Link video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwQ2xZ_jt80&feature=youtu.be
“Sister Aimee: Saint or Sinner”
Below are some questions to consider in our viewing of the video. Please turn these into your TA.
These will be graded Pass/Fail. If you show us that you watched the video, you will be fine.
1. How does the teaching of evolution figure into McPherson’s spiritual struggles?
2. What spurred early Pentecostals? How did things go for her in China?
3. Upon returning to the U.S did she find meaning in domestic life?
4. Who did her message appeal to? What did they like about Sister Aimee’s message? Do
you think this was a conservative or radical message?
5. Did everyone welcome Sister Aimee? How did she respond?
6. What changed by the time she went to Baltimore? How does she justify her shift away
from classic Pentecostalism?
7. Why California? How did the first healing service (Balboa Park) go for Sister Aimee?
8. Today we hear a lot about mega-churches. What role did Sister Aimee play in this
movement? How did Sister Aimee use the radio?
9. Did everyone welcome Sister Aimee in California (come back to this question)? On
what bases was she opposed? How did she respond?
10. What does she make of the Scopes trial? What does her position suggest about the
division between church and state?
11. About the radio. . . . . did it ever cause her in trouble? Did everyone buy that she had
drowned? How does she explain her disappearance and reappearance?
12. So, what do you think? What happened to her at that day of beach? What motivated the
District Attorney?
13. Where does she go from there? How do things end for her?
Two Wrap up questions
• Is Sister Aimee’s story important? Why?
• Do you think her message was conservative, radical, or apolitical?