Sims 4 Life Tragedies Kidnapping Not Working

[Vannessa Rataj]

Inher time, she was the most publicized Protestant evangelist, surpassing Billy Sunday and other predecessors.[3][4] She conducted public faith healing demonstrations involving tens of thousands of participants.[5][6] McPherson's view of the United States as a nation founded and sustained by divine inspiration influenced later pastors.

National news coverage focused on events surrounding her family and church members, including accusations that she fabricated her reported kidnapping.[7] McPherson's preaching style, extensive charity work and ecumenical contributions were major influences on 20th-century Charismatic Christianity.[8][9]

As a teenager, McPherson strayed from her mother's teachings by reading novels and attending movies and dances, activities disapproved by the Salvation Army and her father's Methodist religion. In high school, she was taught the theory of evolution.[14][15] She began to ask questions about faith and science but was unsatisfied with the answers.[16] She wrote to a Canadian newspaper, questioning the taxpayer-funded teaching of evolution.[16] This was her first exposure to fame, as people nationwide responded to her letter,[16] and the beginning of a lifelong anti-evolution crusade.

While attending a revival meeting in 1907, McPherson met Robert James Semple, a Pentecostal missionary from Ireland.[17] She dedicated her life to Jesus and converted to Pentecostalism.[16] At the meeting, she became enraptured by Semple and his message. After a short courtship, they were married in an August 1908 Salvation Army ceremony. Semple supported them as a foundry worker and preached at the local Pentecostal mission. They studied the Bible together, then moved to Chicago and joined William Durham's Full Gospel Assembly. Durham instructed her in the practice of interpretation of tongues.[18]

After embarking on an evangelistic tour to China, both contracted malaria. Semple also contracted dysentery, of which he died in Hong Kong. McPherson recovered and gave birth to their daughter, Roberta Star Semple. Although McPherson claimed to have considered staying in China to continue Robert's work, she returned to the United States after receiving the money for a return ticket from her mother.[19]

Harold McPherson followed her to bring her home but changed his mind after seeing her preaching. He joined her in evangelism, setting up tents for revival meetings and preaching.[24] The couple sold their house and lived out of their "gospel car". Despite his initial enthusiasm, Harold began leaving the crusade for long periods of time in the late 1910s. Initially attempting to launch his own career as a traveling evangelist, he eventually returned to Rhode Island and his secular job. The couple were divorced in 1921.[25]

McPherson remarried in 1932 to actor and musician David Hutton. After she fell and fractured her skull,[26] she visited Europe to recover. While there, she was angered to learn Hutton was billing himself as "Aimee's man" in his cabaret singing act and was frequently photographed with scantily clad women. Hutton's personal scandals were damaging the reputation of the Foursquare Church and its leader.[27] McPherson and Hutton separated in 1933 and divorced in 1934. McPherson later publicly repented of the marriage for both theological[28] and personal reasons[29] and later rejected gospel singer Homer Rodeheaver when he proposed marriage in 1935.[30][31]

As part of Durham's Full Gospel Assembly in Chicago, McPherson became known for interpreting tongues, translating the words of people speaking in tongues. Unable to find fulfillment as a housewife, in 1913 McPherson began evangelizing, holding tent revivals across the sawdust trail. McPherson quickly amassed a large following, often having to relocate to larger buildings to accommodate growing crowds. She emulated the enthusiasm of Pentecostal meetings but sought to avoid excesses, in which participants would shout, tremble on the floor, and speak in tongues. McPherson set up a separate tent area for such displays of religious fervor, which could be off-putting to larger audiences.[32]

Of great influence to McPherson was Evangelist and Faith Healer Maria Woodworth-Etter. Etter had broken the glass ceiling for popular female preachers, drawing crowds of thousands, and her style influenced the Pentecostal Movement.[33] The two had met in person on several occasions prior to Etter's death in 1924.

