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When Jesus Made the Cover of Time Magazine
A review of “Jesus Revolution”
It is a time of war overseas and near-civil war at home. Racial tensions, economic inequality, riots, crime, and political malfeasance have brought the nation to the brink. The older generation is at odds with the younger generation, not understanding their music, their clothes, or their new “language.” People over 50 long for the “good old days,” while those under 30 rage against the machine.
Life in 2023, right? Wrong; America, circa 1970.
In their book Jesus Revolution: How God Transformed an Unlikely Generation and How He Can Do It Again Today, Greg Laurie and Ellen Vaughn show us in stark detail that there truly is nothing new under the sun and history does indeed repeat itself. But this is more than a somewhat nostalgic chronicle of the failures of a bygone era. It is a reminder of an event that swept America in the late 1960s and early 1970s that is virtually forgotten today. Those who were a part of it called it the Jesus Movement; in June 1971, Time magazine labeled it the Jesus Revolution.
It’s likely you’ve not heard of this book, though you may have heard of the film version that was recently released; it received a fair amount of press simply because Kelsey Grammer of Frasier fame plays the role of Pastor Chuck Smith. I have not seen the film yet (I plan to watch it tonight on Amazon Prime since I’m home from the wilderness for a few days), so I’ll not be commenting on that. I did recently finish the book, though, and it is one I highly recommend to everyone, whether you’re Christian or not. Don’t let the title put you off; it obviously has a religious theme, but it also recounts a period of our history that, as you can tell from my introduction, is repeating itself even now.
In a way, the book tells two historical stories and one biographical one. You get the history of America during a turbulent and formative era and the history of the last great religious revival our country has seen. There have been other revivals here, including the First Great Awakening in the 1730s, the Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s…
