Lectures in History Christian Nightlife in the 1970s : CSPAN3 : August 1, 2024 7:57pm-9:27pm EDT : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive (2024)

saturday on c-span 2, d find the full schedule on your program guide, or watch online, anytime at c-span.org/history. if you ever missed any of c- span's coverage, you can find it anytime online at c- span.org. videos of key hearings , debates, and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlights. these points of interest markers appear on the right- hand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos. this timeline tool makes it easy to quickly get an idea of what was abated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's points of interest . thank you, all. hello, everyone. hello to my class, hello to the american studies department here at cal state, fulton. hello to mom and dad if they are watching at home.

thank you very much. i am honored to be here today to my american nightlife students. also, this event is doubling of the fall 2022 grad colloquium here at cal state fulton. it is for faculty to talk about their present research and research categories we have. as you can see, the opening slide, i've always already given away much of what the talk will be about today, which is christian nightclubs in california. i know there are a couple of you out there that probably think those two don't belong together, christian and nightclub. since i have prepared about an hours worth of remarks today, i am confident to say those words alone together at least one time in american history. i want to talk about that today. before we begin, this is week 12 for my american nightlife students. american nightlife is a foresight development in the last couple of years here at cal state, fullerton. his class challenges might students to change our timeline

into place evening at the center of our analysis as scholars. what our class asks, what can we learn about understand america's nocturnal attitudes, and what nightlife often conjures up pleasures, escape from everyday life. my students really dig into health life and nightlife cup and contested, filled with work and play and identity formation, and plenty of plane and pain of controversy that can tell us more about american history and culture. for example, in week two, my students explored how modern philadelphia college students use, to quote her words, strategic behaviors in an effort to impress potential romantic and sexual partners, while partying in the city of brotherly love. during week three, my student sean anderson dug into health british american aristocrats in the colonial area went into taverns frequented by women, native americans, and enslaved african americans to quote,

assert their power and masculinity over those they deemed wildly inferior. by week eight, my student sylvester wrote of the coming of 19th-century gas lighting in baltimore and across the country in other cities. d urbad lighting and policing in an effort to tame the night. and while and just past this past last week, my student, nadine boxer, just explained how the dreams of civil war soldiers and the early 1860s, which in her words, they shared freely and honestly with their loved ones through their letters and revealed their soldiers fears of being forgotten, replaced, cheated on, imprisoned and killed. so this course i hope i can. i have already proved to you deals with spaces and activities that attitudes about how americans in the evening hours understood their way of life. and today, i want to discuss a space that many americans do not know anything about. and to do that, i want to start off with a story. i'm a historian at heart, and i always tell my students, i want to begin with stories. and so i want to take us about 40 miles east of here to the city of los angeles.

this is not the venue i'm talking about. this is actually a very famous venue on the sunset strip called the whiskey a go go. but imagine this is another venue on the sunset strip. 50 years ago, actuallyin971, on a warm saturday evening, an orderly queue began to form just after 8:30 p.m. in front of a music venue near beverly hills, california. at first glance, there seemed nothing remarkable about this space atll it sat on the sunset strip, a new nearly two mile stretch of road infamous for 1960s rowdy nightclubs, bars and restaurant. it also sat on sunset boulevard, an area of the city that los angeles rocker arthur lee once described as a psychedelic movie in technicolor. but unlike the typical clientele of other music clubs on the street, right those in line at this nightclub seemed very, very different than the other revelers walking around the sunset strip at that time. these folks at this nightclub were had neatly presented hair, neatly presented attire.

they looked, according to the l.a. times, who was witnessing this line. they they looked like a mother's dream or orange county safe. hmm. the neon marquee above their their head also felt very out of place on the sunset strip. instead of marketing the newest up and coming rock musicians, psychedelic rock musician that this marquee above their heads red the jesus movement is here. now these patrons were not waiting for a friday night filled with booze and dancing to psychedelic rock. instead, they were in line for a show at the brand newock club on the sunset strip. la's first christian nightclub. now, synthesis colloquium, which i'm very excited to present at today, i get to talk about what brought me to this research in the first place and the origin of this research project on christian nightclubs goes back to when i was in graduate school at george mason university city. and at the time i was writing a dissertation. i actually completed a dissertation on gay male nightlife. since 1970, and that's actually

i should make clear to everyone studying christian city or the religious right is not something that i'm an expert in, but i want to tell you how i started thinking about this kind of project about christian nightclubs while i was doing photographic research to try to find images of gay men at bars and bathhouses and cinemas and whatnot. i was constantly on the hunt to try to find images of these men in the actual places that i was writing about. and during this time, i came across two images that had nothing to do with gay bars in the 1970s, but i found them. i kind of was stopped in my place and i read the caption, so you're actually looking at these images the way i found them. i didn't find them the way they were presented to me. and i want to actually hear fr you all what you all think when yogu see these images, especially in my students, you just explain to me what do some image analysis together for as a class? what do we see in this first image of a christian nightclub ght on in los angeles in 1971? let's hear from a student. yes. one sec. i'm going to bring the boom back to you, if that's okay. okay. what do you see?

the first thing i see is like the posters that are on the back of the wall. one of them says you have a lot to live in. the nice woman says, jesus. yeah. and then. yeah. and then the other one is just i think it also says jesus. i mean, it is safe to say that it does say jesus. so, like, kind of portraying like the messages that they want to have in this nightclub. so. so posted on the wall. and they have the word jesus on them. i like that. other other ideas. what do we see over here? let's do it in the front here. i see. so does instead of alcohol for the refreshments. oh yes. you're looking at the menu here. we have spirialood with free hotdogs. only $0.50. u nnot get that at dodger stadium today. right? co*kes and 7up and ginger, meing. right. very good. what else do we see? that's some morhas up over here. how about over here? our last one here. very similar to sally's. but qstion was, what is spiritual food? and hot dogs and a strawberry shortcake spiritual like? is there a reason for those?

no, no, that's okay. right. we also see people playing pool, a man and a woman we're looking at. interesting, i think like late sixties, early seventies dress. we know this is 71. so the caption gives some things away. what about this next photo. what do we see? same bar, right? someone's reading a per. stoke a stoke something. stoke in jesus. how do these people feut their nightclu experience? does it does it sound like what thl. times is writing about it? orange c safe? maybe. i, i didn't want to guess. my favorite part of this image. i need to know more about this one person. yes. oh, look at her very, v excited to be at a christian nightclub in the 1970s. right? very good. what drew me to these photographs, both of these is not actually i mean, i was astounded that there was christian nightclub. so i was like, that's interesting. but i think i expected to see a whole bunch of people with like clasp hands. i thought i would see a whole bunch of people maybe, you know, like looking up to the air. i'm thinking of like stereotypical images of what i think about evangelicals, right?

they don't see that. and these photographs seem, at least to me, remarkably normal. right. they could be a dive bar in my hometown of indiana. in indiana right now, it goes without saying that the concept of christian nightclubs intrigued me after seeing these photograph photographs mostly said, i held fairlyi like i stereotypicaes a ideas t angelical christians in my head. plus, at the time i was writ this dissertationboutyou know, gay male communities across the united states and certainly many g lesbian peop in the late sixties and the early seventies saw evangelical christianity as antithetical or even downright hostile to the interest of gay people. and in new found gaber hoods across the united states a whole new sort of culture was being formed by and for gays themselves. and for me at least. and the reason the research i'm doing for my dissertation for this book that i'm writing, the biggest symbol of that blossoming and burgeoning, burgeoning community and culture were nightlife spaces, bars and bathhouses and cinemas

represented a culture of pleasure and sexual exploration that was long denied. the thousands and thousands of gays that before they flocked to these urban centers. all this is to say, i thought this was super strange looking at these images right. it was at the exact same time that gay liberate the gay liberation movement was really taking hold in cities across the united states, in ancio, in new york and houston, in chicago, best symbolized by the singumber of gay bars across the united states, so too was another social move rising, one that often seemed in direct opposition to gay freedom. and that was evangelical christianity. and later, the christian right. right. and this movement to was using at least showing some evidence of using nightlight as a way of projecting its message. and i need to know more. and thus this project was born. and now i'm forcing you all to hear some of my earliest findings about that. right. so today i want to talk about how beginning in the early 1970s, entrepreneurs in california and across the nation began opening up christian, nike

