American Society of History

"One Way": , the Jesus Generation, and the Idea of an Evangelical Youth Culture Author(s): Larry Eskridge Source: Church History, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Mar., 1998), pp. 83-106 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3170772 . Accessed: 22/10/2014 16:53

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This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "OneWay": Billy Graham,the Jesus Generation,and the Ideaof an Evangelical YouthCulture

LARRY ESKRIDGE

On New Year's Day 1971 Pasadena, California, basked in its stan- dard smog-tinged sunshine as well over a million people lined the route for the annual Tournament of Roses Parade. That year's grand marshal was America's "Protestant Pope," evangelist Billy Graham. Consistently voted among America's most admired men and a highly visible spiritual counselor and friend of , Graham may well have been at the zenith of his national influence. But, as he entered into the gala festivities surrounding the Tournament of Roses, Graham claimed that he was of two minds. Despite the "fanfare, the flag-waving," Graham wrote later that year, "I have seldom had such mixed emotions as I had that day in Pasadena." For he claimed he knew "that decadence had settled in. As I savored the grandeur of this great nation I also sensed its sickness." As the elements of the parade headed down the boulevard, Graham and his wife Ruth waved to the smiling crowds while he, as he said, "watch[ed] the horizon for a cloud of impending revival to restore [America's] spiritual greatness."l Further down the parade route on South Orange Grove, some of Graham's lesser-known evangelical brethren-including a Nazarene youth choir, a group of tract-passers from a coffeehouse in Fullerton, and an assorted band of "Street " handing out nearly 200,000 copies of the HollywoodFree Paper-jockeyed with Zionists and members of the Orange County chapter of the National Organization of Women for position in front of the television cameras. At some point, Graham began to notice that a number of young people were holding up placards that contained messages such as "God is love" and standing "with raised index finger lifted upward," shouting "One Way!" "Suddenly," Graham remembered, "we were made dramati- cally aware that a brand-new spiritual awakening was on the way."

1. Billy Graham, TheJesus Generation(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1971), p. 13.

Larry Eskridge is associate director of the Institute for the Study of Evangelicals at Wheaton and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Stirling in Scotland. ? 1998,The American Society of ChurchHistory ChurchHistory 67:1 (March 1998) 83

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Suppressing an urge to "get into the street and identify with them," Graham returned the gesture to the crowd and began shouting back, "One Way-the Jesus way!" The scene duplicated itself all along the parade route as Graham held his finger aloft and thousands amid the throng responded in kind. At the end of the parade Graham com- mented that he and Ruth felt as if they had "been in a revival meeting."2 Just ahead of the secular press and the vast majority of his fellow evangelicals, Billy Graham discovered the "Jesus Movement" at the Rose Parade. To Graham, this seemingly miraculous revival within the counterculture evoked the possibility of a vast spiritual awakening among American youth that supplemented the impressive growth of organizations such as Campus Crusade for and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which targeted "straight" middle-class youth. As a result, he would incorporate the "Jesus Revolution" as a central motif in his domestic Crusades in 1971 and 1972, tout the movement in other Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) ministries, and play a highly visible role in Explo '72, the evangelical "Woodstock" of the period. To the casual observer the episode might appear to be little more than an ephemeral strategic blip in Graham's long, varied, and multi- faceted career. But this period is instructive for understanding Gra- ham, the Jesus Movement's relationship to the times, and the evangeli- cal subculture itself. On a personal level, Graham's struggles at home with his rebellious teenage son during the late 1960s and early 1970s-a battle being played out in many American families-would cast the evangelist in the role of the loving, patient father of the prodigal. This experience carried over into his larger approach to the youth problem in his national ministry, a tolerant, openhanded response that was at variance with much of the hard-line rhetoric that secular and religious conservatives used in denouncing the younger generation in general, and the counterculture in particular. Indeed, Graham saw in the Jesus Movement a cadre of young prodigals who-rejecting the countercul- ture-had metaphorically come home to their parents' America via the bridge of an old American tradition: evangelical religion.

2. "1,300,000 Greet New Year at 'Biggest' Rose Parade," Van Nuys Valley News and Green Sheet, 3 January 1971, collection 360: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (hereinafter cited as BGEA) Scrapbooks, reel 33 (une 1970-December 1971), Archives of the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill. (hereinafter cited as BGC Archives); tape transcript of Graham Press Conference, 28 February 1971, Greenville, S.C., collection 24: BGEA-Billy Graham Press Conferences, tape T9, BGC Archives; "U.S. Journal:Pasadena- Waiting for the Roses," The New Yorker,16 January 1971, pp. 85-88; Graham, Jesus Generation,pp. 13-14.

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Graham's support of the Jesus Movement, although not singular, carried with it a valuable imprimatur that no other evangelical leader could match. The fact that America's leading evangelist could tolerate the movement's hippie eccentricities undoubtedly eased its acceptance in many evangelical quarters. Moreover, Graham's approval contrib- uted a sense of legitimization for those evangelicals-heads of para- church organizations, local youth workers, and the young people themselves-who eagerly adapted the styles, symbols, music, and rhetoric of the Jesus Movement to their own purposes. In supporting this uniquely evangelical spin on youth culture, Graham and the BGEA's efforts to legitimate the Jesus Movement were yet another example of 's uncanny ability to harness popular forces and movements for the furtherance of its mission. Graham's self-described epiphany on the streets of Pasadena did not mark an altogether new phase in his career. Indeed, Graham's first major success after graduating from Wheaton College was as a travel- ling evangelist for International (YFC). Founded in in 1941, YFC was an amalgamation of several fundamentalist youth ministries that sprouted up in the late 1930s in response to the growing American phenomenon of a distinct high-school-age culture.3 Graham, resplendent in the flashy suits, hand-painted ties and bright "glo-sox" that characterized the YFC style, was the star of the circuit from early 1945 through 1947, presiding at hundreds of rallies that catered to teenage audiences with snappy choruses, instrumental solos, magicians, and Bible trivia contests. During these YFC days Graham quickly absorbed a methodological rule of thumb that would stand him in good stead in the years ahead: "We used every modern means to catch the attention of the unconverted-and then we punched them right between the eyes with the gospel."4 In the years following his 1949 breakthrough as an independent evangelist in Los Angeles, Graham eagerly accepted the challenges that went along with being America's foremost evangelist. His promi- nence and the scope of his ministry-both nationally and as a symbol for the burgeoning new evangelical movement-demanded an empha- sis on "adult matters." Still, he would occasionally find time to reach out to a youthful audience with a sermon on a special youth night or a book like Billy GrahamTalks to Teen-Agers.5

3. Grace Palladino, Teenagers:An American History (New York: Basic Books, 1996), pp. 3-58. For a look at the early history and methodology of Youth for Christ, see Torrey Johnson and Robert Cook, Reaching YouthforChrist (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1944). 4. William Martin, A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham Story (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991), pp. 90-94. 5. Billy Graham, Billy GrahamTalks to Teen-Agers(Wheaton, Ill.: Miracles Unlimited, 1958).

