Click to join the conversation with over 500,000 Pentecostal believers and scholars
Click to get our FREE MOBILE APP and stay connected
| PentecostalTheology.com
171
The Material Dream of Aimee
A Lesson in Pentecostal
Semple
McPherson: Spirituality
Gregg
D. Townsend*
In his recent
book,
Material Dreams: Southern
California through
the 1920’s, Kevin
Starr pays special
attention to Aimee
Semple
McPherson (1890-1944),
the founder of the International Church of the
Foursquare Gospel.
She is portrayed
by
him as the
leading popular religious
leader of 1920’s Los
Angeles.
Starr’s contention is that McPherson’s life fits within the
pattern which he sees as evident
throughout
the
history
of
early
Los
Angeles:
the search for material
prosperity.
It is his belief that she became a sym- bol to the lower economic strata of Los
Angeles
as a poor Canadian farm
girl
who achieved the dreams of the
good
life of wealth and fame in moving to the
City
of Dreams.
Following previous
McPherson
biog- raphers,
Starr writes that her material dreams,
prosperity,
and
popularity withered
rapidly
after her
supposed kidnapping
in 1926 and financial and
personal
troubles.2 He summarizes the results of these scandals
by noting
that it “rendered her a laughingstock” and that
though
she contin- ued
preaching
and her followers remained faithful to her until her death in
1944, “any larger
influence which she
might
have
possessed disappeared.”3
It is the
purpose
of this article to show that this
understanding
of McPherson’s career is
largely
incorrect. The influence and effect of her work
during
and after the scandals of the late 1920’s is
actually
much more extensive and far reaching within the Los
Angeles
community (and for that matter around the
globe)
than has been
depicted by
Starr and the other
biographers
of her life. It will be shown that McPherson estab- lished and
organized
a massive social welfare
program
out of her
ber of the *Gregg
D. Townsend is Director of Student Ministries and a mem-
faculty
of L.I.F.E. ihle
College
in San
Dimas, CA 91773.
1 Kevin Starr, Material Dreams: Southern California
through the 1920’s (New York, Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 139-144.
ZStarr follows
closely
the account of Lately Thomas
[pseud.] [Robert
V. P. Steele] Storming ficaven: The Lives and Turmoils of Minnie Kennedy and Aimee Semple
McPherson
(New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.),
1970. Also included in his bibliography are two other accounts of the McPherson case and financial troubles of
kidnapping
Nancy Barr Mavity, Sister Aimee (Garden NY,
Life Angelus Temple:
Press), 1931, and a previous work
Steele under the City,
Country by (again
pseudonym Lately Thomas) The Vanishing Evangelist: The Aimee McPherson Semple
Kidnapping Affair (New York, The Viking Press, 1959).
3Starr, Material Dreams, 143.
1
172
headquarters
church at Angelus Temple in the Echo Park district of Los Angeles.
This work came about as a direct result of her
theological
and spiritual
roots in the
early
Salvation
Army
movement.
There can be no denying that Aimee
Semple
McPherson led a dramatic if not tumultuous life. At times she was a “laughing stock.” But the
per- spective
from which we view her work should not be confined to the scandalous. In order to understand her life
properly
she must also be considered for her social work which led to
growth
in the
Foursquare movement and
gave
her acclaim from civic leaders.4
1. The Salvationist
Background
and Formative Influences Aimee
Semple
McPherson’s concern for societal welfare
began long before the
Angelus Temple commissary opened
its doors. It began, as she
said,
with her
mother,
Mildred “Minnie”
Kennedy (1862-1947) who was a devout member of the Salvation
Army
since her childhood.5 The
“Army”
and its way of practicing Christianity had a major impact on McPherson. She records that her mother so wished to inculcate her with the Salvationist
message
that at three weeks of
age
Minnie was
willing to carry the child five miles in a snow storm to the closest
meeting place, and that at six weeks of
age
she was dedicated
by
her mother to Chris- tian service.6 The commitment of Minnie
Kennedy
to the Salvation Army
and her work with a
large
number of children as the “Junior Sergeant-Major” (Sunday
School
Superintendent)
of the local
army corps
left a
lasting impact upon
her
daughter.
Mrs.
