The Flame that Must Not Die

George Benson’s legacy looms large on the campus of Harding University. Students are required to attend a daily chapel in an auditorium named for him, and his legacy is seen in his statues, paintings, and programs that exist around campus. This paper will use primary documents from the Ann Cowan Dixon Archives & Special Collections at Harding University’s Brackett Library in Searcy, AR, and historical sources on the rise of conservatism and “new evangelicalism” after the second World War to argue that the conservative social and political values that characterize Harding today are the direct result of Benson’s careful positioning of the University as a defender of the faith—a faith that was deeply influenced by a white, free enterprise, Christian nationalist supremacy. George Benson’s innovative use of mass media, student engagement, and eschatological framing made Benson’s understanding of “American principles” in the 1950s and 60s precursors to and representative of the values of today’s modern Religious Right.