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By the mid-1960s, however, Graham was clearly displaying a height- ened interest in the younger generation. The world was changing and so were the maturing multitudes of the "Baby Boom": these were not the same sort of kids whose most serious problems he had once addressed by advising not to go steady and to stay away from rock 'n' roll. Appalled at the rebelliousness and immorality that seemed to be running rampant, Graham's first reaction was to blame "drinking fathers and frug-dancing mothers" who created the hippie movement by "neglect... leaving the youths to shift for themselves." Viewing the growing discontent on campuses and the emerging counterculture, his frustration caused him to admit that he would like to grab young demonstrators and "shave them, cut their hair, bathe them and then preach to them." Yet disliking confrontation as a matter of personal style, the predominant tone he conveyed was one of compassion as he saw beyond rebellion and the quest for pleasure to "students . . . searching for a faith to believe and a purpose in their lives." Again and again Graham sounded the theme of a generation that was "rebelling because they have no challenges. They are searching for a meaning in life but they don't know where to find it."6 A sampling of his rhetoric during the period predictably shows that for Graham, political action, social programs, and hedonism were inadequate answers to the world's ills: the only real solution was Jesus Christ. In a speech to 8,000 at Berkeley in early 1967, Graham urged students to stop experimenting with sex, pot, and LSD: "Why not experiment with Christ? He's an experience."7 Likewise, at a Kansas City Crusade youth night later that year, he parlayed Timothy Leary's famous psychedelic slogan into an evangelistic hook: "Tune in to God, then turn on ... drop out-of the materialistic world. The experience of Jesus Christ is the greatest trip you can take."8 Happily for Graham and his brethren, the evangelical message was not falling on the ears of a totally deaf generation. The 1960s were a time of impressive expansion for several parachurch organizations geared toward college- and high-school-age youth. Campus Crusade

6. Cort R. Flint, comp., The QuotableBilly Graham(Anderson, S.C.: Droke House, 1966), pp. 56, 218; "Graham Seeks Out Youth in Crusades," Madison State Journal, 30 September 1967 and "Graham Urges Youth to Act," Kansas City Times, 12 September 1967, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 31 (January 1967-July 1969), BGC Archives; transcript of Graham Press Conference, 13 May 1968, Los Angeles, Calif., collection 24: BGEA-Billy Graham Press Conferences, box 1, folder 10, BGC Archives. 7. "Graham Draws 8,000 at UC-and 6 Pickets," San FranciscoChronicle, 28 January 1967, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 31 (January 1967-July 1969), BGC Archives. 8. "Graham Urges Youth to Act," Kansas City Times, 12 September 1967, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 31 (January 1967-July 1969), BGC Archives.

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions IDEA OF AN EVANGELICALYOUTH CULTURE 87 for Christ, which began as a one-man mission to UCLA in 1951, became international in scope by the late 1960s with a staff of about 1,700. Similarly, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship increased its num- ber of field representatives by more than 50 percent, nearly tripled its budget, and saw attendance at its triennial Urbana conven- tions rise nearly 150 percent during the decade.9 Graham was a fervent booster of both these organizations and others such as Young Life and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, but he saw that success in reaching young people was not limited to this type of organization. Graham's own evangelistic Crusades began to take on a decidedly youthful bent as he found himself "preaching almost exclusively to young people" from the mid-1960s on, as Graham and his staff noticed that youth made up perhaps as much as 70 percent of the audience. In fact, Graham credited this interest among the young with saving his ministry from the inevitable decline that previous evangelists seemed to suffer.10 While some might have looked at this circumstance and the growth of organizations like Campus Crusade as simply a matter of demographics-the "pig-in-the-python" effect of the Baby Boom- Graham saw it as an unmistakable sign of spiritual ferment among the younger generation. To take advantage of this opportunity, Graham's organization stepped up its efforts to reach the young people who, he was con- vinced, were eager and willing to listen. The evangelistic efforts of the BGEA's filmmaking arm, World-Wide Pictures, concentrated almost exclusively on youth themes in its major releases, The Restless Ones (1963), For Pete's Sake (1966), (1969, starring British pop singer ), and the documentary The Lost Generation (1971). At times, the BGEA's efforts to reach the young freely moved beyond the pale of traditional evangelical propriety, as it did during the 1969 Crusade. At that Crusade his team operated "Ameri- ca's Largest Coffeehouse," where amplified folk-rock entertained what Graham biographer William Martin termed the "apres-Crusade set"

9. Bill Bright, Come Help Change the World (Old Tappan, N.J.: Fleming H. Revell, 1970), p. 189; for a good, if now somewhat dated, look at the growth of Campus Crusade see Richard Quebedeaux, I Found It! The Story of Bill Bright and the Campus Crusadefor Christ (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979); Keith and Gladys Hunt, For Christ and the University: The Story of InterVarsityChristian Fellowship of the U.S.A., 1940-1990 (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1991), pp. 399-402, 413. 10. Billy Graham, "The Jesus Revolution," 29 July 1971, collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 32, folder 3, BGC Archives; "Today's Q & A: Billy Graham," unspecified Florida paper, 28 February 1972, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 34 (March-October 1972), BGC Archives.

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 88 CHURCH HISTORY amid pulsating strobe lights and screens that flashed "Jesus" and "Love."11 Graham's efforts to reach youth were, to his credit, not limited to merely utilitarian attempts to target a specific audience. It seems clear that he made a legitimate attempt at finding out what made the youth of the late 1960s tick. On one occasion he bought an armload of rock albums, sat down at his home in Montreat, , with wife Ruth, and listened to them all "at least once."12 During a 1969 Crusade in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Graham decided to check out a "love-in" demonstration being held at City Hall. While demonstrators blocked traffic and removed their clothes, Graham-decked out in sunglasses, a baseball cap, and old clothes-talked with several kids about their perspective on life.13 This method apparently became something of a routine for Graham. On other occasions he assumed the same disguise and strolled the Sunset Strip and-complete with a false beard- walked along in a Students for a Democratic Society demonstration at City University of New York.14 In late December 1969 Graham re- ceived an invitation from concert promoter Norman Johnson to speak to the crowd at a rock festival in Miami. Johnson's offer was an obvious gambit to mollify community pressure against the festival, but Graham nonetheless leapt at the chance, wiring back his eager acceptance to appear alongside Santana, Procol Harum, and the Grate- ful Dead, explaining, "I really dig this generation of young people." "To get a feel for the event" the night before his appearance, Graham again donned his disguise and slipped into the crowd. One young, bearded festivalgoer recognized him and asked Graham to do him a favor: "say a prayer to thank God for good friends and good weed." Graham simply replied, "You can also get high on Jesus." The next morning, expecting to be shouted down, Graham found himself greeted by scattered applause and a polite audience. Graham raved about the "terrific music" and elaborated on his message to the young partyer the night before by telling the crowd of a way "to get high without hang-ups and hangovers." Reminiscing years later, Graham claimed that two dozen youths responded to his message at an outreach tent set up by a local church.15

11. Marshall Frady, Billy Graham: A Parable of Righteousness (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1979), p. 404; Martin, ProphetWith Honor, p. 376. 12. Martin, ProphetWith Honor, p. 375. 13. "Converting the World-Billy Graham Talks to William Hardcastle About His Many Media," Listener, 21 January 1971, 84-85; collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 102 (1971); Frady, Billy Graham,p. 400. 14. Frady, Billy Graham,p. 400. 15. Billy Graham, (San Francisco: Harper, 1997), pp. 419-420; Frady, Billy Graham,p. 400; Martin, ProphetWith Honor, p. 376.

