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The Years Leading Up
TO THE 50’S-60’S
TWO GREAT WARS AND FISCAL RUIN

Why study the years leading to the
50’s and 60’s ?
The 50’s and the 60’s the American Church experienced record growth
and stability despite the obvious cultural upheaval of the time. Why is that?
We believe part of the answer can be found in the decades leading up to
the 50’s and 60’s. It would be foolhardy not to look at WW1 and 2 and the
Great Depression and how the darkness that humanity itself faced made it
look deep within to ask the questions. The only questions: Why am I here?
What is my purpose? Why does is this happening? We will look at the events
that benefitted the Church and Gospel.

World War 1
The explosive that was World War One had been long in the stockpiling; the
spark was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-
Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.
Ferdinand's death at the hands of the Black Hand, a Serbian nationalist secret
society, set in train a mindlessly mechanical series of events that culminated in
the world's first war. (1)

The Church After WW1
 “Holy war" is a loaded phrase, and Jenkins is careful to define what he means
by it. It goes far beyond what theologians such as Augustine of Hippo and
Thomas Aquinas meant by "just war." Just-war doctrine says that, in a fallen
world, as a last resort one fallen nation may use deadly force against another
to promote long-term peace and avert grave injustice. When nations embark
on holy war, in contrast, all moral complexity falls away. The country's cause
becomes God's cause. The nation is wholly righteous, its enemies purely evil.
Those who serve the nation in battle are the instruments of the Lord. Those who
fall before the demonic foe are "sacrifices" and "martyrs.“ (2)
 We see from this quote that post war disillusionment ran high. How could God
sanction or be behind such death and destruction. The American Church had
to answer these questions in a compelling way. For the most part we did.

WW 1 and The American Church
Cont…
But the optimism of the American people and her Church was at an all time
high after WW1. Our boys were home and God appeared to be on the US’s
side. We won and established ourselves as the world power we know today.
For the average American a sense of manifest destiny was expanded
beyond our country as we eyed other country's and South America. The
economy starts to balloon in unprecedented ways. This in turn leads to
ballooning church membership. Unfortunately it doesn’t lead to a large
conversion of hearts to Christ in our opinion. In fact it instills a more liberal
social gospel theological framework. The idea that we are a moral society
headed towards a man made utopia becomes more entrenched in our
minds.

The Great Depression and Optimism
Dashed
“The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1941 and only ended with America’s entry
into World War II. –Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs employed hundreds of
thousands of workers, many who were unskilled. One of the most famous New Deal
programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), and these workers are credited
improving dozens of US National Parks.” ( 3)
The optimism of the Social Gospel adherents and the like was dashed by a top heavy
economy and intense wall street speculation that led to over valuations and the crash
of 1929. The Economy is actually in a similar spot today but is propped up by
Government manipulated Interest rates.

The Great Depression and The
American Church
 The effects would be hard to quantify. We know theologically that Pastors
and other clergy started to swing towards a more Gospel driven and
centered message at this time. Theologically you can watch the
pendulum swing more towards the center at this point. One could venture
a guess that the helplessness any caring leader would feel trying to serve
his Church at time when food was scarce had to be deep and cut to the
core. Helplessness as we know leads most to Christ dependency.
Although the rise of sects was certainly on the rise. The Pentecostal
movement and the Azul street revival was a huge thing, and I wouldn’t
call our Pentecostal brothers and sisters a sect, others that were
completely unbiblical rose to prominence. Main line Protestantism stayed
stagnant.

World War 2
Unsurprisingly the cause of WW2
was likely WW1. The defeated
nations hungry for order allowed
dictators to rise. The League of
Nations set up harsh restrictions
on the offending nations,
Germany particularly was at its
lowest point. The German people
hungry for direction and with an
already political cauldron
brewing unrest the Nazi Party and
Adolf Hitler rose to power. He
then created an Axis of world
powers that were shunned by the
League of Nations for various
reasons.

