JESUS PEOPLE USAT H E E V A N G E L I C A L L E F T

CHRISTIAN ROCKA N D T H E EVOLUTION OF

S H AW N D AV I D YO U N G

E vangelical Christianity has become a powerful force in American pop-

ular media, youth culture, and the political arena. Contemporary mani-

festations of popular evangelical culture remain connected to a his-

tory commonly associated with the American counterculture of the 1960s,

specifi cally a revival of conservative Christianity among American youth.

Th ough powerful in content and scope, evangelical Christianity appears to

walk with a limp. New versions have been emerging in the United States,

redefi ning the evangelical impulse, challenging the great American trinity

of big business, big government, and big religion. And this has been accom-

plished to the sound track of the “Jesus freak.”

We have been told that evangelical Christians lean on their right side,

lumbering along, plodding their way through the so-called culture wars.

And so it has become commonplace to associate American evangelicals

with religious and political conservatism. Whether one views this group of

believers as draconian or amenable, today’s evangelical has become part of

a larger conversation, a narrative thread that begins with Jimmy Carter and

continues through the Obama years. At its best, evangelical Christianity is

known for its ability to engage culture, meeting people where they are. And

at its worst, it will go down as a juggernaut associated with televangelist

escapades and Bush-era foreign policy. Regardless of how history will recall

1 I N T R O D U C T I O N

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this version of the faithful, what will remain is the cultural synchronicity

with which evangelicals have long operated. Th ey have, in the words of the

Apostle Paul, become all things to all people. But where did this version

of Christianity begin? And how has it become so intertwined with popu-

lar media and, more specifi cally, youth culture? Although evangelicals have

engaged pop culture since the Great Awakenings, our story begins with a

group of hippies.

Th e year was 1967 and the hippie movement was at its peak. But as with

any cultural revolution, there is a culling often fueled by disenchantment.

For some, the break from the original revolution involved a deeper en-

trenchment into social radicalism. But for others, a return to some form

of tradition quelled the angst felt toward both the establishment and the

counterculture. Hoping to carve a new path, a number of hippies sought

to resolve their own crises in the historical Jesus. Th e Jesus Movement was

a signifi cant American revival that changed the way many youth experi-

enced Christianity. Disenchanted with mainline Christianity, the hippie

movement, and the New Left, young evangelicals dubbed “Jesus freaks”

sought emotional and spiritual security in the aftermath of the cultural

revolution. Hoping to spread the gospel to youth of the 1960s, a number

of conservative denominations adopted the cultural vernacular of “hip,”

pop cultural products. Jesus freaks were attracted to Pentecostalism, which

piqued hippie interest in spiritualism. And the Jesus freaks’ enthusiasm for

conservative interpretations of the Bible appeased traditional religionists.

Ultimately, conservative reclamation of popular culture was intended to res-

cue those caught in what many perceived as a decline of American values.

Th is new version of evangelical Christianity became a powerful force, mak-

ing its mark on publishing, fi lm, television, festivals, and music, continuing

the historical lineage of American evangelicalism as a dominant, complex,

growing expression of Christianity. As this movement found what many

deemed a signifi cant lacunae between U.S. culture and Christianity, “new

paradigm” churches provided Jesus freaks an institutionalized means to

counter mainline liberalism’s infectivity to deal with existential anxiety. As

membership within mainline denominations declined, conservative evan-

gelicals welcomed fresh-faced converts nursed on a mixture of revivalist

Christianity and Christian rock music, reinforcing the movement’s ability

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to combine contemporary “hip” Christianity with traditional forms of bibli-

cal conservatism.

THE JESUS MOVEMENT: A CONTINUED “SPIRIT”

Th e Jesus Movement certainly made its mark on conservative American

Christianity throughout the course of the 1970s. But the eff ects of the

movement can still be seen today in contemporary Christian aesthetics,

new paradigm churches, communes, and new, emerging versions of the

so-called Evangelical Left. Unbeknownst to scholars who once dismissed

this movement as culturally irrelevant, the paragon for earlier evangeli-

cal approaches to culture (George Whitfi eld, Charles Finney, Billy Sun-

day, and Amy Semple McPherson) continued under the new auspices

of evangelical hippies. Th ese young converts had an enormous infl uence

on the way evangelicals understood, produced, and consumed cultural

products—though some historians and sociologists have maintained that

this particular expression of evangelical Christianity was a ghost of its for-

mer self.

Th e mercurial Jesus Movement’s core ideals were preserved in Jesus

freak communities and have been celebrated in the largely Nashville-based

Christian music industry. Although the movement has often been lumped

into a larger history that associates evangelicals with the Religious Right,

a number of Jesus Movement veterans went on to challenge the dominant

paradigm of American evangelical Christianity as commonly associated

(rightly or wrongly) with Reagan- and Bush-era conservatism.

Th is book explores a post–Jesus Movement “Jesus People” commune that

does not conform to our common understanding of evangelical Christianity

(at least in the United States) or popular Christian music. Th e community

has diverged from the “cosmic” urgency that characterized early Jesus freaks.

