The 60's & Early 70's Effect On Religions

Conseravtive white Evangelical perents were against the kids listenign and dancing to black Rythem & blues, which later became Rock and Roll.

THE 60'S SOCIAL JUSTICE & CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT & HOW IT CAME TO EFFECT RELIGIONS IN AMERICA

During the 1950's when Rock and Roll first became popular with American youth culture, Evangelical Fundamental/and/or Pentacostal Protestants, especially in the deep south, were quick and passionatley load about trying to stomp out this new form of Rythem and Blues.

These zealous religious leaders called upon the media and press to make their complaints against Rock heard by all. This Rock and Rock was viewed by these Fundamental Protestants as "black music", of which they did not want their white kids listening to. They call this Rock and Roll "The Devil's Music."

Recall these were the same folks who forefathers try to keep blacks in slavery by claiming blacks were cursed anyways since they came from the cursed line of Ham. These folks were also the same ones to deem Native Americans as "Red-Skinned Devils" that "Had no soul." But their white children were listening to this black music, as were their otherwise conserative white perents.

The Beattles style of Rock had a powerful effect of American youth culture. In 1967 The Beatles went to India to study Hindu mediation. They took plenty of home movies of this and brought them all back to show to the United States. This, combined with the already forming hippie movement in Haight Ashbury , along with the Civil Rights movement, Women's Rights movement and the environmental movement inspired the counter-culture views of questioning their Western upbringings.

Many turned away from traditional Protestant and Catholic churches and turned towards Eastern religions as well as African and Native American beliefs.

When the Beatles went to India to study Hindu mediation they took plenty of pictures and brought them back to the states which had a huge effect of the counter culture and them turning their interests to alternative religious ideas.

GEORGE'S DISCOVERY OF INDIA MUSIC

In 1965, on the set of the group's second movie "Help," George Harrrision discovered the sitar, a traditional Indian instrument. In 1965, the Beatles recorded "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" using the instrument, the first pop song to do so. Also in 1966, Harrison traveled to India to study the sitar under world-renowned sitar master, Ravi Shankar. Then, in 1967, on the famous "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album, his first developed Indian-inspired song, "Within You Without You" debuted, and the world learned of his love for "Raga Rock."However, George Harrison developed his music so it sounded more identifiably Indian, which is why he is more readily associated with it.

The Beatles look Into Hindu Religion

The Beatles, traveled to India to be under the tutelage of a Hindu monk named the Maharishi The Maharishi said, in the book Maharishi the Guru, that when one meditates, one reaches the "ultimate state of life," where one can find the "absolute pure conscious of Being."

Timothy Leary gained much attention in the 60's by combining his experimenting the mind altering effects of LDS with Eastern religious mediation. The concept of mixing Eastern religions and mediation with LDS and other drugs became very popular. Some hippies and musicians gave up drugs in favor of the Indian teaching. As one hippie said, meditation was an "indescribable spiritual experience that can not be compared with any type of drug experience." Today, although meditation is not as popular as it was in the sixties, many still practice this ancient Indian ritual.

Harrison personal embrace with Hinduism, and his personal popularity influenced many fans to follow his example and to give up LSD and take up meditation. The wide-ranging and enduring appeal of the Beatles gives Harrison and his contributions a prominent place in the history of music, fashion, and philosophical thought of the 1960's.

George Harrison says that one reason he became interested in Indian was the way, as he said in a 1992 interview for Billboard, "it unlocked this enormous big door in the back of my consciousness." He felt the language of rock music fell short. This is also why he "supposedly" gave up LSD and took up meditation, because he felt meditation prompted his creativity in a way drugs could not. It is also commonly known that he adopted the form Hindu religion, Hare Krishan offically in 1975,which he continued to practice up untill his death.

John Lennon's Take on the 60's & spirituality

"I think the Sixties was a great decade. I think the great gatherings of youth in America and in the Isle of Wight might have been a pop concert to some people, but they were a lot more than that. They were the youth getting together and forming a new church, as it were, and saying, 'We believe in God, we believe in hope and truth and here we are, 20,000 or 200, 000 of us, all together in peace.'" -John Lennon

How The Jesus people/Christian Hippie Movement was created.