The American Church during WW2
 “Coming out of World War II, America was not very religious. The war had put
a halt on many of the things that increase religiosity, particularly marriage and
procreation. Churches, just like other organizations, were slowed by drain on
resources and volunteers during the war. The post-war years turned this
around. The economy improved. The baby boom ensued. And religion grew.”
(4)
 The immediate effects of WW2 were not felt by the Church until the 50’s. But
the war set the conditions that ballooned Church growth. Political changes
made us start identify ourselves as a Christian nation for the first time in our
history. The population growth and a deeply wounded an introspective public
licking its wounds from the world being pushed to brink. Here we see all the
factors that lead to main portion of our presentation.

So What Actually
Happened in the 50’s
and 60’s?

The war raged on but was
Largely forgotten since ra-
tioning didn’t occur as it
did in WWII. The economy
shifted basically from war
To piece time production.
As housing boomed so did
other industries, such as the
auto industry.

Entertainment
With the 50’s and 60’s the entertainment era
was upon us with the advent of TV, our
favorite shows, rock n roll was new, Elvis was
popular and street rods were the craze with
the Beach Boys making the little duce coupe
famous. Out were the LP records of
grandma’s because the 45 single records
stole the scene as rock music filled the
airways and American Bandstand was the
show to watch.

Sports became very popular
with TV coverage increasing
the public’s appetite for more
as America cheered for its
favorite sports.
Jim
Brown
Arnold Palmer
became king
of the golf
course

IN GOD WE TRUST
The 84TH Congress passed
joint resolution that
declared “In God We Trust”
to be the national motto
having come from a line
written by Francis Scott Key
in the Star Spangled
Banner.
In 1956 ”World War II veteran Congressman
Charles Bennett (D-Fla.) introduces the bill,
stating: "At the base of our freedom is our faith
in God and the desire of Americans to live by
His will and His guidance. As long as this
country trusts in God, it will prevail.“

In 1954 the words, “under God” were
added to pledge of allegiance.
Oral Roberts
evangelism & healing
ministry began
televising in 1958
reaching a hungry
and needy nation.
In 1953 “…Rex Humbard
becomes the first evangelist
to host a weekly television
show, Cathedral of
Tomorrow. Widely
broadcast, the program
ushers in a new era in
evangelism.” (2)
In 1952 Norman Vincent
Peale’s book “The Power
of Positive Thinking”
merged religion with self-
help movement, was
very successful. (1)

Technology & Science
There was an explosion of advances. Polio was
eradicated in late 50’s, TV became popular,
super computers that filled a room were now in;
jet planes, electricity from nuclear energy now
being produced. NASA, created 1958, starts
launching satellites into space, including 1st
weather satellite, and puts 1st man on moon in
1969 with Wernher Von Braun as lead scientist.

Creation and Science
“Von Braun often stressed that “science and religion are not antagonists. On the contrary, they are sisters” (Hill,
intro.). He had no problem with “knowing” and “believing” living side by side; in fact, he thought it most
irrational to deny the obvious: “It is as difficult for me to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the
presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who
would deny the advances of science” (American Weekly, Jan. 10, 1960). Science can observe rationality and order
and design, but the details of the Who behind “the grandeur of the cosmos” requires revelation. That von Braun
believed in the revelation of Scripture, including Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins, will be apparent
from an essay we will quote in its entirety from an Introduction he wrote for a book on creation.
In regards to creation vs. evolution, von Braun opposed the one-sided teaching of Darwinian evolution in the
public schools. In 1972, he wrote a letter to the California School Board, which was considering a controversial
bill on the teaching of evolution. He used his influence as a scientist and well-known public figure to argue that
students need to hear the case for creation:
To be forced to believe only one conclusion—that everything in the universe happened by chance-
would violate the very objectivity of science itself. Certainly there are those who argue that the
universe evolved out of a random process, but what random process could produce the brain of a man
or the system of the human eye?
Some people say that science has been unable to prove the existence of a Designer... They challenge
science to prove the existence of God. But, must we really light a candle to see the sun?”

Einstein and God
America looses a great mind: Albert Einstein
1879-1955
Even Einstein would have
agreed with this saying:
Someone has observed
that to believe in
evolution is to believe
that Webster’s
unabridged dictionary
came about as the result
of an explosion in a
printing factory.

