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Welcome to the 1960s – Cheap Religion Part 2.

If you missed part 1, you can find it here. 

If the 1950s marked a significant move toward the Christianization of America, then the 1960s was the outpouring of that move. We find this in three major overlapping areas: the Civil Rights Movement, the Sexual Revolution, and the birth of the Hippie counterculture. 

This is your trigger warning for the Civil Rights Movement, which is inextricably linked to lynching.

Let’s take this in reverse order. They grow in momentum toward why we live the way we do today. Racism, or the umbrella of White Fear/Fragility and White Supremacy, is the leading reason given for voting Republican since the 2012 election (data to come in future weeks). Next week, we will dive into the theology born out of the move of the USA baptizing Christianity and the counterculture that arose from that baptism.

The Hippie counterculture

The Hippies were born out of disaffected baby boomers with fewer jobs and opportunities than their parents. They chose a different interpretation of the American Dream. From this interpretation, music has held on for the longest—rock and roll, hip-hop, and R&B. This counterculture fought against the purity of the Church and the authoritarian nature that arises with the combination of the Church and State created by Truman and Eisenhower to combat the Soviets and Communism (see last week). 

Ironically enough, the Hippies would’ve found much more in common with the founding fathers and their moves away from the tyranny of Great Britain than the Presidents who succeeded them. Perhaps they are the more authentic form of Americans?

What failed them was the drive and need to accumulate stuff. Capitalism beat hippie culture by monetizing the music and creating outcasts of the non-conformists. After all, we all have to eat or pay Rent. They were outbred and out-maneuvered as they aged. Keep this capitalist tendency in mind, by the way, because some of the best stuff will come out of it.

The Sexual Revolution

In response to Christian purity in relationships came the sexual revolution. 

For as long as we have been measuring marriages and divorce rates, Christians have boasted similar percentages of failed marriages as their non-believing counterparts. Recent surveys and studies suggest that Christian men are at least as likely to be abusive to their spouses physically and emotionally. From what data indicates, and there is no hard proof, a timid conclusion could point to the fact that this has always been present or at least present since the government’s support of religion in the 1950s.

Then, there is the abuse within the various denominations and congregations. When you account for the abuse of minors, marital partners, and divorce of “faithful” people, on top of the shame associated with being the receiver of abuse, the sexual revolution is more of a revelation of how shallow and cheap Christianity functioned in the country. It should be no surprise that men and women in a democracy built on the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness would choose partners outside the Christian norm when there is rampant and lauded abuse within the Church.

The Sexual Revelation reveals how bankrupt the Church was to initiate its members in discipleship to Jesus. The Church continues to fail and shame the least of these rather than stand with them.

The Civil Rights Movement

A whole article could be written on this or books or both. And there have been some great ones. I sum it up with simply the title of the man who was assassinated for having worked to secure Black American’s right to vote, Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.

Rev. Dr. King Jr. was a preacher first. If growth in Christianity marked the 1950s, then Rev. Dr. King Jr. was happy to use the Bible to preach equality for all mankind, including the Good Samaritan, a figure he often identified himself with—the man whom Jesus noted for following the Law.

The most damning theological evidence against the White Christianity of the 1950s might be Rev. Dr. King Jr.’s Letters From of Birmingham Jail. However, the one that shakes me the most is a lynching on church property of a man and his 8-month pregnant wife. The pastor of that congregation tied up the woman as she sang hymns of lament for her already dead husband. The pastor then cut open her uterus and crushed her infant with his boots while she watched, bleeding out. He went into the pulpit later that morning and preached the need to keep the Church pure of bad blood, sanctity of life be damned.

These are not isolated incidents. There are pictures of children wearing the fingers and ears of black men, women, and children while singing hymns in the front row of churches.

Sunday is the most segregated day because Black Americans remember the atrocities committed in the name of Christ on church grounds by White Christians. The White Church, and I am a part of it, has not even begun to atone for our atrocities.

Analysis of the 1960s for next week

I leave you with the idea that these three movements are still used as boogie-men today. The names may have changed, but the archetypes still exist today. Who are the bad guys for the Republican party? The lazy Black men and the murderous foreigners are the evil ones, right? Those bad guys are going to teach your kids LGBTQIA+ or CRT ideology and force your children to learn something different than how great White people are. Well, when you look at broader history, when I look at my family history, white people may have accomplished some great things, but it cost us our souls. As a Christian, what good is it to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul? (Matt:16:26)

For the non-Christian reading this, you might already see something else. The problem with using them as boogie-men is that, in reality, we were and still are the boogie-men. We are the ones that steal people and lynch them. We are the child rapists and abusive husbands. Even the most favorable studies show our marriages are no more sacred than people who have ultimately rejected God. We have fought tooth and nail and Civil War to have their bodies at our disposal. The lead after the 2024 election read, “Your body, my choice. Forever“

If you want to prepare for upcoming issues, read this Wikipedia article. If you consider yourself evangelical or adjacent, the Wikipedia article provides a fairly balanced perspective on the most critical unspoken event that changed our political landscape. Next week, I will outline some of the theological outcomes of this week’s events. 

If this has helped you, please share or pass it on.