Before the Hillsong scandal, before the prayer apps fronted by A-listers, there was Aimee Semple McPherson. The evangelist was a one-of-one figure for her time—a harbinger of what was to come in today’s influencer-saturated world, where celebrity idolatry is a cornerstone of certain faiths. In this excerpt from Sister, Sinner, a potent trinity—of Hollywood, power, and spirituality—gives rise to the resurrection of McPherson.
Just after lunch on a warm afternoon in May 1926, Aimee Semple McPherson escaped her church for the beach. After just seven years in Los Angeles, Aimee had become the most recognizable woman in a city that was already specializing in fame. Behind her, was the church she had built with her mother, Minnie. The Angelus Temple rose from the sidewalk like the Roman Colosseum—circular, pillared, and vast. Known by locals as “the Million Dollar Temple,” it was one of the largest churches built in the history of the world, constructed with the same lavish splendor as the new movie palaces being erected around the city.
Seating almost six thousand people, the groundbreaking mega-church hosted what the papers called the greatest show in town. Camels, lions, and even a motorcycle had made their way across the planks of her stage. As young children, both Richard Nixon and Marilyn Monroe were visitors with their families. And Hollywood stars of the era, such as Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, would attend for the spectacle of it all.
Aimee had built the church through force of will and a supernatural sense of destiny, raising the funds during years of itinerant tent revivals around the nation, each dollar given to her in what she called “love offerings.” The building stood as a monument to her: the pioneer of a new global religion. Aimee was a Pentecostal–a once-fringe religious movement that had begun in downtown Los Angeles and emphasized a direct connection to Jesus, speaking in tongues and faith healing. A populist, Aimee preached against the teaching of evolution and frequently appeared with William Jennings Bryan, who had risen to fame during the Scopes Monkey trial in Tennessee that had divided the nation, pitting believers in creationism against Darwin’s emerging science of evolution. She had an incredible sense of how to use her own image to connect to the public–she was on the cutting edge of the latest technology as she looked for every means to promote her gospel. Aimee’s influence can be seen today in many of our iconic public figures—both the infamous and the faithful, from Billy Graham and Oprah to Donald Trump and Kim Kardashian—larger-than-life personalities who have crafted spectacular personal narratives to influence and lecture us from their self-erected pulpits. Aimee was doing all of this a century ago—to create and sell the most riveting story: her own.
Aimee Semple McPherson celebrates her 25th anniversary as an evangelist by participating in an elaborate pageant at the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles. Aimee Semple McPherson founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. January 12, 1935.By Bettmann/Getty Images.
The day was pleasant, calm, sunny, sixty-eight degrees. As the sun blazed down, Aimee focused on her Bible, working on her sermon for the next Sunday. She scrawled down the title, “Light and Darkness,” in her notebook and sat with the words. “It had been that way since the beginning,” she wrote. “The glint of the sun, gleaming light, on the tops, and shadow, darkness in the troughs. Ah, light and darkness all over the earth, everywhere.” Wasn’t the world made of opposites and contradictions? Wasn’t she?
Aimee set down her notes on the towel and made her way back to the water. She left behind her Bible and a purse containing $200 in neatly rolled bills (more than $3,500 today). She began to swim again, this time away from the shore, toward the horizon. Emma made the call, fetched the juice and box of candy that Aimee had requested, and returned to the baking sand to wait.
