Introduction
The Los Angeles women are known to be very innovative and hardworking. This means that they do whatever it takes; to have good lives thus they do well in their jobs and in their homes. There have been a number of women in history who have shown these characteristics and a good example is Aimee Semple McPherson. She had major accomplishments and gained fame in the 1920s at a time when women had many restrictions in areas such as voting or being a preacher. She used modern methods to preach to people such as using the radio, theatre and newspaper.
Sister Aimee McPherson
Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson was born in 1890 in Ontario, Canada. She was the only child of Minnie and James Kennedy and was raised in a Christian home. One of the reasons that has made her do charitable work in the future was due to seen her mother help the poor by working in the soup kitchens salvation army. She got married to Robert James Semple in 1908 whom she met at church meeting in 1907 (Epstein). They had one child Roberta star Semple born in 1910. They travelled the world doing evangelical tour. Robert Semple died from malaria complications before his daughter was born in Hong Kong. She went back to America with her child and remarried to an accountant Harold Stewart McPherson in 1912. While in this marriage that is when she felt that, her life was incomplete and she wanted to be a preacher. The moment she began her evangelical work was after she had gotten seriously sick and claimed that a voice wanted her to choose whether to be a preacher or die. When she got better, she started preaching.
Evangelistic work
The start of her evangelistic work began with her first husband when they toured around Europe and China where he died. After she got better from her illness, she started again touring using her own car and preached to people all over America and Canada. This was very non-conventional way of preaching to the people thus she got followers including her husband who left his home and work and followed her. During this ministerial work, the family began having financial problems where they relied on relief to get food for the family. The husband was tired of this lifestyle, decided to go back to his hometown, and filed for divorce in 1921. She continued with her preaching and by 1923, she was able to build the Angelus temple that is situated in Los Angeles (Sutton).
The same year she was able to open a bible school that is commonly known as the lighthouse of international foursquare evangelism. During her preaching, she used both the religious teachings with the contemporary culture, which is one of the major reasons that have made her have many followers at that time. One of the reasons that made her go to Los Angeles was because the state had become one of the areas that had a lot of tourists. The number of people in going to churches had decreased over the years. She made people go back to church with her sermons that were educative.
Innovator
Aimee used modern media to preach to the people in different backgrounds. This shows how innovative she really was and modernized. In 1917, she wrote the bridal call magazine, which talks about women in religion. This was essential at that moment of time because women were being oppressed and thus they had formed women's movements. When she used the media, she was able to preach to people from all sorts of life and thus was able to change the lives of people who were not near her. The women's movement groups were also able to use her to push for women to be treated equally as the men in the society. She has been well written by the media for being a demonstrator of faith healing. This has been one of her legacy teachings to her congregation (Lewis).
There have also been documentations by the media that she also performed miracle healings. To some of the critics of this spiritual healing they claimed that it was just hysteria or some sort of hypnosis. There have been many successes in her healing powers thus gave her many followers. This best represents Los Angeles because it shows how dedicated she was too got thus she had faith, which enabled her to heal people. In Los Angeles, there have been many women's movements that used the media to air their grievances. In her case, she used this media to preach to people and encourage women to follow religion.
Philanthropist or charity works
Los Angeles women are known for their charity works to help the poor in the community. Aimee Semple is one of the women in history who were well known for helping others apart from her evangelistic works. She started organizations in the church that will help the needy in the community. There have been many ways in which she tried to reach people that needed help such as by using the telephone and radio. There were charity departments where the funds collected were used to help the needy people in the community. There were also some organizations that were formed to help the people who were from prisons to get jobs. There was a dam that failed that caused floods, which killed over 400 people in 1928. Her church took the responsibility of providing aid to the victims. In 1934, there was an earthquake in long beach, which caused Aimee Semple to send relief to the victims in forms of blankets and food (Lewis). She also started an operation, which would help un-wed mothers and battered mothers.
In conclusion, Aimee Semple McPherson is a good example of a modern day Los Angeles woman. She used modern media to preach and help people in Los Angeles. She established a church, which garnered many followers. The church also established organizations that would help people when there are disasters and people who are poor. They formed shelters which helped women especially abused women and un-wed mothers or teens.
Work cited
Epstein, Daniel Mark. “Sister Aimee: The Life of Aimee Semple McPherson’’. Orlando: Harcourt Brace & Company, (1993).
Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Aimee Semple McPherson." About.com Guide (2011).
Sutton, Matthew Avery. "Aimee Semple McPherson." Evangelical Maverick (2008).
