Here is a panel of images of, technically, the same person, but also persons, plural, over time. On the left is me at the age of 13 years, on the right is me at age of 15 years. In the middle is me now. On the left is 1974 and on the right is 1976. In the middle was 1975, the year I became “born again”, in fact, in August 1975, at a Methodist Youth Camp, called Bellevue, a name with French origins, meaning “beautiful view”. It is not there anymore in Southport’s main street, and, as a matter of fact, neither is my old high school and bible college; all disappeared. It is still the 50th anniversary for contemporary reflection.
Me in the middle at age 64, I am looking back on this event of born-againism, a movement of the 1970s. Looking at myself age 13, still a child on early puberty. At age 15 I am a full adolescent. So, what happened in 1975? The evangelical born again phenomenon made the child an adolescent. Rebellious in christ, like a new born. The phenomenon was a stage in the history of evangelicalism that had temporarily moved away from the language of Christ the Lord; as in naïve church folk lording over new converts who were uneducated in the ways of the world, let alone understanding the dynamics of religion. Hence, the photo of me in the middle, in the present time, with an intelligent book on the cultural history, extending back to its beginning, by Emeritus Professor Philip Almond.
I, a convert in 1975, a bible college student 1980-1982, became educated, not only of the ways of the world but also educated about religion and the religion of the evangelicals. Evangelicals do not like hearing people talk of them as “religion”. They are beyond “religion” in their spirituality. Now, that is true for liberal or radical theologies, but the born-again movement was a ultra-conservative positioning; even as the conservative evangelicals of the era thought they were the political moderates.
The irony is that the born-again movement of 1975 in Queensland was also a radical movement. The person who “led me to the Christ” was a Jesus Freak Hippie. This was a historical anachronism or so it appeared. In 1975, the Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen played what turned out to be a key role in the political crisis that brought down the Australian Whitlam government. In 1975, the American President Gerald Ford granted a controversial pardon to Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. It was, in fact, the end of the Australian and American ‘Liberal Age’.
The movement was really short-lived but I know Christians of my age who still think in terms of 1975. Twenty years later, I was awarded a Ph.D. for a thesis which explained the populist madness of that era. I gave it a name: the American Revivalist Tradition (ART). There is artistic performance in what was done, and it would do great harm in driving persons into an ex-religious movement. A fact that most persons know in the religion-secularity industry: ART quickly gains new converts among the young, but loses them to the cause just as quickly. Fortunately, I took my time in liberal evangelicalism as it was edging ever closer into radical paradigms. The New Christian Right of the 1980s condemned this theological and political liberalism, but they are the grandparents to Trumpism. The misery that Donald (duck) Trump has, and will, bring is the misery that they caused.
I have now known for decades that ART influenced and consolidated the traditional Australian Protestant churches as part of the institutional structure of civil society. It has created a number of shallow and short-lived enthusiasms, and a number of major new congregations, whose one attempt to influence civil society through ultra-conservative regimes, succeed and then fail. While it is true that some communities have become liberally aware of this truth, the spiral keeps turning and screwing around.
God have mercy on anyone becoming ‘born-again’ because the world will not.
Neville Buch
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