Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 65:4 (Dec 2022)
Article: Fly Me To The Moon (Or Not): Evangelical Responses To The 1969 Lunar Landing
Author: Jesse M. Payne

JETS 65:3 (September 2022) p. 619

Fly Me To The Moon (Or Not): Evangelical Responses To The 1969 Lunar Landing

Jesse M. Payne*

^* Jesse M. Payne is senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Burkburnett, 316 E. 4th St., Burkburnett, TX 76354. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: Few technological achievements rival man’s landing on the moon in 1969. Responses rushed ahead in both secular and religious circles. This article evaluates how evangelicals received and interpreted this watershed moment and how they ultimately arrived at their paradoxical conclusions. Their responses mapped well onto those of the general public, but distinctly theological reflection served as the motivation for both their excitement and concern. Far from being anti-scientific Luddites, they generally applauded the scientific possibilities the landing offered. Those evangelicals who expressed hesitancy did not do so out of disdain for modern discovery but rather because their theological concerns about pride and stewardship led them to caution. As evangelicals continue to process technological endeavors, their twentieth-century predecessors provide an open window into how those from the past have wrestled with the biblical, theological, and technological tensions of scientific development.

Key words: evangelicals and science, technological advance, moon landing, space exploration, twentieth century

Neil Armstrong’s “small step” from the Eagle landing module onto the lunar surface forced twentieth-century evangelicals to ponder new scientific horizons and theological questions. Their musings on space exploration had been fermenting for over a decade, but according to an editorial in Moody Monthly, the moon landing itself “slipped up on” most Christians who were caught “napping” by the rapidity with which the Apollo program advanced.1 But it did not take long for virtually every cross section of Protestantism, from white-collar theologians to blue-collar church folk, to express an opinion. Some embodied the joviality of Frank Sinatra’s 1964 “Fly Me to the Moon” (a recording NASA used to publicize the Apollo missions). Others, however, sympathized with the angst of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising,” fittingly released in 1969.

The nation at large carried both evaluations, and evangelicals mapped well upon the general contours of the national response. Given the political and militaristic tensions related to the Soviet rocket program, many Americans were thrilled with the United States’ technological display of power, prestige, and preeminence. But many were appalled at the ballooning costs of the Apollo endeavor, whil...