Still, to a certain extent they hold to the principles of the original move-

ment, combining lived religion (in their model of community), evangelical

activism, and the hippie aesthetic. But despite this triumvirate—seeming

historical continuity of the puritanical—the group’s epoch is nothing short

of tattered, complex, and nebulous. To say their history is fi lled with a vast

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combination of wondrous humanitarian accolades and near-devilish mis-

steps would be a gross understatement.

Th e book also off ers an analysis of this community’s social and cultural

infl uence through the Cornerstone Music Festival, an annual multivalent

event created by the community in 1984. Th eir political and theological ide-

als were often included as part of a larger conversation at the festival. Th is

protean carnival evolved into a gathering where shared discourse served to

create new understandings of what evangelical Christianity and faith-based

music is or could become. Summer 2012 marked the fi nal festival, creating an

empty space where religionists and artists left-of-center once called home.

For twenty-nine years Cornerstone created a ripple eff ect throughout the

Christian music industry, changing the way a number of evangelicals have

traditionally understood evangelical popular music—how it is defi ned, how

it is produced, and how consumers perceive its relationship to evangelical

Christianity. But the importance of this particular Jesus commune concerns

more than the tepid nature of contemporary Christian music or the ever

elusive consumer-demographic of evangelical youth.

An analysis of the community and the festival off ers the reader a glimpse

into a subculture that highlights an emerging disenchantment with the Re-

ligious Right and the Secular Left, as well as mainline liberal Protestantism.

In short, there has been a sort of clarion call by a great number of evangeli-

cal ministers, activists, authors, and intellectuals who now embrace the vari-

ous theological uncertainties associated with postmodernity and pluralism.

In so doing they have attempted to reestablish left-leaning principles of

social justice and articulate a cogent understanding of a new orthodoxy, now

exemplifi ed within the so-called Evangelical Left. And while it is easy to

glean insight from a number of studies that consider the purely theological

or historical nature of these sociopolitical developments, a study of the or-

ganic process of ideological change is far more informative and compelling.

EVANGELICAL PROGRESSION

Th is Jesus People community demonstrates how evangelicalism is continu-

ally reinvented as practitioners attempt to reconcile pluralism with what I

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will call “establishment evangelicalism.” Th us an examination of the group

sheds light on fundamental cultural problems related to pluralism. Th is was

demonstrated at their music and arts festival, where music groups and guest

lecturers challenged how art and ideas were represented and processed. And

they even challenged the evangelical paradigm.

An analysis of Cornerstone (and the tensions between establishment

evangelicalism and various countercultural Christian expressions) prob-

lematizes and nuances the ways in which religious commitment and “fa-

naticism” are depicted by parent cultures such as establishment evangelical-

ism. Using the festival as a case study, I explore how social discourse aff ects

religious and political belief as members of the commune connect with an

ideologically diverse population. Th ose who attended the festival were of-

ten challenged to reconsider basic assumptions about faith and the arts. For

Cornerstone, “lived religion” exemplifi ed reactions to and sympathies with

cultural pluralism, further demonstrating how contemporary Christianity

continues to evolve. Th e outcome of this multicultural experience was this:

those who attended were exposed to various liminal moments; each situa-

tion—whether a concert or a lecture—encouraged the individual to reeval-

uate long-held beliefs and reconsider political and theological paradigms,

which (I argue) are in many ways constructs of both establishment evan-

gelicalism and the contemporary Christian music industry.

I off er an analysis of how the Jesus People community, Cornerstone, and

(as an incidental consequence) the music industry experience ideological

change in response to cultural pluralism. In the end I consider the commu-

nity’s longevity, their impact on the festival, how the festival contributes to

shifts within the Christian music industry, and how the spirit of the Jesus

Movement is maintained in the Jesus People community and expressed at

Cornerstone. As such, the community and Cornerstone both demonstrate

how conservative (establishment) evangelicalism is being challenged as vet-

erans of the right-leaning Jesus Movement have been intersecting in unique

ways with an emerging Evangelical Left.

To some extent, Cornerstone maintained the spirit of the original Jesus

Movement as it nursed dreams of a simpler “tribal” faith, which connected

religious commitment to a larger global community without overt focus

on denominational loyalty or dogmatism associated with establishment

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evangelicalism. But this is also complicated by a number of competing so-

ciocultural pressures: the rapid growth of individualism, the American ten-

dency to mix evangelical Christianity with nationalism, and the commer-

cialization of popular evangelical music. As a counterpoint to mainstream

evangelical festivals and other “establishment” forms of Christianity, Cor-

nerstone off ered an outlet for musicians who would otherwise have been

marginalized by the church. It provided a space where burgeoning faith-

based artists experimented beyond the boundaries of the Gospel Music As-

sociation’s gatekeepers. It nurtured up-and-coming musicians who did not

conform to what is traditionally expected of contemporary Christian music.

And it provided a safe space for consumers from both the right and the left

to enjoy art and ideology in a common, friendly space for about one week.

Ultimately, the social impact—the legacy—of Cornerstone and the Jesus

People has been the music.

