Modernizing Divine Healing

Embracing modern media, especially the use of the radio, Aimee Semple McPherson was instrumental in modernizing the evangelist movement for the 20^th century.  Through persistent and enthusiastic use of mass media, McPherson was able to transmit her new gospel of healing to a broad public, and in doing so outlined the parameters of the modern divine healing movement.  Dazzling religious theatrics and a natural affinity for generating publicity made McPherson one of the most famous American personalities of the early twentieth century.  The first real celebrity of the mass media era, McPherson mastered the arts of print, radio, and film for use in her evangelical mission.  In Los Angeles, McPherson managed to combine the local booster spirit, fundamentalism, and glitzy Hollywood glamour into a unified religious movement.  

McPherson readily adopted mass media technologies as tools for preaching. First using the radio in 1922, an eager McPherson almost immediately began devising plans to build her own station centered on the Foursquare Gospel. Embarking on a fundraising blitz, McPherson quickly accumulated the necessary funds to construct her own station, and ambitiously set out to create live radio broadcasts to accommodate her wide variety of listeners.  She scheduled broadcasts of her sermons, hosted multiple children’s hours, offered live music from the Angelus Temple, broadcast organ recitals, and announced weekly Sunday School lessons.[1]

In addition to the radio, McPherson oversaw the distributing of thousands of Foursquare magazines all over Europe and the Pacific islands, issued phonographic recordings of her sermons for public sale, and managed her own printing press to disseminate her views on varies topics to a national audience. In doing so, McPherson created her own mass media empire, a strategy that later 20^th century evangelists would later copy to solidified and spread their own spiritual messages.