Kennedy
was also involved in the Women’s Christian
Temperance Union,
where Aimee took
part
in their children’s work. As would later be true of McPherson herself,
Minnie
Kennedy’s
was a life not so much of “talk” but of evan- gelism thorough
“Christian work.”7
For the
early
Salvationists and other holiness movement
workers,
the Bible was understood as a manual for and command to “practical reli- gin.”8 Evangelizing
the non-Christian world was believed to be the occupation
of the church. It is this focus which
gave
rise to their social concem.9
Evangelistic
work led them into urban slums where
they
came
41n Storming Heaven, Thomas
[pseud.] [Steele) does mention the work of the commissary
and other organizational efforts (see pp. 219-221) as they relate to the financial troubles of Angelus Temple and to McPherson’s personal and marital trou- bles with David L. Hutton.
5Aimee Semple McPherson, This is That (Los Angeles, Echo Park Evangelistic Association, 1923) 13.
6Aimee
Semple McPherson, Aimee: The Life Story of Aimee Semple McPher- son (Los Angeles, Foursquare Publications, 1979) 9-10.
7McPherson,
This is That, 26, 27.
8Norris
Magnuson,
Salvation in the Slums: Evangelical Social Work, 1865- 1920 (Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1990) 44.
and 44, where Magnuson describes the theology behind the social concern of A. B. Simpson and William Booth.
9Magnuson,
Salvation in the Slums, 19, 32,
2
173
to
know, perhaps
better than
any
other
organizations
of the time, the plight
and the needs of the
poor.
This
knowledge,
combined with a praxis
oriented
understanding
of the
meaning
of
love,
and
frequent requests
for
help by
the
poor,
led to a broad
variety
of
organizational structures.
This
interpretation
of the Bible’s
teaching,
with its emphasis on evan- gelism by way
of
“practical religion,”
was at the
very
heart of McPherson’s
theology
and
spirituality.
Her
popular
sermon “Lost and Restored”
(which
features a restorationist view of
history
as its
primary focus),
lists William Booth as a central
figure
in God’s
redemptive
work in human
history.
Booth is depicted as one who refused to “compromise with the world” and instead followed the
“light”
of God. The
early
Sal- vationists were
depicted
with
equally
idealistic
terminology
in the semon.
They
are
aligned
with the first
century
church in that
they
were “unpopular,” “stoned,” “persecuted,”
and “some were even
martyred.”I
I Passages
of scripture which
emphasized “practical religion”
were cen- tral to her
teaching
and
preaching throughout
her career. The
Angelus Temple Commissary
was founded on the basis of James
1:27,
“Pure religion
and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction.”12 McPherson
incorporated other texts of
Scripture
with the same theme as a way of motivating and obtaining
volunteers
(e.g.
Matthew
25:35-36,
and
40).
As in the
early days
of the Salvation
Army,
this
“practical religion”
was never intended to be an end in and of itself.
Everything
done was a
way
of
opening
a door for
evangelism. Along
with the food
brought
to the home of the needy
came a Bible and an invitation to visit a service at the Temple. In a talk
given
at a Bible conference entitled “Christ our
Example,” McPherson
carefully
delineates her
perception
of the Imitatio Christi in the
language
of the holiness movement’s
perfectionism:
Once you get Jesus in your heart you can’t
help living as He lives, for He will live out His life in you. The standard of God’s Word declares that-“As He is, so are we”-(not shall we be when the angel of death appears,
but so ARE we, right down here in the “present life”). Christ enthroned within our 3 hearts, ruling, guiding, speaking, loving-sons of God without rebuke.l3
lOMagnuson, Salvation in the Slums, 31-32.
11 Aimee Semple McPherson, The Bridal Call
(November, 1923) 6, 7. The subsequent generations
of the Salvation Army did not fare so well in McPherson’s understanding.
She believed that they too ultimately did compromise themselves:
But Ah! When business, need of great funds and a rejoining of hands
with lodges and friends of the world creeps in, how often the keen
of the old time
edge
power is lost and materialism takes its place!
12″pure Religion and Undefilcd,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (August 1928) 14, 15, 28, and 29.
13McPherson, “Christ our Example,” The Bridal Call, (February, 1922) 15.
,
.