and shooting nightclubs. in my early research, i de into church newsletters and directories, mainstream news articles, phone books,olge newspapers and photographs to try and identify seven different riian nightclubs here i lifornia that are that form. the focus of my analysis today. these the ghtclubs were located in los angeles, in long beach, newport beach, orge and a few in northern california as well. now, those that started california's christian nightclub, as i call them, entrepreneurs in my analysis today, hope to not just profit off an emerging christian marketplace, but also to reclaim a secular space as well. here, deviant nightlife spaces. and they wanted to transform form them into clean venues. this is their words. clean venues, spaces to find joy and have fun in the company of fellow followers of christ. and these entrepreneurs also believe that these christian nightclubs could be helpful sites of evangelism if non-christians could not be

reached from a traditional house of worship. on sunday mornings, they theorized that evening music venues could help bring them to the chriiaflock. and so christian nightclubs may seem like just another extension ofhristian americans hoping to create religious versions of secular entertainment. right. similar to christian theme parks or music festivals or museums or summer camps. however, i want to argue today that christian entrepreneurs believe that nightclubs could also serve a special function that's a little bit different than other christian ized spaces. nightclubs, they saw might reach non-christian teenagers, and especially adults who found other christian spaces spaces as too stuffy or too imagistic or too churchy. they also hope that nightclubs could break the stereotype of religious spaces as being anti fun or as a way to keep christians devoted to god at all hours of the day. not just on sunday mornings. and these new religious nightclubs were special to so many christians. i argue today precisely because they were not churches and very

few of them were ever directly affiliated with churches. christian nightlife owners reason that their clubs and their secular feel of these clubs, often with incredible dance floors, state of the art, sound and lighting systems might make christians seem hip and cool. for the first time, they reasoned. and finally, these christian nightclubs work experiments in how christians might envision evening pleasure. it was inside evangelical bars where christians could explore the meaning of friendship out of leisure and romance in a christian context and build an evening community with outdoor drugs and alcohol. but i want to get some context before i jump into these awesome bars that i've been researching of late. so first, some context about the period that lead up to the 1970s. i really want to argue the 1970s is pivotal to why christian nightclubs at least start beginning in the 1970s. so the birth of the christian nightcluns in the seventies, and it coincides to a period that many scholars call the third great awakening, where a historian, edward perkovich, ys people are finding g record numbers and in odd

places. i don't thinowitz is even thinking about nightclubs wh he's saying that. now i want to point out this third great awakenat's happand that beginning in the 1970s is not even across all denominations in the united states. so-called liberal protestant denominations, denominations like a methodist and presbyterians and episcopalians, they actually see a decline in membership roles in the second. and the post-second world war period. we're talking about 20 to 30% decline in these denominations. but the membership roles for evangelical and fundamentalist denominations are surge. by the 1970s, with a new evangelical movements prospering in the forms of megachurches and parish church networks such as the willow creek congregation and the calvary chapel movement, which i'll talk about in a second. by 1978, one study suggests that nearly a quarter of americans identify as evangelical. ten years later, gallup is going to suggests in the late 1980s, gallup is going to suggest that one in three americans either call themselves born again or

evangelical christians. so certainly by 1970, evangelical christianity has gripped the entire nation. right. and california is pivotal to that surge, right? pivotal to that evangelical explosion in the postwar era. california's population grows rapidly, in large part from migration of americans, from the bible belt south across to the west, with many of them settling here in southern california. it's known for its you know, beautiful, temperate climate and for its rising middle class, suburban prosperity. by 1969, the state of california by itself has more people, more citizens that were born in the south. and the entire state of arkansas. that's right. and it's also not just southern california that has a religious awakening. northern california and in and around san jose are the san jose mercury times says that northern california is witnessing a new religious awakening. right. so california is a big part of this evangelical explosion. now, another way that

evangelical d.a. based in california has become so popular by the early seventies is was through a belief among many christians down here that christianity can be more fully ingrained into the daily life and culture of americans, not some strange ritualistic activity that only takes place on the weekends. one example of this is the jesus movement that began in southern california in the 1960s. the reverend chuck smith models his church after the hippie tercultureovement. that many young people are are a part of in the late sixties. instead of embracing psyic drugs and free love. however, smith encd his his followers, who later called themselves radical christians or jesus freaks, to come barefoot to his church and accept an informal, loving relation ship with god. and this church becomes super, super popular with young people and alsodults, even in middle class. orange county, because of its informal kind of caliph virginia style. the church embraces things like folk music, lively bible

session. smith does a large baptism on california's most gorgeous beaches over here, right in 1965, a smith's church just has about 25 members. by 1978, what does that 12 years later? right. or what? 13 years later? smith's church in costa mesa has ten, 5000 people attending it. right. so we're talking about a mega movement here. now, this must warming the evangelical communityn california, led by christian entrepreneurs to envisn at they called a tachristian community and infrastructure network. by the 1970s, evangelicals across the united stat began thinking that thr ith ought not be confined to sunday church service, but to all facets of life they created christian senior homes, christian banks, christian auto shops, christian beauty sps, christian medical office. and they also embraced pleasure institutions. evangelicals created christian dude ranches out west. christian radio programs.

tv programs. christian summer camps. christian bookstores. christian christian amusem*nt parks. jim and tammy faye bakker, the head of the pta, all television network, create a theme park out in south carolina in 1978 called heritage usa, a jim baker's hero is walt disney. he wants to he outwardly calls i want to create a christian version of disneyland. and and he heritage usa in south carolina becomes the third most successful amusem*nt park most attended amusem*nt park in the 1970s and 1980s, only behind disney world, out in florida. and, of course, disneyland here in orange county. i just love looking at his maps here. here is here is a picture of heritage usa, the map of your church usa. here's a map of disneyland, exact same year. you can see jim baker's taking a lot of inspiration about what he wants. a pleasure community for christians to look like. right. and jim baker's religious theme park has a jerusalem ampitheater a christian stores, christian cafeterias and a massive, massive water park.

now you got to give you an example, and this is a lot of text. i apologize, guys. i promise i won't talk about every single one of these things, but i want to read you what a social theorist, jeremy rifkin kind of imagines how many christians understand the ideal life in the day of a 1970s christian family in the morning, husband and wife wake up to an evangelical service on their local christian owned and operated radio station. let's keep track of how many christian plsehis faly goes to, right? the husband leaves for work while he will start off his at a businessmen'ay breakfast. the evangelical wife bustled the children ochstian day sc at midmorning, she relaxes in front of a tv set and turns on her favorite christian soap opera. later in the afternoon, while the christian husband is attending a christian business seminar and the children are engaged in afterschool, christian sports programs, the christian wife is doing her daily shopping at a christian store recommended by her in a christian business directory. in the evening, the christian family watches a christian world

news on television and then settles down for dinner. after dinner, the children begin their christian school assignments. a christian babysitter arrives. she is part of the babysitter pool from the local church. after changing into their evening clothes, the christian wife applies a touch of christian makeup. and they're off to a ding, ding, ding christian nightclub for some socially posing with christian friends from the local church. they return home later in the evening and catch the last half hour of the 700 club. the evangelical johnny carson, the christian wife, and her day reading a chapter or two from marble morgan's bestselling book, the total woman. meanwhile, her husband leaves through a copy of inspiration magazine, the evangelical newsweek. before they both retire for the evening. you guys get what i'm trying to get at right. now? well, evangelicals embrace this new form of christian infrastructure across the country. many, many remain skeptical of recreating institutions that they saw were particularly connected to sin and vice. and that includes nightlife

sites. sites, right. one of those fams ople who questions whether or not nightlife sites, especially cond night nightlife sites, should exi, a minister called arthur bless, a southern baptt nister. and he spends s late sixties walking across the sunset boulevard wi aigantic cross. and because he thinks he's going to evangel lies, people who work in the nightlife iusy, people like barmaids and bar tenders. go-go boys are strippers on the coast are sex workers, band members and blessed even even secures permission from local bars to enter these nightlife spaces to evangelize during their off hours. right. not only does letting the people who work inside the nightlife establishments need to be evangelized to, even the people who go to them need to be evangelized too. so here, though, it was actually about blessed. blessed says like man, if only i actually don't think that nightlife is necessarily wrong. i think people who go there and with the activities they do inside them are maybe problematic. but let's it says like, yeah, it'd be kind of cool one day to actually maybe have a christian

