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on Aimee Semple McPherson
The following are quotes from
Edith L. Blumhofer's Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister
(Eerdmanns, 1993). McPherson founded the International Church of the
Foursquare Godpel.
"In
addition to providing for her people's spiritual welfare, Sister
showed a lively interest in civic affairs. In July 1924, the Los
Angeles District Attorney Asa Keyes addresses a packed audience on
'The Part of the Church in Law Enforcement.' Sister was an honorary
fire chief and showed warm support for efforts to raise the moral
tone of urban life. Here involvement in the city's antinarcotics
parade in July 1923 revealed her growing popularity in Los Angeles.
All the Temple bands marched and played. ...Sister freely offered
advice on local political issues and did not hesitate to tell her
people how to vote on local affairs. Reporters dutifully carried
such advice to the hundreds of thousands who read Los Angeles
papers, making her a political figure with whom to reckon." (p.
264-5) (Bold Emphasis added)
"Running in on a (radio) broadcast, McPherson pushed a startled
singer aside, identified herself, and told the world there had been
a terrible earthquake in Santa Barbara. On the spur of the moment,
she asked her people to collect immediately whatever items of
clothing and canned or cooked food they could spare. She instructed
those who owned trucks to fill them with gas and bring them to the
(Angelus) Temple. 'Be prepared,' she advised, 'to drive emergency
supplies to Santa Barbara.' ... Before the Los Angeles Times special
edition reporting the earthquake hit the streets, the first of two
convoys from Angelus Temple was rumbling toward Santa Barbara, a
hundred miles to the north. By the time the Red Cross convened a
meeting to organize aid, a second convoy had arrived with blankets
and food for the homeless. ... Sister's immediate practical response
to the Santa Barbara crisis reflected her larger commitment to help
the needy. ... she formally organized Angelus Temple's social work
and offered regular assitance to the city's poor. But from the
beginning she responded to individual requests with a Salvationist's
ready determination to alleviate suffering and mend
relationships." (p. 269-70)
"She
always insisted that her primary message was the call to salvation,
and her teaching on salvation by faith colorfully conveyed the basic
revivalistic evangelical message of the human need to confess sin
and receive forgiveness in a crisis experience called the 'new
birth.' ... her Canadian upbringing had accustomed her to an
evangelical Protestant context that was decidedly less sectarian
than the American, and her Salvation Army experience had shaped her
thinking about poverty and other social issues." (p. 202-3,
211)
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