3
174
between the
person
of Christ
a
reincarnation,
Christ-
This
understanding
of the
relationship
and the believer means that the believer does not “imitate” Christ at all. Rather,
“He wants us to be a
reproduction,
formed in us,
living
His
life, demonstrating
Himself
through
His
people to a dying world.”14 She illustrates her
point
this
way:
possibly
Yonder hangs a grcat painting. I might ask
do the
you to copy it the best you
could. You might so to best of your ability; but after all, whether your attempts have been a success or a failure, work would be but an imilation. But suppose the had the your original artist
to
powcr
put
his
eyes
within
your
sockets-his mind to cover
yours-his hands and skill and brushes in the
within would
place of yours, incarnating himself
your being, you paint a picture which would no longer be an
imitation, but a reproduction.
This is exactly what the Lord wants to do. Jcsus said, “The Father who dwelleth within mc, He doeth the works.” So
today
Christ within revealed by the Holy Spirit longs to do the work and rule the activities of our lives.15 5
McPherson office”
The final section of the “Christ our
Example”
talk describes the work and rule of Christ
through
the Christian as
“sympathy
for
humanity.”
compares
the modern
preacher
who “shuts himself in his
so as not to be disturbed with the
example of Jesus:
put away,1
… Jcsus mingled with the peoplc. Thc little bairns cuddled
up on His knee
and nevcr cricd. Mothers and scrvants,
lepers, and poor, fallen, bruised, broken 6 women could creep up on Him and not be afraid of being
beginning
of
organized McPherson’s
construction
her travels
repeatedly children were Experiences
Other influences on her
spirituality
social welfare
note
impoverished.
God
as
and
theology
which led to the
at
Angelus Temple
included a traveling
evangelist
before the
in 1923. The records of
workers.
Many
of
personal experiences
of
Angelus Temple
was
completed
the
many
times in which she and her two
in some
physical
need on the road in her
“gospel
car.”
such as
being hungry, lonely,
without
money,
and in need of
gasoline
would later
help
her to
identify
with the conditions of the
was the
provider
of all of her
needs,
physical
as well as spiritual.
McPherson also encountered the
poor
while on the
evangelistic
trail as had
happened
to the Salvation
Army
and holiness
those who attended the
city meetings
were the urban
poor.
While travel- ing
in her
early campaigns
she also made a special effort to preach to the poor
who lived in the cotton and tobacco fields of the south. Since
they had no
way
of
making
their
way
into the
larger
towns she would
preach
l4McPherson, “Christ our Example,” 15. 15McPherson, “Christ our Example,” 15. 16McPherson, “Christ our Example,” 16.
4
175
to them and
camp
with them
overnight
in the fields
Among
the
poor
which she met and to whom she ministered to were a number of different ethnic
groups:
African Americans, Native Ameri- cans, Chinese, and
Eastern
European immigrants.
In the
south, McPherson was able to hold a number of
successfully integrated camp meetings. During
her southern
evangelistic campaign
of
1918, meetings were held in
Key
West, Florida in
spite
of a “strong color
feeling McPherson recorded that, “All walls of
prejudice
are
breaking down, white and colored flock to the altar
together, seeking
salvation and the Holy Spirit.”19
Her motivation for
holding
these
meetings
flowed out of the
understanding
that “There is no difference between them and us in God’s
sight,
all must meet on a common
footing-the
Blood of Jesus. All must be baptized into the one
body by the same Spirit.”20
Eastern
European “Gypsies”
held a
special place
in McPherson’s heart. She encountered these transient
groups
often
during
her
evange- listic
campaigns.
She won their
support through
not
only preaching
to them but also
spending
a good deal of time in fellowship with these car- avans while
wearing
their colorful native dress.21 After
Angelus Temple was
built,
the
“gypsies”
continued to
support
her work.
They
were responsible
for
providing
the velour curtain which stood behind the
plat- form of the
Temple
and for the hand-carved motto of Hebrews 13:8 which stood above it.22
McPherson’s Salvationist
heritage
is also
expressed
in her
hymns. Many
of these induced the crowds toward
evangelism
with the use of military jargon
and an
up tempo
beat.
Among
the most
popular
of these were “Preach the
Foursquare Gospel,”
“Forward
March,”
and
espe- cially,
“Preach the Word”:
McPhcrson, This is That, 104.
