| She's
been written out of many history books, but Aimee Semple McPherson was one
of the most famous female evangelists in the world. Described as
"dynamic, irrepressible, and complex," she's been called the
"most tragic figure in America." At the same time, she satisfied
Americans' needs for spritual satisfaction, sensationalism, and sex
appeal.
As Sarah Comstock wrote in Harper's
in 1926:
"You may believe Aimee
Semple McPherson to be a messenger direct from God Almighty to save His
erring world. Or you may believe her to be the most unblushing fraud in
the public eye today. Some do one, some the other; and there is every
shade of opinion between. But the one fact that stands out is that her
influence is incredible, that it carries as that of few evangelists has
ever carried, that she is to-day one of the most amazing phenomena of
power in this feverish, power-insane United States."
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