Summit Ministries

David A. Noebel (born August 27, 1936) is an American religious leader and writer. He is the former director of Summit Ministries, in Manitou Springs, Colorado in the United States. Since the 1960s, he has written widely on the relationship between religion and popular culture, and is an outspoken critic of secular humanism, which he describes as unscientific and a religion.

Noebel was a former Associate Evangelist of Billy James Hargis's Christian Crusade. Noebel served as vice-president and president of American Christian College, which Hargis had founded in 1971 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It closed in 1977, three years after Hargis resigned following allegations of sexual conduct against Hargis. He was a member of the Council for National Policy beginning in 1984, and a candidate for Congress against Rep. Robert Kastenmeier.

Noebel was educated at the Milwaukee Bible College (now Grace Bible College), Hope College (Holland, Michigan, B.A.), and the University of Tulsa (M.A.). He studied philosophy in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was ordained a minister in 1961. He was pastor of Grace Bible Church, Madison, Wisconsin.

In 1962 Noebel founded Summit Ministries, a Christian leadership training organization designed as an educational Christian ministry. He believes that countless Christian youth have fallen victim to the popular ideas of our modern world, and that most have adopted these ideas into their own worldview, while still others go on to renounce their Christian faith altogether. Summit views its role as a catalyst to enable youth to stand strong in their faith and defend truth, while having a positive influence on the society in which they live. He has directed the Summit Youth Ministries since 1964. The ministry grew in size considerably after being mentioned on James Dobson's radio show.

In 1965 Noebel wrote a pamphlet, "Communism, Hypnotism and The Beatles." It was followed in 1966 by Rhythm, Riots, and Revolution, which added to the debate about the presence of Communism in music, especially folk and folk-rock. He saw contemporary popular music as a Soviet plot to brainwash American youth. Unlike some other religious critics of popular music, he backed up his analysis with references outside the Bible, using scholarly footnotes and quotations. His work was influential and widely adopted by later critics of rock music.

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