In 1916, McPherson embarked on a tour of the southern United States, and again in 1918 with Mildred Kennedy. Standing on the back seat of their convertible, McPherson preached sermons over a megaphone.[citation needed] In 1917, she started a magazine, Bridal Call, for which she wrote articles about women's roles in religion; she portrayed the link between Christians and Jesus as a marriage bond. Along with taking women's roles seriously, the magazine contributed to transforming Pentecostalism into an ongoing American religious presence.[34]

In Baltimore in 1919 she was first "discovered" by newspapers after conducting evangelistic services at the Lyric Opera House, where she performed faith-healing demonstrations. During these events the crowds in their religious ecstasy were barely kept under control.[35][failed verification] Baltimore became a pivotal point for her early career.[36]

In 1918, both McPherson and her daughter Roberta contracted Spanish influenza. While McPherson's case was not serious, Roberta was near death. According to McPherson, while praying over her daughter she experienced a vision in which God told her he would give her a home in California. In October 1918 McPherson and her family drove from New York to Los Angeles over two months, with McPherson preaching revivals along the way.[38] McPherson's first revival in Los Angeles was held at Victoria Hall, a 1,000-seat auditorium downtown. She soon reached capacity there and had to relocate to the 3,500 capacity Temple Auditorium on Pershing Square, where people waited for hours to enter the crowded venue.[39][40] Afterwards, attendees of her meetings built a home for her family.[41] At this time, Los Angeles was a popular vacation destination. Rather than touring the United States, McPherson chose to stay in Los Angeles, drawing audiences from both tourists and the city's burgeoning population.[42]

For several years, she traveled and raised money for the construction of a large, domed church in Echo Park, named Angelus Temple, in reference to the Angelus bells and to angels.[43] Not wanting to incur debt, McPherson found a construction firm willing to work with her as funds were raised "by faith",[44] beginning with $5,000 for the foundation.[45] McPherson mobilized diverse groups to fund and build the church, by means such as selling chairs for Temple seating.[46][47] In his book 'Growing up in Hollywood' Robert Parrish describes in detail attending one of her services.[48]

Raising more money than expected, McPherson altered the plans and built a "megachurch". The endeavor cost contributors around $250,000.[49] Costs were kept down by donations of building materials and labor.[43] The dedication took place in January 1923.[50] Enrollment grew to over 10,000, and Angelus Temple was advertised as the largest single Christian congregation in the world.[51] According to church records, the Temple received 40 million visitors within the first seven years.[52]

McPherson developed a church organization to provide for physical as well as spiritual needs. McPherson mobilized people to get involved in charity and social work, saying that "true Christianity is not only to be good but to do good." The Temple collected donations for humanitarian relief including for a Japanese disaster and a German relief fund. Men released from prison were found jobs by a "brotherhood". A "sisterhood" sewed baby clothing for impoverished mothers.[56]

In June 1925, after an earthquake in Santa Barbara McPherson interrupted a radio broadcast to request food, blankets, clothing, and emergency supplies.[57] In 1928, after a dam failed and the ensuing flood left up to 600 dead, McPherson's church led the relief effort.[58] In 1933, an earthquake struck and devastated Long Beach. McPherson quickly arranged for volunteers offering blankets, coffee, and doughnuts.[59] McPherson persuaded fire and police departments to assist in distribution. Doctors, physicians, and dentists staffed her free clinic that trained nurses to treat children and the elderly. To prevent disruption of electricity service to homes of overdue accounts during the winter, a cash reserve was set up with the utility company.[60][61]

Drawing from her childhood experience with the Salvation Army, in 1927 McPherson opened a commissary at Angelus Temple offering food, clothing, and blankets. She became active in creating soup kitchens, free clinics, and other charitable activities during the Great Depression, feeding an estimated 1.5 million. Volunteer workers filled commissary baskets with food and other items, as well as Foursquare Gospel literature.[62] When the government shut down the free school-lunch program, McPherson took it over. Her giving "alleviated suffering on an epic scale".[63]

As McPherson refused to distinguish between the "deserving" and the "undeserving," her commissary became known as an effective and inclusive aid institution,[62] assisting more families than other public or private institutions. Because her programs aided nonresidents such as migrants from other states and Mexico, she ran afoul of California state regulations. Though temple guidelines were later officially adjusted to accommodate those policies, helping families in need was a priority, regardless of their place of residence.[64]

In August 1925, McPherson chartered a plane to Los Angeles to give her Sunday sermon. Aware of the opportunity for publicity, she arranged for followers and press at the airport. The plane failed after takeoff and the landing gear collapsed, sending the nose of the plane into the ground. McPherson used the experience as the narrative of an illustrated sermon called "The Heavenly Airplane",[65] featuring the devil as pilot, sin as the engine, and temptation as propeller.

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