AIDS and Medieval Leprosy: A "Distant Mirror"?

May/June 2008 Historically Speaking 33 ormoreconservativereligiousboomdidnotfadeaway widi die rest of postwar religiosity but continued to shape American religion, culture, and politics. At a bare minimum, the revivalism of the 1950s (particularlythatof fundamentalists/evangelicalslike Graham) provides the necessary bridge between the Scopes Trial and the Religious Right. As scholars like JoelCarpenterhavepersuasivelydemonstrated, fundamentalistshardlydisappearedafter 1925,andGraham matured in a fundamentalist culture now centered in but not confined to the rural South. The postwar revivals also help explain the later political influence of evangelicalism, which did not simply appear ex nihilo with theborn-again candidacyofJimmyCarterorthe success of Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority four years later. The Religious Right would not have come into being without the continued growth and vitality of conservative Protestantism in the United States after WorldWarII. Historianshaveofferedvarious explanations for this phenomenon: evangelicals proclaim a more rigorous and sometimes countercultural moral code, nimblyuse technologyandpopular culture, and evenmaintainahigherbirthrate. Onamorebasiclevel, evangelicalism continuedto thrivebecausemillions of Americans made faith commitments at Billy Graham and Oral Roberts crusades, at Campus Crusade for Christ meetings, and in Southern Baptist and Assemblies of God churches. Without the postwar revivals (and their continuance in conservative Protestant churches and organizations), the Religious Right would not have the demographic clout it has wielded over the past thirty years. One simpleyetoftenoverlookedreason forevangelicals ' newfound political significance in the mid1970s was the dramatic growth of evangelical institutions. For the most part, the key figures in the Religious Right became power brokers not because they eyed political influence (although some did) but because they established mass followings. Politicians sought Graham's approval because he was the most popular religious leader in the country, as demonstratedthroughhis crusades.JerryFalwellhadanenormous congregation and, more importandy, a large television audience, as did Pat Robertson. Prior to the 1970s, fewevangelicalleaders—withtheexceptionof Billy Graham and possibly Oral Roberts—commandedlargeandvisible institutions thatheld thepotential for political influence. By the mid-1970s Graham was only one part of an evangelical universe crowded with parachurch organizations, megachurches, andbroadcasters. Conservativepoliticians ,beginninginearnestwithNixon, recognizedthe potentialof theseinstitutions andtheirleaders as away togarner thevotes of white evangelicals. Withoutthe persistent boom of conservative Protestantism that began in the 1940s, the Religious Right as we know it would be a much more marginal movement. Therewas a similargeneralboom of religiosityin Europe followingWorld War II, as reflected in higher church attendance and the success of Billy Graham's European tours. Butthepostwarrevival of religion in Europe dissipated. Although there were flickers of evangelical renewal in Europe as well, Western countries —aside from the United States—did not experience the long-term and widespread growth of evangelicalism. There are many reasons for evangelicalism 's muchgreatersuccessintheU.S., suchas higher rates of suburbanization and an evangelical culture largelyin tune with other American values such as patriotism , capitalism, and middle-class consumerism. In any event, the surge of evangelical Christianity in America became a critical factor in the cultural and geopolitical divergence of Europe (and Canada, to a somewhatlesserdegree) fromtheUnitedStates.There is no sizable Christian Religious Rightin Western Europe —perhaps tellingly, there is no longer much robust conservatism of any sorton the other side of the pond. Religion in the 1950s included everything from converted cowboy singers to platitudes of religious pluralismandtouchdowns attributed tojesus.Therevivalism of the decade deserves more serious attention , particularly in textbooks and in die classroom. DormMoomawdrewconnectionsbetweenaCampus Crusademeeting,hisprayers,andakeyplayinaUCLA football game. Moomaw, however, later went to PrincetonSeminaryandbecamethepastorof athrivingevangelicalPresbyterianchurchinBel -Air. Oneof Moomaw's congregants was Ronald Reagan, and the formerAll-AmericanlinebackerlatergavetheinvocationatReagan 's firstpresidentialinauguration. Underneath the fluff of 1950s revivalism, a significant transformation in American religion took place, one thathas exertedanenormousimpactonrecentAmerican politics and on die place of die United States in today's world. John G. Turnerisassistantprofessorof history atthe University of SouthAlabama. HeistheauthorofBill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ: The Renewal of Evangelicalism in Postwar America (University ofNorth CarolinaPress, 2008). 1 Details on Moomaw from LosAngeles Times, March 15 and April 20, 1 952; William R. Bright, "Christianity on the Campus ,"American Mercury (Dembner 1956): 137-43. 2 Information and quotes from J. Ronald Oakley, God's Country : America in the Fifties (December Books, 1 986), 320, 324, 326; Stephen J. Whitfield, 7"Ae Culture ofthe Cold War( Johns Hopkins University Press, 199 1 ), 86; Jon Butler, "Jack-in-theBox Faith: The ReligionProblem in ModernAmerican History," Journal ofAmericanHistory 90...