Dr Clifford Hill concludes his comparison of the charismatic movement with the characteristics of the society in which it grew.

Sensuousness

The charismatic movement has encouraged the physical expression of emotion. The new songs, new forms of worship and freedom of expression have been a wonderfully liberating experience for millions of believers who felt repressed and oppressed within the institutionalised traditions of the mainline churches. The renewal movement came like a breath of fresh air in a stale room.

It brought new life and vitality not only to worship, but also to evangelism and outreach into the community in many churches. The experience of being filled with the Spirit is a transforming and life-giving event which no-one who has entered into it would ever wish to deny.

Yet this same liberating experience has had dangerous side-effects. The new liberty and freedom enjoyed by charismatics in their worship has extended into personal relationships where Spirit-filled believers are regarded as a specially-favoured group, honoured by God and thereby standing in a special relationship not only to him but to each other. The emphasis upon freedom and informality is accompanied by biblical teaching giving an emphasis upon 'grace' rather than 'law' which has tended to create an atmosphere of permissiveness in personal relationships.

There have been many casualties of this charismatic freedom, such as the church in South Wales in the early 1980s where a 'prophecy' was received that everyone should have a spiritual partner. They set about fulfilling this 'prophecy' regardless of sex or marriage relationships. Close partnerships often excluded a spouse and spiritual intimacy soon included physical intimacy. Even the pastor was caught up in this and had to come to repentance and renounce the policy before the whole church moved into disaster.

Other problems have occurred through practices associated with deliverance from demonic possession. In places, this included a teaching that demons need to be exorcised from their point of entry into the body. Those who have been victims of sexual abuse have been ministered to by the laying on of hands and anointing with oil in their private parts. There are indications that these practices have been much more widespread than the few highly-publicised reports.

The charismatic emphasis upon freedom and informality has often led to permissiveness in personal relationships.

The very widespread publicity given to the 'Nine-O'Clock Service', a Sheffield-based charismatic rave-type worship led by the Reverend Chris Brain shocked the nation in August 1995. The NOS was originally based at St Thomas' Crookes Parish Church under Robert Warren but complaints from neighbours about the noise led to its breakaway and independent operation under the unsupervised leadership of Chris Brain.

He used hard rock music, strobe lights and wild dancing by scantily-clad girls in his rave-type trendy services aimed to attract young people raised in the pop culture. The NOS aimed to make them feel at home and comfortable with the Gospel presentation.

Stephen Lowe, Archdeacon of Sheffield was reported in the press to have said that about 20 women had allegedly been sexually abused by Brain who practised intimate laying on of hands for healing and deliverance. Press reports linked Chris Brain with John Wimber, from whom he was said to have learned his healing practices. Wimber was reported in the press as saying, “We encouraged Chris's church and gave a gift to enable the Nine-O'Clock Service to get started."¹

Brain not only had links with Wimber but was also strongly attracted to Matthew Fox's New Age teachings. The lurid press reports indicated that the NOS was moving dangerously close to the inclusion of sexual practices as part of worship.

A major weakness of the charismatic movement is that its teaching has not had a strong emphasis upon moral values. Its anti-legalism has in fact left the door open for worldly standards of sexual freedom to become commonplace. Charismatic churches throughout Britain have suffered from adulterous relationships and marriage breakdown. This has been common, not only in house church streams, but also in the mainline charismatic churches.

There are no comparative figures available, but from personal knowledge of the church scene across the denominations I would estimate that the incidence of adultery and marriage breakdown among leaders and church members in the charismatic churches is considerably greater than in non-charismatic churches. This is further evidence of the influence of the world and especially of pop culture.

The anti-legalism of the charismatic movement has left the door open for worldly standards of sexual freedom to become commonplace.

Lawlessness

Untrained leadership in the new independent churches gave itself great freedom to develop along lines untrammelled by the kind of ministerial and clergy professionalism of leaders in the mainline churches.

From the earliest days there was difficulty over accountability. House churches were often led by a single leader who assumed autonomous control. Other fellowships developed team leaderships or elderships with shared authority. Even these could be highly authoritarian and were not accountable to church members' meetings, as in the mainline churches.