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During 1970, Graham lined up with young males in a symbolic struggle with their parents, admitting to New York reporters before his five-day June Shea Stadium Crusade that his hair was "a little longer" than it had been the year before.16 By fall Graham-his hair now an inch over the collar-was advising America that "it's ridiculous for parents to engage in bitter battles with their children over the haircut issue ... long hair or short hair is a matter of personal taste, not a basic moral question." Reminiscing that his grandfather "had a beard down to his chest and a mustache and very long hair," Graham reflected that "he was one of the most wonderful Christian men I ever knew. Hairiness was the style 75 years ago-and we're obviously going back to that now."17 Not unexpectedly, Graham's tolerance and attempts to bridge the generation gap were not universally hailed by his conserva- tive evangelical constituency. After one of his television crusades he reported that he "received over 1,000 letters protesting that my hair was too long. Some even sent money to pay for a haircut."18 Graham's attempts to understand and sympathize with America's youth and concern over their direction were not entirely an academic exercise. Throughout this period there was another factor that hit much closer to home: Billy Graham was himself the father of a rebellious teenager. Young , born in 1952, came from a mold different from his three older sisters or baby brother. Early on he displayed numerous signs that he was decidedly uncomfortable with being a famous evangelist's number-one son. Cocky, aggressive, and given to delight in irritating his siblings and parents, Franklin was a poor student whose real loves were the outdoors and adventures with guns and vehicles. His deportation to the evangelical Stony Brook School on Long Island at age 13 did little more than induce homesick- ness and provide opportunities to indulge his love for cigarettes and to acquire a taste for beer, routinely stolen from a local deli. Often close to expulsion, Franklin was allowed to return home to Montreat in 1970 to finish his last semester of high school.19 The move back home brought little relief. Franklin's academic efforts were mediocre at best. The company he kept was questionable and he was twice disciplined for fighting in school. Moreover, he

16. "Voting Age of 18 Endorsed by Longer-Haired Graham," OmahaMorning World-Herald, 23 June 1970, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 33 (June 1970-December 1971), BGC Archives. 17. "Graham Defender of Long-Hair Set," Hot Springs New Era, 19 September 1970, collec- tion 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 33 (June 1970-December 1971), BGC Archives. 18. "Graham Trying to Bridge Generation Gap," Gadsden (Alabama) Times, 14 May 1972, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 34 (March-October 1972), BGC Archives. 19. Franklin Graham, Rebel With a Cause (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), pp. 28-45; Martin, ProphetWith Honor, pp. 290-291.

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 90 CHURCH HISTORY continually flouted local traffic laws, speeding around town in a succession of motorbikes and old cars until a flagrant escape from local police led to an uncomfortable meeting of Franklin, the pursuing officer, and a seething Billy in the Graham kitchen. While his driving habits improved after the embarrassing incident, Franklin's late-night smoking and drinking continued apace, leading to a running battle with his mother, who resorted to tossing firecrackers into his room and dumping ashtrays on his head in order to get him to school on time. Come graduation time, Franklin was a credit short of graduating. Exasperated and knowing that prolonging the situation would prob- ably be detrimental for all concerned, his father cut a deal with the high school principal and the president of LeTourneau College, a technically oriented evangelical school in Longview, Texas, allowing Franklin to make up the missing credit during his freshman year in college.20 Graham's troubles with his own son must have lent some perspec- tive to his feel for what was going on all across the country. His patient, even lenient, approach to Franklin's rebellious streak make his other attempts to identify with American youth easier to understand. Gra- ham's modest rapprochement with the counterculture escalated into a partnership with the high visibility he accorded the Jesus Movement in the months following the 1971 Rose Parade. His attention came at exactly the right moment. A sudden torrent of articles, books, major coverage on NBC and CBS, and the timely appearance of Jesus Christ Superstar and, later that year, Godspell made the "Jesus Freak" a household concept during 1971.21

20. Franklin Graham, Rebel With a Cause, pp. 47-60; Martin, ProphetWith Honor, pp. 377-378. 21. The existence of the "Jesus Movement" received no attention from the major national media in the years 1967 through 1969. The evangelical press paid some attention to the early manifestations of the movement during this time, but it was usually perceived as an outreach to the hip generation as opposed to any consciousness of a discernible "Jesus Movement" (see, for example, Maurice Allan, "God's Thing in Hippieville," Christian Life, January 1968, 20-23, 34-35, 38; and "Witnessing to Hippies," Today,7 June 1968, 41-42). By 1970, the news that a highly vocal segment of the counterculture had embraced a form of traditional evangelical Christianity began to appear in newspapers and national periodicals (see, for example, "Street Christians: Jesus As the Ultimate Trip," Time, 3 August 1970, 31-32; and Phil Tracy,"The Jesus Freaks: Savagery and Salvation on Sunset Strip," Commonweal, 30 October 1970, 122-125). A similar cognizance also began to appear in evangelical periodicals (see, for example, Rita Klein, "Spiritual Revolution- West Coast Youth," , 19 June 1970, 876; and, L. F. Backman, "Linda's Revolutionary Army," World VisionMagazine, July-August 1970, 14). It was early in 1971, however, that the "Jesus Movement" began to make major national headlines in the secular media, undoubtedly stoked by the enormous sales and controversy over the release of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's album "Jesus Christ Superstar" in the late fall of 1970. In late January, NBC's "First Tuesday" presented an hour-long special that focused exclusively-and rather favorably-on the

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The advent of the Jesus Movement, mixing the styles of the counter- culture with traditional American evangelicalism, was one of the apparently incongruous outgrowths of the 1960s.22The beginnings and expansion of the movement are understandably obscure and hard to track.23However, as one might expect, the visible origins of the

Children of God as representatives of the movement, but the network later retracted that report in a 1972 update on "Chronology," after learning of extensive criticism of the group among converts' family members and church leaders (Deborah Berg Davis, The Childrenof God:The Inside Story [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1984], pp. 95, 112-113). Soon thereafter a major story with an extensive photo layout appeared in Look ("The Jesus Movement is Upon Us," 9 February 1971, 15-21), followed by articles in the Wall Street Journal (Earl C. Gottschalk Jr., "Hip Culture Discovers A New Trip: Fervent, Foot Stompin' Religion," 2 March 1971, p. 1), Newsweek (22 March 1971, 97), and Life ("The Groovy Christians of Rye, NY," 14 May 1971, 78-86). By June, "The Jesus Revolution" was enough of a national story to merit the cover of Time (21 June 1971, 56-63). In the wake of secular media attention, there was a deluge of coverage in the evangelical press that hailed the movement as the sign of a national revival among the nation's youth (see, for example, Edward Plowman, "Revival in the Underground," Christianity Today, 29 January 1971, 34-35; Martin Meyer Rosen, "Jesus' Kids Turn on Others," Christian Life, April 1971, 22-25, 59-63). Capitalizing on the publicity, a flood of enthusiastic books on the Jesus People by evangelical observers other than Billy Graham also began to appear in 1971. Among these were Duane Pederson and Bob Owen, Jesus People (Glendale, Calif.: Regal Books, 1971); Dick Eastman, Up With Jesus (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1971); Walker L. Knight, Jesus People Come Alive (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1971); and Edward E. Plowman's The Jesus Movement in America (Elgin, Ill.: David C. Cook, 1971). More "objective" books on the movement did not really come until 1972; however, one rather critical book did make it into print by the end of the year (Lowell Streiker, The Jesus Trip: Advent of the Jesus Freaks[Nashville: Abingdon, 1971]). 22. The fusion of these two diverse subcultures seems bizarre at first glance. However, social scientist Robert S. Ellwood's 1973 study One Way: The Jesus Movement and its Meaning (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1973) provides some possible insights into the convergences between the counterculture and evangelicalism. First, and most important in Ellwood's analysis, was the evangelical emphasis on the subjective experience of conversion, the Pentecostal baptism of the Holy Spirit and the "walking with Jesus" that paralleled hippie fascination with drug-induced experience and the pursuit of the high. Other similarities-such as a shared emphasis on music, idealization of the rural past, separatist outsider leanings, belief in the supernatural, tendencies toward anti- intellectualism, and a suspicion of history-provided a touchstone for those in the counterculture who came into contact with the evangelical Gospel. A growing pessimism pervaded the counterculture as the hippie dream devolved in the late 1960s amid persistent world travails and the growing realization of the dangers of pharmaceutically induced enlightenment. At this point, Ellwood argued, the apocalyptic dimension of evangelicalism provided a particularly convincing explanation of contemporary events that resonated with many disillusioned hippies (pp. 11-21). 23. While the beginnings of a "movement" were most clearly evident in California during 1967, other groups with similar countercultural origins-unconnected with any Califor- nia "contacts"-were in existence within the next year. To date, there has been no comprehensive historical examination of the Jesus People movement. David DiSabati- no's master's thesis, "History of the Jesus Movement" (McMaster University, 1994), is the best attempt thus far to put the movement into historical perspective. The contempo- rary examination of the Jesus People that gave the best historical account of its development was Ronald M. Enroth, Edward E. Ericson Jr.,and C. Breckinridge Peters's

