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CORRECT & ERROR | AIMEE SEMPLE McPHERSON |
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CORRECT & ERROR | AIMEE SEMPLE McPHERSON |
| American Minister and Church Founder |
| FOURSQUARE GOSPEL CHURCH |
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July 1-15, 2000 THE BIG LIE Zak Turango July 15, 2000 The weight of the Depression was sitting heavily on the tired shoulders of Harry and Josephine as they stood in line for a seat in the main auditorium of Angelus Temple, located near the beautiful Echo Park lake in Los Angeles. Despite the hard times, it was a great day to go to church. They believed that the drive from San Pedro to the Temple (about 25 miles each way, before freeways) would be worth it, even after a full day of work. Harry enjoyed the preaching of the Word the most. It gave him important thoughts to consider during his humdrum work day at the airplane factory. His job was menial as he had no formal education. But he was not dumb and the thinking gave him much gratification. He believed in the Word of God literally. He took the preaching of the lady minister seriously, as if she were speaking the words of God Himself, just as she taught. Josephine liked the music and singing, having learned to play the piano as a child. Secretly, she admired Sister Aimee for being successful in what was always considered a man's role, a preacher. Long before the Feminist movement became mainstream, Josephine struggled against the docile role given to women but kept the struggle to herself as best she could. Sister Aimee was one of a kind. Eloquent; she kept the audiences spellbound for long hours of monologue. If she preached about Heaven, you wanted to be going there tonight. If Hell was considered, you could smell sulfurous fumes in your nostrils and felt Damnation's flames lick at your ankles. It was the worst place; the deserved destiny of whoremongers and liars. The best sermons of all, for Harry and Josephine, were the appeals to "Rescue The Perishing" masses of heathens around the world. The joy and peace that they felt, as Christians, should be shared with every child of God. They were moved to share their limitless effort and generosity, in concert with others just like them, at Angelus Temple, in order to spread the Gospel to the pagans. And Sister Aimee was at her very best when she lifted up the blood stained cross and asked, nay, demanded that every true Believer should join her crusade with their time and money in order to reach the world. It was an appeal to the best and highest motives of the her followers. The evidence of the commitment of the flock was manifested spectacularly by the pushing and shoving to get into the line to the entrance that wrapped around the block before each service started. Dedication to the Lord was betokened by the exuberant singing and praising that went on for hours as the meetings wore on. Sister Aimee did not have to pull this crowd along; she jumped in front of the parade and kept a step ahead of the zealots. But genuine dedication could not be exhibited nor could one prove themself faithful until money changed hands. Surely, if one loved God, one would be able to set aside some offering to demonstrate that love. The fundamentalist church of Sister Aimee's day had learned to capitalize on the concept of the "tithe," or the ten percent donation, as a measure of devotion. Citing the obscure, testament-ending prophet Malachi, who compared the lack of tithing by the Children of Israel to the robbing of God, the preachers of the Twentieth Century had found their instrument of economic leverage. Fortunately for the flock, they ignored the triple tithe demanded of Malachi's Israelite congregation (thirty percent of their incomes) to a single, ten percent tithe. Never mind the historical and scriptural inconsistency. If a preacher could convince his followers, or at least enough of them, to give ten percent of their income to the "Work," then the coffers would be full. The simplicity of the tenth made it difficult to avoid paying while easy to compute. The pagan Roman decimal system must have been ordained by God. Sister Aimee was at her best when painting a picture of masses of black, yellow and brown humanity cascading like water over the precipice of eternity and into the burning abyss of hellfire and damnation below. With the musical call to "Throw Out The Lifeline" as her background, Sister, as those who thought they were close liked to call her, would ask for those who would be willing to go and toss eternal ropes to the lost to come forward and be identified. Harry always felt the tug at his heart for the Lost Ones and wanted to arise and commit but Josephine was the practical one and wouldn't go with him so he remained seated. Sister preferred the Harry and Josephines in her audience because the guilt in all of the Harrys under her sway meant lots of money in the bags. "If you cannot go to the fields that are white unto harvest, then make it possible for those who will," Sister wailed, with a pentecostal guilt-trip in her voice. "Make a sacrifice of your tithes and offerings (anything over ten percent) and you will be a part of the harvest!" The ushers, uniformly dressed in cheap, working