Speaking for Whom? The 1971 Festival of Light and the Search for the ‘Silent Majority’

Abstract

This article explores the origins of the Nationwide Festival of Light (NFOL), a largely evangelical organization most closely associated with its central London rally (of the same name) in September 1971. Although many supporters believed that the NFOL would show that the moral liberalization of the 1960s had been pushed by an unrepresentative minority at the expense of a ‘silent majority’ of Christians, some came to believe that active Christians were in fact the true minority in post-war society. The latter voices urged a rephrasing of the NFOL agenda in religiously neutral terms so as to appeal to Britons who believed in traditional morality but ignored the formalities of religious dogma and practice.

Keywords:

• Festival of Light
• Evangelical Christianity
• Conservatism

Notes

Amy C. Whipple is an assistant professor of Modern European History.

 [1] Letter, The Times (London), 28 September 1971, 13.

 [2] Cliff, ‘Religion’; Hall, Policing the Crisis, 286–7; Levitas, ‘Introduction’, 4–5.

 [3] Wallis, ‘“Goal Displacement”’, 130–2.

 [4] For good historiographical reviews of literature regarding the decline of Christianity in Britain, see Heyck, ‘Decline of Christianity’; Morris, ‘The Strange Death of Christian Britain’; and Cox, ‘Provincializing Christendom’. For scholarship that portrays Britain as secular and post-Christian, see Gilbert, Making of Post-Christian Britain; Brown, Death of Christian Britain; and Bruce, God is Dead. For scholarship that explores the continued importance of a less formal Christianity, see Davie, Religion in Modern Britain and Jenkins, Religion in English everyday life.

 [5] The National Viewers’ and Listeners' Association collection at the Albert Sloman Library, University of Essex does hold numerous NFOL publications and related correspondence, but they date from 1972 forward. CARE, the London-based organization which succeeded the NFOL, also holds some post-1971 material, including audio recordings of rallies held in 1974 and 1976.

 [6] Capon,… and there was light; Dobbie, Land Aflame.

 [7] Capon,… and there was light, 5–8. The final quotation is from Hill. All other quotations are from Capon.

 [8] Capon,… and there was light, 5–8. The final quotation is from Hill. All other quotations are from Capon, Ch. 1 and 2.

 [9] Capon,… and there was light, 5–8. The final quotation is from Hill. All other quotations are from Capon, 48.

[10] Capon,… and there was light, 5–8. The final quotation is from Hill. All other quotations are from Capon, 45.

[11] Capon,… and there was light, 5–8. The final quotation is from Hill. All other quotations are from Capon, 51–9.

[12] Advertisement, The Express and Echo (Devon), 22 September 1971, 8.

[13] ‘The Festival's Three Proclamations’, Church of England Newspaper (CEN), 24 September 1971, 3. Also see Capon,…. and There was Light, 76–8. Both of these accounts are identified as summaries, not verbatim transcripts, of the proclamations. They are, however, similar enough to suggest close conformity to the proclamations read at the rally.

[14] ‘The Great Shine-In’, CEN, 1 October 1971, 3, 14.

[15] Capon,… and There was Light, 84.

[16] Hastings, History of English Christianity, 455; Bebbington, Evangelicalism, 255–7.

[17] Capon,…. and There was Light, 9–16.

[18] Lord Longford, who had converted to Roman Catholicism in the 1930s, also had a seat on the Council of Reference.

[19] For instance, see Crusade (the journal of the Evangelical Alliance) and Vista (the journal of British Youth for Christ) during the 1950s and 1960s.

[20] Harris and Spence, ‘Disturbing the Complacency of Religion’, 481–513; Smart, ‘The Evangelist as Star,’ 165–73.

[21] Harris and Spence, ‘Disturbing the Complacency of Religion’, 493.

[22] ‘Around and About with David Winter’, Crusade, October 1971.

[23] Letters, Crusade, November 1971.

[24] ‘The World of Youth’, Vista, March/April 1965, 3.