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Jesus People were largely Californian. The earliest identifiable "Jesus Freak" was probably Ted Wise, a dope-smoking Sausalito sailmaker who underwent a conversion experience in late 1966. Wise and his wife began going to Haight-Ashbury and testifying to the locals during the "Summer of Love" in 1967. Joining up with a few other couples and some single converts, the Wises established what was in effect the first Jesus commune (the "House of Acts"), and, with the help of Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto and the oversight of a board of evangelistic-minded Baptist pastors, opened a storefront coffeehouse ministry called "The Living Room." Over the next two years the group made contact with literally thousands of young people.24 By 1968, Wise's group had been joined in the Bay Area by the Christian World Liberation Front (CWLF). Led by Jack Sparks, a former statistics professor at Penn State and staffer for Campus Cru- sade for Christ, the CWLF was located on the campus at Berkeley and attempted to minister to radicals, drug users, and students through youth hostels, a drug-counseling service, communes, and Bible stud- ies. Its most prominent contribution to the movement was Right On! the first underground "Jesus paper."25 The real mecca for the new "Street Christians," however, was to the south in the Los Angeles area. The first manifestation of the movement there was in the ministry of Arthur Blessitt, an unabashedly self- promoting Southern Baptist evangelist who came to Hollywood in 1965 from Mississippi via Montana and Nevada. Blessitt began a coffeehouse ("His Place") to supplement his sidewalk witnessing to runaways, addicts, and hustlers on the Sunset Strip. Eventually "His Place" evolved into a countercultural haven replete with psychedelic paint and black lights. The hip Blessitt became something of a minor celebrity as the "Minister of the Sunset Strip," utilizing the drug

TheJesus People:Old-Time Religion in the Age of Aquarius (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1972). 24. Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, TheJesus People,pp. 12-13; DiSabatino, "History of the Jesus Movement," pp. 30-37. 25. Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, The Jesus People, pp. 102-114. The CWLF specialized in mimicking the rhetoric and modus operandi of leftist groups and was particularly adept at utilizing the hip argot of the counterculture to communicate its message, as in this adaptation from Philippians 3: "Watch out for the law pushers. They'll lay a heavy rap on you about how you got to follow rules in order to keep up your relationship with Jesus. Following a set of rules doesn't make us the Father's children. It's digging on the relationship with Him. Trust Jesus, not what you can do. We've said it before, and we say it again with tears in our eyes: there are people who live among the brothers and sisters who don't know Jesus and are against His plan for making men right with God" (Two Brothers From Berkeley, Letters to Street Christians [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1971], p. 101).

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions IDEA OF AN EVANGELICALYOUTH CULTURE 93 culture's slang in his sermons to talk about "dropping Matthew, Mark, Luke and John," and "Jesus the everlasting high."26 Hollywood also proved to be a prime recruiting ground for two of the more cultic-and visible-elements of the movement: Tony and Susan Alamo's authoritarian Christian Foundation and Moses David Berg's radically separatistic Children of God.27 Most of the action in the L.A. area, however, was decidedly tamer. The area spawned the largest of the underground Jesus papers, Duane Pederson's Hollywood Free Paper, which at various times reached publication runs at or near a million copies. It was Pederson who, in an attempt to keep his newspaper afloat, became the first major purveyor of the soon-to-be- ubiquitous "Jesus People" posters, buttons, and bumper stickers. Los Angeles also served as the home base for the movement's burgeoning musical arm and its chief minstrel, .28 More indicative of the movement's direction was a fusion of the small core of genuinely countercultural "Street Christians" with recep- tive, less traditional, and frequently suburban evangelical congrega- tions in California, like Hollywood Presbyterian, Bethel Tabernacle in North Redondo Beach, and Sierra Madre Congregational Church.29 Most important of these hybrid congregations was Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel in Santa Ana. What began as a simple Wednesday night Bible study for a dozen young people at a modest-sized church in the spring of 1969 quickly evolved into a "happening" that attracted crowds of up to a thousand to hear Smith and his magnetic countercul- tural associate, Lonnie Frisbee. Calvary Chapel catered mostly to middle-class youth who enthusiastically adopted the style of the Jesus People. The youth ministry there boomed during this period, meeting five times a week for three-hour sessions of Bible study, song, and prayer that one observer described as a combination of "1950-vintage Youth for Christ rallies with 1970 rock festivals."30 Calvary Chapel's mass baptisms at the beach in Corona Del Mar made for great photo ops and good copy. The pictures of the thin, long-haired, bearded Frisbee rejoicing in the ocean with bikini-clad surfers accompanied timely stories on the appearance of Jesus Christ

26. Roger C. Palms, The Jesus Kids (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1971), pp. 21-24; Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, TheJesus People, pp. 71-73. 27. See Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, TheJesus People, pp. 21-65. 28. Erling Jorstad, That New-Time Religion: The Jesus Revival in America (: Augs- burg, 1972), pp. 68-69; Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, TheJesus People, pp. 73-83. 29. Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, TheJesus People, pp. 84-101. 30. Ibid., pp. 85-94; DiSabatino, "A History of the Jesus Movement," pp. 56-62. For an engaging look at Calvary Chapel years after the passing of the Jesus Movement see Randall Balmer, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory:A JourneyInto the Evangelical Subculturein America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 12-30.

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Superstar and a movement that was now in evidence across the continent in cities like Seattle, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Chicago, Akron, Buffalo, and . But by the time the first major national stories on the movement appeared in Newsweek, Time, Look, and Christianity Today, an enthusiastic Billy Graham had already set to work on a book and was talking about the wonderful youth revival he had been seeing among all segments of society for several years. Throughout early 1971 Billy Graham talked about the positive signs for real revival he saw in the Jesus Movement. At a press conference at Furman University he told reporters that he found the movement "very encouraging" and "sweeping across the country . . . perhaps a little less in the South." Particularly heartening, he believed, was the fact that "these young people are bringing us back to primitive Christianity studying the real Jesus ... which we've been trying to do for years."31 Before a joint gathering of the North Carolina General Assembly he agreed that "Some of it may be a fad" but argued that he was thankful it was "a religious fad." In his opinion youth had tried all the options-"the drug scene, sex and affluence. There is one option left and that's God. All over this country something is happening ... God is moving ... I think we are on the verge of a mighty religious awakening of our youth."32 Perhaps Graham's most important boost to the legitimacy of the movement came in April at the annual convention of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) in Los Angeles. In the convention's keynote speech, NAE and Wheaton College President Hudson T. Armerding acknowledged the apparent sincerity of some of the Jesus People but criticized the faddish nature of the movement. In contrast, when he was asked about the Jesus People at a later press conference, Graham, surrounded by his peers, replied that he was "for anything that promotes the Gospel of Jesus Christ." Further, he indicated that those people who insisted that God work one particular way had best stop quibbling and start welcoming the new converts. Although Graham agreed that some of the Jesus People "could use a touching up here and there in their theology," he insisted, "I'm for them."33 Graham's enthusiastic embrace of the Jesus Movement, while a continuation of an irenic attempt to bridge the generation gap, was nonetheless a stretch for him. At the very least he could expect (and he

31. Transcript of Graham Press Conference, Greenville, S.C., 19 February 1971, collection 24: BGEA-Billy Graham Press Conferences, tape T9, BGC Archives. 32. Toby Druin, "Graham Challenges N.C. to Be State of Destiny,"' Biblical Recorder, 27 February 1971, 4, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 102 (1971), BGC Archives. 33. "Moving Toward Revival," United EvangelicalAction, Summer 1971, 15; "The NAE: New Marching Orders," Christianity Today,7 May 1971, 37.