The Jesus People Movement/Christian Hippies

Pastor Chuck Smith

The Jesus People Movement began in 1967. A Pastor in Santa Ana named Chuck Smith bought a little church in the mid 1960's. He didecided he would do things differently than the rigid Protestant churches he had known. He fixed the church up with mod yellow and shag lime green pews. He called his church Calvary Chapel. One day he and his wife were driving by the beach when they saw a bunch of homeless hippie kids gathered on the lawn of a near by park. They could tell they had no place to stay. They felt sorry for the kids and worried about the opened drug use they saw there. That evening around the dinner table pastor Chuck, his wife, his college age daughter and her newly Christian converted boyfriend began discussing this and how they might be able to do an outreach to these hippies. No doubt they listened to what the daughter and Christian hippie boyfriend had to say. They came up with a hip and radical idea. Pastor Chuck would open his doors to the hippies.

Pastor Chuck Smith Opens His Church to Hippies

They were well aware that the traditional dogmatic trappings of the traditional church, with it's rigid stain glass windows, horrid old organ down beat hymns, and formal 1950's dress codes were part of the plastic 50's culture that had turned the counter culture generation off in the first place, so they were going to try something new, difference,modern and by the old fashioned churches view, "unorthodox." They would welcome the hippies as they were long hair, flared jeans, beards and all They would not make them were rigid suites. All he did ask is that pot, drugs, drinking and immorality would not be allowed. Many old school people in Chuck's church did not like this. They felt the hippies should cut their hair and trade in their jeans and tie-dye shirts for suites. But Chuck stayed true to this new vision.

Two Concepts To The New Christain Movement From the 60's: (1) The Contemporary Music and Style of Dress and (2)Chrasimaticism /Neo-Pentecostalism. these two were are are often mixed together..but they are NOT one and the same thing.

The Start of Christian Rock

But what really rubbed the old-time Scribes fur the wrong way is when one day the group of hippies who had begun staying at Pastor Chuck's place and listening to the Bible studies came to him with their gatairs and a sheet of paper with lyrics they wrote to a song they wrote. They called it The Love Song The Christian Counter Culture Movement

Soon after Pastor Chuck's story got around, there was the opening of a small storefront evangelical mission called the Living Room in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district. Though other missionary type organizations had preceded them in the area, this was the first one run solely by the Evangelical Protestants.

Christian Hippie OutReaches

Within a short time of these first stirrings a number of independent Evangelical Protestant hippie outreach communities sprang up all across North America. In Seattle, the Jesus People Army was born in response to a vision experienced by evangelist Linda Meissner, who had seen an "army of teenagers marching for Jesus." On the Sunset Strip, evangelist Arthur Blessitt opened the His Place nightclub and coffeehouse as a 24 hour way station for youth. At the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Jack Sparks and some other members of Campus Crusade decided to begin a countercultural outreach program called the Christian Liberation World Front (CWLF) directed towards reaching campus radicals.

The ensuing groundswell of activity spawned a number of other developments as well. Realizing the need to open their churches to the hippie generation, many conservative pastors recruited hippie liaisons to their ministerial staff. Both Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel (in Santa Ana, California) with the recruitment of Lonnie Frisbee, and Lyle Steenis of Bethel Tabernacle (in Redondo Beach) with the recruitment of Breck Stevens found their churches radically transformed in the wake of their decisions.

Christian Counter Culture Coffee Shops

Many folk Rock singers and bands of the 60's got their start in hippie style coffee shops where the counter culture would hang out. In the mid to late 60's the Jesus People Movement began with the opening of a small storefront evangelical mission called the Living Room in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district, which mirroed the look, style and feel of the counter-culture coffee shops of the time. Though other missionary type organizations had preceded them in the area, this was the first one run solely by street Evangelical Protestants.

