Sam Cooke once recorded a song with a first line that’s become famous: “Don’t know much about history.” Later, teachers published some student essays about the American Revolution that provided supporting evidence for that critique. Students wrote numerous groaners, such as “Delegates from the original 13 states formed the Contented Congress.” Maybe the teachers made up this one for fun: “Benjamin Franklin declared, ‘A horse divided against itself cannot stand.’”
In October 1956, Billy Graham and a group of his supporters thought a religion divided against itself would have a hard time standing. In “Why ‘Christianity Today’?” they launched CT “with sincere Christian love for those who may differ with us.” They declared, “Theological Liberalism has failed to meet the moral and spiritual needs of the people” and has instead left us “adrift in speculation that neither solves the problem of the individual nor of the society of which he is a part.” They said CT “dedicates itself to the presentation of the reasonableness and effectiveness of the Christian evangel.”
The editors—Carl F. H. Henry was CT’s first editor in chief—said, “Christianity Today will apply the biblical revelation to the contemporary social crisis, by presenting the implications of the total Gospel message for every area of life.” And “every” meant “every”: Senior news editor Daniel Silliman and I are going through the CT archives and seeing the wide variety of issues that editors and writers addressed.
Starting today, once each week, we’ll make available some highlights of our research. For example, you can read below about the 1956 presidential election, the brutal Russian reaction to a Hungarian revolt, and discussions of whether there is a Christian America, how to confront China, and what to do about Christmas excess. Next Friday you’ll be able to read about Christian reactions to the news of 1957: the Cold War, civil rights debates, the advent of artificial insemination, and Sputnik.
If you’re young and don’t know what Sputnik was, that’s exactly why we’ll offer a history lesson about both America and American evangelicalism. All this leads to Thursday, October 15, 2026, when we’ll celebrate this series on the 70th anniversary of CT’s founding.
The newsgathering process has changed: In 1956, CT bragged that “telegrams are received direct at Christianity Today editorial headquarters through the Desk-Fax service of Western Union. Christianity Today also uses the Bell System national teletype service.” But as you’ll see, many issues are similar.
We begin with a CT-commissioned survey of Protestant ministers that showed 85 percent favored the reelection of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who eventually won with 57 percent of the popular vote:
A poll by Christianity Today of representative Protestant clergymen from all sections of the United States revealed a strong preference for Eisenhower over Stevenson in the November election for the Presidency.
Tabulation of 1,474 postcards from ministers, selected at random among all denominations, showed the following results:
► Eisenhower—85 per cent.
► Stevenson—11 per cent. …
[The leading reason was] personal stature of the candidates. Eisenhower, 1,017; Stevenson, 75. [Other reasons were] “clean government … lifting of the moral and spiritual life of the American people as a whole … less centralized national government … foreign and domestic policies consistent with Christian principles … more emphasis on spiritual things … much stronger stand against Communism at home and abroad … back to sane, sensible, Constitutional government.”
Looking at the results of the survey, CT’s editors reflected on where the country was going—and what the results of the election said about the effectiveness of Christian leadership in America.
Protestant ministers of all denominations throughout the United States responded with candor and directness to Christianity Today’s inquiry: “What change for the better in American affairs do you desire for your candidate if elected?” More than 2,000 clergymen … expressed deep conviction that the future of America depends more upon the application of spiritual concepts in national and international life and less upon a specific political party or candidate. …
The stark fact of disagreement on leading social issues is a reminder that official church agencies only at great risk constitute themselves pressure lobbies for specific politico-economic objectives. … In doing so, they run the peril of violating democratic rights within their churches, in the presumed course of contributing stability to democracy in the nation. …
More liberal churchmen, whose theology has not undergone a full conservative revision, today acknowledge the fallacy of socialism, and appear ready to combine the theological left with the economic right. In the welter of confusion, it is understandable that men with a concern for the Protestant witness to a culture near chaos should promote the idea of unity in social reconstruction. But to compensate for a disunity which grows out of a basic departure from biblical norms by a unity which is manmade is to jump out of confusion into caprice.
After Eisenhower gained a majority in the popular vote in all but seven states, CT asked the president’s Washington, DC, pastor whether America should be thought of as a “Christian nation”:
In the absolute sense and on the perfectionist basis there is no such thing as a “Christian nation.” In terms of the higher order of the Kingdom of God, no political entity, in this imperfect world, is thoroughly Christian. But some nations embody more Christian principles than other nations. … When America is most faithful to its origin, to its truest self and to its God, it is that kind of nation. …
Much is being said these days in religious circles about the “exploitation” of religion as a weapon of ideological conflict. In the highest sense, pure religion is not to be “exploited” for anything except God’s purposes. God is to be worshipped and served for God’s sake. Righteousness is to be sought for righteousness’ sake. Nothing in Jesus’ teaching is more emphatic than that. …
In the decade since World War II, American life has been characterized on the one hand by a moral sag and cultural deterioration, and on the other hand by a moral resurgence and a spiritual awakening. … The presence of the former does not invalidate the latter. That we are living in a period of great religious revival of continental proportions is too clear to need documentation. The evidence is all about us. It is too cumulative and too impressive to be ignored or minimized.
