''Jesus freak'' is a term arising from the late 1960s and early 1970s counterculture and is frequently used as a pejorative for those involved in the Jesus movement. As Tom Wolfe illustrates in '' The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'', the term "freak" with a preceding qualifier was a strictly neutral term and described any counterculture member with a specific interest in a given subject; hence "acid freak" and "Jesus freak". The term "freak" was in common-enough currency that

Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of '' Hell's Angels'' (1967), a book for which he s ...

's failed bid for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, was as a member of the "Freak Power" party. However, many later members of the movement, those misunderstanding the countercultural roots, believed the term to be negative, and co-opted and embraced the term, and its usage broadened to describe a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

subculture throughout the

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to different countries around ...

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 Good News Bible (GNB), also called the Good News Translation (GNT) in the United States, is an English translation of the Bible by the American Bible Society. It was first published as the New Testament under the name ''Good News for Modern Man'' ...

'',Musician Barry McGuire's Testimony: Eve of Destruction
Accessed December 8, 2011 a 1966 translation of the New Testament written in modern English. In Australia, and other countries, the term "Jesus freak", along with " Bible basher", is still used in a derogatory manner. In Germany, there is a Christian youth culture, also called Jesus Freaks International, that claims to have its roots in the U.S. movement.

References

* Di Sabatino, David. ''The Jesus People Movement: An Annotated Bibliography and General Resource'' (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999)
Jesus People Movement
* * * * * Call, Keith.
Jesus Freaks
" ''Special Collections''. 15 January 2009. * Geisler, Gertude. Ramey, B., Jessie.

" 2004. * * Young, Shawn David.

" ''Journal of Religion and Popular Culture''. Vol 22(2) Summer 2010. * Young, Shawn David (2015). ''Gray Sabbath: Jesus People USA, the Evangelical Left, and the Evolution of Christian Rock''. Columbia University Press. Jesus movement {{Religious slurs Religious slurs for people 1960s 1970s Counterculture English phrases de:Jesus Freaks

See also

References

Further reading