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions IDEA OF AN EVANGELICALYOUTH CULTURE 95 received) a fresh salvo from those ultra-fundamentalists who had criticized him in the past.34More seriously, a movement that seemed to legitimatize cultural red flags like long hair, beards, informality in dress and worship, and rock music went against a long tradition of fundamentalist/evangelical taboos against worldly entertainment35 and was definitely on the other side of the cultural barricades manned by the Nixon-Graham Silent Majority. Second-most-admired man in America or not, his acceptance of the decidedly Pentecostal-leaning "Jesus Freaks" and the surface indication that it would be no great sin for evangelical youth to participate in all the fun was a potentially serious problem.36Yet for Graham in this, the fullness of time, there were obviously more positives in the equation than negatives. For an evangelist whose modus operandi often utilized the headlines for maximum audience impact, the landscape of popular culture in 1971 was simply too inviting. As stories on the Jesus Movement multiplied and Ocean's "Put Your Hand in the Hand (of the Man from Galilee)" and Judy Collins's version of "Amazing Grace" moved up the pop charts, evangelical Christianity was arguably culturally relevant to the American masses in a way that it had not been since the 1920s. And if the country was intrigued by the fact that a rebellious generation of young people seemed suddenly interested in Jesus, Billy Graham would not be the one to miss a golden opportunity. The onset of summer 1971 ushered in a round of domestic crusades slated for Lexington, Kentucky; Chicago; and Oakland. Graham's utilization of the new interest in Jesus in the popular culture and the rise of the Jesus Movement took on increasing importance with each series of meetings, reaching a crescendo in the meetings in Oakland. In Lexington, the major headline-getter of the entire crusade was a "Jesus March" that attracted 1,200 banner-carrying and sign-waving high school students. Graham noted with satisfaction that this was "about

34. Local fundamentalists used Graham's support of the Jesus People as prime reasons for avoiding Graham's Crusades in Chicago (1971) and Atlanta (1973). See Philip E. Bennett, "Billy Graham's 1971 Chicago Crusade-Beware!" The ChristianMilitant, May-June 1971, 2-3, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 102 (1971); and a tract by Bob Spencer, "Why I Cannot Approve and Must Oppose the Billy Graham Atlanta Crusade," collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 34, folder 23, BGC Archives. 35. The anti-worldly-entertainment, anti-rock-'n'-roll thrust of disapproving evangelical elders is clearly evident even in a more moderate evangelical forum such as Youthfor Christ Magazine in the 1950s and 1960s. See, for example, Marlin E. Hardman, "The Real Scoop on Rock 'n' Roll," Youthfor Christ Magazine 17 (October 1959): 10-12, and the "Mr. Music" column, Youthfor Christ Magazine 19 (April 1962): 33. For an example of an extended screed against the evils of rock music see Bob Larson, Rockand Roll: The Devil's Diversion (McCook, Nebr.: Bob Larson, 1967; revised 1970). 36. "Nixon Again Leads the List, Graham Second," Boston Evening Globe, 2 January 1972, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 34 (March-October 1972), BGC Archives.

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 96 CHURCH HISTORY three times the number who staged a protest demonstration here about a year ago after the Kent State disturbance."37 The Greater Chicago Crusade began in early June. The influence of the Jesus Movement was readily apparent throughout the crusade, from Graham's flashing the "One Way" sign for photographers in Mayor RichardJ. Daley's office, to the presence of Jesus People outside the meetings handing out papers and "Jesus loves you" stickers. His "special guests" included Judy MacKenzie, a young British folk-style singer, and Rick Carreno, a former Hell's Angel and heroin addict who had been converted at the 1969 Anaheim Crusade. As the audience found their seats before the service, the music included "Put Your Hand in the Hand" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water."38The sermon topics targeted the youth audience as well with "The Hangups of Youth" (a message on long-haired Prince Absalom), "Youth'sGreatest Psychological Problem: Loneliness," "Jesus Christ, Superstar,""God's Unchanging Message in a Revolutionary World," "The Credibility Gap," and "The Gospel in Modern Youth Jargon."In this latter sermon Graham, admitting he could not "talk the .. .'now people' language like you youth can," nonetheless told his audience that "Christ can give you the right kind of 'bag."'39Lest he go too far, Graham reassured the parents at one point by telling them, "Jesus was no hippie ... He worked hard with his hands. He was certainly not a drop-out."40 The crowd of 27,000 that came out to the fifth service of the Chicago Crusade got more "Jesus power" than it bargained for when a planned demonstration disrupted the meeting. Throughout the service, a steady stream of catcalls, boos, hisses, and blasphemies rang out from a band of two or three hundred assorted hippies, Yippies, gay pride advo- cates, and what were identified as "Satan-worshippers"milling in the southwest portion of McCormickPlace. Grahamprayed for the miscre- ants and reminded his audience that they had come to hear the Gospel and that the BGEA had paid for the hall. Should things get more serious, Graham darkly warned, "I'm sure you will know what to do when the time comes-and there are enough of you here to do it." At the invitation hymn, the jeering crowd edged forward into the aisles

37. Religious News Service press release, "Billy Graham's Crusade Draws Record Throngs to Kentucky U. Coliseum," 29 April 1971, collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 30, folder 13, BGC Archives. 38. "24,000 at Billy's 'Youth Night,"' Chicago Today,8 June 1971, 16; "Wonderful Chicago," Decision, September 1971, 8-9, 14; Greater Chicago Crusade (1971), collection 113: BGEA-Films and Videos, F#252 & F#255, BGC Archives. 39. Orders of service and excerpts from these sermons are contained in collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 30, folders 24, 26-27, 29-31, BGC Archives. 40. "Billy's Crusade Here Attended By 325,000," ChicagoDaily News, 14 June 1971, 9.

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions IDEA OF AN EVANGELICALYOUTH CULTURE 97 behind their leader, a high-stepping young man wearing a cape and wielding a baton. As one demonstrator played a fiddle and several cried out, "We wanna be saved! Power to the people!" ushers moved forward to block the group. Suddenly, a cluster of about thirty Jesus People materialized and, linking hands, surrounded the main core of the disrupters' leadership. Some prayed fervently while others en- treated their radical counterparts to "Join the Jesus revolution!" Soon, a chant of "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" came from the circling Jesus People. One young believer placed his hand on the shoulder of a Yippie and confidently told him, "You'll be saved." The situation seemed defused until one of the demonstrators tossed a cherry bomb, and a scuffle ensued as police dived into the melee. Two agitators were handcuffed and dragged away, one of the offenders receiving a broken nose for his trouble. Meanwhile, hundreds of young people who had streamed out of their seats joined the ushers and the Jesus People in the aisles and-under the watchful eye of the Chicago police- proceeded to edge the unwanted intruders out the exits. After the service Ron Rendelman, head of a Jesus People discipleship group in suburban West Chicago, passed word along to the evangelist from his "One Way" security force-"Tell Billy Graham:'The Jesus People love him."'41 Moving west for the Northern California Crusade, Graham was ebullient about his experience in Chicago, later remarking that "I believe the Lord gave me [a new technique for] controlling demonstra- tions."42Over lunch with Governor Ronald Reagan in Sacramento, Graham related his experience with protestors and the efforts of the Jesus People. He suggested that his newly developed technique might be something Reagan would want to try with student demonstrations in California.43 With only a few Viet Cong flag-waving antiwar marchers and someone bearing a "Gay Lib Now" sign attempting to disrupt one of the Oakland meetings, there was no need for any special outpouring of "Jesus Power" of the sort needed in Chicago. However, the Jesus

41. John Pollock, Billy Graham:Evangelist to the World (Minneapolis: World-Wide Publica- tions, 1979), pp. 124-125; Richard Philbrick, "Bigotry in Churches Rapped by Graham," Chicago Tribune,9 June 1971, 11; "Hecklers Routed by Billy Backers," ChicagoDaily News, 9 June 1971; and BGEA press release, "Greater Chicago Graham Crusade Becomes Tri-State Affair," 13 June 1971, collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 31, folder 8, BGC Archives; Martin, Prophet With Honor, pp. 376-377. According to Pollock, one of the two young ruffians who were carted away by Chicago Police was later converted at a post-Crusade follow-up showing of the Graham film "A Time to Run." 42. Pollock, Billy Graham,Evangelist, p. 124. 43. "Graham Urges Governor to Trust 'Jesus Power,"' San Bernardino Sun, 30 June 1971, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel #33 (June 1970-December 1971), BGC Archives.

