A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Jesus Freaks and CCM

This Slate article examines the connections between the at times far out lives and music of the 60s “Jesus People” and contemporary Christian Rock.

The Christian embrace of hip youth scenes can be traced, like so much, to the cultural ferment of the 1960s. Given that we are all weathering a Summer of Love flashback, it might spice up the tired images of the Haight Ashbury rebels to realize that a few of them were Christians. These mystic hippies sparked the mass Jesus People movement, which injected a distinctly Christian feeling for love and apocalypse into a counterculture already up to its mala beads in love and apocalypse. By the early 1970s, a new Jesus had hit the American mind—communal, earthy, spontaneous, anti-establishment. And this Jesus continued to transform American worship long after the patchouli wore off, inspiring a more informal and contemporary style of communion and celebration that, while holding true to core principles, unbuckled the Bible Belt from American Christian life.

It goes on to discuss some of the figures in the Jesus People music scene, including some truly bizarre ones.

Also see this recent First Things article on the Jesus Movement.

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4 responses to “Jesus Freaks and CCM”

  1. Rick Ritchie

    Thanks for the link. Interesting timing. I had earlier this afternoon been reading about CCM pioneer Marsha Stevens, who was also gay.

    I’m divided. Part of me is a cultural conservative who thinks that this is a good argument for the idea that what was being introduced into the church was a gay ethos, a lot of “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs. And I’m happy that I discovered older hymnody. But another part of me recoils at the venom that some other conservatives fling at these people. In Marsha’s case, her description of the Gospel was sounder than those of her opponents who felt compelled to prove that not only was she misguided, but that she is not and never was a true Christian.

    I’m inclined to think that the Jesus movement offers us an odd mix of nature and grace that we will probably never be able to unwind.

    Reply
  2. Andy

    You know, when I saw the title of this post I was thinking “What in the world could Jesus Freaks have to do with the agreement between Lutherans and Episcopalians?” But then I saw that you meant the other CCM.

    Reply
  3. Lee

    It would’ve been a much cooler post if I could’ve somehow connected those two things!

    Reply
  4. Andy

    Slightly more to the point, I visited the Haight Ashbury area a couple of years ago, and I came away with the distinct impression that some smells and bells Christianity, minus the guys in albs, would fit in very nicely there but was sadly lacking from the otherwise extensive array of spirituality shops.

    Reply

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