18McPherson, “Colored Camp Mccting,” The Bridal Call, (February, 1918), 16.
l9McPherson, “Colorcd Camp Mccting, Key West,” The Bridal Call, (March, 1918) 7.
20McPherson, “Colored Camp Mecting,” The Bridal Call (February, 1918) 16. One senses a definite paternalistic tone in McPhcrson’s words when not only
African Americans but other ethnic groups as well. She also had considering something of a curious relationship with the Ku Klux Klan. She spoke at Klan meetings on at least two occasions in 1922: she was “kidnapped” aftcr an evening meeting in Denvcr and then again about a month later when a similar situation occurred in Oakland
[see, This is That, 483, 484; and The Bridal Call (June 1922) 11]. It is clear that McPherson saw these two meetings not as a chance to support the organization but to “preach a salvation scrmon and rcad from the Word of God.” After both of the
she was presented with cash which she accepted and put toward the of
meetings building
Angelus Temple.
21 Dr. Charles S. Price,
“Winning
the
Gypsies
for Jesus,” The Bridal
Call, (August, 1921)
19-23.
22McPherson, This is That, 548.
5
176
Hold the Foursquare Fortrcss Firm, ‘Tis the
The
testing day.
enemy on ev’ry hand Presseth hard the fray. Lift the blood-stained banncr
It
high.
must not touch the ground.
Preach the Foursquare Gospel with a certain sound!23
In
summary, then,
Aimee
Semple
McPherson’s
theology
and
spiritu- ality
was
directly
influenced
by
the
early
Salvation
Army’s
belief in evangelism through “practical religion.” This, coupled
with her
personal experiences
with the
poor,
led McPherson into a
spirituality
which focused on action. It
required
her to
give
her
primary
attention to the evangelization
of all
people, especially
the
poor
and
disadvantaged.
II. The “Bureau of Faith,
Hope,
and
Charity”
Between 1920 and 1930 two million
people migrated
to California. 1.2 million settled in Los
Angeles County
and
661,375
moved into the City
of
Angels
itself
(arriving
at an
average
of 100,000
per year
from 1920-1924).
Los
Angeles grew
from
576,673 people
in 1920 to 1,470,516
in 1930.24
Many
had come in search of a new and better life hoping
to have a
part
in the
booming growth
and
prosperity
of Los Angeles. Unfortunately
it was all too often the case that their troubles only
worsened
upon
their arrival.
In order to receive state or county welfare assistance,
immigrants
were required
to establish
residency,
which meant
living
within the state for not less than one
year.
Because of
this,
those who were in greatest need were left without
help
or assistance. It was this
gap
which McPherson attempted
to fill.
The doors of the
Angelus Temple Commissary
were first
opened
in August
of 1927. For the most
part
the staff was made
up
of volunteer women who were a part of the church. McPherson called them the “City Sisters” because of their
willingness
to
give practical help
to all who expressed
a need. About the white-clad sisters one observer said that, “many
of these women were borne of affluence and ease with
dainty hands and
slippered feet;
but in emulation of their Master …
they
now sped joy
into the darkest and
surroundings
to investigate cases of need and to alleviate them …” 5 McPherson believed that din test in
serving others the lives of these women had themselves been transformed. In her words
they were, “Society
women,
who once devoted all of their time to
bridge
and
jazz, [and are]
now converted from their former empty, vapid
life, … to
the work of
alleviating suffering.
Those who
23Aimee Semple McPherson, Preach the Word, verse one (Los Angeles, Echo Park Evangelistic Association, 1935).
‘
.
24S?.r? Material Dreams, 69.
25Dr. Fraser, “5 Barley Cakes and 2 Sardines,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (April, 1928) 29.
6
177
looked bored and blase are now radiant and
shining
with the
joy
of
service.”26
be
known,
was existence
food and
clothing the
ing
Temple
9,786 persons,
were
given
food the
commissary.27 By
the end of the
to
17,148 people being
fed and
order the
recuperate. living
with his
family
The “Bureau of Faith,
Hope,
and
Charity,”
as the
commissary
came to
an immediate success. Within its first five months of
1,398 families, representing
and
5,361 people
were clothed
by
first
year
the numbers had amounted
3463 families
being
clothed.