nightclub. and little does blessing know. then a couple of years he's going to be and he's going to enter a christian nightclub on the sunset strip called right on right now christian entrepreneurs had no idea if their experiments creating christian nightclubs would actually work with so many other evangelical businessmen remaking formerly secular daytime spaces. they felt that like nightclubs might offer another route to reemerge in a cushy christian fellowship at night. but i still want to point out that many, many people are really skeptical of this number. arthur, bless its telling. people don't drop acid and the sunsettrip drop matthew, mark, luke and john. jesus is theverlasting high. right. and even into the 1980s, after many of these nightclubs, christian nightclubs, have come and gone, there are still christia, prominent evangelical christians, who fear secular nightlife. one of those people is jim baker, who will start the ptl network, the one who starts heritage usa. that theme park in the middle of

the 1980, he's going to raise money to build what he calls a partners center at heritage usa. and he tells people that this partnership center is going to be able to evangelize at all hours of the day. people who are coming to heritage usa and they wake up at two in the morning, they're tempted by drugs, they're tempted by alcohol, they're tempted by sex. they're going be able to come and pray at all hours of the day because he says there's plenty of entertainment for secular people to do that. let's watch. his campaign to raise money a little bit for this for this partner center and see what he says about secular nightlife. give me one second. any rooms there for individual meetings and workshops? and then right behind that will be a new 5000 seat auditorium to be able to minister to the people that have come to heritage usa. we're always out of space, but we believe this is going to take the greatest step forward and give us space in order for this

structure to gather together. the devil has really done more for fellowship for his crowd than god's people have done for god's people to fellowship together. the enemy has built a fellowship hall in big cities on every corner called a bar in the middle of the night, you can go down and find a bartender to talk to you. but how many churches are open in the middle of the night? how many christian centers are open in the middle of the night? you know, with the bars, are there. the devil has places is all over. he has gambling, casinos. he has nightclubs, theaters, places for the world to fellowship. god's eyes. i want my people to come together. i we've been intimidated by the world. the world says, stay in your churches. don't come out and god says, i want you to come out and get

together. i want you to love one another. i want you to get on fire for me. in the last days. okay. but that's baker's understanding, right? many people, including christian entrepreneurs, are going to try to reach people at night by using a mechanism that secular people are gathering at night, which are nightclubs. right. but as baker's warning tells us, religious nightclub owners that wanted to christianize nightlife spaces had to find a balance of both promoting christian fellowship on one hand, while also keeping nightlife space, principally as a site of fun and leisure, a.k.a. have a fun bar space. but keep it christian. keep it clean right now. in the next couple, maybe 30 minutes or so, i want to kind of give you kind of a how to guide to build a christian nightclub, right? i wanted to figure out how did these christian businessmen actually start christian nightclubs? i want to look at the way even what evangelical nightlife spaces can. tell us more about the desire

for that total christian community, a total christian nightclub experience. now, one interesting thing i found during my research into these seven nightclubs is that despite connection with already existing christian networks, i'm thinking things like christian coffeehouses and whatnot, few christian nightclubs actually are born either as independent places that someone just finds an empty storefront, opens up a christian nightclub or convert a former christian like coffeehouse into a nightclub. but as i rarely happens, most of the christian nightclubs that i might talk about today were actually reclaimed. reconvert shirted former secular bars right. bars that used to serve alcohol that had smoking, that had, you know, scantily clad women. occasionally, we're going to see in a second. and that was actually the point of these spaces. one of the ways to for the christian businessmen to actuallyhow that their place is funndip, is taking over a formerly secular, a nightlife spot. as one of the nighluowners that i talk about here is not

one of the nightclub hours. one the people who used to tour nightclubs acts said like born again christians, the ghlubs that i go to, theschristian nightclubs have undergone a conversion experience. for instance, how rupert transform forms a former hard rock discotheque space into a christian nightclub called the basem*nt inn orange, california, in 1976. the next year, brian mclean is going to convert the daisy, which is a very, very hip on 1960s nightclub, a very for ritzy celebrities in the 1960s. u can see here this is befo its conversion on rodeo drive. it's a private nightclub. we know this because we have evidence of thr mbership card showing us that's a private nightclub. he's going tothis into a christianitclub smack dab in the middle of rodeo drive in the milef los angeles. these are not nightclubs on the corner on the outskirts of the city where people have trouble finding them. you can easily find a christian nightlife spot. it's pretty prominent in major areas of the country right. and to be sure, not all

christian nightclubs could afford to rent out places for the entire week. right. renting was always an option just for certain days of the week. for instance, jason ross leased out a dive bar, a pretty famous dive bar. now, but he released this out in 1986, a place called maverick's flat grill. and he rented it out for friday, saturday and sunday nights. and he called this this new bar appraises and unlike the gritty saloon atmosphere that that was common at the tavern monday through thursday excuse monday to friday on the weekend praises was free as what he said choking smoke sultry fashions and the slurred slurred speech common at secular bars. but for me, the most interesting of these converted spots is not just a normal tavern. it is strip clubs. right? just how committed are christians to nightclub owners to the idea of christian izing secular spaces? well, let me just say even strict strip clubs were not out of the question. now, i know the far le iges ofex, but it's one of the earlier nightclubs in here.

i just think it's so interesting that san antonio christians convert a former burlesque house into the the green gay club, a christian nightubhat used to before its conversion, a show, nightly strip shows and burlesque acts before it converted in97 now, right on the very, very first nightclub we talked about was formerly ao-go bar. and it called itself a strip lace in the 1960s. even welcoming famous burlesque stars like the atomic bomb lily sasheer to perform before it's christian convsi. and when the central park disco opened in march, said in northern california, i don' have to tell you that it didn't originally open up as a christian nightclub because its most popular enterinnt were male go-go boys, who danced over hundreds of revelers on their many dance floors, open displays of sexual pleasure, of course, were certainly not acceptable at christian nightclubs. but i want to return to the 1970s and talk about why the 1970s so important here. the 1970s so important to the rise of christian nightclubs

because it is the disco era, the rise of the disco era. now the nation in the 1970s, in fact, the world, the 1970 succumbed to what we known as disco fever. here's a cover of newsweek in 1971, an image of donna summer proclaiming that disco takes over. right. and though prom atisco clubs in major cities like the new york city and in studio 54, often beme synonymous with drugs and sex and and other things like that. disco actually was a diverse genre. many, many people enjoyed disco music. i know. we know there's a backlash to disco by the late seventies and early eighties, but at first, most people think that it's one of those genres that can unite americans across age lines, across gender lines, across racial lines, as the as the billboard writer bill wardlow notes there were in the seventies, teen discos, even kiddy discos, but soft drinks, even senior citizen discos, he says. the music, according to the billboard magazine, didn't divide parents and children as previous popular music did. now, disco music helped usher in

folks into christian nightclubs, especially since some christian owners spent extravagant amounts of money investing into dance floors, sound systems and of course, lighting. right. in 1976, even before discos rise, the basem*nt in orange included a glistening parquet dance floor, complete with a revolving disco ball overhead and beautiful ultraviolet lights that shined across a large dancing section. that was not uncommon at secular nightclubs. but listen to this owner, hal rupert of the basem*nt invested $20,000 in his sound system. he'llnvt another $35,000 in a sounngighting system in anhechristian nightclub called noah's ark in long beach blossoming across the country. up north, bobcaa, when he converts the central park disco in moore, said he likely keeps much of the investments he made in his previous go-go male go-go boy ub 11,000 square feet of dancing

space, 24 speakers with state of the art earthquake horns, 32,000 watts of lighting, $60,000 worth of sound equipment. and i really like this. this is praises now nightclub about why they spent so much ghlubs.n these christian i like this quote. but he says he says, we want to push back against the idea that christian means styrofoam cups and poor sound and lighting. what do we think he means by this? what do what do we get from that quote. what does that mean? we want to fight. we're going to spend so much money on these clubs to fight back against the idea that christian means styrofoam cups. i guess they don't have hydro flask back then, but what do they mean by that? yes. over here. i think what he's trying to point out is like this idea that these christian nightclubs are taking place and like christian, like a church community center or like the basem*nt and

christianity can be cool and elegant and upbeat and keep up with these same nightclubs. so you're not just going to come here and get some kind of, like thrown together, you know, church moms event, but you're actually going to get a full experience like you would in any other nightclub but christ center, 100%. right. exactly what we're having. even in the 1980s. christian nightclubs hope to be seen as hip and cool, right? the fact that disco was that a disco was christian did not mean necessarily that it was any less had any less quality sound, any less cool, an experience inside. right. your dance floor experience could be equal to that at studio 54. perhaps. maybe that that cool, but pretty cool, right now. what about music? a good question that we all have, right? what sort of tunes are being played at christian nightclub? right. i talked about disco, but even before right now, disco music and at christian nightclub, sometimes live, but more often they there was recordings via a jukebox or more likely a deejay being played.