Billy Graham
From the start of his national and worldwide ministry in
1949 Billy would touch the Lives of Americans from sea to
shining sea. He took his authority from the one book that
has the answers to life’s deepest questions- the Bible. He
presented Jesus as the One with the answers and
throughout his crusades invited a searching people,
desperately needing help, to come to the foot of the
Cross. Billy touched the lives of the common man. He
showed us that while great men may not be common,
common men can be great by the power of the Holy
Spirit.

“Except for the
largely forgotten war
in Korea, life was
good and church
attendance would
go from nearly 50%
in 1950 to nearly 70%
by 1960.”
Church Culture in 50’s &
60’s America
“The National Council of the Churches of Christ in
the USA [founded 1948], usually identified as
the National Council of Churches (NCC), is an
ecumenical partnership of 37 Christian faith groups
in the United states.”
“The NCC's influence reached its peak in the 1950s,
largely because of its commitment to ecumenism,
and to the popularity of a wide variety of
collaborative programs and ministries undertaken
by its member churches, including the
humanitarian movement, Church World Services.
The NCC's strong position against the Vietnam
war in the 1960s alienated many laity, leading to a
decline in influence among pro-war members of
some of its member bodies.”
Mainline Churches:
The Real Reason for Decline
Benton Johnson, Dean R. Hoge & Donald A. Luidens
Copyright (c) 1993 First Things 31 (March 1993): 13-18.
“America's so-called mainline Protestant
churches aren't what they used to be. For
generations on end, the Methodists,
Presbyterians, Congregationalists,
Episcopalians, and kindred denominations
reported net annual membership gains. As
recently as the 1950s their growth rate
equaled or exceeded that of the United
States as a whole.”

 Cold
As America continues to test the A-Bomb in Nevada each test blast
not only shakes the earth but the faith of many Christians as well. It is
they who realize there is only one true way to stop war. The
transformation they call for is a changed life in Christ Jesus. But cold
war tensions push Russia and U.S. to Breaking Point. In 1962 President
Kennedy and Khrushchev face off in growing tension in the closest
the world ever came to nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Black Panther Power
active from 1966 & beyond
Even with the good times there was social unrest. The Black Panthers
wanted “self-determination” for the African Americans and they were
not afraid to use more violent means to achieve those ends. Our
nation’s sins of the past, once tucked safely away, are now thrust in
the nation’s face. What others tried to do through peace they backed
up with firepower. People were desperately searching for equality
that only Christ can bring.

Martin Luther King Jr.
active 1955-1968
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the man who had a dream, was willing, whether
from the pulpit or jail, to preach his Christian faith of equality, where peoples of
all races and colors were living together in harmony and peace, before the God
who made them in his image.

National Tragedy
The first family is
shattered and a
nation mourns the loss
of its President Nov.
22, 1963

THE VIETNAM WAR
1962-1975
The Vietnam war would rage through the 60’s claiming the nation’s young men, with many drafted, and
many more drawn by the indescribable siren’s call to war. Boys entered the battlefields of war and only
men, older beyond their years, emerged. Racial tensions were there, but the battlefields made them
brothers. As the war dragged on the nation took sides and wanted the war to End. The war is

Civil Rights Movement
It was an
unrest that
spread across
racial as well
as gender lines
as equality
was taken to
the streets of
America.
The
NAACP
had its
birth
during this
Segregation in the
South came under
attack as protest after
protest took to the
streets.

A nation watches one of its
great cities go up in smoke as
the Watts race riots of 1965 set
more than buildings ablaze in 6
days. With inequity piled upon
inequity 34 people died as a
result, with more than 1,000
injured, and 3,438 arrested with
support of nearly 4,000 national
guard. ( �ݺ�ߣ 14/1)
Then in 1967 for 5 days Newark N.J.
erupts in riots that leave 26 dead
and hundreds injured as the unrest
of the soul spills out onto America’s
streets once again. (slide14/2)

Again the nation
reels in horror as
Martin Luther King Jr.
is Assassinated on
April 4, 1968 and the
Civil Rights
Movement looses its
greatest leader.
Two months later,
on June 5 John F.
Kennedy’s
younger brother,
Bobby, is gunned
down.

