Was the hippie movement, in part, a Christian movement?

[Smith_3]

The more I think about it the more it makes sense: The hippie movement came the closest that any movement in the United States has ever, to living by the spirit of the New Testament. One can even find lots of biblical references in the music of the sixties and seventies.

I wonder how people who were actually there see this. I was born much later so I couldn't possibly know first hand.

[skooooo]

1. Yes, there were the "Jesus Freaks..."

And a edition of the bible written for young people called "The Word." That whole movement was pretty big I think '69 - 72 when I was in early elementary school, but I still remember it.

Here's a wikipedia entry for it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_freak

[eShirl]

8. yes

they make a brief appearance in Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" (copyright 1971)


Jesus freaks out in the street
Handing tickets out for God

[johnaries]

19. I was a Jesus freak. We were separate from the hippies.

Very much influenced by the hippy movement, but hippies were into transcendentalism mostly. Our drug was prayng. And when a group of people get together and concentrate together strongly, it can be just like a drug. We actually got "high".

[Hekate]

38. The Pagans rediscovered that too, as Starhawk writes in her earliest book, Spiral Dance. nt

[gatorboy]

2. More of a deodorant movement.

[midnight]

26. Not sure about what you mean, but it does make me laugh.

[whistle]

3. Can you elaborate some more on this, specific examples, etc.

[Smith_3]

24. a small example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_turn_turn

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/byrds/turn+turn+turn_20026419.html

[whistle]

55. I never thought of Pete Seeger as a "Hippie", a political activist and communist yes

.... a folk artist. Did Seeger ever call himself a Hippie?
<snip>
Pete Seeger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Peter Seeger (born May 3, 1919), better known as Pete Seeger, is a folk singer, political activist, and a key figure in the mid-20th century American folk music revival. As a member of the Weavers, he had a string of hits, including a 1949 recording of Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" that topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950.<1> However, his career as a mainstream performer was seriously curtailed by the Second Red Scare: he came under severe attack as a former member of the Communist Party of the United States of America. Later, he re-emerged on the public scene as a pioneer of protest music in the late 1950s and the 1960s.

He is perhaps best known today as the author or co-author of the songs "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?", "If I Had a Hammer (The Hammer Song)", and "Turn, Turn, Turn!", which have been recorded by many artists both in and outside the folk revival movement and are still sung throughout the world. "Flowers" was a hit recording for The Kingston Trio (1962), Marlene Dietrich, who recorded it in English, German and French (1962), and Johnny Rivers (1965). "If I Had a Hammer" was a hit for Peter, Paul & Mary (1962) and Trini Lopez (1963), while The Byrds popularized "Turn, Turn, Turn!" in the mid-1960s. Seeger is also widely credited with popularizing the traditional song "We Shall Overcome", which was recorded by Joan Baez and many other singer-activists, and became the publicly perceived anthem of the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement soon after musicologist Guy Carawan introduced it at the founding meeting of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.
<MORE>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Seeger

As for Hippies well:

hippies
flower people: a youth subculture (mostly from the middle class) originating in San Francisco in the 1960s; advocated universal love and peace and ...

[unpossibles]

4. not in my opinion

it was an attempt to be spiritual, but not necessarily Christian any more than being Zen or Buddhist or New Age or whatever.

It used the language of Christianity to speak to the masses - a largely Christian audience - to see the common ground, that things like Love and Forgiveness can unite people.

Unfortunately, it failed in many ways to do that.

[skooooo]

7. Hah!

you forget teh Jesus Freaks then!

From wikipedia:

Jesus freak, while initially a pejorative term for those involved in the Jesus movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, was quickly embraced by them and soon broadened to describe a Christian subculture throughout the hippie and back-to-the-land movements that focused on universal love and pacifism, and relished the radical nature of Jesus' message. Jesus freaks often carried and distributed copies of the "Good News for Modern Man", a 1966 translation that fit the bill by including only the New Testament, and by being in modern English.

The term Jesus freak, having lost ties to its roots, is used today variously as a pejorative epithet against Christians in general, and by some Christian youth as a positive term to let others know that they are not ashamed of their beliefs.

Perhaps its most well-known usage was in the lyrics of Elton John's song "Tiny Dancer" ("Jesus freaks, out in the street, handing tickets out for God," referring to gospel tracts), but it has also appeared in Felt's 1986 single "Ballad of the Band." The term has recently been used frequently by Ted Turner and Howard Stern, referring mainly to fundamentalists. Another use of the phrase was in Kevin Michael's song "We All Want The Same Thing": "DJs in the club, Jesus Freaks and thugs, we all want the same thing". Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne) in "Under the Sun" also used the phrase: "I don't need no Jesus Freak to tell me what it's all about".