and nightclub owners admitted that initially in the early 1970s they had hoped that as christian patrons actually would dance to christian music. right. but they they had they didn't really have a lot of danceable christian music in the early 1970s. they thought gospel music, especially african-american gospel music. they thought the point of them had good beats. but for some reason, they couldn't get their patrons out on the dance floor to dance for them. this is a song i gave my students an article about some of the early the rite on nightclub. actually this is a song that was playing at the rite on nightclub at the night that we all wait in the queue. i want you guys to tell me what's wrong with the song and about getting people to the dance floor. let's put it on. this is. excuse me. this is the. the oak ridge boys singing a song called jesus christ. what a man. i don't know. just a couple of seconds.

just that as one thing. i don't understand. why you don't sing songs about jesus. than i was. saying with some songs. okay. we get the what's the problem here? yes. just be glad we not have to. just. sounds like a lullaby. it sounds like a little bit of a lullaby. why is that a problem? i didn't like karaoke. it almost sounds like you're singing tennessee whiskey at the bar. is that a present problem to get people to dance? yes, very. right. we're not we're not having very lively music here. perhaps that's why our friend at

the beginning of the right night, right on nightclub, is kind of falling asleep in her arm. right. that to get it right. not the most act of music, but by the disco era. we have ways of fixing that. also, gospel music becomes a lot more disco. by the late 1970s, this is a song by betty griffin. just give you an example about how christian music becomes really, really danceable by the 1970s. this is betty griffin singing free spirit. tell me how different business. models for us. are less. what we think better, better.

i saw some of you shazam ing the song back there. it's okay. it's okay. you'll be able to see it all right. so, yeah. so the music gets better. it gets more danceable, right? people want to dance by the disco era and makes sense that so many of these clubs become much more active. there are more nightclubs. by the late 1970s and early 1980s than there were at the late sixties or the early 1970s. but we have a problem, especially if these bars are going to play mainstream cream disco music and want to guess what that problem might be? yeah. establishments not establishing that it is meant to be christian and it's meant to have god imbued in it. right? yeah, certainly. yeah. a lot of disco music has very explicit lyrics, but it's about sexuality. it's about, you know, maybe. i don't know. right. but it has explicit lyrics in a way that some of these clubs are not comfortable playing with. there's a couple of solutions, right? some of these nightclub deejays are going to edit out explicit lyrics, which is not that uncommon. right. pop music still does that to this day. some of them, though, disco, has a lot a lot of music coming out.

that is lyric lists, right? so it's just the beat. i'm thinking like almost like the hustle, but the only the only lyric in the hustle is the word. the words the hustle. right. so that is can be kind of understood as christian, right. one way to get around it. so censored lyrics or looking for lyric list music might be super helpful and with by the disco era with this new incessant disco beat booming through state of the art sound systems and adult at adult christian nightclubs, these christian clubbers could overtake several dance floors at noah's ark. adults could take over one of the dance floors, and there was three other ones for younger people teenagers, young adults. there's not one often one dance floor and major christian nightclubs. there's often multiple ones, and they're often segmented by age, right. so older people don't feel like they're constantly dancing younger people. kind of an ingenious way of getting these christian nightclubs to not feel like they're constantly having been in contact with people across the age boundaries. now, what about fashion now for our class, for my american

nightlife, class, dress and costumes, uniforms have been a constant discussion topics in our course. but i think it's important to understand what the l.a. times means when they call the people who are standing in line at t rht on. in early 1971, orange county safe right. by looking at a few photographs that we have of some of these christian nightclubs, and you'll see me searching for more of these christian nightclub photographs in a second. i've come to see that christian nightclubs kind of embraced a sort some more, a conserve it of dress that was often found at other secular nightlife. right. and an effort to keep their disco clubs clean. some christian nightclub owners enforced dress codes, for instance, at the basem*nt in orange in order to keep it clean atmosphere. the bar owners banned a tank. they banned shorts and they banned sandals. go to theement right now.d not staple at christian discos, even at clubs that didn't explicitly

ban certain clothing. and i'm ooking at i'm usingasically this off of just the what i'm seeing in some of these photographs here. and by the way, i can't be these are often press photographs. can't gue that these photographs are not staged for the camera. and as schole should be very suspect of photographic evidence. right. they can constantly be staged or manipulated. but i think, like even if these were staged by nightclub owners, it's example that the entrepreneurs wanted the clientele of their christian nightclubs to outwardly appear stylish and yet modest as well. now, disco represented. still, there were still a lot of people who did not like that christians were embracing disco music or disco nightclubs. right? disco represents. too many christian perversions of secular society and prominent evangelical leaders often equated dis music and discos themselves with the so-called decline of the american family, oftentimes in the same ntence as them being annoyed with the rise of hom*osexual culture or rampant abortion. right. for instance, jerry falwell?

well, in the spring of 1979, in the middle of, by the way, jerry falwell, the tv evangelist, but in the middle of jimmy carter's reelection campaign, jerry falwell comes out on televion. limbaugh casting jimmy carter, but also list the other things that's wrong with the carter adminiration and carter culture. hom*osexual t is wrong. p*rnography. television. abortion. discos. divorce and sex education. anti-gay. and a campaigner. ana bryant, who ran around the country trying to overturn pro-gay rights laws across the country. she sent out a newsletter in 1979, the same year that jerry falwell spoke about. jimmy carter warning readers that gays were produced disco records with double meanings and then having straight children buy them. and even disco stars donna summer and gloria gaynor, both who will convert to evangelical christianity later on. donna summer is going to come out in the late 1970s and early eighties and an urge gays to, quote, change their ways. so the popularity a

fundamentalist christianity served in the later 20th century united states, even among celebrities of the disco era's, not only were discos, floors, gateways to ungodly activity to these people, but the music they played might be an unnecessary temptation to sin. even if some christian nightclub owners took time to censor lyrics. now christian california nightclub owners were keenly aware of this controversy. for instance, when noah's ark management switched their music from gospel to disco, they found out, according to one of their owners said, we found a lot more of our conservative christian patrons were turned off. and to a two santa ana's calvary church leader, sam talbot, he says discos are actually worldly institution institutions. they originate in bars. and so naturally, my reaction to christian is going to be negative, he says. right, but it's not just the music or disco culture that is widely viewed that irks so many christians. any form of dancing was

controversy still in some fundamentalist circles? in fact, according to some christian nightclub owners, half of the christian world ds't believe in dancing. most of the reason is cultural induced and not from the bible. but we believe the bible is full of dancing. w, protestant christians have long been divided about whether dancing is a sin. i don't know exactly w 'm still researching why that , but i did find an expert and an old newspaper by an oklahoma southern minister, jesse gaskin, who wrotth this is him lambasting ballet of all things. he says ballet is a vulgar display ofudy that appeals to theheap minded admirer. right. but by then, at the start ofhe 1970s, some evangelical aders start banning, dancing an up and coming a christian institutions. the most interesting what i und is our friend reverend jerry falwell earlier. he's going to try to convert manyeoe, college students into christianity. he's going to found liberty university in lynchburg, virginia, in 1971. an when he does, he writes a student handbook and one of the rules in the student handbook. it bans social dancing.