Over time there has been a coming together of most independent fellowships into 'streams' or sects, each with their own form of hierarchical authority. In some of these the top leader is recognised as an 'apostle' and the apostles of the different streams sometimes recognise a form of accountability to each other on a network basis.

Authority within the charismatic movement is a problem. The Pentecostal movement at the beginning of the century rapidly developed structures of organisation and accountability but the charismatic movement has produced no such equivalent. This is, no doubt, partly because the renewal has run right across denominational lines, from Roman Catholic to Brethren.

This lack of authority structure within the movement is also partly accounted for by the social environment in which it was born. The 1960s and 1970s were years of radical social change when all established mores and past traditions were being challenged. It was essentially a period of social anarchy which was birthed into the charismatic movement. It was a spirit that resisted traditional authority, yet its leaders often insisted upon a greater obedience to them by their church members than is accorded to ministers in the mainline churches, from which they broke away to seek a new freedom!

The Pentecostal movement rapidly developed structures of organisation and accountability but the charismatic movement has produced no such equivalent.

Attitudes to authority within the charismatic movement have tended to adulate leaders, especially those with high-profile ministries. This has had a serious detrimental effect upon the exercise of discernment by individual church members. The teaching of the leader is regarded as sacrosanct. Individual members are not encouraged to challenge their teaching or practices, which leaves the people wide open to deception if the leaders themselves go astray.

This teaching prepared the way for the rapid spread of the Toronto phenomenon initiated by Rodney Howard-Browne, who spent some years prior to Toronto working on his method of transmitting what he called his 'ministry of laughter'.

Speaking to a meeting in Birmingham in June 1994, he exhorted people to submit their wills to him and not to weigh what was happening. “Don't try to work it out with your natural mind,” he said, “for the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural mind.” His hypnotic technique soon had the whole audience under his control falling about in uncontrollable laughter and physical jerks. Clearly none of them realised they were being duped with false teaching.

The mind of the believer is renewed by the Spirit of God (Rom 12:2) which also enables us to know the truth and to resist deception - provided we do not submit ourselves to charlatans and deceivers!

Power

John Wimber came to Britain in the 1980s to a nation steeped in a sense of powerlessness from loss of empire and world prestige. The Church was suffering from 40 years of steep decline which leaders were powerless to stem. Wimber came with a promise of power, divine power, Holy Spirit power, available to all Spirit-filled believers if they would allow themselves to be released from the shackles of tradition and let the Holy Spirit flow through them.

This message could not have been more apt. Power to the powerless. It was exactly what British Christians wanted. Leaders and people lapped it up. No more doom and gloom. No more struggling against uneven odds. Here was real power to give victory to triumph over the powers of darkness. The devil had had the Church on the run for far too long; here at last was the power to overcome the enemy.

John Wimber came to Britain in the 1980s with a promise of power, divine power.

Wimber taught that all adversity, including ill health, could be due to demonic activity. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, sickness could be overcome and even cancer healed. An even more popular promise was that ordinary believers could exercise the gift of healing provided they learned the techniques and had the faith. They could drive out demons and scatter the enemies of the Gospel.

Wimber also brought a new concept of evangelism, coining the term 'power evangelism'. This was just what charismatics wanted to hear. They were able to discard the old-fashioned Gospel presentations of Billy Graham and crusade evangelism with its calls for repentance. Here was something new and exciting. They only had to believe and the Holy Spirit would do it through signs and wonders which would astonish the unbelievers and bring them flocking into the Kingdom. It was a 'Kingdom Now' theology that appealed strongly to a generation raised on instant results, instant food, instant credit, instant news.

In 1990 Wimber came back with the Kansas City 'prophets', having embraced their Latter Rain teachings of a great end-time harvest to be reaped by an irresistible 'Joel's army' of overcomers, which fitted neatly into Wimber's concept of power evangelism. They even promised power to overcome the final enemy, death, and enable the elite company of the elect to be part of the final generation, the immortal Bride of Christ.