Th e Jesus People community has redefi ned how popular evangelical mu-

sic is understood, defi ned, and performed. Th e record industry is now fi lled

with artists whose beginnings can be traced to the evangelical subculture,

and Cornerstone had a hand in remaking how consumers thought about

faith-based music, radically altering how popular evangelical music is rep-

resented. But this community’s cultural infl uence extends well beyond how

the church perceives musical styles and lyrics. Th e reason evangelicals have

increasingly reconsidered their popular conceptions about faith, politics,

and music can be traced to the so-called culture war, as represented in our

common political and theological binary.

Since the 1980s the Religious Right has garnered support and criticism

from both secularists and religionists. In some ways, the average evangeli-

cal tends to view the Religious Right with the same suspicion it holds for

both Republicans and Democrats. But despite its waning popularity it has

not been declawed. On the contrary, as the political center continues to

shift, the poles also shift, often widening the divide until one cannot locate

a true center. On the other hand, there are other evangelical Christians who

continue their search for a middle ground (a gray area) between conserva-

tism and liberalism. Th e result has been a germinating discontent with the

American evangelical paradigm.

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While the presence of an Evangelical Left is nothing new, the ideas

espoused by adherents are being popularized among young consumers

through an unlikely portal—the Christian music industry, a historically

conservative arm of evangelicalism. Philosophies commonly associated

with left-leaning politics now permeate a great amount of modern Chris-

tian music as artists muse over ideas once dismissed: they ponder the envi-

ronment rather than puzzle over the Apocalypse; they explore the dangers

of war and nationalism and avoid exploring Christian triumphalism; and

they encourage listeners to mourn poverty rather than glory in the heavenly

streets of gold.

Th e people in this commune are often encouraged to entertain and em-

brace ambiguity, but do so within the context of maintaining ideological

order, a tall order to fi ll. Tensions commonly associated with existential

anxiety and pluralism resulted in their reevaluation of the way meaning is

understood and presented, a philosophical development often referred to

as the “crisis of representation.” Th us some leaders within the Jesus People

commune began to sympathize with “postmodern” criticisms of how reli-

gious truth is represented and how the politics associated with art and soci-

ety are defi ned, processed, and consumed. Th is approach to culture created

a space for the community, one best defi ned as “progressive,” without the

historical baggage associated with theological liberalism. Th is progressive

aspect of the community and the festival demonstrates a vastly diff erent

collective experience from the typical conservative megachurch or Chris-

tian music concert. Is this the quintessential left-leaning evangelical gather-

ing? Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Many who attended Cornerstone

remained affi liated with conservative evangelicalism. Th us the community

and the event have functioned interstitially, connecting two very diff erent

dichotomies.

Despite their dalliance with postmodernism and cultural pluralism,

the Jesus People community self-identifi es as evangelical. But what do we

mean by “evangelical”? For historian David Bebbington, evangelical Chris-

tians have historically embraced four categories essential to the evangelical

identity: dedication to Christian conversion, Biblicism, activism, and cru-

cicentrism, the belief that the crucifi xion of Christ atoned for the sins of

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humanity. To a certain extent, the Jesus People leadership read these es-

sentials with postmodern eyes. Some academics and ministers have demon-

strated that the term “evangelical” can be broadened to include a number of

movements or individuals. Historian Randall Balmer’s approach creates an

ecumenical template whereby anyone who has experienced a spiritual “new

birth” can qualify as evangelical—those who have been “born again.” While

specifi c theological positions are negotiable for the Jesus People community

(as we shall see), their core principle involves some form of new birth (spiri-

tual salvation), however nuanced that understanding may be. Despite their

evolving theological paradigm, this community can be considered evangeli-

cal, but in a broader sense of the term. And in some ways, this complicates

how evangelical Christianity in the United States is often understood (or

misunderstood).

I off er three core arguments. First, historians have demonstrated that in

most cases American communes are short-lived. But this community has

continued beyond its 1972 genesis owing to various structural and organi-

zational mechanisms. Furthermore, their ability to engage and evolve with

American culture has fed into a sort of sustained commitment, which is

often absent in other communal groups. Th eir longevity (to date) is a result

of what sociologist Rosabeth Moss Kanter refers to as “commitment mech-

anisms,” particularly the commitment of second-generation and younger

members who are unaffi liated with founders. Second, the Jesus People and

Cornerstone have off ered us a new way to understand evangelical popular

music. Th ird, the Jesus People and Cornerstone sustain a vestige of the orig-

inal Jesus Movement. Despite the conservative nature of the original move-

ment, this community represents the general ethos of “emergent” Christian-

ity and the Evangelical Left and, through the festival, contributed to newly

emerging forms of progressive Christianity.

Both the commune and the festival contribute to a growing counter-

narrative to the Religious Right as emergent Christians and others asso-

ciated with the Christian Left either reclaim what was purest about the

Jesus Movement (before being absorbed by the Evangelical “establishment”

Right) or now locate a livable space where both evangelicalism and cultural

pluralism can coexist comfortably, despite paradox and existential tension.

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