right. and it's punishable by a fine if you're caught at a club, even a christian nightclub, you could have to pay a certain fine by the. that fine still exists. i just looked it up this morning. i think the fine for attending a dance is $15 now in 2022. and by way, sam, a southern california christian universities copy, liberty university's model, including universities like southern california college, now vanguard university in costa mesa, biola universityn miranda, a susa pacific university, westmont college, evangel point loma and sadio. despite the ban, though, christian college students, including many of these o to these here in southern california, are flocking to christian nightclubs and thus many christian entrepreneurs want to keep opening these spaces. all these spaces. but they' mindful that many christians attentions are worried about dancing. for example, when y anson and shal wilkinson in want to open up a southern california nightclub, they go around to christianhurches, baptist churches and whatnot, and they ask them like, can we have your metaphor blessing to open up our christian nightclubs? and

they kind of get like a gray response. and some of them say, sure, open it up. so they do open it up. they open up a nightclub in newport beach called the lighthouse in 1985. and it survives for many, many years. there are some claims in some newspapers that is the largest nightclub in orange county in the middle of the 1980s. i can't confirm that. but it's interesting if that's true right. and many college students go to that, including students who are to these universities right there, violating their own colleges, bans on going to social dancing. right. and many students, for instance, that go to the white house, go to vanguard university, what was then called southern california college. and they would write to their local administrator at the school, like, cawean i stop? i have to be hiding eryime i want to go out and dance at a christian nightclub of all places. i'm not going a, you know, a seculadio. i'm going to a christian nightclub. why is that a problem? and the university does not budge. and i even found this, by the way, i want to point out, it's kind of risky to go one. you have to pay for some fines. but all of these universities, if they catch students at these dances, that they're if someone

squeals on them, for example, they often receive letters from the university that tell them that they're at risk of losing tuition money or scholarship money or financial aid if they keep going. they even risk expulsion from the university. if they keep infringing on the social dancing policy. and many students are upset the rates the local newspapers, how silly this is. and so i wanted to actually get the student reaction to this dancing ban. and so, luckily, many of these universities have full runs of their student newspapers, digitized online. so i went and looked at southern california colleges reaction to students are going to social dances at the christian nightclub, the lighthouse and actually find i found at a student newspaper a campus security blotter. they kind of stopped me in my tracks. and i want you guys to read it with me. resident directors chris ramse and diana capri smitted names of people rounded up at the lighthouse. one among those hauled away from the christian nightclub and sent their rooms where jerry singer. ron luna, todd robinson, doug steve sparks and dave odrth, along with the entire sixth

floor of the women's tower. now, i w le, whoa. i have like some i couldn't bear to write about this. i was going to like i was going to be so excited. but then i stopped for a second. i was like, hmm. we are good scholars in this room, right? what's the thing i should do before i start writing an awesome piece about how christian universities are rounding up people? i should probably like read other parts of the security blotter, right? so i looked up and down. this is a part of the security blotter on march 27th, two male students were reimanded for a scuffle at the salad bar in the dining commons during lunch. the dispute waover, writes e last dip of house dressing. campus security verified the reason for the brawl. it was casserole day, also reported bthe cafeteria staff were five students name withheld who took more than one helping of a maicourse on their fit trip to the lunch line. no arrests have been made of date and then lest you think this casserole drama is over. five persons were arrested by kosta police and turned over to campus security on suspicion of driving under the influence very serious of dangerous substances

blood test of the five suspects revealing traces of fireman's casserole in their bodies, which was believed to have been the cause of erratic behavior. the driver, the vehicle will not be formally charged until the cafeteria. it can be absolved of blame. so what this a classic example of satire, very good parody here, right? so good thing i did not write a whole like twitter thread about how horrific these colleges and universities were right, but eventually these students actually make inroads with their university complaining about the dancing ban. and in 1985, after so many different letters about how there are christian nightclubs now, we should changthis policy as students convince the board to amend to qualify a 0.6 of the statement of responsibility, which is signed by every student, wh before they enter classes on their freshman year. number six of the statement responsibility is social dancing is prohibited. but after the student's activism, what hpe to the statement it turns into social dancing within a non-christian context is prohibited finally, allowing people to go

dance, not at the secular discos on the sunset strip, but to dance at the lighthouse strike christian clubs. notice to the the student newspaper announces the win often give a coupon as well. if you bring your student and the coupon you get it for free. that day. no cover charge that day. i also think the phrasing of the students when they write in about how happy they are that one of the students writes, i'm finally coming out as dancer, i think was really funny, right? anyways. now only one end of the christian nightclubs currently in my study do i find actually banned dancing? never allowed dancing and its premise and that was that former celebrity rodeo drive disco the daisy also this is proof i just this picture of me during photographic research is just om my chair to prove that i was working dung the pandemic. right. i was looking at ucla, trying to find photographs of of christian nightclubs. i finally find this photogf the daisy here. and i want to point out, even though there's no dancing here, which i think is qui o, i want to point out not all peop are angry about it. 14 yr d cindy hough, who

used to go to the daisy all the time, says it's just nice coming to the daisyndust listening to the words of the music. right. and plus she says, i can always go to other christian nightclubs if i really wanted to dance. i like a places where it's not expected for me to dance. right. but what does the daisy owner have to say about why he doesn't allow dancing in his premise? he says, or at least the manager says dancing wouldinder what do. we feel our jobs get out the gospel. we entertain, but that's not the main. and persists. and that is what's really interesting me i just how much an emphasis to pla o evangelism was something that every christian nightclub owner had to wrestle with. on o hand, his erepreneurs wanted to build places of christian fellowship to help spadhat they saw with the loving message of jesushrist. but on the other hand, they wanted to compete against secular music clubshat were and to be seen as hip right to them. if christian nightclubs were nothing more than a church service at night, their venues would not be able to bring in christian clientele who felt who found church service boring and

banal. they also feared that too churchy a dance club would scare away non-christians who were drawn to the club, not because of its religious undertones, but for its clean atmosphere. no booze, no smoking, right? and in the end, these nightclub owners wanted their clubs to be fun. so any sort evangelism had to be tempered. right. but i want to point out only a few of california christian nightclubs had direct connection to actual churches, but does not mean that there is no evangelism going on. for example, at the basem*nt at 10 p.m. on fridays and saturdays, the dj at the basem*nt would turn off the music just for a few minutes. 3 minutes, maybe max, and let a group prayer. and he one of the prayers when the press was there, asked god to deliver jobs to the unemployed people of orange county, and he asked god to bring elusive rain to drought ridden california. right. a very different era, right after reading a few words of scripture, the music returned and so did the dancing. and that was the extent of evangelism at the at the basem*nt. right. as the basem*nt owner said, we are not a church.

we are not attempting to be a church, but we have many kids who have given their hearts to christ because of our little three minute service. right. 17 year old cami simpson enjoyed, the days in los angeles, precisely because it was not a church, she says it's more alive and fun than going to a church. cindy haha said at church, i have to be careful what i say because it might hurt the old people, the young peoe,he children here at this nightclub. you don't veo worry about offending anyone because everyone is always smiling right now. while christian nightclubs often had spaces for praying and counseling, they were often on the sides of these bars or in a back room or maybe outside. they rarely were in the bar area, or certainly not in the dance floor area. right. and that's some christian nightclubs were made sure not to compete with church or church functions. for example, most of the seven night clubs in my study do not have do not allow people to come on sundays or wednesdays. right. wednesday nights. traditional church activity nights. now, the evangelical light

atmosphere, christian nightclubs appeal to adults, to the management at the daisy site location on rodeo drive, next to bustling nightclubs as a different vehicle for spreading the gospel, targeting those who were uninterested in coming to sunday services right following the opening night performance at the praises nightclub, the owner appeared appeal to his nightclub painters, patrons for a quick talk, and he opened by saying, i'm not going to have you all lower your heads and raise your hands for this. this isn't a church. but i'd be cheating you if i didn't give you the opportunity to meet jesus. it was only a five minute exercise and they went back to dancing and listening to music right now. i mentioned earlier that christian nightclubs often didn't esthetically seem very different from from a secular nightclubs. but i do want to mention that the decor often really did make christian nightclubs seem distinct. some of my students talk about seeing chrisall art, right? that's part of, for example, secular nightclubs rarely hung up. all ecumenical agthat the christian flag all their their

nightclubs basem*nt deejay craig herald of the basem*nt he he dj from a booth with a large portrait of jesus behind his right shoulder is very famous portrait by richard hook called the head of christ with a large christian oshanging behind his other soldier shoulder. nightclub owners often left out religious teture. they would leave out christian newspaper was a small psalm books old bible cistian newsletters and what not. as one owner said of t basem*nt, we d't push the literature on them, but we make it available. some christian nightclubs ha wall art. they had a sayings painted on the wall like where charity and love are, is god or we are one in christ. t us love one another, even the bathrooms were not without christian touch. they often had bathroom signs. they did not say and women and want to guess what they said. brothers and sisters, right? they had spiritual food for sale, right? christn nightclubs may hav mimicked secular clubs, but the

core often marked a visibly distinct christian evening spaces. but let's get to the gritty stuff now. let's talk about some of the taboos at christian nightclubs, smoking was banned or highly discouraged. everything in one of the christian nightclubs in california, they often are christians, often believe smoking to be overly indulgent, addictive and ungodly, and they went out of their way. make these spaces free of lit tobacco with a right on, hoping its patrons would only have, quote, spirits or highs inside their their space. right. and by the way, this is not that it's not that shocking to us. by the 1970s, smoking, as i know, slowly happening, but slowly on the decline into the 1970s as differential health and addiction data becomes much more understood by the american public. but i want to point out, this is a draw for especially non-christians going to christian spaces. as one of the owners of orange county's christian nightclub says, probably one of the main drawing cards have is that we are smoke free atmosphere. a lot of people coming here who aren't even christians just to escape that awful stench of cigarets, right?

