females to travel by car across country without "a man along to change the tires". (Though she did marry 3 times.) I have to admire the author's even handedness in treating the topic of religion as I have found the lack of bias unusual in books on religious figures. I also enjoyed the sense of history that he was able to produce and the fact that he kept things interesting.

[Rachelle Cobb · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellently written biography that reads more like a novel except for the absence of dialogue. I found this an intriguing look into a life I had never heard of and a movement I knew little about.

[Devi Dahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well-researched biography about a fascinating historical figure in American religion and popular culture who has mostly been forgotten. I am not a religious person but the book was written for anyone so it was an easy and informative read. Sister Aimee truly exemplified the phrase, "Where there's a will, there's a way", and she was an unintentional feminist before such a word even existed. In an era when women were considered their husband's property (and lesser human beings than men), she bravely traveled the continent without a man and built an empire out of nothing.

[Rick Lott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting era in the history of Los Angeles.

[fpk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Update 10/21/08: I still say Ugh. I was disappointed in this book. Nothing really new to say here; it was just the same stuff, over and over again: revival meetings, Sister Aimee running herself ragged, getting sick, losing sleep, marrying again and putting her family last, financial and romantic scandals,.. And then she died fairly young. Although the author states in the book that her death was not ruled a suicide, it seems to me that it was a suicidal type of gesture, her taking too many pills. Self destruction over a long period of time for certain. Not inspiring AT ALL.

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Update 9/24/08.. Ugh. I am still trying to get through this book. It's been about a month and I'm only half way through. The writer , I think, is totally infatuated with Aimee, and every other page is filled w/descriptions of her 'voluptous body' and 'bosomy chest'. Enough already. The other drag about this book is that Epstein describes countless revival meetings, all much the same. His editor should have cut about 50-75 pages out, and nothing would have been lost. I think I'll finish this book, nonetheless, but so far I'm disappointed, and I'd give it one star. I'll see when I finish it if I still feel the same.
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On Sunday night we were all sitting around the dinner table discussing how the nearby Four Square Church had purchased a new building. So then we got to talking about the Four Square Church. How did it start? What do the 'four squares' mean anyway? So I looked it up and found a very intriguing article about the late Aimee Semple McPherson, the founder of the Four Square Church. I was a bit surprised, to think that a bonafide protestant denomination was founded by this woman. From a cursory reading of her life, it seems she was more of a cult leader, a celebrity of sorts. I'm going to check out this biography and find out more!

[Iona Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a biography of the renowned evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944). I say "renowned" though I personally had never heard of her before encountering this book, nor had either of my parents, who were contemporaneous with her, ever mentioned her to me. But she was apparently a household name at the height of her fame.

This voluminous book is perfectly worded, but written in a slightly old-fashioned style. The first half of the book is extremely readable, but grows less so, the last chapter being somewhat boring, to my mind.

The most fascinating part of the story is the recounting of the miraculous healings which were effected by, I would say, the Christ within Aimee by the immense power of her faith. Thousands and thousands of amazing healings occurred, instantaneously, before the eyes of everyone in the magnificent Angelus temple in Los Angeles built by the evangelist. The temple was filled to the brim every night by thousands of her followers and those incurables seeking healing.

Aimme was extemely gifted in many ways, intelligent with tremendous oratorical, dramatic and creative skills. She did not preach of the fires of hell, but accepted and loved her congregation as they were. Though she did believe in the two powers, i.e. in the power of the devil also. She was one of the great figures of her generation.

Her shadow self manifested itself in the innumerable squabbles, financial and otherwise, with her family and some of her vast entourage of helpers.

Her "kidnapping", whether genuine or otherwise, brought headlines throughout the world.

She eventually wore herself out, due to her excessive activity, lack of sleep, nervous exhaustion, law-suits and break-ups with her mother and daughter.

A worthwhile read for those interested in the life of this great evangelist.

[Timothy Maples · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book is a good overview of the facts of Aimee Semple McPherson's life, there's not much analysis here. Mr. Epstein is very fair in his handling of his subject, perhaps even too fair, and that is the problem I had with the book. His style of describing any controversy in McPherson's life leads one to implicitly assume that her version of the story is true, though perhaps unintentionally embellished; he doesn't openly side with Aimee, but you get the strong impression that he is on her side.

