| Sister Aimee Semple McPherson |
| Aimee Semple McPherson, also known as "Sister Aimee" or simply "Sister," was an evangelist and a media sensation in the 1920s and 1930s. McPherson (1890-1944), a gifted and controversial female evangelist, founded the Foursquare Gospel Church in 1927. Los Angeles was her center of operations, and the Angelus Temple, seating 5,300 people, was opened there in 1923. Aimee was an outright celebrity, who led parades every Sunday through the streets of L.A., along with the mayor, and movie stars, directly to Angelus Temple. She built the temple, and L.I.F.E. Bible College next door to it. McPherson was first woman in history to preach a radio sermon, and with the opening of Foursquare Gospel-owned KFSG AM on February 6, 1924, she also became the first woman to be granted a broadcast license by the Federal Communications Commission. |
| Date:
2004-11-20 | http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_aimee_semple_mcpherson.htm |
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| Adrian Rogers |
| Founder of Love Worth Finding, president of the Southern Baptist Convention and leading light of the "inerrancy movement," Adrian Rogers was a leading televangelist for many years. |
| Date:
2006-7-24 | http://www.adrianrogers.org/ |
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| Aimee Semple McPherson the Movie |
| Movie stars Mimi Michaels, Rance Howard, and Kiera Chaplin in a biographical piece on Sister Aimee. |
| Date:
2005-5-11 | http://www.aimeesemplemcphersonmovie.com/ |
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| Billy James Hargis |
| The Rev. Billy James Hargis was a "bawl and jump" evangelist who staunchly preached an anti-communist message during the Cold War and was aired on more than 500 radio stations and 250 television stations at his peak. The mission of his Church of the Christian Crusade was "to succor the spiritually starved captives of communism." Born in Texarkana, Texas on August 3, 1925, he passed away in Tulsa, Oklahoma on November 27, 2004 at age 79. A 1964 broadcast led to a Supreme Court case that established the "fairness doctrine" in American broadcast media. |
| Date:
2004-12-7 | http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/The_critics/Hargis/Hargisbio.html |
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| Carl McIntire |
| The Rev. Carl McIntire was a fiery anti-communist preacher whose message could be heard daily on more than 600 stations at his peak in the mid-1960s. He eventually lost his ministry in a battle with the FCC over the "fairness doctrine" in 1970 with his radio station licences revoked in 1973. Based in southern New Jersey, he continued to preach at the Bible Presbyterian Church until he retired in 1999. He died March 19, 2001 at the age of 95. |
| Date:
2004-12-7 | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_McIntire |
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| Father Charles E. Coughlin - the Radio Priest |
| Broadcast evangelism's Dark Side, the Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, a native of Canada, radiocast a now-discredited view of racial and religious relations, mixed with political rhetoric, beginning October 26,1925. At his controversial peak, 30 million listeners coast-to-coast heard the Radio Priest's Sunday afternoon broadcast. Upon arrival, Detroit's first archbishop maneuvered Coughlin out of the spotlight and eventually silenced him. He had broadcast his last by April 1940, although he occupied the pulpit for many more years. Coughlin died in 1979 at the age of 88. |
| Date:
2004-11-22 | http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/coughlin.html |
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| Gene Scott |
| Southern California-based University Network presents Dr. W. Eugene Scott. "The Broadcast" is aired locally in California, Connecticut, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, D.C.; on satellite Telstar 6, Transponder 7 plus shortwave radio and the internet. Dr. Scott passed away at age 75 on February 21, 2005 after suffering a stroke. |
| Date:
2004-11-17 | http://www.drgenescott.com |
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| Jim and Tammy Fae Bakker - Praise The Lord |