which is by a far cry from the 1920s, a majority of americans cigaret smoke is a pleasing fragrance, right? so a reminder to us that smoke smell is a is historically contingent. right? but what is the one thing the one thing that unites all christian nightclubs? i want to guess the one kind of taboo that is completely banned. every christian nightclub alcohol, right? absolutely. no booze. right. that's the most striking difference between secular spaces and christian bars. there's absolutely nbooze here, whickind of makes sense. protestants are the force behin the late 19th century temperance movement. and while many protestants still drink throughout much of the 20th century, including in this era, a belief that alcohol could lead to unwise wise decisio and eventually sin leads many evangelicals to embrace title ism. in the later part of the 20th century. as one christian, a nightclub owner, tells a newspaper, some christian young people are go dancing at the only places available them as secular clubs, places where liquor served, some of them might even get a little smash themselves and then go home and have a guilt trip and

then entrepreneurs then at christian nightclub saw a mission to create a dancing space where christians could experience nightlife on their own terms without any booze and its ability to lower the inhibitions of god's warriors. now, just because there's no booze does not mean there's no bars. in fact, every every single nightclub that i study here in the 1970s and eighties has a bar. the evening call it a bar. sometimes they call the bar for instance, one of the ways they called their bar space, they call it a jacob's. well. and this is a place this is a rence to when jesus meets the samaritan woman and offers her living right. but it wasn'just water being offered at these clubs. we had nonalcoholic drinks like 7up and punch and cherry co*ke and root beer, pineapple juice. but to make their drink menus not seem like roller skating concession stands, and they often also included frothy co*cktails, as they call them. right. fantastic, frothy, frothy co*cktails. one of these that was popular in many christian nightlife menus was the promised land, which was

a co*cktail of milk and honey. other famous ones were sampson's delight, happy halo fruit of the spirit, carpenters, quencher all likely takes on margaritaan mai tais just without the alcohol. or, as the san a press calls it, rum drinks without the rum, right. and theyft tasted like the real thing, according to santa ana. right. and by the way, this was the idea of making a non alcoholic space appeal to christians. it was actually a man named jason ross who would eventually open up prasa's nightclub in los angeles in the 1980s. he he really got the idea that you can bring in more by having no alcohol when he rented out a space before he opened up his bar, he rented out space in los angeles for a christian music night. and the muslim staff was working at that space that night came up to him, according to ross, and said, we just love listening to music, but also not having to be pressured by alcohol in the space. and so many of these krishnakumar owners figured they can bring in more people, even non-christian fans, if they can create a clean no alcohol space. right. a non drinker drinking market

was possible to these men. now the clientele of christian nightclub, these christian club experiences was predominantly younger people. but nightclub owners initially really hoped, really, really hoped thatt was all adus o would show up at least an over 18 crowd hoping their nights could serve aslaces to facilitatehristian romance and christian dating. for example, hal rupert, who opened up several count christian nightlife spaces. he once said that on any given weekend er are 50,000 christian singles just in oran county needing a place to dance. the single adult, according to rupe, the most neglected person in the church. and so what does he do? he creates what he calls a video vision dating service. he gets dozens and dozens of christian women that come to his his dance club, he records them. this is not that weird. he records them in the club and he ask them questions like, what do you like? do you don't like in a guy? and these are recorded on on tape and then men can watch them also go to the club and then rupert and his and his club

organizers will match men and women together. and where do you guys guess their number one date spot is going to be for this? these new couples, the nightclub itself. right. a way to get people to come to the nightclub. right now. rupert claims that he's he set up 300 couples, bui have no evidence that that's actually true. so but apparently was somewhat successful. right now, christian nightub owners hopeheir sites could appeal to adults and also families. right. dancers at newport beaches lighthouse one like th cle experience, they had 123 year old name mary jade said, i come here with my sister. we've even about asking mom and dad to come occasionally. can you imagine taking mom and dad to a mom and dad night at a secular bar? right. this is the place that you can actually have fun with your parents, right now. i also have some early evidence that christian nightclubs also become sites of teaching where men and learning i should said where men and women got experience and how to think about romance and respect in accordance with their faith and away from societal secular

expectations. are evangelical singles allowed to openly flirt? are they allowed to make eye contact? are they allowed to touch while they're dancing on a dance floor in a so-called christian context and another major reason why so many evangelical dolts want the christian nightclub scene to succeed is to be able to find romantic partners outside the confines of their individual churches. sure, there are plenty of fish in the sea at these mega churches that i go to, but there's initially a feeling of promise that christian nightclubs could expand the scope of christian social lives. another way of thinking about this is evangelical adults think that christian nightclubs can be places where they can make friends outside church, share with other christians a good thing, right? but away from their own church where they spent so much of their time already. right. so really important. the main goal of these evangelical bars is to create a christianized version of secular bars to honor jason ross at praises. right. even though he lets all people of all ages come in, he doesn't want youth to come in. initially, right? he thinks that they already have

enough youth center youth programs at churches. there's youth music festivals taking place at knott's berry farm and disneyland. he wants his praises nightclub to compete with secular bars. right. and alas, though kids come and they dominate these christian spaces, right? young people are not so much w're not so much focused on religious overtones of these christian nightclubs. eyent to them because is often the only pcehey could get in the drinking age. the bar age. and california, i believe, is 21, despite most states having an 18 year old age pat the ti, many of them don't have fake ids. but it's a place to go dance, a acto hang out outside of your house, makes sense right. and this wasn't a huge deal. many christian entrepreneurs wanted their bartoe helping kids get off the street, as they called it, and reject the temptations of smoki a drinnd premarital sex. i'm hal rupert at the o.c. bars. he once said that his bar's about 20% of them are about teenagers. thre of them are probably adults or older. younger adults.

but only about 20% of our teenagers who have no place to go, he says. now are not the most orderly of patrons. the basem*nt owner, for instance, laments that teens have taken over the basem*nt even though there are separate dance floors for teens and adults. often there'll be no adults and teens will just kind of run amuck. inside his his bar. police reports at the time allege that teens are committing vandalism, public urination, binge drinking, public sex, marijuana use either around the club or like outside on the parking lot right there. it's teenagers being teenagers. and so several bar owners learn from these are these these kind of youth, these rowdy teenagers, about what not to do when they open up new clubs. for example, cal rupert, when he opens up a second nightclub that the noah's ark? yes, noah's ark. he doesn't allow people to exit without repaying their cover charge. and young people are stingy. right. so they're often not going to leave because he's worried about kids leaving, going to the parking lot, drinking with their friends, having sex in vehicles,

smoking pot and then trying to come back in. this is one way that rupert's able to keep people out right now. i don't want to suggest that all young people ignore the christian purpose of and mission of evangelical bars. right? while many teenagers saw christian as opportunities to be typical teenagers, others really did value the space as a religious space for bible school students. right? they enjoyed the clean music. they finally got to find a club they can relate to. many homeschool christian kids. it was at and at these christian nightclubs were the first time they learned how to dance disco dance the first time. right. they got to meet other kids who were going to public schools or religious schools that they not go to. right. as as once youngsters said when they went to write on nightclub, i love this club because it's righteous for people like me who like to go stag. the best part of playhouse one in newport beach, according to 17 year old joann young, was that, you know what to expect here. you don't have to be cautious because, you know the other people share your set of values. pretty precocious young children, right?

young love, not feeling peer pressure about sex or drugs or smoking or booze. she wanted to hang out with her friends, clear headed. and by the way, these nightclubs are also romantic zones for teenagers, as well as one college student who went to the basem*nt all the time said i had never seen so many foxes gathered in one place before. 314 year old girls who were interviewed by the o.c. register said they like going because of the positive energy at these nightclubs, the great music, the fun, dance floor. but we really go to meet good looking boys right now as i'm closing up here, one question that i had about this, because i told you i had all these preconceived notions about orange county conservatives or orange county evangelicals, i was questioning how diverse are these bars? right. are there people of color inside them? what does diversity mean here? especially because in early part of my research, i found a book by a theologian named donald margaret mcgavin who who was all of books all about how tnd your congregation as a evangelical in the 1970s. and this is what he said.

