The same is true of the Billy Graham Crusades in Australia in 1959. The number of convictions for all crimes committed in Australia doubled between 1920 and 1950 and then doubled again between 1950 and 1959 when the population increased by only onequarter. The illegitimate birthrate was also investigated to get some rough index to noncriminal community standards. Turning to alcohol consumption, the Bureau of Statistics supplied the following figures. This also reveals the same deteriorating trends as we have seen in all the other social indicators.
Revival comes with social salvation to marginalised and underprivileged groups.
Today's aborigines, who number about 150,000 in Australia, are experiencing revival, with some of their own movements emerging. At Warburton in Western Australia 500 came to the Lord and were baptised. At Wiluna crime dropped to zero and the local publican had to put on free beer to entice people back into his pub. So, revival comes as a form of social salvation to a needy people. Revival would be the chief means of energising the Church in general and Christians in particular to address these problems.