A friend of mine asked me yesterday to explain "The Hippie Movement." She had heard her Rabbi mention that he had been caught up in it in his younger days, and she didn't understand what it meant. I had to explain to her that in the 1950s young people in America preferred music with a beat--this was the genesis of Rock-n-Roll, and their parents didn't much like the change. There was a space race going on, and everyone was worried about the Red Scare; so naturally, any cultural change was viewed as possible "Communist Propaganda." Older Americans were worried about the Soviet Aparatchnik, so they attached the suffix "nik" to any word used to describe something new. If young people were interested in World Peace, then they were labeled "Peaceniks". If they liked the beat of new music,they were labeled "Beatniks."
So in the early 1960s, several other influences came to America. Timothy Leary introduced the drug culture, advising young people to "tune in, turn on, and drop out". Many began to question our involvement in the Viet Nam war. Young people tried very hard to fit in with other young people, so they started wearing blue jeans, bell bottoms, mini skirts, and wild "psychedelic" colors. They were trying very hard to be "hip" and "groovy". So the older people started calling them "hippies." When the Beatles came to America in 1964, their hair extended midway over their shirt collars, and the older people called them "long-haired hippies". So the fashion began to wear hair longer and longer.
The movement was pretty much over in 1972, when Christian groups tried to mimic the hippie movement by starting what they called the Jesus Movement. They began to sing songs that had the Rock-n-Roll beat, but had Christian lyrics. They began wearing tie-dyed shirts and preaching that Jesus was Groovy, Man. Like any pop movement, imitation is the death of it. So by 1975, when Americans pulled out of the Viet Nam war, the Hippie Movement was largely over. Disco music became popular, and social change moved to the sexual revolution.
Just as many influences came together to create the Hippie Movement in the 1960s, so had many things come together in the ancient near East about the time Jesus was born. The Bible says "When the time was right, God sent His Son into the world." The Romans had conquered most of the western world, and part of their heritage was roads. They built roads everywhere. About the same time, Greek philosophers started people thinking about knowledge and wisdom. The Jewish religion had been dormant for 400 years--there had not been a prophet in four centuries.
So when Jesus was born, he gathered disciples to Himself, men who sought knowledge much like their Greek neighbors. And when He gave the Great Commission, missionaries like Paul were able to travel over the roads that the Romans had built. So a confluence of events resulted in an explosion of conversions to Christianity. But unlike the Hippie Movement in the 1960's, which only lasted about a decade, Christianity has flourished for two millenia. This is because instead of trying to be "hip", the followers of Jesus were trying to be like Christ. It took over 30 years, but Followers of the Way were first called "Christians" in Antioch (Acts 11.19-30). Like the terms "Beatnik" and "Hippie", the word "Christian" may have first been a term of derision. The Greek people may have said to themselves, "Look at those people--they act just like Christ, the religious rabble-rouser from Israel."
We are still encouraged to be like Christ, and to wear the name proudly. One day He will return and take us to Heaven with Him. There is a small sect who think that the Church will be raptured this Saturday, May 21. I don't know if it will happen then or not--Jesus said "No man knows the day or the hour". If He comes, praise God! If He doesn't, we should still live like He could show up at any moment. "When the time is right..."
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