[unpossibles]

12. oh, I definitely agree there were Jesus Freaks (I know some...)

but overall, I think they were not a huge part of the movement, although maybe I am wrong.

[skooooo]

17. I think it made Christianity..

...more up-to-date and hip for a lot of teenagers, even if they weren't part of the "hippie" movement. All the lines get kind of blurred after a while I guess.

[Iris]

18. Isn't that where the fish thing started?

[skooooo]

25. You mean the symbol?

No, that's been around for thousands of years..as long as Christianity.

[Iris]

28. Yes, I mean the symbol. And I know it's been around for 1000's of years, but I think it gained

popularity in the 70s.

[skooooo]

31. Probably...yes..

It fits in with the whole "Age of Aquarius" theme.

[alfredo]

33. The fish symbol is very old, dating back to 1st Century AD.

The Peace sign is from the semaphore sign for N D, nuclear disarmament.

[niyad]

43. the "fish symbol" otherwise known as ichthys

Ichthys (Greek: ἰχθύς, capitalized ΙΧΘΥΣ; also transliterated and Latinized as ichthys, icthus, ichthus or ikhthus; ichthus), is the Ancient and Classical Greek word for "fish." In English it refers to a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs, the ends of the right side extending beyond the meeting point so as to resemble the profile of a fish, said to have been used by early Christians as a secret symbol<1> and now known colloquially as the "sign of the fish" or the "Jesus fish."<2>
Contents
1 History
1.1 Ichthus as a Christian symbol
1.1.1 Symbolic meaning
1.1.2 Fish in the Gospels
1.1.3 The early Christian church
1.2 Pre-Christian hypothesis
2 Revival and adaptations of the symbol
2.1 The Fish Mission
2.2 The bumper sticker
2.3 Ichthys in popular culture
3 Parodies of the ichthys symbol
4 References
5 See also
6 External links
History

Ichthus as a Christian symbol
Symbolic meaning


An early circular ichthys symbol, created by combining the Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ, Ephesus.
The use of the Ichthys symbol by early Christians appears to date from the end of the 1st century AD. Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ, Greek for fish) is an acronym, a word formed from the first letters of several words. It compiles to "Jesus Christ God's Son Saviour", in ancient Greek "Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ"
Iota is the first letter of Iesous (Ἰησοῦς), Greek for Jesus.
Chi is the first letter of Christos (Χριστóς), Greek for "anointed".
Theta is the first letter of Theou (Θεοῦ), that means "God's", genitive case of Θεóς "God".
Upsilon is the first letter of Huios (Υἱός), Greek for Son.
Sigma is the first letter of Soter (Σωτήρ), Greek for Saviour.
Historically, twentieth century use of the ichthys motif is an adaptation based on an Early Christian symbol which included a small cross for the eye or the Greek letters "ΙΧΘΥΣ". Catholic theology has elaborated on the five words of the acronym into the "Jesus prayer", or, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
An ancient adaptation of ichthus is a wheel which contains the letters ΙΧΘΥΣ superimposed such that the result resembles an eight-spoked wheel.
Within astrology, the symbol of the fish can also have the double meaning of the sign of Pisces. According to some astrological theorists, Jesus Christ represents the central figure of the Age of Pisces, which is now giving way to the Age of Aquarius. The Ages go backwards through the signs of the Zodiac. Prior to the birth of Christ there was the Age of Aries and before that Taurus and so on. Each Age lasts approximately 2,000 years.

. . . . .

Ihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichthys

[Iris]

45. yes, but what I was asking is didn't it become popular AGAIN as a symbol in the 70s?

I remember it vaguely as I was a child in the 70s. I was affected enough by the hippie movement to be dismayed to see that symbol re-emerge as a symbol for mega churches and the Christian right.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. In a way. I remember Jesus being seen as one of "us", a socialist

outlet as Woody Guthrie put it. Loving your brother and sister, eschewing materialism and the love of money, back to nature, peace not war. Jesus was a real hip dude.

[NightWatcher]

6. a long haired socialist who helped the poor and hung out with 12 guys with no jobs

Jesus was a hippie.

[Indenturedebtor]

10. Most major world religions revolve around the teachings of hippies

Jesus himself was admonishing Jews for getting away from their spiritual righteousness.

Universal truth doesn't care what language you use or who speaks it.

