Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson (Claire Hoffman) -- A Review
Aimee
Semple McPherson is a name that may not seem familiar to many, but there was a
time when her name was among the most recognizable in the country, ranking with
the great celebrities of the day. In part, that was due to a series of scandals
that she was caught up in, but she was also known for being a pioneering woman
evangelist and preacher. This in itself was scandalous to some. Aimee Semple
McPherson’s life story is complicated and intriguing. It has been told by
numerous writers over the years. These books cover different elements of her
life, though many focus on her “mysterious disappearance.” Those words are
found in the subtitle to the latest biography of McPherson, which was written
by Claire Hoffman.
If McPherson’s name is unfamiliar,
that is because she died a long time ago, and even the denomination that she
founded doesn’t emphasize her ministry. Nevertheless, Aimee Semple McPherson,
who died in 1944 at the age of fifty-four and was known to her followers simply
as Sister. While the scandals may interest some, I would suggest that she is
worth knowing about because she was a trailblazer. Not only was she a woman
preacher, which at a time when very few women were given that opportunity, even
in mainline churches, this was a remarkable achievement. But she was also ahead
of her time in the use of media, especially radio, which she used to get her
messages out, paving the way for later evangelists such as Katherine Kuhlmann
and Oral Roberts. She also built one of the first mega-churches in the United
States, the Angeles Temple in Los Angeles. Yet, there were the scandals, which
unfortunately are what she is best known for.
Although I do not share her
theology or her politics, I have long been fascinated by her life.
Interestingly, it isn’t because I once was a member of the denomination she
founded (The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel). It is because the
church has historically made little reference to her life and ministry.
Nevertheless, once I discovered her story, I began reading the biographies,
made pilgrimages to her church (and even to her grave at Forest Lawn), and
wrote an article on her theology for Pneuma (the journal of
the Society of Pentecostal Studies). So, when the opportunity came to review
her latest biography, written by Claire Hoffmann, I had to read it (and review
it).
Claire Hoffman’s biography of
Sister Aimee is titled Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson. Hoffman is a
journalist, having served as a staff reporter for the Los Angeles
Times and Rolling Stone. She also has an MA in
religion from the University of Chicago, as well as an MA in journalism from
Columbia University. She brings a background in journalism, having covered both
religion and celebrities.
Hoffman’s biography joins several
others, which cover different parts of her life story. Some of these
biographies have been hagiographical, while others are sensationalist. The best
of them, however, seek to address the fullness of her story. Hoffman focuses on
one particular dimension of the story, but does so in a fair way. So, I would
put her biography together with those written by Edith Blumhoffer (Aimee
Semple McPherson: Everybody’s Sister), Daniel Epstein ( Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson), and Matthew Sutton (Aimee
Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America). Each of these
four biographies offers something different, making all of them worth reading.
Blumhoffer’s biography focuses more on the religious elements of Aimee’s life
and ministry, while Sutton focuses on her public life. Epstein, who is a poet
and playwright, offers us a more humanizing biography. Of the three, Hoffman’s
biography is closest to that of Epstein.
While Hoffman’s version, Sister, Sinner, devotes considerable space to Sister Aimee’s infamous
disappearance and its aftermath—as the title of the book suggests—I found
Hoffman’s portrayal of Aimee’s life to be balanced and nuanced. We get a sense
of her calling, her giftedness, her charisma, but also the shadow side of her
life. One of the contributing factors to the focus on the disappearance is
Hoffman’s access to court records covering Aimee’s pretrial hearing, records
that only the Foursquare archives have a full copy of. Therefore, she can tell
parts of the story that were unavailable to previous biographers.
As I read Hoffman’s biography, I
found her to be sympathetic but realistic. When it comes to the disappearance,
she tells Aimee’s side of the story, but is skeptical (as am I). If Aimee’s
story is true, it is quite miraculous, but the facts simply don’t line up.
Nevertheless, the person who emerges from this story is fully human. She is not
a saint, as some of her followers believed. While she was certainly a sinner,
she was also simply a human being who struggled to deal with her celebrity and
a deep loneliness that contributed to her susceptibility to scandal.
As I noted earlier, the woman known
as Aimee Semple McPherson was a powerful evangelist who preached to millions
over the years. She was a Pentecostal, coming to this faith shortly after the
breakout of the Azusa Street Revival of 1906. She married young to an
evangelist who wanted to be a missionary. Together they went to China, where
her husband, Robert Semple, died of malaria, leaving her alone and pregnant
with their daughter. She managed to get back to the United States, remarried,
had a son, and feeling the call to preach, set out on the revival trail. The
rest is history.
Although Semple McPherson’s piety
was expressed in her fundamentalist beliefs, in the last twenty years of her
life, she clearly struggled. While the attraction of celebrity influenced her
poor decisions, so did her deep loneliness. She was a widow and a mother before
her twentieth birthday, while on the mission field. She would marry twice
more, but both marriages ended badly. Additionally, though her most important
ministry was with her mother, Minnie Kennedy, this relationship was ultimately
severed.
After Sister Aimee was becoming a
well-known figure in both Christian and even secular circles, Hoffman then
turns to the events surrounding her infamous disappearance in 1926. Hoffman
devotes a little more than a third of the biography to these events. She offers
us Semple McPherson’s version of the story, which seems to many to be a bit
fantastical and does not fit the known facts, as well as the stories told by
others, most of which did not support her story. We learn about the district
attorney who prosecuted her for perjury and fraud, as well as the story of her
alleged lover, her radio technician, Kenneth Ormiston.
The woman who emerges from this
part of the story is at times a sympathetic character, and at other points, she
comes across as devious and manipulative. Ultimately, Aimee was acquitted, but
her story left many uncertain about her credibility. As we know, she would not
be the last celebrity evangelist to fall into scandal. What Hoffman does here
is offer the reader a rather full picture of a rather brief part of Sister
Aimee’s life.
Then, the last part of the book
focuses on her life after the disappearance and the many court cases that
ensued. The woman, as Hoffman tells her story, who emerged from these years
was, in many ways, a broken figure. She remained a popular preacher and evangelist,
at least in some circles. She endured financial troubles and mental health
issues. Ultimately, whereas she had been a creative leader who founded a
denomination and a bible college, she ended up being controlled by others, not
all of whom had her best interests in mind. As I read this part of Hoffman’s
biography, I felt sadness for her.
Sister, Sinner is a
familiar story. It’s a story that brings Aimee Semple McPherson to life, warts
and all. Because of Hoffman’s sympathetic telling of her story—despite Sister
Aimee’s flaws—I hope that Sister Aimee’s important legacy can be recognized as
a key contribution that created a space for women in ministry. Hoffman’s
important perspective certainly will intrigue others through the story of a
woman who has long fascinated me.
*The Englewood
Review of Books previously published this review. It is being reposted
with permission.
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