Four years later, just as the backlash of unfulfilled promises and false prophecy was plunging charismatic churches into gloom and the new churches had plateaued, the Toronto Blessing burst upon the scene with its new wave of promises of power - power in the most attractive form of all - power for self.

This came at a time of great vulnerability for British charismatics. Many leaders confessed to being spiritually dry, discouraged and disappointed. The great wave of prophecy had come to nothing. Promises to leaders that they would be preaching to multitudes in sports stadia and arenas and witnessing before princes and powerful leaders, all now had a hollow ring. Their leadership was on the line.

They threw themselves into some highly-publicised outreaches with expansive promises. The JIM campaign, which was supposed to produce 5 million converts, went off like a damp squib. So too did the Revival Fire campaign. Reinhardt Bonnke's much publicised and highly expensive £7 million campaign raised even higher expectations but proved to be the most spectacular failure of them all, with a mere 16,000 responses from a mail drop to 24 million households.

British charismatic and Pentecostal leaders were at an all-time low at the very moment when they heard that something new was happening across the Atlantic. A new fountain of spiritual life was flowing in Toronto promising a new filling of divine power. It was wonderful news to know that God was giving revival somewhere in the Western world where for 20 years we had only heard of news of great awakenings among the poor non-industrial nations, where church congregations were numbered in their thousands or tens of thousands.

British charismatic and Pentecostal leaders were at an all-time low at the very moment when they heard that something new was happening across the Atlantic.

But the most exciting news was that the blessing was transportable! Eleanor Mumford (wife of the leader of the South London Vineyard Fellowship) had been and got it, and brought it back, and passed it on to others. If she could do it, surely others could do the same. Here was real hope for hard-pressed pastors struggling to maintain their local church witness; they rushed to book their flights to Toronto.

Very few went to test the spirits in obedience to New Testament teaching. They were more interested in the simple pragmatic test: Does it work? Will it work for me? They reached out eager hands to any from the hastily-enlisted local leadership team who had got 'it' and would pass 'it' on to them. They fell about laughing, twitching and roaring, then hurried back to pass 'it' onto others.

The latest power trip had arrived! The child of the age - the age of powerlessness - had reached adolescence. As John Arnott, pastor of the Toronto Vineyard Church, put it “It's party time! We are like little children coming to their father to play.”

Conclusion

After decades of the charismatic renewal movement, all we have to show for it in Britain is a nation infinitely worse in its moral, spiritual and social behaviour, a nation facing economic collapse and social disaster, while many of those to whom God has entrusted the precious gifts of his Holy Spirit fall about in uncontrollable laughter.

There are many indications that we are near to the point when the world's economy will crumble and a period of unprecedented lawlessness will sweep across the nations.

If ever the Church was needed to take up the mantle of the prophet to declare the word of the Living God and the way of salvation as the only hope for mankind, it is surely today! The charismatic/evangelical sector of the Church believes the Bible to be the word of God and also acknowledges the presence and power of the Holy Spirit among his people. But today these very churches are being torn asunder by division, resulting from the excitement of fleshly manifestations which are a massive diversion and distraction, preventing the Church from fulfilling the real purposes of God.

The Holy Spirit has indeed been poured out in abundance throughout this century. The Spirit of God does indeed give us supernatural power - but it is not power for self-aggrandisement or power for self-fulfilment, or power to exercise power over other sinners, but power to declare the word of the Living God with power and authority.

When will we stop playing the world's games? When will we come to our senses like the prodigal son and return to the Father? Will the charismatic movement have to come to total disaster before we realise how grossly we have been deceived and how we have prostituted the precious gifts of the Holy Spirit and sold our birthright for a mess of pottage?

What is the answer to the question, 'Was the charismatic movement initiated by God?' We shall delay attempting to answer this, until we have considered other aspects of the history and development of the movement.

Next week: Peter Fenwick unpacks the roots of the Toronto Blessing.

References

1 Quoted in Today magazine, 24 August 1995.

First published 1995. Revised and serialised November 2017. You can find previous instalments in this series here.

