Jesus Revolution Page

And that message, unlike any drug or political slogan, never goes out of style.

They were the counterculture: the hippies. They sought peace, love, and spiritual meaning outside the rigid, establishment churches of their parents. For them, organized religion was part of "the system"—hypocritical, judgmental, and irrelevant. They found their sacraments in LSD, marijuana, and the music of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. But by 1970, the Summer of Love had curdled. Free love had led to broken hearts and STDs; psychedelics had led to bad trips and psychotic breaks; the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco had become a wasteland of heroin overdoses and homelessness. Jesus Revolution

The movement spread like wildfire up the California coast. In 1969, a group of converted hippies started the across the bay from UC Berkeley, passing out "Jesus Loves You" leaflets next to the Free Speech Movement café. By 1971, Time magazine put a psychedelic painting of Christ on its cover with the headline: "The Jesus Revolution." And that message, unlike any drug or political

Lonnie Frisbee, who later died of AIDS in 1993 (rejected by some of the same churches he helped build), once said: "The world is not looking for a beautiful worship service. They are looking for a miracle. They are looking for reality." For them, organized religion was part of "the

1. The Context: A Generation Adrift It was the late 1960s. America was on fire. The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the brutality of the Vietnam War, and the cynicism of Watergate had shattered the optimistic promise of the post-war era. In response, millions of young people "tuned in, turned on, and dropped out."

The Jesus Revolution succeeded because it offered reality to a generation drowning in illusion. It proved that the most radical thing a person can do is not drop acid or drop out—but drop to their knees.

Frisbee’s raw, Pentecostal-style preaching (complete with falling on the floor, speaking in tongues, and miraculous healings) attracted the seekers. Smith’s systematic, verse-by-verse Bible teaching gave them solid roots. The music, led by a young guitarist named John Elefante, eventually evolved into the "Jesus Music"—the precursor to Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), with bands like Love Song , Mustard Seed Faith , and later Petra and Stryper .