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Movement and its symbols and style were in abundant supply at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. A bright, neon yellow and purple "One Way" symbol-an upraised arm and index finger superimposed on the cross-served as the backdrop for the podium. The crowd did "spell yells" for J-E-S-U-S. Berkeley's CWLF chartered a nightly bus bedecked with a banner proclaiming the "People's Committee to Investigate Billy Graham." Duane Pederson, editor of the Hollywood Free Paper, was an honored platform guest.44 In a new twist, Graham made a special effort to inform his stadium and television audience that he was making sheets of red "One Way!" stickers available-"By the hundreds if you want them"-to anyone who would write him. Telling them that he knew someone who, as a witnessing ploy, went to "dirty bookstores and puts [the stickers] in the books," he noted that his son Ned had already "pasted the hotel with them." Urging his applauding audience to "paste 'em everywhere!" he exhorted every- one to "cover America with little tracts and little signs and symbols to let people know that God is at work in this country."45 The Crusade service featuring Graham's sermon on "The Jesus Revolution" was televised nationwide later that year. In that sermon he set forth an evolving vision of the Jesus Movement as a genuine revival with potential for bringing America together: The press and the media have focused on the so-called "Jesus Freaks." However, the vast majority of young people that are turning to Christ come from the "straight world." Thus, the straights and the "far outs" are finding common ground in a personal relationship with Christ. There is a morning freshness to this movement ... But their love is more sincere than a slogan and much deeper than the fast fading glow of the flower children ... Every American should thank God for this new breath of fresh air that is sweeping the country among the youth. It has not yet affected the majority of American young people but the minority is growing by leaps and bounds. Spiritual renewal is coming among the young. Perhaps the prophecy will come true, "A little child shall lead them."46 After the Oakland Crusade Graham and his team had reason to believe that God was at work. Christianity Today gushed that it was "perhaps the peak crusade of his career."47 Indeed, the ten-day campaign

44. "Graham Attracts 44,500," Oakland Tribune,30 July 1971, 21; "One Way in Oakland," Decision, October 1971, 8-9; video F261, Northern California Crusade-Oakland, CA (1971), collection 113: BGEA-Films and Videos, BGC Archives. 45. Video F261, Northern California Crusade-Oakland, CA (1971), collection 113: BGEA- Films and Videos, BGC Archives. 46. Ibid.; Billy Graham, "The Jesus Revolution," 29 July 1971, sermon excerpt in collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 32, folder 3, BGC Archives. 47. "Decisive Hour for 21,000," ChristianityToday, 27 August 1971, 30.

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions IDEA OF AN EVANGELICALYOUTH CULTURE 99 resulted in 21,000 converts, the highest number of converts per capita of any of Graham's American crusades to that point. The BGEA estimated that more than 12,000 of the respondents were either high school or college students. Graham exulted on being informed by "experts in the Bay Area" that "scores" came from hippie communes to receive Christ, telling of "one girl [who] told us that the other night in one of the communes a prayer meeting took place instead of the usual sex orgy."48 Graham's vision of the contemporary youth question and the poten- tial role of the Jesus Movement in a spiritual revival was fully fleshed out with the publication that fall of his book The Jesus Generation. The book would be a visible reminder of Graham's support of the new spiritual awakening during the next few years, selling nearly half a million copies. Graham reiterated his argument that a spiritual (read evangelical) awakening had been going on among the youth for several years "at the same time that other thousands of young people were 'copping out' with sex, drugs, and violence." He conceded that the critics who suggested that it was sometimes superficial and too emotional had a point. However, he saw far more positives in the Jesus Movement: it centered on and demanded an experience with Jesus; it was Bible-based ("For them ... it's the ultimate 'how-to' Book, like the very ambitious manual of an automobile mechanic"); it put a renewed emphasis on the Holy Spirit and Christian discipleship; it displayed "an incredible" zeal for and it had introduced a renewed emphasis on the Second Coming.49 But like any Graham sermon or press conference, the main thrust of the book was evangelistic, directed at "the vast majority of American young people [who] are still alienated, uncommitted, and unin- volved."50 Graham sympathized with their disillusionment with the world situation and their desire for a world without discipline. Reach- ing out to the hippies and Yippies, drug addicts and revolutionaries, he gamely drew upon his own teen years on a North Carolina farm to let them know he sympathized with their plight: When I was your age, I felt almost exactly as you do. As a teen-ager, I had a rebellious heart and mind, too ... Each morning I had to milk ten to twenty dairy cows before breakfast, and I had to attend every worship service conducted at the Presbyterian church to which my parents be- longed. I secretly rebelled against both. My scene was the farm but my

48. BGEA Team Office press release, 1 August 1971, Collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 32, folder 7, BGC Archives; "Decisive Hour for 21,000," 30; Billy Graham, "Jesus Revolution." 49. Graham, Jesus Generation,pp. 13-22. 50. Ibid., pp. 16-17.

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"thing" was baseball and girls ... I had all the youthful hang-ups. My world at times seemed to be falling apart... Finally I got it all together. In my late adolescence I made a decision, and there followed the experience that changed my life . . . Whatever my circumstances, I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that when I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I found the secret of life!51 In the pages that followed, Graham explored youth's problems and dilemmas, explaining that "bad vibrations come from our sins . . . [and] cause young people to blow their minds." Decrying the dangers of drugs, he lamented the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix: "How regrettable that they never gave their lives fully to Jesus Christ and experienced the kind of high from which one never crashes, the one provided by the Holy Spirit." In emphasizing the need for a daily "quiet time" of Bible reading and prayer, Graham drew upon a radio interview between "a well-known disc jockey and a yogi of Hari Krishna" in which the yogi explained the necessity of fifteen minutes of daily meditation for peaceful living.52 Going into 1972, Graham and his organization continued to pump youth themes and the Jesus Movement for their evangelistic cause. Decision magazine featured articles on a CWLF Bible study, the story of Rick Carreno, and a testimony by Pam Norman, wife of Jesus rocker Larry Norman.53 Grason-a tax-paying retail company that Graham aide George Wilson formed in the 1950s to feed profits from books and other merchandise back into the BGEA-was now selling its own collection of "Jesus merchandise" including stickers, bumper stickers, posters, "witness notes," and a "One Way" lapel pin.54 Even Graham's boyhood friend and associate, stereotypical good old boy Grady Wilson, got in on the act using The Bridge, a "country-rock gospel band," to warm up the youth night audience at the Pee Dee Area Crusade in South Carolina.55 Graham himself continued to laud the new spiritual awakening in his crusades in Birmingham, Alabama; Charlotte; and Cleveland. He pointed to Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, where youth were gathering "by the hundreds," and First Baptist Church in Houston, "jammed with young people." Graham talked approvingly

51. Ibid., pp. 33-34. 52. Ibid., pp. 64, 154, 156-157. 53. 1972 Decision articles with a Jesus Movement connection: Linda Raney, "Bible Rap," February 1972, 6; Rick Carreno, "Overdose," March 1972, 3; Pam Norman, "Sweet Song of Salvation," September 1972, 3, 13; "Fallout From Explo," September 1972, 8-9. 54. Advertisement for Grason products, ChristianLife, June 1972,107-110. 55. "Youth Dampened But Enthusiastic," Florence (South Carolina) News, 23 April 1972, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel #34 (March-October 1972), BGC Archives.