Post-war pop culture and the Church.

We continue our serialisation of ‘Blessing the Church?’, previous instalments of which can now be found here. After last week’s outline of the dramatic social and cultural changes in the West that followed the end of World War II, Dr Clifford Hill now looks at key characteristics of these changes and the impact these had on the Church.

CHARACTERISTICS OF POP CULTURE

Youth-Dominated

Pop culture was essentially a youth culture which rejected the old, the outworn and the outdated. The emphasis was upon a search for new things and the discarding of the old. It was a culture from which, in the early days, the elderly felt shut out and devalued. Even in such things as clothing, the elderly felt disadvantaged as the consumer-driven market sought to satisfy the demands of the young.

The development of new technology in the brave new world emerging after the devastation of World War II reinforced the adulation of new things and led to the development of what was seen as 'the throwaway society'.

On the positive side, the period of reconstruction after the war needed the vitality and creativity of youth. It needed fresh energy, new ideas, unhindered by the failed policies of the past which had dragged the world into two devastating wars in the first half of the century. But the adoption of new ideas needed to be guided by firmly-rooted principles, if confusion and chaos were to be avoided.

Anti-Tradition

Any new movement contains an element of protest and rejection of the past. Pop culture was seeking to develop its own ideology and was therefore challenging traditional values. Inevitably the collected wisdom of the past was questioned as a whole new set of social mores applicable to the present day was sought.

Young people were quick to embrace new ideas and to say that the policies pursued by their fathers had only led the world into the horrors of war, culminating in the nuclear bomb devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The anti-nuclear campaigns of CND linked with the more positive campaigns of the peace movement which produced the 'flower people' and slogans such as 'Make love not war'.

The period of post-war reconstruction needed the vitality and creativity of youth, but this also needed to be guided by firmly-rooted principles if chaos was to be avoided.

On the negative side, it increased awareness of racial differences and stirred passions. The campaign for racial justice had both a negative and a positive side. Positively it affirmed the equality of all peoples regardless of race or colour while at the same time protesting against those traditions and institutions which debarred people on grounds of race, religion or ethnic origin.

The anti-traditionalism of pop culture led to a despising of traditional institutions and even, in extreme cases, to the rejection of professionalism and scholarship. An extreme example was the Cultural Revolution in Communist China which persecuted and degraded teachers, university lecturers and scholars, often parading them through the streets as an act of public humiliation.

In Britain there were not these extremes, but public attitudes towards the professions changed radically. Teachers were no longer held in high esteem, neither were the clergy or any of those who served the public.

Individualism

The worldwide liberation movement of the post-war era spilled over into pop culture, not only in politically-orientated protest movements but also in positive campaigns to alleviate suffering and to serve the world's poor and hungry.

The 'Freedom from Hunger' campaign of the 1960s, the Oxford Campaign for Famine Relief (which became Oxfam) and numerous others all reflected the growing concern of the new generation for freedom, equality and justice. These social values were part of the growing recognition of the worth of each individual and the sanctity of human life. In emphasising these values, pop culture reacted against the wanton sacrifice of life in two world wars. It was also a reaction against what was seen as the oppression the ruling classes exercised over the world's poor and powerless peoples.

This recognition of the worth of each individual had its down side. What began as the pursuit of justice rapidly became a demand for rights. It was rights, not privileges, that changed attitudes towards the Welfare State in Britain. Instead of enjoying the privilege of living in a society where the needs of each individual were cared for by the whole community, these benefits were soon taken for granted.

The younger generation knew nothing of the privations endured by former generations. Instead of thankfulness for the peace and security now enjoyed, the prevailing mood became a determination to obtain the maximum benefits available to each individual. Inner-city areas saw the rise of campaigns for community rights. 'Claimants Unions' sprang up in the 1970s to ensure that individuals were able to claim all their rights and entitlements from the State.

The anti-traditionalism of pop culture led to a despising of traditional values, social mores and institutions.