churches have to respect the that people like to become christians without cro racial, linguistic or class barriers. wh does he mean by that? he's like, it makes sense that most christian spaces, especihurches, areoing to be hom*ogeneous. and yet i don't actually see that in these christian nighlub spaces. press, when they go to the non dancing bar, the daisy armadillo drive, they often talk ople being half black.or 300 half white. ththe venties was a racialy unrstanding, right on the new york times calls the daisy of a has having aty of ethnic and age groups who attend and it's not just racial diversity t'm talking about here. noahs ar forxamp, creates permanent nights, not one off, one day a month, permanent nights. i think its evy tuesday night senior citizens. geared toward they1940s, swing music for senior citizens to have fun at noah's ark. an rupert, who start noah's ark, realizes that if he adds a couple of of ramps, this befe the americans with disabilitiess. he can have a permanent night.

well, he can all everything single night but also one day of the week as well invite people with disabilities to come and on his dance floor and he makes sure people knows that he puts ads in in the local school press again. young people too like csu, ella is newspaper come to our place it is wheelchair accessible before many secular bars are ever going to be wheelchair accessible. right. so at least somewhat commitment to diversity here as i close here christian nightclub seemed exciting to many folks, especially in the early weeks of the open. i told you there were lines outside of right on the place where we began our lecture today on their opening the days is 300 seats were constantly filled o friday nights in t le seventies a thousand patrons were packed into noah's ark from bow to stern as called it on some weekends in the 1980s, lighthouse one was probably, according to the press, orange county's largest dance club. and yet almost l of these christian nightclubs, all seven of these christian nightclubs in e study fold relatively

quickly. none of the seven nightclubs discussed today survived more than a few years. now, most businesses have financial difficulties in their early years, but this was especially true for christian nightclubs. why? what could they not rely on to bring in money? alcohol, right? booze is the number one thing to bring in money. my nightlife students already know that. they're nodding their head right. there is no booze money coming in. so you had to make it up in other ways. you can charge, cover charges, which every single nightclub that i study has a cover charge. it's often double the cover charge of secular clubs trying to make up for lost income, which is why kids are not going to pay the double cover charge to get back in some like the days are going to have membership programs that don't they don't really take off. you can sell food and drink, but you're not making a lot of money with 50 cent hot dogs. right on staff is often not as being paid meager wages. if they're making any wage off in these christian nightclubs. i told you they're not church affiliated, but they often ask for volunteers to work there on weekend. right. so they're not able to overcome these financial challenges because they're not making a lot

of money. also, i told you, they're in prime locations. they're in rodeo drive rodeo drive is charging the daisy $10,000 a month for rent. right. so these these nightclubs almost seem doomed to fail. now, before i close, i want to think about a question that was offered to me by my brilliant department colleague, dr. allison karnofsky, earlier today when i was talking about today's lecture, she asked me, what do i was lost when these evangelical nightclubs failed to become a permanent part of american nightlife landscape? and it's a fabulous question, one that i wt to explore further as thisroject develops. but i see this desire build a christian nightlife space as a way for evangelicals to val their lifestyles within secular america. the evangelical in california seemed like it could have floated these christian nightclubs for a little bit longer, but their inability to survive suggests at least, at least for a few years, suggest a less than receptive, long term evangelical audience.

for one, despite the hopes that these might provide entertainment for most of the adult evangelicals, mostly young people turned out. and these young people had thin bill folds right? these younger crowds likely turned away older, single christians who wanted a more space. it's possible too christian nightclubs could not get over the stigma as sanitized and uncool compared to their secular nightlife alternatives. yes, there was the temptation of drugs and sex and and and booze at secular nightclubs. but christians can easily just say no, as the first lady was instructing them to do in the 1980s. right. the opening excitement of all these nightclubs eventually dissipates, and so does the patrons. entrepreneurs hope that nightclub experiments might bring about a newfound christian evening pleasure culture. they hope that christian nightclubs might offer evangelicals an alternative space to enjoy the pleasure of nightlife. evangelical spots the can listen to good music, hang with their friends and dance with one another. and these nightclub could

perhaps keep christians excited about at all hours of the day. not just on sunday mornings and wednesday nights. but in the end, a christian nightclub scene was not all that viable and certainly was not sustainable. this is why we don't live in a world where christian nightclubs are everywhere. even when christian nightclubs open up in cities like houston and dallas and atlanta and new york in cities there are often the wider press often covers them. they have a major news. and the reason why the major press covers them is because they're a novelty. right. and they seem to fall within a year. they're often don't even make a yelp because they're only there for a couple of. we should ask ourselves how this affects evangelical culture going forward because the evangelical mission doesn't end it just doesn't manifest in a way that christian nightclub entrepreneurs ultimately hope store excuse me, hope for i want to end with the christian nightclub that we started off in line in 1971 following that performance that we always in line for the evangelical crowd all goes home. they go home to their homes in, los angeles, many of them go home to west covina and the

suburbs of orange county. but bar hopping was a very common scene on the sunset strip, and surely a few drunks who were bar hopping down the sunset strip on that night likely stopped inside the club around midnight, and inside they saw nightclub was completely empty not just free from smoke and booze, but from patrons to the bar. the bar hoppers probably looked around and noticed that no beer was being sold. they promptly left. but unbeknownst to them, they had entered. perhaps the strip's most unique venue that night. one of a series of california nightlife experiment that tried to show the evangelical belief that jesus made happy days and happy nights to these california evangelicals. the day that give us the lord might have ended, but the night with his godly nightclubs was another opportunity to praise him. thank you very much. i would be i would be honored to take any questions that we have. or do my best to answer any

questions we have. yes. did you see any like newspaper articles that talked about like hom*osexual role dancing or like same sex dancing? because i would that that would cause like stir in the nightclub. but i don't know if it actually happened because of the environment. sure. one of the shocking things you actually were one of the things that shocked me is that i don't find a lot of what we think about, especially the christian right. i don't want to say that all evangelicals are part of the christian right. want to point that out very quickly. right. but i grew up in the middle of evangelical america and missouri and indiana and whatnot. and i was expecting some of these nightclubs to come and say, you know, no same sex, hand-holding or all this kind of stuff. right. or, you know, all this literature being about anti-abortion, you hardly any social issues being discussed. arthur blazek does tell people wisely entering the bars in the 1960s. you know, is wrong. but that's about the only thing i. see, so far in my research, you don't see a connection between thlubs the promotion of social issues that we often tie the christian right to. so, no, i, i see very little

evidence of that. yeah. which is surprising. yeah. so you kind of mentioned it at end there, but did you find that these clubs in their heyday would match the hourly schedules of the secular bars? would they be? i know if it was to end back then for like, you know, the typical time, but would it be tourism? could it be later? that's a good question. i have. so depends what kind of venue to write on, mostly a live music venue. so they would actually play a performance. everyone went home kind of that kind of thing. some of them stayed open on the exact hours. they closed at closing time. i think one or 2 a.m. in the 1970s on. sometimes they would close if no one ever showed up. this tends to be they would close early when at the end of their run, right when. evangelicals are not going to these clubs. but certainly the ones that are catering to young people, college students, the lighthouse in newport beach, that is staying open as late as it can. so yeah, they are often trying to mirror secular clubs and that's kind of the point right? lighthouse is geared towards college students and want college students to go there and not go to the secular bars. right. but yes, totally.

