This is my 157th post on this blog and God continues to provide new material, but I feel this is a piece of American history that deserves repeating. As we celebrated Indepence Day last week a TV crew interviewed young people at the beach. Most of them did not even know from what country we declared our independence or in what year. If that wasn’t sad enough, many of them said they weren’t proud to be an American, although they had trouble explaining why. Contrary to popular belief, I wasn’t around in 1776, but I want to share some history I have lived through that might explain why they feel the way they do.
A few years ago, our President announced to the world that America is no longer a Christian nation. From a cultural standpoint he told the truth. But I remember a time 61 years ago when America was a Christian nation spiritually and culturally. I was 14 years old in 1957. The number one song that summer on Billboard’s Pop chart was Three Bells by the Browns. As you can imagine it received a lot of radio play. I can remember being with a carload of teens from church and when that song came on the radio there was silence until it was over. We were Christians, but we were also teenagers so silence was not normal. That song covered the life of Jimmy Brown from birth to death in just three verses and was filled with faith and prayer. It would not receive a single play on any pop station today.
If anyone tells you that the Civil Rights movement was strictly political and only in the black community, don’t believe them. It was a movement of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of Christians of all races. I know because I was one of them. In the summer of 1957, Billy Graham held integrated nightly crusade meetings in New York City for three whole months. He preached to well over two million people that summer not counting the millions watching on TV (like me) or listening on radio. I remember watching on TV as Billy Graham and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood side by side on a platform in Madison Square Garden and proclaimed that there is only one race – the human race – and everyone in that race needs Jesus Christ as their Savior. Later, people with various shades of skin came forward together to receive Christ. Ethel Waters sang His Eye Is On the Sparrow at one of those crusade meetings. She rededicated her life to Jesus Christ that evening and joined Billy’s team. She was revered by the team and audiences everywhere. She always referred to Billy Graham as “My boy, Billy.” When they left New York, they took those integrated crusades to Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas.
In the fall of that year, I entered high school as a freshman and joined the Youth for Christ Club. Those clubs were on every high school and college campus across America. We met once a week after school in a classroom with one of my teachers, Mrs. Saltzman. She led us in prayer at the beginning and close of each meeting. The memories of the support I received from that club are precious to me. My mother had died the previous year and my Christian faith was receiving its first big test.
We’ve come a long way in the wrong direction since 1957, but Christian faith has not died out. Powered by the Holy Spirit, it is spreading like wild fire once again in our communities and our culture. The enemy will not give up that territory easily, but the battle is on.