The campaigns for racial justice and justice for women soon produced minority group rights: feminist campaigns, the gay rights movement and the pro-abortion lobby with the campaign slogan 'A woman's right to choose'. These movements were fundamentally anti-social, in that they contributed towards the breakdown of traditional family life and the downgrading of marriage. They were driven by a destructive spirit in which the only thing that mattered was the philosophy of individualism, in which personal morality and personal relationships are largely determined by the rights, desires and demands of the individual.

The same determinants have played a creative role in the social values emerging from pop culture. They are essentially anti-social and dysfunctional rather than creative of a healthy society. Their end product is the dissolution of society. The underlying lesson is that ethical nihilism leads to social nihilism. Moral anarchy leads to social anarchy.

Personal Involvement

The post-war era of reconstruction that gave rise to pop culture was an age of activity. Pop culture reflected this with all the dynamism of youth. They wanted to get involved personally in the radical changes that were already beginning to move from theory to practical reality by the beginning of the 1960s. Pop culture encouraged young people to get involved in their community, to take to the streets and demonstrate, to take their protests to the town hall or to turn the student union debate into days of action for better grants and living conditions.

The negative anti-professionalism of pop culture also included a strong positive element of personal involvement in every kind of activity. It was the age of DIY. Do-it-yourself in home improvement resulted in an enormous industry of tools and provision for the amateur builder. DIY extended to every kind of activity, from making your own music to arranging your own house conveyancing. DIY in education gave rise to the Open University, while DIY in sport and entertainment resulted in a boom in a wide variety of sporting activity, from athletics and field sports to aerobics and keep fit, to climbing and hang-gliding.

Pop culture initiated what was essentially the day of the amateur. Personal involvement plus lots of help from commercial products enabled the amateur to produce results every bit as good as the professional.

Sensuousness

Pop culture rapidly swept away the old Victorian taboos on sex and the expression of emotions. It became a new age of freedom where the emphasis upon individual rights and personal involvement encouraged the exhibition rather than the suppression of the emotions. This was considered psychologically healthy.

The ‘Dr Spock’ generation of demand-fed babies and undisciplined children became the pop culture teenagers: the teeny-boppers who screamed wildly at their pop idols and lost themselves in waves of emotion at rock concerts and gigs. These activities paved the way for the drug-related rave parties of the 1990s.

Pop culture gave rise to a new age of sexual freedom aided by birth control and abortion. Sex education in schools followed the repeal of censorship in the entertainments industry, allowing explicit sexual scenes on TV, film and video, as well as in books and magazines.

As the moral mores of the nations fell apart, so the media's reporting of scandals, details of violence and explicit sex became more lurid, both stimulating and feeding the appetite for the sensuous. Inevitably, intimate media accounts of the lifestyles of pop stars encouraged young people to follow the activities of their idols and imitate their behaviour.

The lesson of post-war pop culture is that ethical nihilism leads to social nihilism. Moral anarchy leads to social anarchy.

Lawlessness

The radical change in the philosophy of education in the post-war era taught children not only to discover things for themselves, but also to question traditional values, leading to the questioning of authority, social norms and religious beliefs. The latter was aided and abetted by the popularisation of liberal theology through books such as Honest to God by John Robinson, the bishop who had defended the publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover, which broke new ground in explicitly sexual literature.

The old norms, moral precepts and social values, together with their foundational religious beliefs rooted in the Judeo-Christian faith, were rapidly crumbling. By the middle of the 1960s pop culture had become an unstoppable band-waggon rolling the nation into a social revolution, the end product of which only the exceptionally far-sighted could see.

The breakdown of moral absolutes left the field wide open for 'situation ethics' in which the rights and wrongs of every action for each individual would have to be sought within the prevailing situation and circumstances. This paved the way for increasing lawlessness, for the lowering of standards of professional conduct, and for radical changes in business ethics and the practices of corporate institutions. Thus the way was open for corruption in politics, industry and commerce leading inevitably to the increase of crime, drugs, family breakdown, child abuse, street violence and terrorism.