[yella_dawg]

9. More of a Pagan movement, really.

The spirituality was a bit too earthy to fit into Christianity.

[eShirl]

14. no, it was a liberal Christian movement

I remember them

[eShirl]

11. wikipedia entry: "Jesus freak"

Jesus freak, while initially a pejorative term for those involved in the Jesus movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, was quickly embraced by them and soon broadened to describe a Christian subculture throughout the hippie and back-to-the-land movements that focused on universal love and pacifism, and relished the radical nature of Jesus' message. Jesus freaks often carried and distributed copies of the "Good News for Modern Man", a 1966 translation that fit the bill by including only the New Testament, and by being in modern English.


more

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_freak

[skooooo]

32. There's also an entry under "Jesus Movement"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_movement

The Jesus movement was the major Christian element within the hippie counterculture, or, conversely, the major hippie element within some strands of Protestantism. Members of the movement are called Jesus people, or Jesus freaks. The movement arose on the West Coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and spread primarily through North America and Europe, before dying out by the early 1980s. The Jesus movement left a legacy of various denominations and other Christian organizations, and had an impact on both the development of the contemporary Christian right and the Christian left, as well as Jesus music, which greatly influenced contemporary Christian music. The movement itself helped to create various musical subgenres such as Christian rock and Christian metal.

[Oregone]

13. Not at all...it was counter culture in the name of counter-culture (not Christ)

It could of been similar to the movement of Jesus (and spawned by similar events and forces that were rebelled against), but it wasn't a manifestation of Christianity.

People we not conforming to Christianity. People were rebelling against society, social structure, parents, authority, capitalism. Some were trying to pursue liberalism and marxism, while others were lazy and completely distorted that concept (and used it as an excuse for being non-productive). Some people were merely followers conforming to the counter-culture due to its youth appeal (it was a movement after all). Some of it was even further developed as soon as industry and commerce figured out how to capitalize and profit off of the movement. It wasn't completely pure in itself, and all centered around "love". That is naive.

[skooooo]

22. hmmm

Well Jesus is pretty counterculture, so I'm not sure I follow what you're saying here.

[Oregone]

36. Its simple...

What I am saying that Jesus was as important to the 60's as he was to Siddhartha's movement.

All 3 revolutions really happened independent of each other. They all happened because conditions were similar in all situations, and a large demographic felt an urgency to rebel against the materialism and structure of the culture.

I think people play roles according to where they are in a society, and where that society is in development. I think such roles are very innate to some people (if there wasn't a Jesus, there would of been someone else--or a lot of others).

Jesus rebelled because of the same reasons people in the 60's rebelled. People in the 60's did not rebel because of Jesus.

[Warpy]

15. More Asian than Christian

with elements of Hindu, Tao, and Buddhist philosophies. That it coincided with the best in the New Testament is only because the good stuff is the same in all religions.

The bible forms our mythic base in the west and that's why there were a lot of quotes from it. There were also quotes from the Bhagavad Gita and other texts, but not all hippies were so literate.

Acid did drive more than a few into old time Christian religion as peaking was a pretty scary experience for quite a few people. Those people sought comfort in the certainty of fundamentalism.

The rest branched out into just about everything else.

[arendt]

16. My recollection is that the hippies came first, the jesus freaks about five years later...

I distinctly remember the hippie stuff from pre-1967 onward.

But, the first jesus freaks I encountered were in about 1972 or 3.

And, before you blame my environment; I was in Catholic schools at the former time and non-Catholic at the latter.


IIRC, I heard about Moonies before I heard about jesus freaks. My experience was that the jesus freaks were an orchestrated reaction to the more free-spirited hippies. Jesus freaks always seemed plastic, Nixon-like, Jehovah Witness like glassy-eyed, fundamentalist hypnotized. They creeped me out from the first.

Hippies I got along with fine.

arendt

[frogcycle]

20. no

And I WAS there.

"Jesus freaks" indeed DID exist. They weren't the hippie movement.

"Hippies" were of various predilections, to be sure, and some may have retained some traces of a religious upbringing. But free love, drugs, rock music, and opposing the war were the big interests, not necessarily in that order. Generally opposing "the establishment" whenever it wanted to limit free love, drugs, or rock music, or send you to war was the overriding sentiment. Praising Jesus didn't have much to do with that.

"Make Love, Not War", "Give Peace a Chance", "Hell No, I Won't Go" were more popular slogans than, say, "Onward Christian Soldiers."

