The 1960’s were a turbulent time in America. I was there.
Though I was quite young for the first part of the 60’s (born in 1960) I well remember how that era changed people and our culture.
I remember how rapidly this era—with its flower power, micro-buses and peace signs—raced across the placid American landscape, uprooting the symbolic trees of society, leaving behind a tangled wreck to welcome the 1970’s.
I remember the neighbor kid Craig, a straight A student with lots of potential, whose experiments with drugs in the 70’s left him an empty hollow shell, condemned to spend his remaining days pacing back and forth in his parents’ yard in a vain search for his lost ability to reason and function. And there were a million others just like him, sharpening our desire for stories of those who overcame that era. Here are two testimonies of men who experienced the 1960’s in their teens and early twenties.
Notice the powerful lessons that they learned on the path to discovering in Jesus Christ, the Desire of their hearts. Notice also some of the similarities between the 1960’s and the mindless turbulence of 2020 — Gerry Wagoner.
Don Angle
When I was 22 (1970) I carried around Mao’s (a Chinese icon of Communism) little red book and believed much of what he said. Then I met Jesus and saw that Mao was deceived. Mao believed a lie. Many of the tenets of Communism are based on lies about the nature of man.
Back in the 60s, many boys my age died trying to stop Communism in Vietnam. It didn’t work. It wasn’t because we lacked bigger guns that we failed. We failed because we were fighting ideas with bullets.
Many others my age also integrated the ideas of Communism into their worldview during those turbulent times of riots in the streets, wars, and rumors of wars. The same rhetoric we heard shouted from communists speaking through tear gas on the oval at Ohio State University, I hear many years later in the political jargon and platform of the Democratic Party of the USA. Except now at 72, I look back at history and see where those ideas didn’t work. Just like “free love”, beads, and LSD didn’t set us free either. That too was based on lies about the nature of man, and lies always turn people into slaves.
Communism, or hybrids thereof, are taking over the USA without firing a shot. That’s because the pen is mightier than the sword. The ideas of Communism sound good on paper, to the natural ear, but they are rebuked by the Word of God “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!”
The prophet Ezekiel came with the word of God to the people of God, but they would not listen, and their nation fell to an ungodly vicious kingdom that God sent to discipline them. That narrative is true history, but it is much more than history. It is a symbolic principle that functions in every time and place—that’s why it is in the Bible. We can read this today and take it personal. If the shoe fits, wear it!
There are a few verses in Ezekiel 22:28-31, that speak to my heart about the judgement of God this morning, as I sit here weeping with those that weep in this country. As I try to find compassion for the suffering of the poor, oppressed, widows, and fatherless among us. Jesus has the answer. He always does. One word fulfills all justice—LOVE! “By this, all men will know you are following me.” “Love not in word only, but be a doer of the Word!”
Chairman Mao missed the most powerful force on the planet. Let the TRUTH set YOU FREE!
Don Angle
Mark Mirek
In June of 1967 I graduated from a small Christian high school in Chicago. By June of the following year, I returned from my first year of college at Georgia Tech as a full blown hippie. Over the following five years I attended four different universities, changed majors three times, and accidentally graduated with a degree in English Literature. Accidentally because the school lowered its graduation requirements, and I took the last course required that summer and moved to Cincinnati to be with my hippie girlfriend without waiting to receive my diploma.
For those who have never seen hippies close up in their natural environment, they rose as counter-cultural youth movement in the mid sixties. Loosely growing out of the beatnik/hipster culture of the fifties, they were primarily white college students from middle class families born out of a brew that included a poorly conceived war (Vietnam), the civil rights movement, and a rejection of traditional values (materialism, sexual mores, racial prejudice) and institutions (government, religion, education, military). On another level, sex, drugs, and rock & roll provided the hedonistic lures that drew many into the hippie boat.