Pop culture was a child of revolt. It was born out of a spirit of rebellion, essentially a destructive rather than a creative spirit. Its anti-traditionalism was essentially the rejection of morality, of fundamental belief and of law. It was DIY in the rules of behaviour with a self-centred individualism that was essentially destructive of community. It was social anarchy and the inevitable result of anarchy is the destruction of society.

Power

The 20^th Century ushered in an age of powerlessness. Two world wars in the first half of the century swept millions of men and women from many nations into the horror of modern armed conflict. They had no option but to fight and even those who remained at home were mercilessly bombed in cities throughout Europe, powerless to defend themselves.

The post-war period of reconstruction saw thousands of inner-city communities destroyed as their homes were bulldozed and replaced by tower blocks. Others saw their homes destroyed to make way for motorways which they were powerless to resist.

As radical social changes were enforced by law, foundational social values began to crumble, moral principles were neglected, marriage breakdown increased, the stability of family life was undermined, crime rates soared and a general sense of powerlessness to withstand the onslaught of the forces of social change became widespread. The genie was out of the bottle and no-one had the power to put it back.

Pop culture was a child of revolt. It was born out of a spirit of rebellion, essentially a destructive rather than a creative spirit.

The economic boom years gave way to recession. Powerful commercial enterprises collapsed, bankruptcies increased, mortgage lenders foreclosed on the homes of defaulting house owners. The Englishman's castle was built on sand. People were powerless even to defend their homes.

The sense of powerlessness was increased by Europeanisation. Europe was swallowing up the little island which had fiercely maintained its freedom and independence against all invaders for a thousand years. Norman Tebbit summed it up when he said that the day would come when the 'Chancellor's budget speech would be faxed from Frankfurt'. The politicians, the Government, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister all began to share the sense of powerlessness to withstand the forces of change which were sweeping across the nation. Even the Queen had her 'annus horribilis', being powerless to defend her family from the adulterous and rebellious spirits of the age.

The Charismatic Movement

In the midst of these traumatic social changes and upheaval, a new phenomenon appeared within the Church: the charismatic movement. It did not arise in the immediate post-World War II period - in fact, it had no clear beginnings. There was no mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God as on the Day of Pentecost, no fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit as at the beginning of the Pentecostal movement at Azusa Street in 1906; there was no great revival, no clear move of God resulting in the conversion of multitudes of unbelievers.

Most charismatic leaders today trace the beginnings of the movement to the middle or late 1960s. But the first really recognisable signs of a movement did not occur until the early 1970s, when home-based fellowships or 'house churches' began to proliferate.

Whatever date we assign to the beginnings of the charismatic movement, it has to be acknowledged that pop culture was already a firmly established part of the social scene. The destructive effects of the spirit of rebellion could clearly be seen, biblical belief was under attack, traditional morality was in rapid decline, so too was church attendance. The Church, especially in inner-city areas, was in the full flight of retreat with a high closure rate of redundant church buildings, especially in areas of immigrant settlement.

It was against the background of spiritual atrophy and moribund institutionalism in the mainline churches that the charismatic movement emerged. It was born out of the womb of frustration with the status quo, rather than through a notable move of the Spirit of God.

A Genuine Move of God?

The charismatic movement came to birth at a time when the spirit of moral and social rebellion was triumphing in the battle with traditionalism in the secular world. This was the time when the most socially destructive Acts of Parliament were put on the Statute Book. It was a time when it seemed as though the whole nation was intent upon overturning past tradition and rejecting the social values and moral precepts of their forefathers. This was the spirit of the age in which the charismatic movement emerged and there is good evidence for the contention that many of the social characteristics of that period were birthed into it, the significance of which we are only now beginning to see.

We may go farther and ask the question, 'Was the charismatic movement a move of God? Was it actually initiated by the Lord Jesus, the Head of the Church?' It is not easy to give an unequivocal affirmative to that question due to its lack of a clear beginning and the fact that it was not rooted in the conviction of sin, repentance and revival.

The charismatic movement was born out of the womb of frustration with the status quo, rather than through a notable move of the Spirit of God.

