Memories of 1950s/1960s American Evangelical Culture

Last updated on: May 1, 2017 at 7:43 am by Roger E. Olson

Memories of 1950s/1960s American Evangelical Culture 2017-05-01T07:43:05-05:00 Roger E. Olson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Memories of 1950s/1960s America Evangelical Culture

So, for those of you at all interested, here is a “key” to at least some of the items I mentioned in my previous post asking what you were in the 1950s/1960s if you remember them (or even some of them):

Back Yard Clubs were sponsored by Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) and volunteers (mostly evangelical Christian pastors’ wives) hosted them in their back yards during the summer. Cookies and Kool Aid and games (and summer boredom) drew neighborhood kids to the events that usually were an hour or two every afternoon for a week–kind of like Vacation Bible School for kids who wouldn’t attend a VBS in a church building. My stepmother hosted and led Back Yard Club events several summers when I was a child. Then (as I recall) CEF discovered we were Pentecostals and wouldn’t allow my stepmother to use their literature anymore. (Their literature was apparently–as I recall–something you ordered from them, not something you bought at a “Book and Bible Store.”)

The Sugar Creek Gang was a series of books about kids with Christian themes. As I recall the books contained short stories that were “serial” so the characters were the same but the stories each told some event these Christian kids experienced. They all had some point to make about Christian living–for families and kids.

Thurlow Spurr and the Spurrlows was a musical group that traveled around holding Christian “concerts” with what was then considered “contemporary Christian music” (before CCM really became a “thing”). They sang at many Youth for Christ events.

The Four Spiritual Laws was a tract published (as I recall) by Campus Crusade for Christ in the mid-1960s and we evangelical teenagers (and others) went to training events to learn how to evangelize our friends using the tract. One thing I remember was that in the tract “facts” preceded “faith.”

I could go on, but I’ll stop with those explanations. You can google the rest and learn about them if you’re at all interested.

Someone else has mentioned that my items relate to a now long-gone phenomenon: a transdenominational evangelical American subculture that thrived in the 1950 and 1960s and was for some of us, at least, a kind of para-church culture. Many of us did not have large, vibrant congregational youth groups and that subculture was a “training ground” in being transdenominationally evangelical. Through it I learned that there were other Christians than just our kind of church (viz., Pentecostal).

For many years I probably looked back on that 1950s/1960s American evangelical subculture with some disdain; later I experienced what philosopher of religion Paul Ricouer labeled a “second naïveté.” I learned to appreciate some aspects of that subculture in which I grew up. It was certainly better than the 1960s drugs and free sex culture and it helped keep me out of that. For that I give it credit.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

April 28, 2017

What It Means If You Remember...

Next Post

May 2, 2017 Complimentary Book Offer...

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Against Liberal Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

We celebrate a feast with feasting and joy, remembering deliverance from destruction in Persia. What feast are we?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Hanukkah Pentecost Passover Purim