Hungary was in the news in the fall of 1956 as protest against the Soviet Union’s control of the country welled and then died. Evangelicals worried the rumble of tanks in Budapest signaled a dark new chapter of the Cold War.
The rebellious people of Hungary, fighting to rid themselves of communist domination, took their cue from the inscription on the war memorial in Budapest University:
“Endure everything: sorrow, pain, suffering and death; but do not tolerate one thing—the dishonor of the Hungarian people.”
A Hungarian seminary professor wrote a detailed report of what was happening:
The recent tragedy of Hungary unfolded before our eyes. … The students, the workers and the intellectuals started their peaceful demonstrations. Their demands could be summed up in three short words: bread and freedom. They wanted for themselves things which we in America simply take for granted: national independence and full sovereignty, free elections and a representative government, free press and free communication with all the countries of the world, a readjustment of wages and the assurance of the possibility of a decent human living; finally, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary. …
In the last days of October they used the short period of freedom at their disposal to effect far-reaching changes in their very lives. … The newly established National Christian Youth Federation appealed to the Christians of the world on November 3. Some of their dramatic words read as follows: “May God, who is the God of history, bless the efforts of our nation to build up an independent, free and neutral Hungary and may He enable us all to serve for reconciliation, peace and friendship among the nations.”
Two days later, choosing a Sunday morning for their attack, the Russian tanks crushed the insurgence of the whole Hungarian nation. At least 20,000 men, women and children were reported to have been killed in Budapest itself. … Those who survived are facing starvation, the freezing cold of winter and, perhaps worst of all, the possibility of deportation to Siberia. …
The NBC television newsreel has recently shown some very moving pictures of the way in which Hungarian refugees managed to reach the Austrian border. …
The refugees came up against a deep, water-filled canal. There was no bridge any more. The Russians had long before dynamited it. With a swift and desperate ingenuity, the Hungarians pieced some treetrunks together so that they could serve as an improvised gangplank. But all this was good only to prop their feet against it; they could never have walked on it. Something more had to be done. Finally they stretched a wire over the “bridge,” and the breathtaking crossing began. Feeble old women and playfully agile children, while using the wobbling treetrunks as a foothold, grasped the wire with both hands and slowly but surely all reached the other side.
The editors of CT were especially worried about what increased Communist oppression would mean for Hungarian Protestants. A professor from Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, offered a historical perspective:
The tragic developments in Hungary have involved a large and flourishing Protestant community there. Twenty-eight percent of the population is Protestant; of these, twenty percent are Reformed and six percent Lutheran. They have been suffering with their compatriots in the recent attempt to throw off Soviet domination and gain freedom. …
Suffering is not a new experience for Hungarian Protestantism. … The historian d’Aubigne writes that “it was by a kind of thunderclap that the Reformation began in Hungary.” … Raped and looted by the vast armies of two powerful countries, Germany and Russia, during World War II, Hungary’s condition became tragic. … Dr. Stewart W. Herman, in an address to the Lutheran World Action conference, stated that Hungary was “experiencing the greatest religious revival to be found in all Europe.” … Much of the leadership of the Small-landholders Party, overthrown in the revolution of 1948, hated by the victorious Communists, and active in the most recent revolt, came from the Protestant Church.
In 1956 another Communist dictatorship was transforming China. CT editors warned readers not to be naive about “reforms”:
Communism is intrinsically atheistic. Since an atheist recognizes no fixed principles of morality, one cannot have confidence in his word, integrity or intentions. Promises and pledges, however solemnly stated in international treaties, are suspended on something other than unchanging moral principles.
How reads the record of Red China? It has flagrantly violated the basic rights of humanity and flaunted the standards of international law and comity. It has denied the legitimate rights of American citizens—business men, educators, missionaries—and has caused them to leave property and posts of duty, or has imprisoned them on charges palpably false. Contrary to the provisions of international law, it has held prisoners of war (both Japanese and American) for indefinite periods. … the communists recognize no law nor organization superior to their own nefarious program.
CT worried about more than the cultural revolutions wrought by communism. Closer to home, the magazine raised concerns about the commercialization of Christmas:
The public celebration of Christmas raises deep concern in the Christian Church. Although instituted to commemorate the birth of Christ, Christmas has become an occasion for inexcusable excesses. Blatant commercialism has captured the season for unholy gains. Drunken orgies at office and home ascribe the day more fittingly to Bacchus, the god of wine. Santa Claus takes prominence over Christ as the process of secularization captures the day once dedicated to worship of the King of kings.
History vividly reveals the only adequate course by which the Church can restore true significance to Christmas. She must become engrossed with the nature of Christ and the Incarnation with the same passion evident in the life of fourth-century Christianity.