There was not even a great wave of renewal sweeping through the Church or a 'holiness' movement characterised by self-denial, humility and self-sacrificial suffering with the major emphasis upon the cross. These are the characteristics of the present-day Church in China which has arisen out of the flames of persecution and martyrdom of the saints. In China there was no spectacular outpouring of the Spirit in any one place to mark the beginning of the period of great spiritual awakening now sweeping through that nation, but there were all the marks of authentic New Testament spirituality, including a willingness to die for the faith.

The charismatic movement, by contrast, had none of these marks and it is for this reason that we may fairly ask whether it was the creation of God or man. In fact, it bore many of the social characteristics of the Western nations in which it arose. It developed in an environment of easy affluence and it offered a form of spirituality which appealed strongly to the rising new middle classes seeking quick self-advancement and status in the new post-war social order.

Before offering an answer to the question of origins, we will look at the characteristics of the charismatic movement under the same headings as we used when looking at pop culture.

Next week: The charismatic movement as a child of pop culture.

First published in 1995, as part of chapter 2 of ‘Blessing the Church?’ (Eagle Publishing, pp10-39). Revised November 2017.

A child of the age: we continue our new series on the origins of the charismatic movement.

“Ephraim mixes with the nations...Foreigners sap his strength, but he does not realise it. His hair is sprinkled with grey, but he does not notice”. (Hosea 7:8-9)

Since the days of the Industrial Revolution, Britain has been a class-dominated society, the product of twin forces of industrialisation and urbanisation, which broke the power of the landowners and the old social order of feudalism. This was replaced by the new social classes of entrepreneurs, industrialists, skilled craftsmen and unskilled workers.

The latter formed a new class of landless peasants at the mercy of the owners of industry, who not only controlled the means of production but also owned the houses which their workers rented from them. Thus, from the earliest days of industrialisation, the British working classes saw themselves as the powerless ones who had to fight for survival against their economic oppressors. The seeds were sown of the class warfare which bedevilled British industry for 200 years, the legacy of which is still with us today.

Political Upheaval: The People vs the Privileged

The beginning of the 20^th Century saw the Labour movement beginning to become an organised political force, but it took two world wars in the first half of the century to break the social mould. The Atlee Government of 1945 was the first Socialist administration to obtain real power in Britain. Their legislative programme of social reform and reconstruction was to have far-reaching consequences which changed the face of Britain for the rest of the century.

The creation of the Welfare State with its boasted objective of caring for each individual from the cradle to the grave was designed to eliminate poverty and ensure justice for all. This objective was fully in line with the prevailing mood throughout the world which saw the post-war generation striving for freedom, justice, self-determination, equality and prosperity for all.

The post-war generation strove for freedom, justice, self-determination, equality and prosperity for all.

In industrial societies this was expressed in various forms of socialism, while in non-industrial societies it was anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism. Marxism in various forms spread right across the world as an expression of the aspirations of the poor and oppressed. This was in harmony with the rise of black consciousness in societies dominated by whites and the rise of nationalism in countries dominated by foreign nationals or alien ethnic groups.

In retrospect, the 20^th Century may be seen as a period of ‘the people versus the privileged’; a revolution of the oppressed against rulers and oppressors; a struggle for justice and freedom for all.

By the middle of the century this movement reached a peak of political consciousness as it combined with the post-World War II period of reconstruction and the anti-war/pro-peace movement. During the 1950s and early 1960s the political expression of these aspirations reached its height with the achievement of independence in most of the former European colonial territories. In Asia, India, the Middle East, Africa and South America the face of the world changed; the global map had to be redrawn.

Social Change: The Birth of Pop Culture

During this same period a new movement was birthed, particularly in the USA and Europe: an ideological and social movement destined to have as far-reaching effects as its political counterpart. It was what sociologists have termed 'pop culture'; a spontaneous, youth-dominated, ideological movement expressing the hopes and aspirations of the post-war-generation in the rich industrial nations of the West.

The prevailing economic and social conditions in these nations were ripe for just such an ideological movement. The post-war reconstruction period required massive building programmes of houses, offices, industrial plants and roads. The demand for labour was high which, in Britain, brought immigration from former colonies. But, even more significantly, it increased the wages of working people and opened up lifestyles beyond the imagination of former generations.