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions IDEA OF AN EVANGELICALYOUTH CULTURE 101 of "the First Baptist Church of Hollywood [which] has an 8:30 service [where] they allow only the long-haired people to come in. They are all there in their blue jeans and they have their own service."56 He tried to make it clear to the press, however, that the real movement was also taking place among "normal" church youth and not just among born-again hippies. He lamented that the news media seemed to be concentrating on the more spectacular counterculture element because it was more "newsy for a group of 'so-called freaks' to be gathered together in a church sitting around on the floor than for a group of normal people meeting in the accepted fashion."57 On the Graham home front, however, the revival was not going nearly as well. Franklin, majoring in aviation mechanics, had been expelled from LeToureau College in May 1972. An airplane trip to Atlanta with Franklin at the controls and a young woman by his side had been delayed by bad weather on the return trip to Longview. Although Franklin and his friend insisted nothing untoward had happened in an overnight stop at the tiny airport in Monroe, Louisi- ana, the incident was of the ilk that the school's administration could not tolerate. Strangely enough, he had actually been trying to toe the line at school, influenced by a summer job with BGEA tours to the Middle East and a fall 1971 sojourn working at a missionary hospital in Lebanon. While his love of cigarettes was unabated and a new fond- ness for scotch had emerged, Franklin had been genuinely impressed by the selfless devotion of the . He left Texas for home, recalling that "for the first time" in his life he felt "a deep, shameful pain." Upon his return, neither of his parents mentioned the incident or the expulsion. That summer he rejoined the BGEA tours with plans to attend a nearby junior college in the fall.58 While weathering Franklin's struggles toward maturity, Graham's greatest show of support for the Jesus Revolution in 1972 was aimed at the core constituency of young people being reached by the main- stream churches and evangelical parachurch organizations. In accept- ing the position of Honorary Chairman for Explo '72, Graham threw his support behind Campus Crusade for Christ chairman Bill Bright's ambitious attempt to pull off an evangelical Woodstock. Slated for Dallas in June, Bright envisioned a gathering of at least 100,000 young people, each of whom, after receiving instruction on evangelism,

56. "Today's Q & A: Billy Graham." 57. "Graham Trying to Bridge Generation Gap." 58. Franklin Graham, Rebel With a Cause, pp. 63-108; Martin, Prophet With Honor, p. 453. Although mentioned only briefly, Franklin Graham is tacitly assumed as inspiration for 's devotional collection of prose and poetry Prodigals and Those Who Love Them (Colorado Springs: Publishing, 1991).

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 102 CHURCH HISTORY would return home and recruit five others for regional "Operation Penetration" seminars. It was hoped this would result in the evangeli- zation of the entire United States by 1976, and the entire world by 1980. Graham gave an extra credibility to the enterprise from the start and was prominently featured in a promotional film about the coming conference that Campus Crusade distributed across the country.59 In June Graham headed for Dallas and his duties with Explo '72. At the first gathering of 2,000 Explo staff, Graham "reported for duty," making it known that he was available throughout the week for whatever they wanted him to do. The subsequent turnout of "only" seventy-five to eighty thousand official registrants may have been a mild disappointment for Explo organizers. However, "Godstock" took center stage in Dallas. The onslaught of evangelical "straights" and "far-outs," with its massive rallies, attendant traffic jams, and invasion of area neighborhoods by "Four Spiritual Laws"-toting teams of youth, captured the city's attention for more than a week. Amid all the exuberant chaos, Billy Graham was nearly omnipresent. Explo officials later termed his help invaluable, not only in being fodder for the press but also by making a series of unscheduled appearances and serving as a calming influence on the boisterous, chanting, Jesus-cheering youth during the nightly Cotton Bowl rallies.60 Graham even found time for some personal evangelism during the extravaganza, popping up unexpectedly in downtown Dallas, greet- ing shoppers and businessmen and passing out Jesus stickers during the lunch hour. One long-haired youth handed Graham a peace symbol in exchange. The evangelist responded by holding up two fingers of one hand and one on the other: "That means peace-One Way, through Jesus Christ."61 On the final day of the conference, Campus Crusade pulled out all the stops for a day-long music festival and final rally. In a grassy area near a freeway, 180,000 people sat in blistering heat listening to Larry Norman, Love Song, Reba Rambo, the Children of Truth, Randy

59. In Our Generation:Explo '72 OfficialProgram (San Bernardino, Calif.: Campus Crusade for Christ, 1972), pp. 16-19, collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 49, folder 11, BGC Archives; Paul Eshelman with Norman Rohrer, The Explo Story: A Plan to Change the World (Glendale, Calif.: Regal Books, 1972), p. 102. Handled by 200 film agents, more than 1,000 copies of the promotional film "Explo '72" were sent out to churches and youth groups in the year before the event. 60. Video, "Explo '72: Show # 1," Arrowhead Productions, Campus Crusade for Christ, 1972; "A'Religious Woodstock' Draws 75,000," New YorkTimes, 16 June 1971, pp. 1, 19; "'Godstock' in Big D," Christianity Today,7 July 1972, 31-32; Eshelman, Explo Story, pp. 59-65; Pollock, Billy Graham,Evangelist, p. 256. 61. "Graham Takes Explo to Streets," Dallas Morning News, 13 June 1972, collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 9, folder 11, BGC Archives.

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Matthews, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash with the Carter Family and the Statler Brothers. Billy Graham was the coup de . Speak- ing to the assembled multitude, he led them in reciting John 3:16 and urged them, Put your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee. When you do you'll have a supernatural power to put your hand in the hand of a person of another race. You have a new love in your heart that will drive you to do something about poverty, the ecology question, the racial tension, the family problems and, most of all to do something about your own life.62 According to Graham's house biographer John Pollock, the experi- ences of Explo '72 had a tangible effect on the direction of BGEA programs for 1973. In connection with the Upper Midwest Crusade campaign (St. Paul, Minn.), Graham's team organized "Yes '73," a four-day youth evangelism seminar that attracted 2,400 college stu- dents. Later that summer a British version, "Spre-e '73," attracted 12,000 young people for its regular sessions and a crowd of 30,000 at a closing rally at Wembley Stadium that featured Johnny Cash and Cliff Richard. In other ways the BGEA continued to boost youth themes, as in the release of World-Wide Pictures' feature "A Time to Run" in 1973.63 But as the 1970s moved forward, it was clear that Billy Graham's attention gradually turned elsewhere. There appear to be many likely reasons for this turn of events. Perhaps Graham was satisfied that the worst of the tremors that shook the U.S. during the 1960s were in remission. The student radical movement was dead by the mid-1970s and campuses were quieter. Drugs no longer seemed to be quite so much the rage. And the Jesus revolution had, after all, signaled a positive trend in the younger generation's spiritual temperature. In his own personal world, Franklin Graham had settled down, successfully completing two years of study at nearby Montreat-Anderson College. More importantly, in July 1974 the evangelist's son had his own religious conversion experience. The following fall he married a local woman and headed off to Colorado with his new bride-and without

62. "Graham Speaks at Final Rally," Dallas Morning News, 18 June 1972, collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 49, folder 11, BGC Archives; Eshelman, Explo Story, pp. 90-93. 63. "Yes '73 Youth Evangelism Seminar" official brochure, collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 36, folder 12; press release, BGEA Team Office, 6 September 1973, collection 345, box 36, folder 14, BGC Archives; Pollock, Billy Graham, Evangelist, pp. 256-260. Publicity for the film pushed the life-changing force of the Gospel in co-star Randy Bullock's life, describing him before coming to Christ as absorbed by "politically radical activism during his college life, which included a stay in Greenwich Village, contacts with the SDS .. . and a consuming intention to annihilate the military/industrial complex" (CrusadeNews, "Time To Run" [Upper Midwest Crusade (St. Paul, Minn.)], 21 July 1973, collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 35, folder 15, BGC Archives).

