Bill Bright & Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America (review)

Bill Bright never achieved the headline-grabbing status of evangelical leaders such as Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell. Nevertheless, by the time of Bright's death in 2003, his Campus Crusade for Christ had grown from a small campus ministry to one of the largest evangelical organizations in America, with annual revenues of almost $500 million, and a worldwide staff of almost 30,000. John Turner describes the ways Bright's strong, sometimes stubborn leadership led to such impressive growth. Just as important as Bill Bright's story, Turner considers the ways the history of Campus Crusade can illuminate important themes in the wider history of postwar evangelicalism, such as the changing roles of evangelicals on secular campuses, the increasing connection between evangelicals and conservative politics, and the ways Crusade leaders accommodated themselves to America's changing gender mores.

As Turner recounts, Campus Crusade for Christ's early success came in large part from its strategy of targeting charismatic student leaders, especially among fraternities and sororities. Its Dale Carnegie-style sales approach in the 1950s allowed it to overcome students' prejudices about evangelicals as "stuffy and fanatical" (61).

Turner's account is at its best when he explores the ways the Campus Crusade story sheds light on common evangelical experiences, such as Crusade's tense relationship with evangelical competitors in Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. Bill Bright also shared the struggle of many evangelicals as he was forced to choose between the more ecumenical approach of Billy Graham and the stricter separatism of the Bob Joneses. In supporting Graham, Bright revealed his primary concern for effective soul-winning over theological niceties. Such pragmatism was also evident in the late 1960s, when Crusade evangelists coopted the style and tactics, if not the substance, of leftist student activists.

As Campus Crusade grew into an influential international organization, Bill Bright slipped more and more into active involvement with conservative Republican politics. He struggled to keep the Crusade officially politically neutral. By the time of the 1980 presidential election, however, Bright's continuing assertion of political neutrality sounded increasingly divorced from reality, given Bright's political activism against abortion and in favor of Reagan's candidacy.

Turner focuses on Crusade's domestic activities, but it would have been instructive to have included a fuller discussion of Crusade activism beyond the shores of the United States. Of course, it is impossible to include every important theme, but evangelical organizations have traditionally thought of themselves as essentially transnational. Campus Crusade was no exception. By 1977, as Turner acknowledges, Campus Crusade had shifted its focus primarily to overseas missions. Yet for understandable practical reasons Turner gives only relatively brief mention to this central aspect of postwar evangelicalism.

Overall, however, Turner provides a balanced and thorough account of this important organization, and offers a thoughtful analysis of the things Campus Crusade can teach us about postwar evangelicalism. His insights are particularly compelling due to his rich pool of sources. He relies on extensive interview material with leaders and activists in the Campus Crusade hierarchy to compose a convincing portrait of a sincere if bullheaded Bill Bright and his Crusade.