In Britain, for the first time in history, young people were able to command high wages. Even school leavers were able to go straight into unskilled work with large pay packets at the end of the week. Almost overnight a new consumer class was born with high purchasing power and minimal social responsibilities. These were young single people with no families to support, no mortgages, but with money in their pockets.

‘Pop culture’ developed as a youth-dominated ideological movement expressing the aspirations and hopes of the post-war generation in the West.

A free enterprise economy quickly adjusted to produce goods satisfying to this new consumer group. The market became youth-dominated, with clothing fashions, records, hi-fi equipment, motorbikes, youth festivals, fast-food joints and a wide variety of material goods and activities designed to meet the desires and fulfil the demands of rapidly changing pop fashions.

Public awareness of the birth of this new ideological movement dawned as a rude awakening. It came in 1956 with the arrival in Britain of an American film, Rock Around the Clock, featuring Bill Haley and a new strain of music known as 'rock'n'roll'. The film was screened in a cinema at the Elephant and Castle, in south-east London. The largely teenage audience ripped up the seats and rocked in the aisles which sent shock waves through the nation. It was soon followed by a multitude of home-grown youth musicians, skiffle groups, guitarists and rock bands.

The age of DIY had arrived. Young people did not simply want to be passive audiences, they wanted to do it themselves, either by being performers or at least joining actively in the physical activity of dancing, jiving, rocking and rolling, dressing up as Teddy boys or Mods and Rockers, driving in their motorcycle gangs and generally terrorising the older generation. The latter hailed the birth of pop culture with a dread of the future, believing the whole world to have gone mad.

Educational Change

An important agent in creating the social conditions which gave rise to pop culture was the education system which, during this period, experienced radical and far-reaching changes generated by a new educational philosophy. A new breed of teachers was produced in the post-war period, many of them with Marxist leanings, or at least strong socialist principles.

They rejected the 'chalk and talk' Victorian methods of teaching which relied heavily on learning by rote. The new philosophy centred upon the 'discovery method' of education. Instead of an active teacher instructing a passive class of pupils, children were encouraged to discover facts for themselves.

This meant that they no longer sat still and were punished for speaking; they were encouraged to work in groups, to carry out little research projects in the library, the countryside or the city streets. Physical punishment was seen as degrading and offensive to the rights of children. This in turn had its effect upon family life and discipline in the home, as well as social behaviour on the football terraces and in the streets.

A new breed of teachers was produced in the post-war period, many of them with Marxist leanings, or at least strong socialist principles.

Legislative Change

The ideological revolution which spawned pop culture was aided, strengthened and, in many ways, made socially effective, by legislation. Many far-reaching social reforms were effected in a 20-year period following World War II.

It may be questioned whether they were responsible for the social revolution which has taken place in Britain in the second half of the 20^th Century or whether they simply reflected changing social values. It is probably a chicken-and-egg situation in which both are true, as the one influenced the other.

The first major ideological reform was the repeal of the Witchcraft Act in 1951 followed by the Obscene Publications Act (1959). These were followed in the 1960s by a string of measures effecting far-reaching social reform, dealing with race relations, capital punishment, homosexual acts, abortion and the discarding of censorship in publications and public entertainments.
All these measures reflected the desire for freedom of choice and a society reputedly coming of age where people were able to make their own assessment of right and wrong, the good and the harmful.

Pop culture developed into a powerful social movement which created a society based upon 'situation ethics' rather than moral absolutes. In essence, it was both hedonistic and individualistic. It was a society leaving behind the restrictions of the past and moving into new eras of individual freedom. Society was sailing into uncharted waters, driven by the strong winds of moral anarchy. Such a philosophy could only end in social anarchy - a society in which everyone does that which is right in their own eyes.

Coming up: Over the next three weeks we will look at characteristics of pop culture and how these infiltrated and shaped the Church.

Originally published in 1995. Revised Oct/Nov 2017.