Cold War Teenitiative: American Evangelical Youth and the Developing World in the Early Cold War

Abstract

This essay examines evangelicals’ responses to events in the developing world during the early Cold War through a cultural analysis of the rhetorical and tactical deployment of youth and youth activism. At the moment of Third World decolonization and burgeoning nationalism, evangelical leaders—especially youth leaders—viewed themselves as potential allies to “young churches” abroad. Although evangelicals expressed conventional understandings of the need to “contain”—if not roll back—Soviet Communism through vigilant military and diplomatic means, they also espoused a plan of action consistent with ideologies of modernization and integration in the free (and Christian) world. Within these views, young Christian activists offered a symbol of hope and progress in contrast to the desiccated old order undergoing decolonization in the midst of the Cold War. Using an analysis of the youth-oriented magazine Youth for Christ , this article combines research regarding the global Cold War with research on the emerging Christian youth culture of the postwar era. As imagined in the pages of Youth for Christ , Christian “teenitiative” was a critical weapon in winning the Cold War and hastening progress in vulnerable decolonizing areas of the world.