Exacting
details were
kept
on what
types
of
were
being given
from the “30,013 cans of food” to
“2 crates of cauliflower.”28
As stated
above,
the success was due
largely
to the fact that the
county and state
agencies
were unable to help because of the residency require- ment. The
Temple commissary
had no intention off replacing or conflict-
with
any
state
agencies
or
any
other charitable
organizations
which were
operating
in Los
Angeles
at the time. It was felt
that,
“… the
has
stepped
into the breach and
sought
to supply this
great
need … it
cooperates
with other
agencies.”29
One
story
that further confirms the
help given
to non-residents, cerns an
anonymous college professor
who “had
taught
in one of the foremost
colleges
of the middle-west.” The
professor
had become ill with heart trouble and was unable to work for over a
year.
After his finances were drained with medical costs he moved to California
He was found and assisted
by Temple
workers
in a lean-to canvas tent in the middle of a storm.
ing
from
Delivery
of
goods
were
given record was also
kept
on
those out of
con-
in
There was no other
agency
to which he could turn for
help.30
The
commissary
also went
beyond
the distribution of food and cloth-
their central location at Angelus
Temple. Help
was delivered to all who had
need,
even if
they
were unable to come and receive it.
without
regard
to race, creed, or status. A
all families and individuals who
participated
in the
ministry
of the
Commissary.
The
City
Sisters
helped
to find
jobs
for
work and continued to help the families
through
follow
up visits to their homes. One of the
goals
of the
City
Sisters was not
just
to give
the
family
a limited amount of
temporal help,
but to
bring
about a restored and
healthy family
life.
The ultimate
purpose
toward which the
City
Sisters focused their attention was
evangelization.
After
providing
aid to the
needy
the Sisters made a point of
sharing
the
gospel
and
praying
with those whom
they were
helping.
It was felt that one of the main reasons for the
growth
of
26Aimee Semple McPhcrson, “The Commissary,” The Bridal Call Foursquare, June, 1929, 25.
27″The Commissary,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (March, 1928) 16.
28″Pure Religion and Undcfilcd,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (August, 1928) 29.
29Fraser, “Barley Cakes and Sardines,” 29, 30.
30″Pure Religion,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (August, 1928) 28, 29.
7
178
years,
Foursquare periodicals
services.
By
1928 flashing beacon!) which
people
could
place part
of the life
By
the
numbered about
12,000 by 1930,
was, at least
in the
early
in the
foyer
of
Angelus Temple
in
Angelus Temple,
whose
membership
was the
commissary.
“Numberless children are now in our
Sunday School
through
the medium of
commissary
work and hosts of men and women who have not
attending
church for
years
have found their
way through
its sacred
portals.”31
The source of
funding
for the
commissary
drawn
mainly
from the
congregation
of
Angelus Temple
itself.
are
replete
with references to members of the church
bringing
food and
clothing
with them as
they
came to the church
a “life-boat” near a “lighthouse”
(equipped
with a
was
displayed
their
goods
for the
poor.
It
simply
became a
of the
congregation
to give regularly to the
needy.32
time Los
Angeles
was hit with the
depression
the
giving
of the church members alone could no
longer
meet the massive amount of need. It became
necessary
to find other resources and so McPherson obtained the
help
of local
grocers,
bakers,
and other businesses to
give toward the work.
Angelus Temple
also
gave
out of its own
general funds to help support the needs of the
commissary
to such an extent that McPherson said it formed a large part of the
$66,5(X)
deficit with which Angelus Temple
found itself
by
1936.33
people.
These cabinet
officers,
“chairmen”
of the
City
Sisters the work of the
City
Sisters
Their
III.
Organization
and
Expansion
Due to the
popularity
of the
commissary,
was
rapidly expanded
into
twenty-four
different
“departments.” structure was
loosely
based on a Salvation
Army
model in which each of the
departments
were led
by
“executive cabinets” of three to seven
in
turn, led
a number of smaller sub- committees which would
organize
the details of a given department. The twenty-four (all women)
of the executive cabinets formed the
“private advisory
board” to McPherson. The board met
monthly
and was asked to submit
monthly reports
on the activities of their
depart- ments. At all times McPherson retained a very direct and
complete
con- trol and awareness of the activities of each
department.