Underground Free Christian Hippie Newspapers In order to proclaim the message of the gospel, hippie Christians simply adopted existing forms of communication. Mirroring the development of underground newspapers such as the Berkeley Barb, in 1969 evangelist Duane Pederson began publishing the Hollywood Free Paper as an evangelistic tool. Jesus papers with names like Right On!, The Fish, Street Level, and Cornerstone became a fundamental component of each street Christian community.

The Creation of Christian Rock Music Artists and groups such as Ron Moore, Love Song, John Fischer, Larry Norman, Randy Matthews, and The Agape Band,It is impossible to establish a sole pioneer of Jesus Music. Even though only three albums were released in 1969, many had been performing their own versions of gospel rock music in church youth groups and coffeehouses well before anyone realized that a "movement" was taking place. Paul Clark, Fred Caban (and Agape), Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, Phil Keaggy, Mike Johnson (of The Exkursions), Andrae Crouch, Nancy Henigbaum (Honeytree), Danny Lee (& The Children of Truth), Latter Rain, Last Call of Shiloh, Mark Heard Danny Taylor, Pat Terry, Harvest Flight, Liberation Suite, Out of Darkness, Azitis, Stonewood Cross, Jubal, Vindication, Hope of Glory, Hope, Overland Stage, Joshua, Newbury Park, Rainbow Promise, Malcolm & Alwyn, Crimson Bridge, Wilson McKinley, Quo Vadis, Dust, The Sheep, Andrae Crouch, Barry McGuire, Resurrection Band, Danny Taylor, Tom Rozof, The Hallelujah Joy Band, Bridge, Psalm 150, Dove, Millennium, The Glorious Liberty, Randy Matthews, John Fischer, The Sons of Thunder, Ron Moore, and Ron Salsbury (and the JC Power Outlet), and several Maranatha! Music artists (Love Song, Good News, The Way, Deborah Kerner, Ernie Rettino, Aslan, Mustard Seed Faith, Phoenix Sonshine, The Road Home, Children of the Day, Selah, Erick Nelson, Joy, Country Faith, Karen Lafferty, and Blessed Hope) and others deserve mention as originators of the genre that was distinguished solely by its lyrical content, are just a few of the performers that felt the need to communicate their gospel message through a popular medium.

Christian coffeehouses and Jesus rock festivals emerged as the music gained momentum as a popular alternative to the mainstream industry. Jesus Music provoked controversy from the old school fundamentalists from its inception. Traditional old school rigid churchgoers made no distinctions between a long-haired Christian hippie singing clearly about Jesus on guitar verses a sexed laced and drug-lyric act of Jimi Hendrix. They reasoned: "If The Jefferson Airplane The development of Jesus rock music proved a viable medium for unique expressions of faith. To them, if you were not wearing a dress shirt and tie and playing old hymns on a piano...then you were "wordly". They remained convinced that anything born out of the counter culture would only beget further rebellion from morals and God. The old school Scribes blew off the contemporary Christian movement as nothing more than spiritual compromise. While many conservative church-goers lamented that Jesus Music was a spiritual compromise, these pioneers maintained that they were combating the negative influence of mainstream rock music. They echoed the sentiments of reformer Martin Luther when he asked "why should the devil have all the best tunes."

With Watergate and President Nixon's promises to end the war in Vietnam dominating the front pages, the counterculture receded thus removing the mission field that the revival had targeted. Where previous efforts of evangelism had been as simple as playing a guitar on a street corner for a group of spiritually interested hippies, the cynicism born of societal fears towards "cults" and their "brainwashing" techniques made evangelism a less fruitful endeavor than it once had been.

As the counterculture came to an end, Jesus People groups either disbanded, institutionalized as churches, or stayed true to their countercultural roots. Jesus musicians responded by offering defenses for their creative endeavours, many of them arguing that rock music's origins evolved from a complex stream of influences that included strong spiritual undercurrents. Despite this stiff opposition against the use of contemporary culture, Christian minstrels continued to plot their own course trying to counteract the destructive themes inherent in much of the mainstream rock music.