[Speck Tater]

21. More of an "Age of Aquarius" post-Christian thing. IMHO.

I was there, and I don't recall anything like Christian dogma showing up. There was always Benjamin Creme and his return of the Christ/Buddha esoteric nonsense that a lot of people bought into, but that was decidedly not Christian in any traditional sense of the word.

[Stinky The Clown]

23. Overall ...... nope

Some elements of 'religion', but not Christian, per se.

There was a religious element active then, but it was pretty much around the edges. Never in mainstream hippidom.

[Hekate]

27. It was broadly spiritual, w/ Asian, Christian & Pagan streams. American history is full of communes

The 60s were full of seekers after spiritual enlightenment, and some found it in Christ, some in Krishna, some in Native American ways, some in the God & Goddess. The Goddess movement/feminist spirituality grew out of it as well. A lot has been written about that aspect of the 1960s, bibliography available here if interested.

What's also important to understand, though, is that our American history has been replete with religious communes and utopian idealists right back to the beginning. The Oneida group was one, the Quakers another. In a very real sense it's who we are, and the 1960s were simply (complexly) the latest version.

Hekate

[spoony]

35. Sounds beautiful

Seekers. Idealists. I would like to hear any book suggestions you have on the topic(s).

[skooooo]

37. Read Herman Hesse...

Siddhartha
Steppenwolf

But my favorite books of his was Demien.

[spoony]

46. I'll check him out, thanks. Is it fiction or non?

[skooooo]

48. Fiction. Everyone read..

...Hesse in the 60s. Again, it was a little before my time, but I had older siblings. Lots of mysticism and examination of society in his books. Here are some links to Amazon:

Narcissus and Goldmund:
http://www.amazon.com/Narcissus-Goldmund-Novel-Hermann-Hesse/dp/0312421672/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214337527&sr=8-3


Siddhartha:
http://www.amazon.com/Siddhartha-Hermann-Hesse/dp/0553208845/ref=pd_sim_b_3


Steppenwolf:
http://www.amazon.com/Steppenwolf-Novel-Hermann-Hesse/dp/B000A6U2HU/ref=pd_sim_b_2


Hesse was a youth during WWI, so there is a lot of anti-war sentiment in his novels.

[LanternWaste]

29. With your qualifier 'in part'-- then I believe it was...

With your qualifier 'in part'-- then I believe it was. However, since the movement had no one central theme or agenda, it's difficult to attribute almost anything to The Hippie Movement.

But, there was a definite pattern of searching-- for higher meanings, for truths, for answers, etc. And although that could be said of any generation coming of age, I think the 60's generation opened themselves up to many more possibilities and opportunities than prior or later generations.

And I think that one of these paths of exploration was Spirituality, and sometimes that Spirituality would manifest itself by use of the New Testament teachings and parables.

I would hazard that it became one of the most advertised aspects of the movement just prior to its swan song. In addition to The Word, musicals were coming out that also explored the New Testament through newer perspectives-- Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar immediately come to mind.

And as much as I love watching Godspell (for a number of reason), I certainly don't think any studio today would touch that script with a ten foot pole-- way to liberal for the Evangelical, and way too Christian for the secularites. Half the country would be screaming for the heads of the actors/directors/writers on a pole if something like that were produced in the here and now.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

30. You could as easily say it was, in part, a Buddhist movement.

Or, Judaic, or Muslim, or Taoist.

Most of the major religions can embrace similar ideals about love, poverty, spirituality, humility.

Having lived through the '60s as a young person, I was often called a "Hippie", but I never really considered myself a part of any sort of "Hippie movement". Just a guy who questioned the status-quo in all it's guises.

My nickname, in the marines, was "Beatnik" because I liked Jazz and Folk music. If, I'd been stupid enough to reenlist, it would probably have been changed to "Hippie".

[flakey_foont]

34. as much pagan as it was Christian

there was probably as much influence of Eastern spirituality as there was Christian, as well as pagan, Native American, ...I didn't think there was all that much of a Christain element at all until later when many folks got scared by bad drug experiences and fled to the safety and security of Christianity

[G_j]

39. May The Baby Jesus Shut Your Mouth & Open Your Mind

a popular saying.

Jesus was a popular mentor and teacher, right along side all the rest of the "spiritual" teachers.

[Indenturedebtor]

40. Hmmmm "Imagine no religion..." n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

41. It was a spiritual movement

with Christian elements (Jesus freaks). But it was much more. The Dances of Universal Peace came out of San Francisco during the mid-Sixties, after God told Sufi Samuel L. Lewis he was to be the spiritual leader of the hippies. Sufism, Hinduism, Paganism, and other mystical paths gained lots of interest at this time as well. But the concepts behind all of them are based on the same thing: We are all one, we should be kind to each other. Much like the Commandments of Jesus.