Her desk was pictured
as “a
great
hub of a gigantic wheel, out from which there runs
A
photograph published
in an
early Foursquare
pictures
each of the committee leaders with their heads
links of a paper mache chain with Sister McPherson as the
twenty-four spokes.”3? periodical
through
the
31«pum Religion and Undcfi lcd,” 7’he Bridal Call Foursquare (August, 1928) 15.
32The Bridal Call Foursquare (Octobcr, 1931) 23, 24.
33McPherson, Aimee, 244. By McPhcrson’s own admission, the major part of the debt was due to ever growing operating expenses and financial mismanagement.
34Fleta Rockwell, “For the People, by the Pcople,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (October, 1927) 25.
8
179
center link.35
The work of the
commissary
itself was
expanded
with the addition of several committees which worked in
conjunction
with it. One of the most
interesting,
and
helpful
of these committees was that of the “Quilting
Bees,”
whose work
began
in
September
of 1931. At the first bee there were an estimated one thousand women who came and
quilted blocks of fourteen inches
square
into two hundred
quilts
for the
poor and
needy.
Thousands of quilts were
eventually
made and
given
to help families
through
the cold winter months.36
During
the
year
of 1932 alone the
Wednesday
afternoon
quilting
bees
produced
1800 com- forters,37 Even after this initial
quilting
bee
“hysteria”
died down the City
Sisters were still able to
produce
an
average
of 200
quilts
a
year throughout
the decade of the thirties. The
City
Sisters also took on the task of
repairing damaged
or well worn
clothing.
In 1932 the White Sewing
Machine
Company
of Los
Angeles
donated
twenty
machines to the
Temple. They
were used
throughout
the
depression
on a daily basis. Over six thousand children’s
garments
were made and
repaired during 1934 alone.38
The most remarkable and well-known of all of the
Angelus Temple social welfare ministries
opened
in
December,
1931. The
Angelus Temple
Free
Dining
Hall served lunches to unemployed men
daily.
The idea for the diner came about when news of the massive
unemployment in Los
Angeles caught
McPherson’s attention.39 She
secured,
via a donation,
a large warehouse
building
from the Yellow Cab
Company
of Los
Angeles.
The
dining
hall
provided
over 80,000 meals to unem- ployed men, women,
and children
during
its first two months. The building
was
large enough
so that the
expanding commissary
could be moved out of the basement of
Angelus Temple
and into this
building also.
The
opportunity
for
evangelism
at the
dining
hall was not missed either. As the
people
waited in line for their food and ate their meals
they were treated to
Angelus Temple’s
radio station KFSG which carried forth the
evangelistic message
of the
Foursquare Gospel.
The ware- house was also used in the
evenings
for services which
attempted
to meet the
spiritual
needs of the crowds.
Wednesday
and
Saturday
3SThe Bridal Call Foursquare (January, 1929) 7.
36,’Me Foursquare Beehive,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (October, 1931) 23.
37″A Word Picture of Angelus Temple,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (December, 1932) 12.
38″City Sisters’ Report for the year of 1934,” The Bridal
Call-Crusader Four- square (July 17, 1935) 12.
39″Pure Religion of Angelus Temple Lauded by City and State,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (February, 1932)
16, 17. Unemployment statistics for 1931 in the and
city
county of Los Angeles are uncertain. The unemployment rate for the civilian work force in the United States was 15.9% (llistorical Statistics of the United States, 1931).
9
180
evenings
were
given
over to divine
healing
services and
Monday
and Tuesday’s
to prayer and
Holy Spirit “tarrying”
services.
Temple
members who owned automobiles were asked to become ser- vants for the
“Foursquare
Automobile Club.” Los
Angeles
was divided into thirteen districts to facilitate more efficient service.4? The cars were most often used to help
provide transportation
for those in an emergency situation such as
injury
or extreme sickness. The
telephone
number of the chairman of the club was made available to the
community.
If the need for a driver arose the chairman would call the driver who was serving
at that time. Each of the volunteer drivers in the club were asked to serve a “watch” of three hours a week in which
they
were made avail- able to
help.41
The drivers were also available if there was a need for someone from the
Temple
to go and
pray
with an individual or a family that was sick or
dying. Also,
the cars were used to
help transport sup- plies
to and from the
commissary.