yes. with these entrepreneurs, because we find sometimes entrepreneurs values are not we'll just jump on it like this seems, like something we can make money on. so did you have you found any research about what these owners went onto after? their spaces closed? like did they stay in nightlife or did they move onto other religious ventures? you know how rupert, who is the owner of a couple of these orange county ones and i was dying to do research on him. and i think he i believe i don't want to call someone dead and then not be dead. but i believe he passed away during the pandemic in 2020. and i was like, darn, i kind of interviewed right before that. but it seems like most of these entrepreneurs have a lot of money, so they're able. so even though these are they're successful enterprises, they're not you know, devastated by their their financial loss of these clubs. many of them become they're they go into other businesses. but the question is, i think what you kind of suggests, are they actually men of faith? and i say men of faith because don't have any evidence that any of these are women. i question that. and my students all know that capitalism is a driving force of

much of the nightlife that we talked about, even colonial taverns are are run by capitalists. right. but i get a sense that these men actually they're men of the faith. right. they believe in the message of god. now, they often disagree with some of the fundamentalists. they disagree with jerry falwell. they may disagree with jim baker, but they believe spreading even evangelical christianity because many of them are saved. right many of them were going to the bars in their youth and found them to be malicious places right. so they wanted to share the coming of god, the pleasures of god with the rest of world and the youth of the world. and so especially how rupa and some of these other ones in orange county, i believe them. they they believe what they are saying, yeah, and it's also not bad. make a buck on it sometime. right. any other questions. yes, please. thank you. i just have a couple quick question. first of all, wonderful talk. thank you for sharing this. i really appreciate getting a hold different spin on many different issues here. first, did the satirical piece

you read about rounding them up or did you find evidence that there were actually people being busted and having to pay the fine? and i think we were just wondering, how did that work? who busted them? they ratted out by other people or was there a monitor who would check the clubs to see if any of the students were out there? i mean, i'm just sort of curious. sure. that's a great question. so i don't have any evidence that the university is sending spies or anything like that to the lighthouse or something like. but i do see, i haven't i have letters sent to the newspapers of people being upset that they're they got letters. so someone has rather out friends. maybe the university is sending out there. i don't have evidence of that. i don't want to accuse vanguard university of new anything terrible. right. but i don't have evidence of that. i will say, though, many of the liberal college students who are complaining are about this dancing band. they compare this to other bands that other christian universities or churches have banned in the past church. they said the church has changed their mind about women's make up about women wearing shorts too like they see this as the next

logical thing to and they they feel like much of the handbook should be removed right and dancing is the most logical one, especially they can do it in a quote christian contact straight. they're not asking to go to studio 54 here. they're asking to go to a place with no smoking, no booze. right. and so but no, i have no evidence that these they're being regulated like that. so my other question is kind of moving forward a little bit, it seems to me and i may be wrong here that the decline of the christian nightclubs coincide with the rise of the sort of megachurches that have like rock bands, a much hipper kind of, you know, like and survive. they'll survive. yeah. and i'm wondering if if one kind of drew from the other, maybe the clubs decline because megachurches were offering something that was a little more substantive, even if it wasn't at night, but i don't know. is there any connection, you think, between one and the very possible? i don't know. that's a great question. and i think one of the ways of thinking about that is going back to the point that several people hope that at least i'm

telling my patrons, not the owners themselves. sarah people are happy about this because not having to go see the same people they see at their megachurch and by the way, these megachurches can be, you know, thousands of people. so it's not like you're saying the same people over it over time. but, you know, if you feel like you've you've you've you've gone to many of these functions at megachurches and you can't find a romantic date that's 21 and you're 21. like you want to find christians from other places. and this is what the allure of like what bars are right now people can go to the bars over and see the same people at the same time, but many people are excited that they're going to see people outside their church networks. but i think that's a good example with i mean, you talk about what doctor can ask was asking earlier, like what do we lose? and we don't have a permanent christian nightlife space. maybe we lose evangelicals being able to, you know, make contact with other christians in their local communities, they're only going to these christian rock festivals. these are these and festivals that their own churches are putting on. so maybe it's a replacement. i'm not trying to suggest that or not suggest that, but i do think there is it's it is interesting that it does not take off because there are this huge explosion and because

christians are able to sustain banks and summer camps and all these other things, why they're not to succeed in nightclubs is an enigma. yes, please. i have a connected question. sure. do you have any evidence on how they are actually socializing at night? i mean, are they in their dorms? what are the young adults doing? college students and adults are they socialize sitting in some spaces outside their family or is it very family orient, in which case this this moves against that in some way and that's why it fails. oh, that's really interesting. i haven't thought about that. you're talking about within their church, like, are they socializing across age boundaries? oh, i'm any space. in other words, take the three groups. it seems me you've looked at college. well, you have people before college, but college students, young adults and then a little older adult where they

socializing outside to meet outside the nightclubs or even inside the nightclubs. yeah, well, the nightclubs fail. so they're socializing some other place? sure. do you have any where that might be. sure. i mean the number one place is the home. right that's the number one where most people are making contact with people that are older than them or younger than them. and also at these megachurches in orange county, they are age segregate in some ways, too, right. they're going to church together, but often there's services for younger people that are services for younger, younger people. right. and many of these are age, segregate. so we don't have a lot of communication across that. so that's why i think that that we have some evidence that some people want to go a nightlife spot with their parents. so that's a weird thing. but no, i don't i haven't thought about where outside of nightclubs are people actually where older christians and younger christians are hanging out. that's something i should definitely look into. yes. john, please. eric, i'm wondering about who else might have gone to these

clubs to meet. good guys, too. and jim baker is just one reminder that there is an overlap between your studies of queer culture and and nightlife culture. the question sort of answers itself, i guess i'm i'm i'm not very clever sneaking an answer into this question. to what extent i wonder, were these clubs a gateway station? i had an awful lot of students in the 1970s who were self announced born again christians. but in the quiet of my office would talk about their gay yearnings and their this is totally anecdotal, but there is, i'm convinced there's there's a connection there that lot of a lot of people's step in seeking

some sort of nightlife expression. they might go to hollywood boulevard, to a to a christian nightclub, but they might. i end up at studio one later. yeah and that's one of the kind of stepping stones on the same night. you mean that that drew off some you know, the gay clubs drew a lot of people away from the christian nightclubs, too. sure. that's very possible, too. i mean, also, do you go to a christian nightclub? because you don't you don't have the expectation to if you're a guy to hit on women. right so it's a place for queer men to go and know that like they can dance with other men and people are going to assume they're they're heterosexuals that no one's going to assume automatically you're you're hom*osexual. when whether they're going to there's going to be policing of same sex dance. sure. some things don't even have to be expressed. right. you just know you're not to you aren't going to be able to do that unless you're at studio one or at at an official gay club. yeah, but shocking. i don't have any evidence. no one has mentioned hom*osexuals. arthur, bless it.

talks about, you know, gays are, you know, are a problem but not in connection with nightclubs. like, why do i at this shock they don't have people being like we're going to like jerry falwell is unabashedly i'm building a university build god's warriors. i'm going to build a supreme chamber to teach the next generation of lawyers to overturn roe v wade. he succeeds in that effort. right. why don't i see that in in these nightclubs. right. why do i say we're going to teach kids how to be proper heterosexual kids? or which is weird. it just seems very odd and i'm kind of i've got to figure that out. i don't think in the seventies it was being recognized yet during the aids crisis that people start realizing, gee, they really are queer americans, aren't they're? they're dying a rapid rate. that's true. but in the seventies it was the great and you know radio one there were there was quite a clientele there but it was not recognized by anybody. yeah, that's true. i think anita bryant out by 78 like and there aren't these nightclubs are in 78 so you know so the question other questions

maybe one or two more. yes please give second for the mic or. yeah. so you mentioned earlier that one of the things that were lost because of those nightclubs shutting down was alpert's entities for christians to meet other christians outside of their own churches. did did they also lose opportunities to meet secular people or non-religious people? and do you think that might have caused an impact later on in terms of like distance or ideological divides because they couldn't, you know, see each other's perspectives and reach an understanding? or was the impact not that drastic? that's very possible yeah. i actually don't know that. that's a great suggestion. and one of the other things to remember, too, is that christian still patrons initially from bars that are clean but without christian contact. i told you that. to me it was shocking that christian nightclubs don't copy the coffeehouse circuit. they don't think themselves because there are christian

coffeehouses. but many of the nightclubs say that we are our inspiration from going to clean clubs, non-religious clubs, but clubs they did not serve alcohol clubs. they were popular with aa members or or muslims or protestants who didn't. but it wasn't a christian club. there was no ecumenical waving. there's no pictures, jesus anywhere. and so many of these clubs, even in lawrence county, are upset when these christian nightclubs come out because they lose business, because all the people who used to go to them are finally to these christian nightclubs. so that's a great question. i'm curious if i'm not trying to say that if there was a gigantic evangelical nightlife scene, we'd be living in a very different time. but you do if if you limit the ability, it's an admirable that i don't know if it's admirable. it's interesting to think about what these nightclubs meant for these christians. right. they're trying to make inroads into the secular. and when they're gone, do they lose that ability to make connections with secular people and whatnot. that's it's a very interesting question. i don't have a great answer for that, but i look into it. well, thank you all very much.

thank you.

tory posts.

well, good

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