With the 60’s came the hippies and
the drug scene with marijuana and
LSD at the top of the list to do some
“day tripping.” The decorative love
bugs were very “in” at the time,
and in 1969 WOODSTOCK, largest
rock festival yet with 200,000+
people; Sex, drugs, and rock N roll.
One of the largest gatherings of
people searching for some

Did the Church Have an Impact
during these years?
The 1950s and 60s were a trying time for the church but did
swing wide a door that had never been opened before in
America. A new outlook on life was being introduced into
mainstream America. This meant that mainline
Protestantism or even Protestant-Catholic-Jews no longer
represented all of society's spiritual interests. Americans
now had to take into account different kinds of spiritualties
and practices, they were forced to take on diversity like
never before. The Civil Rights to the hippies opened up a
new generation that desired peace and love over
structure and war. This was the new church and this is the
impact our church had on that time period.

Whether it was the world wars, Korea,
or Vietnam, all of our wars left us with a
bitterness, hardness and a deep sense
of loss. Though so many had died still
there was no true peace of heart for
the human spirit that was desperately
longing for more in life than the
bitterness and death that war brought.
Analysis of a
“Christian” nation

Even with all of our pastimes filled
with pleasure, TV shows, dancing
and music, these could not fill,
adequately, the longing of this
nation that sensed there was
something more to life.

Even filling our large stadiums with
adoring fans, for America’s favorite
pastime, all of this showed a public, that
while filling their lives with fun, could still
leave these stadiums empty and
wanting for more, the more was that
something that Christ can truly bring.

With the advances of our technology and science
man began to believe in his own greatness and the
dreams that he had for the future. With every
advancement his dreams grew, and his pride grew
even more. The churches, which had reached a high
point began to decline as man gained more
confidence in himself.

But even with all of the advances the depths
of unrest of the human heart spilled out over
into America’s streets as racism and
inequality and unrest showed that the
progress that was needed most was in the
depths of the human heart. The peace that
was lacking was something only God can

As much as America was souring into the
future with her power and might nothing
makes a person more mindful of their mortality
than the tragic deaths of a number of its
leaders. These tragedies did bring the nation
to its knees before God for awhile, but it would
not last.

But this was also a busy time period for
the Church in America as its missions
grew and young men and women from
our mixed racial culture united to bring
Christ to the World.

Christians were busy on the home front as well.
1950 World Vision founded by Bob Pierce, Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association established.
1951 Campus Crusade for Christ International organized by Bill Bright
1952 President Harry Truman signs National Day of Prayer resolution
1956 Five American missionaries killed by Auca Indians in Ecuador
1957 Two million attend Billy Graham NYC crusade, 55,000 decisions
reported

Were we ever truly a Christian nation? No, but we
are still a nation made better by the influence that is
to be had by people truly touched by the life
changing influence of a living Savior. The Church
continues to struggle in and with the ever changing
and challenging structure of the society in which it
finds itself. In the end view then, the Church’s hope
in this life is not built on the temporary things that
man can build. No height of buildings, no greatness
of military might, no matter how far we fling
ourselves into space, none of these matter if the
heart of this nation’s people strays from the One
God who adds greatness to any nation under
heaven.

Works Cited
�ݺ�ߣ 3 – “Firstworldwar.com." First World
War.com. Web. 18 June 2015.
�ݺ�ߣ 4 - "The Forgotten Side of the First World
War." ChristianityToday.com. Web. 18 June
2015.
�ݺ�ߣ 6 - "Facts About The Great Depression |
Great Depression Facts For Kids." The Great
Depression. Web. 18 June 2015.
�ݺ�ߣ 14 - "Timeline: Faith in America." PBS. Web.
25 June 2015.
�ݺ�ߣ 15 - Peale, Humbard
1. "Timeline: Faith in America." PBS. Web. 25
June 2015.
2. Ibid.
�ݺ�ߣ 17 - "World's Greatest Creation
Scientists from Y1K to Y2K." World's
Greatest Creation Scientists from Y1K to
Y2K. Web. 25 June 2015.
�ݺ�ߣ 22 - "Mainline Churches: The Real
Reason for Decline." Mainline Churches:
The Real Reason for Decline. Web. 25
June 2015.
�ݺ�ߣ 29 - "1967 Newark Riots." Wikipedia.
Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 25 June
2015.

Works Cited (continued)
�ݺ�ߣ 39
https://www.cmalliance.org/resou
rces/archives/timeline

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Editor's Notes