Sunday, July 14, 2013

"High on Jesus"

"Eskridge begins his story in the Bay Area, the birthplace of both the counterculture and the Jesus Movement. Skillfully capturing the cultural and intergenerational tension among the Christians of this era, he introduces Baptist pastor John MacDonald and a young hippie couple, Ted and Elizabeth 'Liz' Wise. Liz attends MacDonald's church 'while coming down from the previous night's acid trip.' Eventually, her excitement about Jesus proves contagious to her philandering and oft-stoned husband. Soon, he was telling his fellow joint-smoking friends, 'Jesus is my Lord.' Then Wise went to MacDonald's church and told the congregation, 'He is back.' Wise did not explain what he meant by that statement, other than to share that the Lord had told him to tell it to everyone he met. The new convert made both the hippies and the straitlaced Baptists equally uncomfortable."

John G. Turner at Christianity Today reviews Larry Eskridge's God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America.

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