Though her theology was full of error, and she was very self-promoting, she often took actions that revealed a streak of decency that many "revivalists" lacked. Aimee also invented or modified many of the "techniques" used by later "revivalists" and today's televangelists. She was a interesting person and hard to pigeon hole into a moral catagory, although the trail she blazed has had a generally negative consequence on American forms of Christianity.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

A straight-forward and fascinating read.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fascinating woman,such an impact on America and global Pentecostalism!

[Stan Rea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting story about a fascinating character from early 20th century American church history. She was amazingly successful as a preacher, leader and faith healer. Through her efforts the Foursquare church (denomination) was established. She was not without her issues or her detractors which, in the end, prove that being a celebrity is not all it is cracked up to be.

As much I liked the story, I didn't really care for the book for several reasons. First, the author is clearly a fan. That isn't totally bad, I don't know that anyone can spend the time writing a biography of someone without being, or at least becoming a fan of your subject. It is just I was hoping for more critical look at her life. Second, and I know this happens when a woman is talked about, but was it really necessary in the 1990s (the book was written in 1993) to describe what ASM was wearing every single time she shows up? Third, the author repeatedly describes a picture as part of the biography and then the picture itself is not included. There are a few pictures included but not nearly as many as the author describes. It just gets kind of annoying after awhile.

[James Koenig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The life of Amiee Semple McPherson is an interesting and fascinating look into a charismatic woman preacher in the early 20th century. The book is well written but perhaps is too long. The events of McPherson’s life are adequately detailed, but the view that is given of Aimee McPherson is the author’s alone. Aimee’s opinion of her herself, her life,and her life as an evangelist is rarely given. Thus, the reader is given a portrait of Aimee McPherson, but the portrait rarely speaks of herself. We know Aimee did this, saw that, but we aren’t privy to her thoughts. Her emotions and personal feelings are lacking in this long narrative. That for me is why I only gave the book 3 stars.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are only going to read one biography of McPherson, then it really should be Claire Hoffman's. This one felt fairly dry in comparison. It never managed to pierce inside why Aimee was the way that she was. It was sympathetic without glossing over her scandals and failings. However, it just stayed so removed that it made even the most interesting parts of her life feel dull.

I continue to be fascinated by McPherson. Her life and legacy is worth studying, but this would not be where I would recommend starting.

[Jane Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fundamentalist Story

This an interesting look at the biography of Aimee Semple McPherson. I had heard of her all my life, but this is the first book I read. I heard that she was controversial, and I saw it in this book. She had so many lawsuits and conflicts and I was rather startled to read all about them. This is a good starting place for the person wanting to know about her life and times.

[Cheri Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this faith story. The ups and downs of a walk with God are illustrated and highlighted including the spiritual battles that ensue when kingdom living draws extreme spiritual attack. Aimee’s human frailties and weaknesses only highlight the power of God to work through a willing, submitted vessel.

[Randall L. Strunk · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing story of an amazing woman.

I had the pleasure to sit in a class on church history that was taught by one of Miss Aimee's lieutenants. I never realized the great resource that was in front of me. I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to read this book and discover what an amazing woman this was!

[Brenda Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not research the point of view of this author. It seemed to be a wide swinging pendulum between a secular/scientific view & a spiritual view. I know that sounds like a good thing, but at times it was very abrupt to the point of distraction. Still an interesting read on a very fascinating person. I would recommend reading.

[Marja Verschoor-Meijers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the short version of this book (Dutch edition) and I found it really inspiring! What a story, what a life. If you have a clear calling on your life... please, read this! It will encourage and edify you.

[Nigel Ewan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating story, to be sure! Epstein's writing, however, is self-indulgently poetic and constantly sensual. He is infatuated with his subject. This, combined with his obvious lack of knowledge of Christian history and theology, make this a painful read at points.

[Smalltown · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was in middle school, I wrote a report on Aimee Semple McPherson. No clue why. But she fascinated me then and now. This is the best balanced thing I’ve ever read about her and she’s even more fascinating than I knew.

[Cathi Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always wanted to read about Aimee Simple McPherson as my grandma used to take me to the Foursquare church. Interesting read about one of Gods children who was definitely oneself with the Holy Spirit and used her powers to bring people to Jesus.

[Denise Cote · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by this story. She seems like so many people wanted to be saved as well as being healed.

[Roy Lunel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

Excellently written biography of someone I barely knew anything about and now know so much. Highly recommended! It's a page turner!

[Jennifer Krohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audiobook, bumped up a star bc not sure if I missed details

[Natasha Goodwill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating.

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

2017: I may be caught up in anchronistic scandals but you can catch these finger waves.