Highbrows

Pastor Carl Mikkelson, and his wife Lois Bakken Mikkelson, are the parents of the kids in my book. Born in the early 1920’s, depression and war affected their young years, but didn’t spoil their outlooks. When better years and a big family come, they are as happy as they can be. What does become a challenge for them, is the increase of influences on their kids which they cannot control, made available by increased communications technology and the broadening outlook the 1960’s.

With their college educations and Carl’s four years at the seminary, both of them well-versed in Latin, the Mikkelsons are Midwestern intellectuals. The Scandinavian Lutheran churches supported Luther’s doctrine that redemption is a gift of God's grace, to be attained only through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The work of the church was the distribution of the sacraments and rites, the confirmation in the faith of young people and Bible study for everyone, using the King James version of the Bible. Carl’s study of the Bible went back to the Greek and Hebrew.

Both Carl and Lois’ grandparents, and one of Lois’ parents, had come directly from Norway and Denmark. They retained many elements of Scandinavian customs and a culture which was almost northern European in its traditions. In addition, Carl and Lois wished to develop in their children the high culture which flowed from a liberal arts education, including appreciation for the old masters in art, classical music and literary classics.

It is no wonder then, that Carl and Lois regarded the abundance of popular culture which overwhelmed everyone by the 1960’s with fear and trembling. They promoted interest in folk music, such as in the television show “Hootenanny”, as much as possible, and supported all of the popular representations of Christian culture, such as “The Ten Commandments”, “The Robe” and “Ben-Hur”. But they were fighting a losing battle.

Susan Sontag’s “Notes on Camp” appeared in 1964. It gave intellectuals a reason to find value in popular culture. Art might not have to be “serious” to be valuable! By 1964, intellectuals wanted to listen to the Beatles, to Bob Dylan, perhaps even Elvis Presley, without feeling ashamed of themselves. It didn’t matter very much to Carl and Lois. They were still involved in a knock-down, drag-out fight with the culture for the souls of their children. But popular culture did begin to make inroads.

By this time, Carl and Lois had so imbued their children with Christian values and the classical virtues of humility, patience and kindness, that is, with humanity, that they were ready for anything. It would be a long time before everyone understood this, however, and any sort of peace was made.