class suits, quickly moved up and down the aisles with baskets to gather the largesse. Of course, the expenses of the church and ministry had to be met. As any other business, a church needed electricity, paint and expansion. The radio ministry had to be maintained for those donors who could not find the time to stand in line to be present or were living too far from the church to attend. And, of course, ministers had to be paid and cared for. Sister Aimee wisely knew that ministers dare not be flagrant about their incomes and perquisites. Through the device of "allowances," as in housing, automobile and retirement, the appearance of the ministry receiving only a limited amount of personal income would be tender to the sensibilities of the donors. It was yet more desirable to appear to be sacrificing one's self in the pulpit; more, even, than the person in the pew. Anything that appeared to be enjoying the good life had to be swaddled in the mantle of the "anointing" received while doing God's Work. Sister Aimee was the best in her field at raising finances and equally as capable at covering them in a holy oil to sanctify them. She outdid herself, however, when it came time to build her "desert" hideaway. There is no doubt that ministers work hard at what they do, whether honest and straight as an arrow or cutting a few questionable corners. Public performance, be it the Arts or the altar, consumes a lot of energy. Few performers exert as much as do pentecostal ministers, such as Sister Aimee did, because the emotional effort to pull matching emotions from laymen, in order to cause them to commit and give, is exhausting. Suits and pulpit dresses have been known to be soaked in perspiration at services end. Throats were often made hoarse from the oratory and singing. For Sister Aimee, it was no longer sufficiently restful to merely retire to the attractive residence built next to the church for her use. Initially, it was thought that it would be convenient for her to be so close. But with the crowds gushing into the church, it became a bother to have so many followers thronging nearby. Sometimes, after a Sunday service, rather than making the long drive home to San Pedro, only to return faithfully for the evening service, Harry and Josephine would bring a picnic basket to eat lunch in the nearby park. But if the crowds were large and Harry stayed to pray too long at the altar about the mission field, there was no room left in the park to lay a blanket. The only "overflow" in the area would be Sister Aimee's front lawn and Harry and Josephine would quietly sit on the edge of Sister's grass. Several of the naifs that considered themselves especially faithful and devout followers of Sister's ministry would eventually join them. Surely Sister would not object to our being here," they assured themselves. Of course, they could not know that she deeply resented their proximity when she reclined to rest. The gay laughter of their fellowship seeping through her window caused her to grind her teeth in ungrateful resentment at their accidental invasion of her privacy. With the burgeoning cash flow to the church treasury, and despite the dire economic conditions for each of the individual believers, Sister Aimee, with the blessing of her hand-picked deacon board, who served at her pleasure, decided that it was necessary for her to "get away" from the masses on a regular basis. She began to search, invoking the appropriate Divine guidance and blessing, for a place to go, far from her clamoring disciples. After driving around Southern California and discreetly inquiring as to what area currently attracted persons of her elevated income and public stature, Sister Aimee was "led" to a small community in Riverside County known as Lake Elsinore. Surrounded by verdant hills, the inland lake was a perfectly idyllic location, replete with natural hot springs, mud baths and interesting Hollywood movie personalities. It would be perfect for Sister Aimee as well. Sister had a local real estate agent locate a hilltop lot to build her "desert place," where she could rest and meditate on His Holy Word, without the irritating distraction of her flock. (Surely God would insist that she do so if He were here in person.) An architect was commissioned to design a home to build on her hilltop hermitage. Due to her secular interest in Middle Eastern affairs, based partly on the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth, a well known Palestinian philosopher, her architect created an Arabian mansion, complete with turrets and minarets. The sprawling rooms, with outside decks that commanded an unobscured view of the lake would be the talk of the town. Hopefully, this talk would not get back to Angelus Temple, which it did not, until now. (We hope it is not too late!) The mansion, now known locally as "Aimee's Castle," was built around 1935, during the depths of the Great Depression. It was built on the tithes and offerings of the hundreds of naive Harrys and Josephines for the total amount of $5,000. In terms of dollars in 2000 A.D., it would be the equivalent of about $1,000,000 to buy, design and build a comparable residence today. The nature of her guest list, expected to be filled with the names of faithful followers