AIMEE SEMPLE MCPHERSON
(Aimee Elizabeth Semple McPherson)
McPherson was the first woman who preached over the radio. With the advent of radio for all purposes, stations were being erected all over the country and began to interfere with each others broadcast. Herbert Hoover saw this as a Federal Problem and authorized his administration to regulate the power and wavelength frequencies that stations could use for their broadcasts. McPherson had built the Angelus Temple in Echo Park with two huge radio towers but she was broadcasting “the word of God” and did not want to be restricted to broadcasting on a single frequency. She and others, even today, see any regulation of a religious activity as an impingement of freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
Aimee Elizabeth Semple McPherson, also known as Sister Aimee or Sister, was a Canadian Pentecostal evangelist and media celebrity in the 1920s and 1930s, famous for founding the Foursquare Church. McPherson pioneered the use of modern media in religious services, using radio to draw on the growing appeal of popular entertainment and incorporating stage techniques into her weekly sermons at Angelus Temple, an early megachurch.
