Day 34. November 22, 2006
Movement 3. Jesus Christs
Lecture 16. Jesus in the Age of Conformity: The Fifties (Part 2)
Critics of Billy Graham, including conservative critics, lamented Graham's raw appeals to popular emotion, his application of peer pressure, his emphasis on Christian exclusivity, and his omission of public responsibility for sin. But the sentimentality Graham reflected dominated the religious marketplace. Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking turned religion to self-help. A spate of new films about the Bible and Jesus in the 1950s trumpeted American values, the personal impact of Jesus, and his commercial appeal. DeMille's remake of The Ten Commandments showed the triumph of liberty and democracy over tyranny. The Robe depicted the power of Jesus to transform individual lives. And a big-budget remake of Ben Hur proved a wild critical and commercial success.