I took this photo just a week ago when me and some friends were preparing some evangelism at a music festival. See what we look like?
Hippies aren’t always popular among evangelical Christians. Mark Driscoll has famously said: “Some emergent types want to recast Jesus as a limp-wrist hippie in a dress with a lot of product in His hair, who drank decaf and made pithy zen statements about life while shopping for the perfect pair of shoes. […] I cannot worship the hippie, diaper, halo Christ because I cannot worship a guy I can beat up.” I do agree that Jesus wouldn’t shop shoes or be a Buddhist, but He surely would be able to beat up. In fact, that’s what they actually did with Him on Easter.
The hippie movement emerged in the 60’s and 70’s in the United States and spread quickly to Europe and other parts of the world. It was a youth movement with international influences that emphasized love, peace and understanding, freedom and environmentalism, music, sex and drugs. It was influenced by eastern religions and sparked both new age occultism and the sexual revolution. These latter bits make it understandable why Dricoll doesn’t like hippies very much.
However, in the early 70’s thousands of hippies were saved in what is simply called the Jesus Movement, or the Jesus People Revival. They protested against both drugs and occultism, saying that we should “get high on Jesus” and be baptized in the Holy Spirit instead, but they preserved the hippie passion for peace, justice and a simple lifestyle. Over 100 000 Jesus hippies lived together in communal houses, they were preaching the Gospel in the streets and on the beaches, and many miracles happened as they prayed for the sick and prophesied.
Not everyone liked them though. Cessationist pastor John MacArthur, who thinks that most people in the global charismatic movement are possessed by demons, have said that the Jesus People were “informal, barefoot, beach, drug-induced kind of young people that told the church how we should act. Hymns went out. Suits went out. For the first time in the history of the church, the conduct of the church was conformed in a subculture that was formed on LSD”. This is, however, entirely wrong.
Jesus neither had a suit nor hymns. He had a nomadic church with His disciples that went around on the beaches, in the countrysides and on the streets, healing the sick, raising the dead, preaching the Gospel and helping the widows and orphans. Jesus emphasized compassion, enemy love, economic equality and freedom from religious bondage. He criticized the evange… sorry, pharisees for being judgemental and not realizing that the core command of the Word of God was love.
When we look at the early Christians, we see that they were pacifists, communists and charismatics. These three ingredients are resurrected over and over again in church history, among the monks and nuns, among the Waldensians and Anabaptists, among the Pentecostals and Jesus Hippies. They’re all part of the biblical movement that wants to combine non-violence, community of goods and signs and wonders. This is not a subculture formed on LSD, it’s a prophetic culture formed on the Holy Ghost!
Charismactivism 
I’m with you and the hippies, not Mark Driscoll or John MacArthur. I certainly don’t want to go with a pastor who so misunderstands the teachings of Jesus that he thinks we should judge Jesus by whether we could beat him up!
[…] brother Micael Grenholm is a “Jesus hippie”. He just posted a blog that explains a little bit more about why he sees himself that way. I strongly recommend reading […]
I definitely relate to a lot of that “Jesus hippie” stuff, which I decided to explain here: http://koinoniarevolution.com/2014/06/27/i-want-to-be-a-jesus-hippie/
[…] However, in the early 70′s thousands of hippies were saved in what is simply called the Jesus Movement, or the Jesus People Revival. They protested against both drugs and occultism, saying that we should “get high on Jesus” and be baptized in the Holy Spirit instead, but they preserved the hippie passion for peace, justice and a simple lifestyle. Over 100 000 Jesus hippies lived together in communal houses, they were preaching the Gospel in the streets and on the beaches, and many miracles happened as they prayed for the sick and prophesied. Read more… […]
[…] ← Why Do I Call Myself a Jesus “Hippie”? […]
I’m so happy I found this blog. I’ve been on this Jesus Hippie lifestyle for two months and while I have friends who are Hippies they never really understood how one can be a Hippie and still love Jesus. I’m a Christian, I love Jesus and I love his creation. It’s that simple.
