Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson

Before reading this book I simply had no idea how important an historical figure Aimee Semple McPherson is. I had no idea that she was such an intensely popular media figure, on the scale of a top Hollywood celebrity; ... that she was one of, if not THE, first to break the gender barrier in circuit evangelism and pastoring; ... that she was the first religious radio broadcaster, having set up her own 24/7 radio tower atop her Angelus Temple; ... that she pioneered modern religious drama at the pulpit of her temple, or that she had prodigiously composed both popular songs and whole operettas, had preached a voluminous corpus of her own sermons and had also written extensively; ... or that she had spearheaded a massive ongoing relief effort, matching or exceeding that of the government, in the face of disasters such the Great Depression and the Santa Barbara earthquake. But above all, I had no idea that Aimee possessed a simply incredible healing anointing, far greater than anything I've ever seen or heard about with any other healing evangelist. I had seen some media glosses of Aimee's life, and unsurprisingly the accent was on her failings. And while those failings were significant, and it's important to tell the whole story warts and all, when it comes to things to do with the Lord, the media, now as during Aimee's time, still has a penchant for majoring on the minors. Daniel Mark Epstein has beautifully told Aimee's story, and he's managed to do it both objectively and sympathetically. The man has a poet's discipline, and when he's set loose on prose he fluidly packs all kinds of detail and meaning into his words. The more I read this book the more I wanted to return to it and see the story through. I was brought to tears several times during the tale. Most of the time it was due to the astonishing healings that Aimee wrought through Christ. A family with three young daughters, all congenitally blind, walks away with them seeing. A tearful mother's trembling hand searches in vain for misshapenness in her daughter's spine. Grapefruit-sized goiters disappear dramatically, as if lanced and evacuated. Cripples walk - some of the young ones unsteadily, because they don't know HOW to walk, never having done it before. Ace reporters show up to find fault and expose fraud, barely can find the words to record what their own eyes are seeing, and then stay to pray. Men rip the siding off churches, trying to pass their children through the walls into overflowed services. The AMA certifies the healings and encourages Aimee in her work. If it weren't for the healings, this would still be a noteworthy story of a dynamic evangelist, church-planter, dramatist, composer, writer, and American phenomenon. But the healings - the very part of the story that the media and cynics disdain - make this a supremely important story for anyone who wants to know what one person can achieve if they have the courage to say Yes to the Lord. But the other

This biography reads almost like fiction because the subject lived an amazing yet strange life. The book is a great example of how God utilizes the imperfect, not the perfect people, to do His will. Aimee Semple McPherson lived an extraordinary life. She had plenty of controversy and failures but she managed to touch thousands and perhaps millions of people. She changed people's lives in dramatic ways. The author did an amazing job because while I think he admired her, he managed to keep an objective perspective throughout the book. Regarding events that are not clearly known, he simply reported the facts, that events occurred and he did not draw conclusions or give his opinion. He simply told the story which was fascinating and did not contaminate it with his opinion.

I read this book perhaps five or more years ago, and it remains one of the top two books that I have ever read, besides the Bible. As I passed it in the library, I deliberately avoided it, yet felt compelled to go back and check it out. I couldn'tput it down! I had stereotyped Aimee McPherson as simply a long-ago female evangelist, but Daniel Epstein compelled me to follow him as hebrought her out of the shadows of the past and into the light, as though she lived now. Her story became so compelling to me that by the time the book was finished, I felt that her story stayed with me for weeks and weeks. I even wondered what her point of view would have been as I encountered various things in life. I literally could not read another book for months, and I have never had that reaction to a book. I simply had no desire for another book. All I can compare it to would be akin to the aftermath of an excellent steak dinner!

For those who are quick to dismiss Aimee Semple Mcpherson as the prototypical religious huckster this book will give you much pause to think. Although Epstein doesn't attempt to minimize her mortal weaknesses and often a naivete which frequently had her at odds with the more worldly he also shows the tirelessly devoted humanitarian who pushed herself to the point of breakdown. The book helps one to appreciate the multifacted, sometimes subtle and sometimes dominating personality she possessed, a woman who can command admiration for her spiritual gifts despite the feet of clay.

If a biography can have the beauty of a painting, this one does. It does not stand off from a safe academic distance from its subject, as if the author's heart could not possibly be touched or fascinated by the drama of his subject's story, but through its words the author conveys his own wonder at Sister Aimee's remarkable life. He does so with caution, since his own religious perspective differs from her, but nevertheless the heart of the author comes through, stirring the reader to greater amazement at one who in this often frightening century prayed for miracles, and received them in wondrous abundance. Epstein does not minimize the personal troubles of Sister Aimee's life, though he does defend her integrity re serious charges of scandal (in my view, persuasively). If you have ever contemplated writing a biography, this book provides a model of biography-writing at its finest.I assume that Mr. Epstein is Jewish, and so am especially thankful for what his book may signify as a contribution to greater understanding between Christians and Jews (though that is not the focus of his book). I look forward to future works by this author.