The
“Lonely” department
focused its efforts on
providing
comfort and hospitality
to the sick and bed-ridden, shut-ins, and those who were new to the Los
Angeles
area. The
department
was made
up largely
of L.I.F.E. Bible
College
students who would, as a part of their education and
preparation
for
ministry,
visit the
needy
and
provide
communion to those who could not attend a congregational
meeting. During
one month in 1928 these workers made 649 calls to
private homes, hospitals,
sani- tariums,
and rest homes.42
Extending
from the
“Lonely” department
was a prison
ministry
which was
begun
in the 1930’s and lasted for well over a decade. It offered both visitation and church services to inmates in local
prisons.
By
the end of 1928 a “Probation Girls”
department
was
developed
in order to work with
young
women who found themselves in trouble with the law. In
conjunction
with the Los
Angeles
Probation Office the department
was
given charge
over
many
who had been taken to Police Court and
given
a
suspended
sentence or
probation.
The
hope,
and often the
actuality,
was that the
girls
were restored to their families or “helped
into
useful,
beautiful lives.”43 The
City
Sisters also worked with the Juvenile Welfare Bureau to
provide food, clothing,
and bed- ding
for
orphans,
or in the homes where the children were not
proper care.44
Angelus Temple
boasted that it was the “first church in Los Angeles
to install and maintain
regularly,
a trained nurse worker.”45 She was asked to visit and
provide
care for hundreds of families. In this
way
40″Pure Religion and Undefiled,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (August, 1928) 15.
4 lFIeta Rockwell, “For the People, by the People,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (October, 1927) 25.
42″City Sisters,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (January 1929) 7.
–
43″City Sisters,” 7.
44″pure Religion and UndcGled,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (August, 1928) 15.
45″The Commissary,” The Bridal Call Foursquare, March, 1928, 16.
10
181
Angelus Temple
was able to provide at least some medical
help
for those who could not afford it. A staff of volunteer nurses also
provided
care for children
during Temple
services.
The “Home Relief’
department provided
counsel and material
help
in homes where the father was out of work or where there was no mother to take care of the children and home. The Sisters went into homes such as these even to do
housekeeping. They
cleaned bathrooms and scrubbed floors and walls. The
goal
of the
department
was to see that the “little home that is almost wrecked is
piloted
to the
peaceful
shore and
anchored,
and the little
family
is kept together.”46
Men and women from “all stratas
[sic.]
of life” went to an
employ- ment office which
provided
assistance in
finding
work. This office became
especially important
and
helpful during
the
depression. Begin- ning
in
September
1935 records were
published
in Foursquare
periodi- cals
listing
the number of
people
who were
put
to work
through
the Employment
Office.
During
a one month
period
in August 1935 almost 350
temporary
and
permanent position
were filled.47
Throughout
the 1930’s the
average monthly
number of filled
positions
was 100. The office was
kept open
until well after the end of World War II. It served as a resource for
returning
service men and women to work their
way back into civilian life.
A “Salvage” Department also aided
depression
relief efforts
primarily through helping
to offset the costs of the
commissary. By
1938
Angelus Temple
was
keeping
three trucks in almost
non-stop
use between
pick- ing up salvage
articles such as
newspaper, rags, furniture,
household appliances,
and old metal. Volunteer men were also used to repair appli- ances and furniture so that
they might
be put back into use.48
What was
likely
one of McPherson’s most creative
evangelistic
efforts was carried out
by
the
“Hospitality” Department. Angelus Temple
had become,
at least
by
the summer
games
of the 1932
Olympiad
in Los Angeles,
a tourist attraction. Almost four-thousand visitors were
given guided
tours
by
the
City
Sisters
during
the three weeks of the
games. The
message
of the
gospel
was shared with all of the tourists. This department
continued its work even after the
Olympics.
In 1934 alone 47,164 people
were
given
the tour that included a visit to the
Temple’s “Miracle Room” which showed discarded crutches and braces of those who were healed in Angelus Temple.49 Comparable numbers of visitors came
consistently
until about 1942.
As the
depression
era came to a close with the onset of World War II McPherson was
proud
to be able to write that the
Angelus Temple
46″City Sisters,” The Bridal Call Foursquare (January, 1929) 7, 20.