I love this concept. I believe in Jesus Christ and as well, love the concept of the hippie lifestyle. I’ve actually just purchased a Bible and a necklace with the peace sign, and am looking to adapt the two as one. Jesus Christ is Lord
I used to be member of a Pentecostal church who allowed many young pentecostals to drink,to act like gangsters.I left this “pentecostal church” for a Bibble-believing church like Assemblies of God(i was between this choise and Church of God in Christ:These two are the biggest Pentecostal churches in the United States and behaviors such as drinking and swearing or bad speaking are forbidden and if a member makes them public he/she is expelled from the church unless he/she regret for his/her mistake.
There is no place for heretical people (younger or older) in Assemblies of God and Church of God in Christ (and most Pentecostal churches).My ex-church was absolutely out of the pentecostal spirit.Now they became an lgbt-affirming and pro-choise,pro-drugs “church” who is member of liberal-affirming churches(Affirming Pentecostals International).Now i am member of Assemblies of God and i don’t regret it.
I will never become a member of a heretical “pentecostal” church who accept members who openly reject the Bibble.
You wrote in your post “when we look at the early christians, we see that they were pacifists, communists, and charismatics”. The God of The bible was the opposite of a pacifist-He was just. Furthermore, Christ said if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father”. If God The father is just and righteous then so is Christ. Let’s not forget God told many people to kill in the Old Testament. A passive God does not command such things. Thank you for reading. Please stop spreading this false doctrine. You are misleading people and dishonoring the true character of God and Christ.
Hi, I happen to agree with Micael. I feel it isn’t helpful or right to take “if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the father” to change our view of Jesus, but rather to use Jesus to update our understanding of God. That was clearly what he intended.
Did you know that several times when the New testament quotes the Old Testament, Jesus and Paul omit sections of the passages that speak of violence and vengeance? You can see this by looking at the passages in Isaiah that Jesus quotes in Luke 4:18-19. Why do you think that is?
I definitely click with this. Jesus taught love, forgiveness, peace, and mercy.
Ahhhh… If only everything whereas cut and dry as you say, life would be so easy here on Earth? Unfortunately it is not… But it will be in Heaven. But for now I see flaws in both your beliefs and in Driscoll and MacArthur. I think it’s awesome that many hippies came to Jesus during the hippie movement. Many of them have their explanations, but a theme seems to be that when some were on a LSD trip, they saw demonic spirits which scared them into knowing the truth. That’s interesting in and of itself and worth exploring but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. It could be that some of the hippies just naturally had a laid-back personality with an open mind to accept Truth. Whatever the reason I am so grateful that many came to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. As far as your argument that Jesus never wore a suit or sung a hymn and therefore that type of Christian doesn’t know the truth is erroneous. I got saved in the late 80s… I was squeaky clean!! I had never done drugs, had sex, or any of the other immoral “no- no’s”. I attended church with the perfect clothing and I sung the hymns with all my might… And yet somehow, one day, I had a supernatural salvational experience just like someone on an LSD trip might have had!! And I have served the Lord Jesus Christ Faithfully for the past 30 years!! And I do not judge Jesus hippies… On the contrary, I look up to them and find inspiration in their testimonies…. And they find inspiration in mine! So you see… you cannot put God in a box… He can and does use Anybody!! As far as your argument that Jesus was a pacifist and a communist and a charismatic… Now we have to talk now we have to talk!! There is no doubt that we will all be pacifists and communists in Heaven… But that just does not work well here on Earth… Do I really need to go into just how Satan used those two belief systems to take out millions of Jews… Do you remember World War II and Hitler? And what about Venezuela today? Communism does not work!! Anywhere on Earth where communism exists, Christianity is all but snuffed out!! And what about pacifism? I would recommend that you read the life and biography of Sergeant York. Also, the Old Testament is filled with God commanding his people to take out other nations… How is that anywhere remotely near pacifism? Although those ideas are filled with good intentions, they simply do not work here on Earth where Satan and his hordes of demons seek to deceive and destroy God’s people… And yes, Jesus did get beaten and died here on Earth so that we can have the chance to live forever in Heaven with Him… However, I encourage you to read in Revelation how Jesus will come back conquering!!! Jesus will come back strong and mighty!! He is humble, but He is also King of kings and Lord of lords!! And as far as being charismatic… Well I say be as charismatic as you can possibly be to win as many Souls for God and his kingdom as you can!!!