| Jim Bakker founded his Praise the Lord, PTL for short, ministry in Fort Mill, South Carolina in 1974. Affectionately named Heritage USA, he built the ministry from the ground up, and would eventually have a 500 room luxury hotel, its own cable TV show, an amusement park, and an amphitheater. The PTL claimed in 1987 to have 13 million subscribers and assets of $175 million including Heritage USA, a 2,300-acre Christian theme park, which was home to PTL and his cable show, called the Inspirational Network. But a sex scandal combined with serious questions about PTL's financial books led to his downfall in the 1980s. Bakker received a 45-year sentence for financial improprieties, essentially a pyramid scheme, but was released in 1994 after serving five years. His wife Tammy Fae, who had co-starred on PTL programming, divorced him while he was incarcerated. After he departed the ministry, the name was changed to People That Love. PTL declared bankruptcy in 1989. The Inspirational Network still exists. Both Tammy Fae and Jim Bakker have made small comebacks, she on "reality" t.v. and he with his new television program, the Jim Bakker Show, homebased in Branson, Missouri. |
| Date:
2004-12-9 | http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9542346 |
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| Larry Lea |
| Tulsa-based founder of the International Prayer Ministries and known as "the apostle of prayer," Larry Lea's fall from grace came when ABC's PrimeTime Live aired an expose November 21, 1991 that revealed while Lea claimed that his house had burnt down taking with it all his possessions, he neglected to mention his "other" house full of valubles. Donations dried up and with his ministry deep in debt, Lea departed Tulsa to take up a pastorate at the La Mesa, California-based Christian Faith Center where he now calls his operation "The Prayer Ministry." |
| Date:
2005-2-17 | http://www.bible.ca/tongues-encyclopedia-pentecostal-preachers#lea |
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| Mother Angelica |
| Alabama based nun famous for her wit and humor. Still re-broadcast in edited reruns on EWTN. |
| Date:
2004-9-15 | http://www.ewtn.com/mother_update.asp |
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| Robert Tilton |
| Robert Tilton stepped into the broadcast vacuum left by fallen televangelists Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker. At his peak he purchased 5,000 hours of airtime per month and appeared in all 235 U.S. television markets. His daily Success In Life show could be seen everywhere in North America. Tilton's mass-market ministry pulled in $80 million per year, and his Dallas church drew up to 5,000 worshipers for Sunday service. His over-the-top preaching style even drew cults of college students who watched just for the camp factor. On November 21, 1991 ABC's PrimeTime Live aired the results of a six-month investigation. The prime charge was the accusation that Tilton never saw the vast majority of prayer requests and personal correspondence sent to him by faithful viewers. On the air Tilton promised to pray over each individual miracle-plea. But ABC said it found thousands of those requests dumped in garbage bins in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Checks, money orders, and in some cases cash, food stamps, and even wedding rings sent by followers had been deposited at a local bank. Additional dumped prayer requests were uncovered by other investigators. Outraged donors sued and eighteen months later Tilton was off the air. Eventually he fled his Dallas, Texas homebase. On March 16, 1996, after announcing his call to evangelical work in Cuba and the Philippines, Tilton named Bob Wright as senior associate pastor of the Dallas church and he then fell from sight, only to reemerge in South Florida in the late 1990s on a much lesser scale. His Word of Faith World Outreach Center Church, Inc. is listed in Florida tax records as inactive and he has proved an elusive figure at best. But he has again begun to buy airtime on some cable networks. As of 2005, Tilton is operating the Word of Faith World Outreach Center Church out of Tulsa, Oklahoma. |
| Date:
2005-2-17 | http://www.popcultmag.com/oddglimpses/religious/tilton/tiltondefault.html |
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| W.V. Grant, Jr. |
| W. V. Grant, Jr., was a second-generation revival preacher. Grant gained fame and fortune in the 1970s and 1980s as one of America's leading faith healers, commanding packed auditoriums and a ministry worth millions. But his Dawn of a New Day ministry was revealed to be fraudulent by a November 21, 1991 expose by ABC's PrimeTime Live when hidden cameras caught him mingling with his congregation before broadcasts, asking about personal information including ailments and financial concerns and then calling hand-picked followers up to receive his "miracles." He ended up serving eighteen months in prison on income tax fraud charges. Grant has recently returned to the pulpit in Dallas, Texas but no longer has a broadcast ministry. |
| Date:
2005-2-17 | http://www.bible.ca/tongues-encyclopedia-pentecostal-preachers#grant |
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