Various forms of contemporary gospel music had emerged throughout the 1960s predating the advent of what became known as "Jesus music."

Throughout the duration of the revival, Jesus Music would rarely deviate from the reiteration of a single theme; the experience of God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. These artists mark the first wave of Jesus musicians that spanned from 1969 to 1974.

Jesus Music recordings became prevalent when groups and artists realized that a record album could serve a dual purpose both as a tool of evangelism and as a commodity to raise much needed funds. During this incipient phase product distribution remained rudimentary, usually centering on self-promotion and endless concert touring. Mail-order companies emerged to handle the handful of low-budget and (most often) poorly recorded efforts. In time, however, a number of institutional developments emerged around the fledgling scene as it expanded and moved beyond the embryonic stage. Coffeehouses and nightclubs sprang up across the continent as venues for Christian musicians to perform. In response to mainstream music festivals, such as the Monterey Pop and Woodstock events, a number of promoters began to hold similar Jesus Music festivals.

Such commercial success fostered diversification not only stylistically -moving beyond the early folk, and rock influences to include heavy metal, ska, punk, and even reggae streams - but also lyrically as artists began to delve into other issues beyond their experiences of salvation. By the beginning of the 1980s the CCM industry If only JW's and old fashioned Presebyterians would listen to this!

On The Negative Side...

Adding to the excitement of the era was the sense that the revival was a foreshadowing of the impending apocalypse. Hal Lindsey's runaway best seller The Late Great Planet Earth hit upon a deep seated nerve in the public with the preaching of his Evangelical Protestants belief in the 'rapture'. Coupled with this end times theology was a premillennial doctrine concerning the "rapture of the saints" which taught that prior to the rise of the Antichrist and final war believers would be "raptured" (or 'caught up') to escape a time of tribulation perceived as being foretold in the Book of Revelation.

A New Hip Sound and Look...But Old Time Southern Eternal Threats UnderNeath:(

The young thinking Evnagelical pastors embraced new ideas of styles and music, which inspired the youth to give Jesus a change..but unforuantly they also spread their former errored ideas of hellfire Two men walking up a hill One disappears and one's left standing still I wish we'd all been ready

However, if only contemporary rock music could be used withOUT the errored hellfire and 'rapture' teachings!!! What a great tool that would be!

Though the revival had progressed for four years, the mainstream media did not really focus on the story until 1971. Though Christianity Today and Christian Life had followed the story from its beginnings in the Haight Ashbury, it wasn't until 1970 when articles about 'street Christians' appeared in Time and Commonweal.

The major breakthrough came in February 1971 when Look magazine printed a story that anyone had described it as anything more than a local California event. This article spawned a virtual cottage industry of press articles, denominational ruminations, television exposes, and films all detailing various facets of what was now being called a "movement."

Ocean baptismal services, exuberant prayer meetings, long-haired evangelists, and Jesus rock musicians were portrayed throughout national magazines like Time, Newsweek, Life, Rolling Stone, and U.S. News & World Report. In 1971 the Jesus People were the religious event of the year while ranking third in Time's story of the year poll. Alongside the emergence of Black Panthers, hippies, Yippies, Diggers, student activists, Weathermen, and women's liberationists, the 'Jesus freak' was certainly the most curious social phenomena of the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Although the media's interest in the movement waned by the end of 1971, there was much evidence that the revival was still going strong.

The Jesus People USA As the counterculture came to an end, Jesus People groups either disbanded, institutionalized as churches, or stuck to their countercultural roots. Though the Jesus People Movement had effectively ended by the mid-1970s, there were still a host of churches, parachurch organizations, apologetics ministries, converts, Jesus musicians, independent evangelists, and missionary workers that had been funneled into Protestant and Catholic denominations of all theological skews.

Though the Jesus People Movement remains relatively neglected by mainstream and religious historians, its influence throughout the church was influential. It is our hope that through your participation on this page that we can offer insightful analysis of this period with the knowledge that historical reflection is an important part of American religious history.