Calendar . Volume 07 | Issue 08

Volume 07, Issue 08

Catch Up On the Past (Part 2)
by Warren Wiersbe

Most American historians agree that the Sixties represented a “hinge decade” in our history, but not everybody interprets the decade from the same perspective. Decade of Nightmares by the distinguised historian Philip Jenkins (Oxford, 2006) tells the story with clarity and courage. The subtitle is “The end of the Sixties and the Making of the Eighties.” The author knows as much about youth culture as he does about politics, and he dares to disagree with some of the standard interpretations of that chaotic period and the more conservative years that followed. He deals somewhat with the religious scene, but we wish he had said more.

A companion volume is America’s Uncivil Wars: The Sixties Era from Elvis to the Fall of Richard Nixon, by Mark Hamilton Lytle (Oxford, 2006). It’s remarkable how many events the author analyzes and synthesizes, and while you may not fully agree with his conclusions, you can’t help but get a clearer perspective on that stormy decade.

The American Evangelical Story by Douglas A. Sweeney (Baker, 2005) is a concise and scholarly survey that helps the reader understand what “evangelicals” are and how they got that way. Being both an evangelical and a trained historian, the author has a compassionate heart as well as a trained critical eye. The picture he paitns is accurate and clear, even if sometimes painful (chapter 5 – “Crossing the Color Line without Working to Erase it: Evangelical History in Black and White”). The author’s purpose is “to refresh our shared, historical memory” so we may “regain our spiritual bearings,” and I think he has succeeded admirably–in two hundred pages of text and photographs!


Johnny Hart
by Michael Catt

I loved the BC comics by Johnny Hart. Often times, you would see the underlying Christian worldview in the cartoons. At times, Hart used this avenue to share the gospel with millions of people. Using the arts in general and cartoons in particular, he was loved and read by millions. He will be missed.


“The Los Angeles Times reports that Johnny Hart, creator of the popular Stone Age comic strip “B.C.,” which generated controversy in recent years with themes that reflected Hart’s evangelical Christian beliefs, died recently of a stroke, at age 76. 


“B.C.” has been syndicated since 1958. Following his salvation in the 1980s, Hart began imparting Christian messages in his strip, especially at Christmas and Easter. In a 1999 interview with the Washington Post, Hart let his stance be known with quotes such as: “Jews and Muslims who don’t accept Jesus will burn in hell,” “Homosexuality is the handiwork of Satan.,” Hart’s Easter 2001 strip caused many papers to stop publishing “B.C.” It showed a menorah morphing into a cross, with some of Jesus’ words during the Crucifixion. Hart said it wasn’t a put down of our Jewish friends but rather that Christianity was birthed out of Judaism when the Messiah came.”