47The Bridal Call-Crusader Foursquare (September 4, 1935) 4.
48’The Foursquare Beehive,” The Foursquare Crusader (March 23, 1938).
49″City Sisters’ Report for the Year of 1934,” The Bridal
Call-Crusader Four- square (July 17, 1935)
12.
11
182
Commissary, through
the work of the
City Sisters,
was able to have fed and clothed
approximately
one and a half million
people. During
and after the war the work of the
commissary
and the
City
Sisters
continued, though
not
nearly
at the same
pace
as it had
during
the
depression
era. In the late nineteen-forties
through
the
early
fifties records show that an average
of 400-500
people
were fed and clothed each month. But
by the mid-nineteen fifties records were not even
published
in the denomina- tional
magazine
as
they
had been since October 1927. The
commissary did remain
open
in limited
operation
as a ministry of Angelus
Temple
in a small store front until 1989. It was closed when the
building
in which it was housed was remodeled in accordance with
earthquake safety regulations.
Several reasons account for the decline of social work
following
the war.
First,
the cost of
running
the
commissary
became
acutely pro- hibitive. As the
depression
wore on it became
increasingly
difficult to operate
the
commissary
from donations of members and businesses who themselves were
feeling
the effects of the
struggling economy. Although
the convention annuals of the
Foursquare
movement are unclear as to how much
money
was
spent
on the social welfare work of Angelus Temple,
it is obvious that, as stated above, it formed a signifi- cant
part
of the
$66,500
deficit in which
Angelus Temple
found itself during
1936. McPherson and
Angelus Temple
were also embroiled in legal
difficulties
charging
financial
mismanagement
and slander. There were several internal administrative
struggles
as well.50
World War II had a
great impact upon Angelus Temple
members. McPherson shifted her
priorities
from the social welfare
program
to helping
in the war effort. Yet even at this time attention was focused on how the church could best serve the
surrounding community. Every Friday evening
was set aside
by
the members of
Angelus Temple
for a prayer
service
asking
God’s
help
for “the
nation,
the
church, and for souls.”51 It was
publicly
announced that should the need ever arise Angelus Temple
would serve as an air raid shelter.52 First aid classes were
begun
in which students were
taught
how to deal with
possible bomb attack casualties.53 McPherson was also
very
successful in rais- ing money
for war bonds and
stamps.54
With the death of McPherson in
October,
1944 the “center of the wheel” to which all of the
“spokes”
were tied was lost.
Though
there may
have been others in the
Foursquare
movement with the
necessary organizational
abilities needed for such a great
effort,
there was
certainly no one who matched Mrs. McPherson’s charisma and
ability
in obtain-
50″City Sisters’ Report for the Year of 1934,” 244-246. 51
McPherson, Aimee: Life Siory of Aimee Semple McPherson, 249. 52McPherson, Aimee, 250.
53McPherson, Aimee, 250.
54McPherson, Aimee. 251.
12
183
ing
and
involving
volunteer
help.
In 1991
Angelus Temple,
now
pastored by
Dr. and Mrs. Harold Helms, began Friday evening
services at the church which are followed by
the distribution of food and
clothing. Currently,
the
average
atten- dance at the
weekly
service is 700.55 Rev. Frank
Chavez,
an associate pastor
at the church is also active in reaching out to local
gang
members.
Conclusion
It is clear that
any understanding
of the life and work of Aimee
Semple McPherson which does not take into account her social work
during
and after 1927 is at best
incomplete
and at worst
misleading.
The
soteriology of her
Foursquare Gospel
was understood as a whole
gospel
for the whole
person.
It included not
only
the
promise
of an afterlife but also the
provision, care,
and
healing
of the Savior in this life.
Evangelism was not to be limited to verbal
proclamation
but it was also to include actions which would
give
the
message
of “Jesus Christ the Savior” credibility.
Aimee
Semple
McPherson had material dreams. She embodied the Los
Angeles
dream of attaining fame and
glamour
and was a symbol for the masses of nameless faces who came to listen to her. But she had other material dreams as well: work and
self-respect
for the unem- ployed,
food for the
hungry,
clothes for the
naked,
and
healing
for the sick.
55It should be noted that food and clothing are given out whether or not the indi- vidual or family attends thc servicc.
13