[25] Rees, Putting Ten Thousand, 156.

[26] Wallis, ‘“Goal Displacement”’, 135.

[27] ‘“Christ the Light”—Manchester Rally’, CEN, 5 November 1971, 16.

[28] Wallis, ‘“Goal Displacement”’, 150.

[29] ‘The Web: Teen Project by Blackburn Youth for Christ’, Vista, January/February 1967, 35.

[30] Letter quoted above, p. 1. The Times, 28 September 1971, 13.

[31] Letters, the Guardian, 14 September 1971.

[32] Powell, Freedom and Reality, 213–9.

[33] Black, ‘There was Something About Mary’; McLeod, Religious Crisis, 229–30. As McLeod notes, ‘A decade before Jerry Falwell invented the term “Moral Majority” to define a similar crusade in the United States, Whitehouse was making the same claim’.

[34] Whitehouse, Cleaning-Up TV, 166–7.

[35] Capon,…. and There was Light, 120–1.

[36] ‘Rally Sites Packed Out for F.O.L. Demonstration’, Baptist Times, 30 September 1971, 12.

[37] ‘F.O.L.: The Ball is in Your Court Now’, Baptist Times, 7 October 1971, 1.

[38] Capon,…. and There was Light, 43.

[39] ‘Editorial’, Crusade, November 1971, 5.

[40] ‘Why a Festival of Light?’, Church Times, 15 October 1971, 12.

[41] Letters, The Express and Echo, 25 September 1971, 4.

[42] ‘In Our View’, CEN, 1 October 1971, 3.

[43] CEN, 24 September 1971, 3.

[44] Wallis, Salvation and Protest, 139.

[45] ‘Festival, a great start and it will succeed, BUT….’, Baptist Times, 23 September 1971, 2.

[46] ‘Editorial’, Crusade, November 1971, 5.

[47] Crusade, January 1962, 10.

[48] ‘Ministers and leaders report on the EFFECT’, Crusade, August 1961, 13, 30.

[49] ‘Prelude to Manchester’, Crusade, May 1961, 8–11.

[50] Crusade, July 1963, 3.

[51] Brown, Death of Christian Britain, 188–90; McLeod, Religious Crisis, 60–7. Brown identifies a resurgence in church membership in the immediate postwar period, gradual decline in the late 1950s, and a ‘free fall’ from 1963 onward. McLeod argues that the picture is far more complicated, with different denominations and different religious practices affected at different times and rates.

[52] Chapman, ‘Secularization’, 498.

[53] ‘The Beginning of Wisdom’, Crusade, September 1957.

[54] ‘A Story of the Wembley Crusade’, Crusade, July 1955.

[55] National Viewers and Listeners Association papers (NVALA), Box 78, letter to Whitehouse, 11 May 1965.

[56] NVALA, Box 79, letter to Mary Whitehouse, 13 March 1965.

[57] NVALA, Box 82, copy of letter to Michael Swan, BBC, 16 March 1974.

[58] Hansard Parliamentary Debates, vol. 745, 27 April 1967, 1923.

[59] Hansard Parliamentary Debates, vol. 763, 26 April 1968, 706–7.

[60] John Wolffe, ‘Religions of the Silent Majority’, 308.

[61] Dobbie, Land Aflame, 118.

[62] ‘The Festival's Three Proclamations’, Church of England Newspaper (CEN), 24 September 1971, 3.

[63] ‘Road to Shame’, The Express and Echo (Devon), 10 September 1971, 10.

[64] ‘What is a minority?’, CEN, 8 October 1971, 5.

[65] ‘Salt in Society’, CEN, 31 December 1971, 2.

[66] National Archives, HO 245/523.

[67] Schofield, Sexual Behavior.

[68] National Archives, HO 245/523.

[69] Martin, Sociology of English Religion, esp. 50–1.

[70] Black, ‘There Was Something’, 182–3.

[71] Thatcher, Complete Public Statements, 24 March 1979.