(Tom Lutz, Mirage Factory: Aimee Semple McPherson and 1920s L.A., Los Angeles Review of Books, Feb. 25, 2025)
(lareviewofbooks.org/article/mirage-factory-aimee-semple-mcpherson-and-1920s-la/)
"Sister, Sinner" 2025 (Book Review)
Everyone who writes about Aimee Semple McPherson needs to deal with that scandal of 1926,1 and since everyone involved was clearly lying, some of the court records have disappeared, and corruption was rampant in every official and church investigation, the record is far from clear.
Claire Hoffman has looked at everything2 and had access to some archival materials from McPherson’s church that no previous researchers have seen. She has put together the most complete accounting yet of what happened.3 She presents the incident in great detail and with the investigative narrative drive of the Serial podcast.
1926 “Scandal”
How is Aimee McPherson being kidnapped supposed to be a "scandal"? Right out of the gate, the reviewer, Tom Lutz, is guilty of the sin of assumption and reflects a lack of familiarity with the topic.
Hoffman Looked at Everything
Certainly those are very flattering words, again, without real substance. A quick look at Hoffman's sources reveals a narrow focus, not because she lacked access to materials, but rather because she cherry-picked what was important to her skewed narrative.
Most Complete Accounting
Without the so-called "apologetic" work of Dr. Raymond Cox's The Verdict Is In, Lutz has no right to call Hoffman's book the "most complete," and no, it's not listed as one of Hoffman's sources. It's hard to dismiss that man's 25+ years of research on the topic as offering nothing.
The purpose of this book is to relate the kidnapping events as they actually happened, the reporting of same, and the subsequent grand jury and preliminary hearing. Over twenty-five years of diligent research have been involved in producing this accurate account of what took place.
Raymond L. Cox, Th.D., F.R.G.S., Author Salem, Oregon
(full text is here: https://sisteraimee.org/writings/the-verdict-is-in/)
Why did Hoffman not address Dr. Raymond's superb work? Because it refutes her narrative at every turn, i.e., if Sister Aimee wasn't a "sinner" and if there was no "scandal," then what on earth could she write about? How about truth-telling and explaining that the real scandal was how the newspaper she worked for spun a tale that was false: the Los Angeles Times.
Claire Hoffman is the author of the memoir Greetings from Utopia Park and a journalist reporting for national magazines on culture, religion, celebrity, business, and other subjects. She was a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz and has an MA in religion from the University of Chicago and an MA in journalism from Columbia University. She serves on the boards of the Columbia School of Journalism, ProPublica, and the Brooklyn Public Library. (Claire Hoffman, Sister, Sinner, 2025, About the Author)
Book Dedication Deceptive
Her dedication was a sneaky jab at Aimee:
And to Aimee, who has taught me the power of belief
What she so slyly was saying (based on the statements in her book and interviews) was really this:
"Aimee taught me how strongly a person can be deluded, and believe in their delusions."
I'm sure she, and her fellow writers at the L.A. Times and Rolling Stone magazine, got a good laugh at that sneaky dedication.
Claire Hoffman is just another example of how wrong a person can be about something. Did she actually read what Aimee wrote? Or only the "facts" from other writers? Her "ah ha" moment wasn't where it could have been if she wasn't so jaded from the start, somewhere deep within Aimee's experiences, her divine healing, her daughter's divine healing, the divine healings of thousands of others initiated through her, etc.
Or, within the miracles that propelled and sustained Aimee from a teenager, a mother, a widow, a world traveler, healer, preacher, writer, defender, debater, temple founder, designer, builder, poet, opera writer, and facilitator of people experiencing the VERY presence of God.
Aimee was no charlatan, not a worshipper of Baal, nor a follower of Hindu gods, nor used the Kundalini to fool everyone. She was self-taught and self-educated, and her poetic writing is abundant, profound, and indicative of someone highly gifted, spiritually sensitive, and incredibly endowed by divine power.
The reason people flocked to her wherever she went was that she walked in a strong anointing of God's Spirit, something that cannot be faked, no matter how deluded the person is. Personal delusions don't produce miracles in others, nor do they produce good, selfless fruit such as Sister, Saint Aimee performed.
We call Claire Hoffman to write a corrective book titled "Sister, Saint" and to see what concrete facts she finds through that investigative lens instead.