Hippies were easily identified by their long hair (boys and girls), clothing (bellbottom jeans, bright colors), and language (far out, man!). Their natural habitat included universities, music festivals, parks, and political demonstrations. The preferred method of transportation was the VW bus - ideally painted in psychedelic colors. Many embraced communal living, and most rejected political ties, but a sizable group identified as Yippies (Youth International Party) dedicated to “revolution for the hell of it.”
Smaller numbers turned to the violent overthrow of the government such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the Weather Underground. There were even Christian hippies known as Jesus Freaks.
Growing up in a loving, very politically conservative family and graduating from a Christian high school, I did not look like an obvious candidate for hippiedom. In fact, the choice of a southern university was very much directed by a desire to protect me from the growing political unrest on college campuses. However, the materials for that transition were there in my rebellious nature. My exposure to a weak form of conservative Christianity had not resulted in conversion. In fact, no one ever encouraged a personal experience with Jesus, and the Bible was not studied—even in the one Bible class required at my high school.
Midyear at Georgia Tech a unique speaker was brought to the campus, Timothy Leary, a Harvard professor whose message was “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out". I had been using alcohol since my early teens and the transition to marijuana and LSD (hippie drugs of choice) was natural and both more exciting and satisfying. I was disturbed by my parents’ now obvious ‘racism’ and had no desire to die in a meaningless war. Also, I thought hippie chicks were cute.
The summer of 1968 found me rioting on the streets of Chicago at the Democratic National Convention. My father was one of the police officers on the other side of the line. That confrontation has been frequently described as a “police riot” implying that the response of the police was unprovoked. I know from actually being there that there was abundant provocation from the demonstrators. I know from group discussions at that time that there are frequently individuals planning ways to provoke a violent response from the authorities. This was no different.
The next four years found me bouncing between schools and majors and continuing my commitment to the hippie philosophy and lifestyle. Shortly after graduating and moving to Cincinnati, my girlfriend and I had a confrontation with the gospel that resulted in a true new birth experience for both of us. That story has been told before on Fulcrum7.
The change in our views was profound. And it was far more than an intellectual assent to overwhelming truth; it was a change of hearts. We were changed from lovers of self to lovers of Jesus, from rebellious to obedient, and from arrogant to humble children eager to learn. One of the most immediate changes was my attitude toward my father (and police officers in general). I was not given rose colored glasses that overlooked my dad’s weaknesses, but I now realized that he was a product of his experience who was doing the best he could with the tools he was given. I was able to love him.
The 60's saw great steps forward in the battle against racism. We must remember that the decade began with separate restrooms and drinking fountains, restaurants that refused service to people of color, and schools at every level that refused admittance to Black students. Churches were intentionally segregated, and bi-racial marriages were taboo.
The hippie culture discouraged the materialism that had a stronghold on their parents’ generation. They found new ways to measure success and happiness.
On the down side, paganism was rampant and is enjoying a resurgence today. The winds of “free love” have naturally morphed into a tidal wave of sexual diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and unmeasured confusion. Politically, chaos on the streets and distrust of the police is a reflection of earlier demonstrations. The push for socialism is forced “sharing” that borders on robbery. Rebellion is never a good foundation to build upon.
Conclusion
One experience from my hippie days still haunts me. I went with several friends to a “happening” at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A minister in his suit and tie was using a portable sound system to preach to the shaggy haired pagans. It was a cool evening, and a young man from my college shouted at the speaker, “I’m cold. Will you give me your coat?” The silence was telling. Then another hippie called out my friend, “Give me your poncho!” That poncho was a prized garment. I rarely saw him without it and doubt he had another piece of outerwear. Without hesitation, he took it off and gave it away (a little while later it was returned).
How serious are we about following Jesus? Before we wrap ourselves in a self-righteous refusal to be contaminated by the unclean masses, let’s remember that scattered among those tattooed, pierced screamers are humans who are candidates for the Kingdom of God.
Mark Mirek
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“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).