This content downloaded from 66.31.143.47 on Wed, 22 Oct 2014 16:53:12 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 104 CHURCH HISTORY his cigarettes-for a year of study at Raven's Crest, a Bible school in Estes Park. Within a few years he was intimately involved in running Samaritan's Purse, an evangelical relief agency.64 In terms of Graham's personal ministry there were also many new concerns. His connec- tions with his friend Richard Nixon, and the criticism that both of them received during the days of Watergate, surely proved to be a drag on his time and energy.65 On a more positive note, massive undertakings like his meetings in South Korea, at Eurofest, at the Lausanne Confer- ence on Evangelism and its spin-offs, and the first glimmerings of an opening for his ministry behind the Iron Curtain consumed his, and the BGEA's, efforts. By the late 1970s, Billy Graham's heavy concentra- tion on youth had clearly passed. In terms of national cognizance, the Jesus Movement that Graham so eagerly backed and highlighted in his own ministry in 1971 and 1972 seemingly disappeared as fast as it first appeared. With the exception of a short burst of interest connected to Explo '72, the national media had stopped paying attention to it by 1972.66However, despite a paucity of publicity, the Jesus People long outlived the secular hippie counterculture that had spawned it. Indeed, the Jesus Person "style" continued to prosper as a distinct evangelical youth culture with concerts, coffeehouses, newspapers, bumper stickers, crosses, and Bible studies a ubiquitous feature of the evangelical landscape well into the late 1970s.67

64. Franklin Graham, Rebel With a Cause, pp. 115-153; Martin, ProphetWith Honor, p. 453. 65. For a good look at Graham's relationship with Nixon see Martin, Prophet With Honor, especially pp. 269-283, 350-371, 391-399, and 420-435. 66. While still a major topic in the religious press, the Jesus Movement by 1972 was old news to the national secular press, except for an occasional article on the continuing adven- tures of the Children of God (for example see Lawrence Fellows, "Jesus People Think They Have a Fertile Field in West Germany," New YorkTimes, 24 February 1972, p. 2; and n.a., "A Day in the Life of the Children of God," U.S. News & WorldReport, 20 March 1972, 65). One of the few articles about the larger movement in a national magazine was Peter Maurin, "Children of Yearning: Meditations on the Jesus Movement," SaturdayReview, 6 May 1972, 58-63. 67. This was certainly evident to local journalists in southern California (See, for example, Russell Chandler, "Jesus Movement Still Going Strong," Los Angeles Times, 13 December 1975, p. 34; and n.a., "60s Jesus People Reshape Evangelical Church," Los Angeles Herald-Examiner,12 August 1978, p. A7). Issues of Cornerstone,the house organ of the Chicago-based Jesus People U.S.A. (JPUSA), continued to list a large number of Chris- tian coffeehouses and Jesus people discipleship groups well into the late 1970s. JPUSA, a remnant of the Jesus Movement, continues to go strong in its commune in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago (see Timothy Jones, "Jesus' People," Christianity Today, 14 September 1992, 20-25). Cornerstone-glitzier and more polished now-has earned a reputation for well-researched exposes of problems in the evangelical community (see for example its report on the fraudulent career of Christian comedian and alleged ex-Satanist Mike Warnke by John Trott and Mike Hertenstein, "Selling Satan: The Tragic History of Mike Wamke," Cornerstone21, no. 98 [1992], 7-19, 30, 38).

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Undoubtedly, Graham's favorable comments and approving expo- sure gave the movement a boost within the evangelical subculture. His support and approach, as in other areas, certainly provided a visible model for evangelical pastors and youth workers on how to proceed with the phenomenon. To the church youth who read or heard his statements, who attended crusades, or who had been present at Explo, his tolerant stance was the ultimate badge of approval to wave before disapproving or hesitant parents. This sentiment was reflected in a letter from Chris Brunson of Rockford, , who wrote to a local paper in February 1972 about "Christian Rock." Commenting on Jesus Christ Superstar, he bolstered his argument by protesting that "Billy Graham even said it was good because it got teenagers to think about Christ." For Brunson and other evangelical teens who saw the Jesus People as proof that one "could be a hippie and a Christian," Graham was a prestigious backup for their position.68 For the long term, in countenancing the union of evangelical youth with the popular style of the Jesus People, Graham gave his blessing to a manner of coping with American youth culture that became charac- teristic of evangelicalism in the late twentieth century. By the 1990s, evangelical youth cultures that paralleled "the world" were an as- sumed part of the subculture's landscape and proliferated in as many guises as their secular counterparts. While still not accepted by some sectors of the evangelical community, the strategy took hold, backed by a continually growing "Contemporary Christian Music" industry and marketing infrastructure.69 The groundwork for this change was laid in the late 1960s and early 1970s by the success of the Jesus

68. Graham certainly had major reservations about the blasphemies of "Superstar" but thought it was at least raising the question of the day, "Jesus Christ, Superstar, do You think You are what they say You are?" (Graham, "Jesus Christ, Superstar," 13 June 1971, Greater Chicago Crusade, collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 30, folder 27, BGC Archives). Allowing additional insight into the thought patterns of evangelical youth during this period, Chris Brunson wrote: "We saw [Chicago-based Southern Baptist youth speaker] Sammy Tippit in the Baptist Church. He was real good, I thought. He and his friends had long hair, yet they were dedicated to Christ. Sammy had a great singing group with him, and they sang some groovy songs they had composed. He really got to me. Sammy proved once and for all you can be a hippie and still be a Christian" (Letter to the editor from Chris Brunson, Rockford(Illinois) Star, 28 February 1972, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel #34 [March-October 1972], BGC Archives). 69. See Paul Baker, ContemporaryChristian Music: Where It Came From, What It Is, WhereIt's Going (Westchester, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1985); despite being written from a rather fan-oriented perspective, Baker's study is nonetheless a decent overview of the transfor- mation of "Jesus Rock" into "Contemporary Christian Music." However, the pace of change, diversification, and streamlining in "CCM" has been frenetic: much has hap- pened since the publication of Baker's book. See evangelical publications like CCM Magazine for recent developments and a glimpse at the proliferation of evangelical youth cultures associated with various styles of popular music.

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Movement. The Jesus People did disappear as a movement, but they were not killed off by a lack of interest. It is more accurate to say that they were gradually replaced as a new cohort of young people, infatuated by the evolution of new musical styles and affected by the ever-increasing segmentation of the youth market and the subcultures and group identifications that accompanied these trends, took their place. It is tempting to speculate what might have occurred had someone as visible and important in evangelical circles as Billy Graham actively led a fight against the "Jesus People," their music, worship styles, and relational stance to the larger youth culture. Surely, such a crusade would have slowed the development of the evangelical youth culture that evolved in the 1970s and 1980s. The effect may, however, have been even more portentous for evangelicalism, whose resurgence- culturally and politically as well as in raw numbers-became a major fact of life on the American scene during the 1970s. Without the welcoming arms of Billy Graham and other evangelical leaders, there would have been no bridge "back" for thousands of refugees from the counterculture-just another disillusioning hassle and prolonged battle with another facet of the Establishment. For great numbers of evangeli- cal youth caught in the gap between the allures of the larger youth culture and the strictures and loyalties of their evangelical families, a ringing condemnation of the Jesus Movement from the likes of Billy Graham might have removed the middle ground that allowed them to tiptoe successfully through the adolescent mine fields of culture and identity. Given the general tenor of the times, it is not improbable to suggest that the loyalty of a generation of evangelical young people was at stake. With this in mind, Billy Graham's irenic inclination to embrace the Jesus People and implicit tolerance of an evangelical equivalent to the larger youth culture looms surprisingly large in the resurgence and future direction of American evangelicalism.

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