invited to "slip away" with her, as Jesus did with His disciples, instead turned out to be the party crowd from Hollywood. Some of Tinsel Town's moral degenerates, such as Fatty Arbuckle, would engorge her elegant repasts and relax on her Arabian decks. In order to remain uncriticized, Sister could never allow any but her inner circle see that her "desert place" was an Eden on earth, designed for the physical, and not for the spiritual. Unfortunately, this diversion of donations, raised in the urgency of the Last-Days-Before-Jesus- Returns-type appeal, caused thousands of sincere believers to donate time and money to Sister Aimee's church and organization and it continued for many years. She has been copied repeatedly by other ministers since her day as they also learned how to live two separate lives, one hidden, at the same time. These Insiders live well on the bounty while the Outsiders work hard to support them, in Jesus' precious name. Sister Aimee, and third rate copies which spawned therefrom, should be advised that we now know that it was all a Big Lie. As the moral, economic and physical descendants of Harry and Josephine, we do not reveal the Big Lie simply to tear down the Christian works of Sister Aimee and her cohorts. Neither do we desire to diminish the good works that were done while she lived. We want to rebuke Sister Aimee and her ministerial mutant offspring of every Christian ministry and denomination who continue her tradition of believing that the enormous cash flow that flows to a donation-based organization as being God's supposed blessing on the ministry, and therefore, subject to the discretionary use of its' blessed leadership. To this day, many ministers, supposedly exhausted from the routines of their brief work week, justify their salaries, perks, and motorcycles/RVs/boats in the name of the Lord. Of course, they ignore the genuine fatigue suffered by their working class flocks, who attend an overactive service schedule over and above their own work schedules, but who do not warrant those same perks. We want the public, Christian and secular, to recognize that Sister Aimee abused God's Flock by using every emotional device available to motivate Harry and Josephine to give of their time, talent and treasure in the context of a "lost and dying world," headed for Hell at Jesus' Soon Return. Her appeal to their Christian ideals worked beyond belief. Had the money actually been spent to reach the heathen world, there would be little criticism today. Instead, she converted finances that did not belong to her personally to live personally as the wealthy live while demanding that her sacrificing disciples "give their all for Jesus" in the midst of The Great Depression. Had Sister Aimee openly admitted that she had a great "gig" going for herself; that she was going to enjoy life to the fullest in the light of life's brevity, and that Harry and Josephine should attempt to do the same, if they wished, we would not consider her to be deceptive. Naturally, we would not then hold her and her replicates in high regard as being "spiritual leaders" but one cannot have it both ways, can one? For this reason, we consider the "name it and claim it" theology, the faith-oriented churches to be morally superior to the Sister Aimee's of the past and present day. (We don't consider them to be correct or scripturally accurate, just more realistic about Christian greed) What should a thinking believer do with this provocative train of thought? We believe that every preacher/minister or Christian organization that asks for your money, whether in person at church, by mail, or by television/radio should be willing to reveal their personal incomes, real estate holdings, investments, personal toys and hobbies before a love gift is sent to them "for the Work of the Ministry." Donations should be withheld if that information is not given. Further, a full accounting of all disbursements should be readily available. If the bulk of the money given is spent on administration, ministry staff or overhead, then the donors should discontinue their support. Also, the use of the money should be for the furtherance of the Gospel, such as Wyckliffe Bible Translators, where Christians are actually trying to reach heathens in foreign lands that have never heard the name of Jesus once. We do not recognize the recent purchase of the Murrieta Hot Springs Resort by Calvary Chapel, for $7,500,000.00 in cash, plus renovation costs for additional millions, as furthering the Gospel. Perhaps bibles printed in a language other than English might have been a more appropriate use of the money. Finally, if we cannot have Christian leadership that will lead and motivate the Church to fulfill the Great Commandment, it is certain that you and I cannot do so. If Sister Aimee lied to our parents and grandparents; if the current ilk of religious charlatans are still lying to you, then let us adjust our Christian philosophy so that we can live without guilt about the lost souls around the world. So, enjoy your wealth and bounty. Seek it legitimately, if you don't have a bounty, and then "have a nice day" for the rest of your life. Zak Turango e-mail: zak@elsinoremagazine.com |
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