Reviving Sister Aimee with Anthea Butler and Arlene Sanchez-Walsh [On Being]

Reviving Sister Aimee

June 9, 2011

A look back at the closest thing the early 20th century may have had to Oprah Winfrey. The flamboyant Pentecostal preacher Aimee Semple McPherson was a multimedia sensation and a powerful female religious leader long before most of Christianity considered such a thing. The contradictions and passions of her life are a window into the world of global Pentecostalism that touches as many as half a billion lives today.

About the Image

Aimee Semple McPherson preaches to her flock at Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, California in 1931.

(Source: Heritage Department of the International Foursquare Gospel)

Program Details

Unheard Cuts

» Unedited Interview with Anthea Butler
(mp3, 63:14)

» Unedited Interview with Arlene Sánchez-Walsh (mp3, 61:59)

» Unedited Interview with Margaret Paloma (mp3, 23:34)

Hear the Music

» Show Playlist ¦ listen to full-length tracks of each song played in the program

About the Image

Aimee Semple McPherson preaches to her flock at Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, California in 1931.
(source: Heritage Department of the International Foursquare Gospel)

Special Funding

Funding provided in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

SoundSeen (our multimedia stories)

» The Illustrated Sermon
[slideshow, 3:05]
Get a sense of Aimee Semple McPherson's theatrically staged sermons that packed Angelus Temple while listening to the Pentecostal preacher in various settings around the world.

» Saving Sinners on Broadway [video, 1:15]
» Practicing What We Preach
[video, 1:38]
Archival film footage of Aimee Semple McPherson included in Hearst Metrotone News reels. View the charismatic, and slightly quirky, delivery of a tech-savvy evangelist of the 1930s.

Selected Writings

» A Biography of Aimee Semple McPherson
Margaret Poloma recommended to Krista that she read historian Mel Robeck's "readable and very good" entry on Sister Aimee's life and acts — a concise couple of pages well worth your time.

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When homosexuality within Pentecostalism becomes a debate about academic freedom and a rigorous "life of the mind."

» Baby Worships at Florida Church Video
Do physical forms of worship like this contribute to the development of a child's faith and belief systems as she grows older?

Your Stories, Your Voices:

Voices on the Radio

Anthea Butler
Anthea Butler is an associate professor of Religious Studies and graduate chair of Religion at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Arlene Sánchez-Walsh
Arlene Sánchez-Walsh is an associate professor of Latino Church Studies at Azusa Pacific University.

Biographical Shows

Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities, On Being has produced a series of biographical programs of influential 20th-century historic figures in addition to Sister Aimee. These portraits focus on their lives and thought, their spiritual development, the effect of their work on others, and their impact in contemporary society — bringing special attention to their religious context and milieu. Other seminal figures covered in this series include: