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5. History - Part 5

The event that marked the reemergence of the fundamentalist movement, and became instrumental in the emergence of the Religious Right was the split between the Old Fundamentalism and the New Evangelicalism. As the events of the 1930s have shown, the fundamentalists have grown increasingly separatist, and pessimistic, due to their failure in the post-Scopes Trial era. This brought a split between the old fundamentalists, such as Carl McIntire and the new evangelicals, such as Billy Graham. The main difference between fundamentalist and evangelicals was that the evangelicals were more tolerant to minor ideological differences, while most fundamentalists tried to separate themselves from those suspected from even the slightest version of orthodoxy.1 Carl McIntire became one of the leaders of the Religious Right. His first important action on the religious arena has been the founding of the American and International Councils of Christian Churches (ACCC-ICCC) as the opposition to the liberal National Council of Churches in the 1940s. The ACCC-ICCC was very active in rooting out communists in various churches around the nation, and McIntire himself was very was very friendly with a certain Senator from Wisconsin. McIntire continued to search for communists even after McCarthy's death, and he opposed the civil rights movement.

McIntire was certainly not the only member of the Religious Right to be on friendly terms with McCarthy. Almost every fundamentalist preacher was joining him for witch hunt. But, although McCarthy was supported by Billy Graham and most other preachers, very few were as loyal as Billy James Hargis. He was one of the few preachers who worked directly with McCarthy. In 1947, Hargis established the Christian Echoes Ministry, which later became the Christian Crusade, and proceeded to attack communists, even after the Red Scare was over. Hargis was also opposed to the civil rights movement, and even called Martin Luther King a "stinking racial agitator".2

Other fundamentalists of the period included Fred Schwarz, who founded the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, Edgar Bundy, and others.3 An interesting note belongs to the John Birch Society. Named after a young Baptist missionary to China allegedly killed by Chinese Communists, the John Birch Society became one of the most rabid anti-Communist organization America has ever known.4 One of its most well-known statements was calling President Eisenhower "a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy".5

An interesting parachurch organization came into existence in 1951. It was started by a young man named Bill Bright, who, as a student of Fuller Seminary fell under the influence of an enigmatic Sunday school teacher, and decided to create a sort of ministry for college students. This idea came to him while he was studying for a Greek exam during his last year at the seminary.6

Bright regarded the experience as a definite commission from God, and set to act upon it immediately. Bright believed that committed Christian young people can provide the strongest bulwark against secularism, moral decay, and Communism. Thus, he formed a group of eager young preachers, and set them loose upon UCLA.7

Thus, the Campus Crusade for Christ was born. Eventually, it will eclipse Billy Graham's Youth For Christ, and become the largest organization of its kind. Bill Bright put a high value on organization, technique, and straightforward attempts to move people to a rational decision. The Bright installed and still maintains a tight chain of command, in which lieutenants defer to captains and all ranks acknowledge that Bill Bright holds the ultimate power of decision.8 The Crusade often adopts military terms—enlist, advance, rally, campaign, blitz, warrior, etc.—when referring to its recruitment operations. The CCC representatives pursue a four-point strategy of evangelism: Penetration, Concentration, Saturation, and Continuation.9 Each member is required to lead a life of moral and spiritual discipline, and spend many hours a week talking to individuals about their need to be saved, as well as attend a continual round of meetings to strengthen faith and maintain commitment.10

The Campus Crusade for Christ has been active since the 1950s. Its most important role, however, was during the 1960s, when most evangelical organizations failed to recruit new members. During that time, the CCC emerged as the biggest challenge to the radical student movement.11 In 1966, a musical group known as New Folk, began holding largely secular concerts, during which the musicians gave a low-key pitch for establishing a personal relationship with Christ. The following year, a CCC ministry called Athletes in Action formed a basketball team that traveled around the country, playing local college teams, and presenting a Christian message at half-time.12 Although most people thought such approaches old-fashioned and corny, many students who did not want to "Tune in, turn on, and drop out" heeded them.13 However, Bill Bright thought that the CCC was falling behind in recruiting, so he attempted to make a comeback.

This comeback became known as the Berkeley Blitz of 1967. Just as the CCC targeted the campus leaders in its campaigns—the student body president, the editor of the school newspaper, the captain of the football team, the fraternity or sorority president—expecting that others will follow their lead, Bright decided to take the most important campus in the UC system.14

Under the aegis of the campaign's slogan, "Solution: Spiritual Revolution", over six hundred crusaders carried their message to:

athletic teams, clubs, fraternities and sororities, dormitories, student centers, coffee-shops, and open-air meetings. Jon Braun recalled, with some amusement, addressing several thousand young people from the steps of Sproul Hall. "The day before, the [regents] had dismissed the chancellor of the entire system, and these kids were out there because they thought it was a demonstration against the university. They hadn't really come to hear someone preach the gospel. But we had relatively little choice. I remember being surrounded by a group of very large football players from various universities around the country, and that comforted me a little bit. But that was probably the worst experience I've ever had in my life in my life in evangelism".15

The climax of the blitz came at the end of the week, when Billy Graham addressed a large audience at Berkeley's Greek Theater. On the surface, the effort seemed to be a moderate success, since more than seven hundred students and faculty members seemed to have "received Christ". The surface, however, was thin. Peter Gillquist, another CCC staffer admitted, "we know of only two [students] who really followed through".16 As such, the blitz was a fiasco.

In the 1960s and 70s, the Religious Right was facing an increasingly uphill battle. As the Berkeley fiasco of the CCC shows, not many people were attentive to the Religious Right's efforts. In addition, the Supreme Court struck down the laws requiring school prayer, and Bible reading in school, which angered the Religious Right even more. Finally, the issues that were preoccupying the nation's attention: the ERA, gay rights, abortion, sex education, and others were all a thorn in the Religious Right's side. The fundamentalists, however, did not give up, and attempted to gain power at the local level to fight the evils of their new enemy, "Secular Humanism," which, in their opinion was responsible for all those "evils."

Humanism was a very old philosophy, associated with the Renaissance, and the classical ideals which gave that era its name. Many Renaissance thinkers, such as Erasmus, were Christians, who saw no conflict between a high view of God and a high view of humanity, since humans were the capstone of God's glorious creation.17 Other humanists, however, saw little need for God. In 1933, a group of thirty-four American humanists, including educator John Dewey signed the Humanist Manifesto, which asserts that "the traditional dogmatic or authoritarian religions that place revelation, God, ritual or creed above human needs and experience do a disservice to the human species".18 Although most people ignored this, the fundamentalists paid very close attention. In their eyes, secular humanism was a godless religion, and the Humanist Manifesto was its bible. Thus, in the fundamentalists' eyes, all "attacks on religion" by the government in the 60s were a result of this "evil religion." A special report published in a Christian magazine stated that:

To understand humanism is to understand women's liberation, the ERA, gay rights, children's rights, abortion, sex education, the "new" morality, evolution, values clarification, situational ethics, the separation of church and state, the loss of patriotism, and many of the other problems that are tearing America apart today.19

The replacement of communism by secular humanism as the # 1 enemy of Christianity is due to the efforts of one man, Francis Schaeffer. Just as he brought the abortion to the attention of the fundamentalist community with his film Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, he demonized secular humanism in How Should We Then Live?, a film/book combination that stressed that surrender to secularity would lead mankind to a dreadful future devoid of ethical an moral restraint20

This led the Religious Right to counterattack in the 1970s by banning "godless" books from local schools, opposing the ERA and abortion, and by getting involved in politics via organizations like the Moral Majority. Most of these issues can be found in the next section of this Paper.

Another thing that happened in the 70s was the so-called Electronic Revival. Evangelical ministers realized the opportunities that the media offered, and proceeded to utilize them to reach the unsaved. This brought remarkable results. The Christian Broadcasting Network, owned by Pat Robertson reached 35 million viewers in 1987, and had the highest Nielsen ratings of any cable network.21 However, many people doubted the sincerity of these televangelists, and eventually the public opinion turned against them.

The 1980s were the era of the Moral Majority, the activities of which are described in the next section of this Paper. It had influenced President Reagan enough to nominate C. Everett Koop a staunch anti-abortionist as Surgeon General. Reagan also proposed an anti-abortion and a school prayer Amendment to the Constitution, both of which failed. In addition, the Religious Right suffered major defeats when Wallace v. Jaffree (1981) banned silent prayer in school and when Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) banned the teaching of Biblical creationism.

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Footnotes

1 Ibid, p. 40

2 Ibid, p. 79

3 Ibid, p. 39

4 Utter and Storey, The Religious Right: A Reference Handbook, p. 73

5 Martin, With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, p. 75

6 Ibid, p. 28

7 Ibid, p. 28

8 Ibid, p. 28

9 Ibid, p. 28

10 Ibid, p. 28

11 Ibid, p. 91

12 Ibid, p. 92

13 Ibid, p. 94

14 Ibid, p. 93

15 Ibid, p. 94

16 Ibid, p. 94

17 Ibid, p. 195

18 Ibid, p. 195

19 Ibid, p. 196

20 Ibid, p. 195

21 Weyrich, "Television Evangelism is Legitimate". Religion In America: Opposing Viewpoints, p. 157

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