“One Way”: Billy Graham, the Jesus Generation, and the Idea of an Evangelical Youth Culture

Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture

Volumn 67, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 83-106

  Eskridge, Larry ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85007957482     PISSN: 00096407     EISSN: 17552613     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3170772     Document Type: Article

References (70)

1. Billy Graham, The Jesus Generation (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1971), p. 13
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 (June 1970-December 1971), Archives of the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College, Wheaton, 111. (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.
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 Youth for Christ (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1944).
4. William Martin, A Prophet With Honor: The Bitty Graham Story (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991), pp. 90-94.
5. Billy Graham, Billy Graham Talks to Teen-Agers (Wheaton, 111.: Miracles Unlimited, 1958).
6. Cort R. Flint, comp., The Quotable Billy 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 Francisco Chronicle, 28 January 1967, collection 360: BGEA-Scrapbooks, reel 31 Qanuary 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.
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, 7 Found It! The Story of Bill Bright and the Campus Crusade for Christ (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979); Keith and Gladys Hunt, For Christ and the University: The Story of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A., 1940-1990 (Downers Grove, HI.: InterVarsity Press, 1991), pp. 399-413.
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.
11. Marshall Frady, Billy Graham: A Parable of Righteousness (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1979), p. 404; Martin, Prophet With Honor, p. 376.
12. Martin, Prophet With 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, Just As I Am (San Francisco: Harper, 1997), pp. 419-420; Frady, Billy Graham, p. 400; Martin, Prophet With Honor, p. 376.
16. “Voting Age of 18 Endorsed by Longer-Haired Graham,” Omaha Morning 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, collection 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, Prophet With Honor, pp. 290-329.
20. Franklin Graham, Rebel With a Cause, pp. 47-60; Martin, Prophet With 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,” Christianity Today, 7 June 1968, 41-42)
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 antiintellectualism, 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 counterculrural origins-unconnected with any California “contacts”-were in existence within the next year. To date, there has been no comprehensive historical examination of the Jesus People movement. David DiSabatino'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 contemporary 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 The Jesus People: Old-Time Religion in the Age of Aquarius (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1972).
24. Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, The Jesus 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).
26. Roger C. Palms, The Jesus Kids (Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1971), pp. 21-24; Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, The ]esus People, pp. 71-73.
27. See Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, The Jesus People, pp. 21-65.
28. Erling Jorstad, That New-Time Religion: The Jesus Revival in America (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1972), pp. 68-69; Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, The Jesus People, pp. 73-83.
29. Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, The Jesus People, pp. 84-101.
30. The Jesus People., 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 Journey Into the Evangelical Subculture in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 12-30.
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 Drain, “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 Evangelical Action, Summer 1971,15; “The NAE: New Marching Orders,” Christianity Today, 7 May 1971, 37.
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 Christian Militant, 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 Youth for Christ Magazine in the 1950s and 1960s. See, for example, Marlin E. Hardman, “The Real Scoop on Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Youth for Christ Magazine 17 (October 1959): 10-12, and the “Mr. Music” column, Youth for Christ Magazine 19 (April 1962): 33. For an example of an extended screed against the evils of rock music see Bob Larson, Rock and 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.
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,” Chicago Daily News, 14 June 1971, 9.
41. John Pollock, Billy Graham: Evangelist to the World (Minneapolis: World-Wide Publications, 1979), pp. 124-125; Richard Philbrick, “Bigotry in Churches Rapped by Graham,” Chicago Tribune, 9 June 1971,11; “Hecklers Routed by Billy Backers,” Chicago Daily 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
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: BGEAFilms and Videos, BGC Archives.
46. Northern California Crusade-Oakland.; 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,” Christianity Today, 27 August 1971, 30.
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. Jesus Generation., pp. 16-17.
51. Jesus Generation., pp. 33-34.
52. Jesus Generation…, pp. 64,154,156-157.
53. 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, Christian Life, 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.
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 Ruth Graham's devotional collection of prose and poetry Prodigals and Those Who Love Them (Colorado Springs: Focus on the Family Publishing, 1991).
59. In Our Generation: Explo ‘72 Official Program (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 York Times, 16 June 1971, pp. 1, 19; “‘Godstock’ in Big D,” Christianity Today, 7 5u\y 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.
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” (Crusade News, “Time To Run” [Upper Midwest Crusade (St. Paul, Minn.)], 21 July 1973, collection 345: BGEA-Media Office, box 35, folder 15, BGC Archives).
64. Franklin Graham, Rebel With a Cause, pp. 115-153; Martin, Prophet With 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 adventures of the Children of God (for example see Lawrence Fellows, “Jesus People Think They Have a Fertile Field in West Germany,” New York Times, 24 February 1972, p. 2; and n.a., “A Day in the Life of the Children of God,” U. S. News Sf World Report, 20 March 1972.
67. 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,” Saturday Review, 6 May 1972, 58-63.
68. 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 Christian 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 Warnke,” Cornerstone 21, no. 98 [1992], 7-19, 30, 38).
69. 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).
70. See Paul Baker, Contemporary Christian Music: Where It Came From, What It Is, Where It's Going (Westchester, 111.: Crossway Books, 1985); despite being written from a rather fan-oriented perspective, Baker's study is nonetheless a decent overview of the transformation of “Jesus Rock” into “Contemporary Christian Music.” However, the pace of change, diversification, and streamlining in “CCM” has been frenetic: much has happened 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.