[Arkansas Granny]

42. As someone who was not involved, but merely on the sidelines, this seems

to be as good an answer as any I've seen:

The hippy movement was not as much about having long hair, as it was about the attitude, and not trusting the government. It was during the Vietnam war, when mostly poor American men were being drafted and sent to fight a war, based on a lie. At the time, many of them were coming home in boxes. Being a hippy ment questioning authority, and it's power. It was about peace, and not wanting to hurt others. The long hair was out of rebilion. It was used to send a statment that you won't be told how to look, or live. There are still millions of us whom are hippies, only without our long hair.

Besides the peace movement, being a hippie was also about rejecting middle-class materialism and the whole military-industrial complex in favor of a more spiritual, more environmentally conscious approach. Sometimes hippies signaled that rejection of middle America's money-grubbing ways by not bathing for weeks on end, or using illegal drugs, especially marijuana. And yes, some of those same people are the most conservative, driven capitalists now.

It was a peaceful moment in history when alot of people felt the need to come together with thoughts, ideas, and emotions. It was particularly in the music where the beauty of it all joined together millions of people who needed to free themselves from the everyday repetition that seemed to be misdirected. Hippies looked closely at life tried to enjoy the moment.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_Hippie_Movement

There were some hippies who were very religious and sometimes referred to as "Jesus freaks", many studied the Eastern religions and some had no interest in religion at all.

[Dogtown]

44. Some xians

mostly in several categories:

Opportunists cashing in on the popular appeal of the Hippie movement.

(for example; Xians trying to subvert "JC Superstar" as xian-supportive, where-as most hippies thought of JC as nothing more nor less than Buddha or any other "spiritual" leader.)

Ex-hippies recruited to the xian faith through "rehab".

Some few left-leaning xians who aspired to some of the same ideals.

True, actual hippies were pretty rare, and tended to congregate. What was observed by most straights were hippies-on-excursion or weekend warriors trying to be hip.

Christians were not an important part of the movement, if they were ever more than fellow-travelers.

[MiniMe]

47. Yeah, only its worshipping Mary Jane instead of the Virgin Mary

[lilymidnite]

49. I was a Jesus Freak

Beginning in late 1971. We met in the park, even through the coldest and snowiest part of winter.

As I recall, it didn't take long for the tight-assed fundie aspect start to show up (Campus Crusade for Christ people infiltrating, etc.) I left in 1974.

I've actually come to the conclusion that there is something about Christianity that tends to invite extremism.

[BrotherBuzz]

50. I believe the west coast embraced eastern religions more

We saw a increased interest in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, and what not back then. Jesus Freaks were very strange to me. The stuff they were spouting didn't make any sense. I grew up in a UCC environment and knew nothing of the end times these freaks were trying to pitch.

Zen Buddhism was a lot more appealing to my group of peers. My youth group was assisted by a Zen priest that was transitioning to an Episcopal seminary (talk about bizarre). I learned a lot from him during his stay with us. Heck, one of our more influential church members even gave a substantial chunk of land to the Zen people, the property was developed into Green Gulch Farm Zen Center, a super nice place to visit. The rest of the land, excluding the house and Eagle retreat on top of the hill that George retained for our use, became part of GGNRA (Golden Gate National Recreational Area).

[Adelante]

51. No, I wouldn't say so

There was a spiritual element to it, but not committed to any one religion, and for many, it was sort of beyond religion.

[spanone]

52. no not at all...it was spiritual but not religion based...i know, i was there.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

53. Certainly more Christian than the people they rebelled against.

:shrug:

[skip fox]

54. There were certainly religious movements related to the growth of the Hippie movement, but

they were not central. Activist Catholocism was the most obvious for their stance against oppression in South American and against the war.

I was in Chicago in 1968 working for Mobilization Housing (finding people places to stay) during the Demmocratic Convention. We often had church buses coming in with a number of church members coming in (and had to find sleeping spaces for all thse people . . . so their coming is easy top remember 40 years later).

But most hippies didn't go to church, would not have called themselves religious in a conventional sense, had morals that did not agree with standard religious/cultural stated practice, and were against authority, even the church's.

We respected the religious and shared demonstration space and venues, but we were not religious.

It's harder to speak for those of us who remain committed to most of the same ideals and still are identified as hippies concerning religion. I wasn't conventionally religious then and I'm not religious even by most unconventional terms now.