God and The Baby-Boomer

Now, some of you might wonder where I'm gonna go with this post, considering the heading and pic to your left.
But, hey ... let's face it: Our generation -- the "baby-boomer" group -- did more to bring the message of Jesus Christ to the public than probably any other generation in the Twentieth Century!

"Oooookay, bald bird ... ya got any facts to back that up??"

Plenty:

If you remember, by early 1964 we'd lost our President, John F. Kennedy, to an assassin's bullet. At the same time, we were at the tail-end of the euphoric, post-World-War era and looking down the barrel at a possible third world war with the Soviet Union and China.
And, whilst The Beatles and the British Invasion came along and diverted our minds -- in fact, gave us all a morale boost -- we still couldn't shake the obvious: "The Bomb" was still a distinct possibility (for you younger readers, it meant that, though their outer actions wore a thin disguise of apathy, the Communist regimes were still threatening us with their nuclear arsenal.

Then, as we were dealing with that, our attention -- and worry -- was turned to a little Southeast Asian country called South Vietnam. The still-new President Lyndon Johnson increased our involvement as words like Tet Offensive, My Lai and Mekong Delta began appearing in our newspaper every day. News anchormen like Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley and others would start out their broadcasts with the latest body-counts as will as graphic footage from the war zone.

Young people across the nation began peace marches, protests and more, trying to persuade a stubborn government that this war was bad and could be pushing us even closer to a nuclear war!
Since the governments didn't seem to listen, many of these kids turned to God with their supplications for peace. As the Sixties drew to a close, these same young people realised that, though we were still at war, this communication with God actually did clear their minds and make them feel more peaceful. And they'd finally found a purpose!

But there was something else that emerged from this thing the media coined the "Jesus Movement": a departure from the old-style, quiet and often ritualistic worship to joyous, lively and spirit-filled praise (note: of course, the "quiet ... ritualistic" didn't apply to all churches.  This was used to show the difference between generational styles of confronting God).  There was more emphasis, not on the "gloom-and-doom" of "last days" but on the risen Christ and the Eternal Life that awaits.

Sure, this new interest in God also brought a rise in various religious cults (I was once a member of one, btw.  Thank God and my buddy John for helping me "see the light" about it eventually ...).  And as many of these eventually died out, its followers returned to "mainsteam" denominations -- but with a twist: unlike before, they wanted to study the Bible independently (y'see, in cults, you're told what to read, and the verses carefully selected to validate these groups ...).  Then that, coupled with what they learned in their churches-of-choice, only built a more solid foundation of belief -- one that lasts, and is instrumental in their lives, today!


OVER THE YEARS, many of those young people have held on to their beliefs so avidly that they've become ordained ministers in different denominations (in the pic,  Dr. Duffy Robbins, former drummer with the popular surf-rock band, The Ho-Dads); others have become strongly involved in their churches, whilst still others are sharing their faith individually or in mission work (example: "Moulty" Moulton, former drummer and founder of the legendary band, The Barbarians).  And this generation is leading a new one to understand that loving God is more than church-on-Sunday, suit-and-tie, be-quiet-in-the-pew attendance; it's a chance to show they're ALIVE 24/7/365!  It's an active faith ... not passive!  It's showing the SPIRIT that God has given them!  And there's nothing that can stop them as long as they're "vertical" on this planet.

IIII know ... somebody's already asking "Wait ... what does all this do with rock-and-roll??"  Well, plainly put, we wouldn't have rock-and-roll if not for the spiritual churches of the 1890's.  Remember, their Spirit-filled services were described by sailors returning from the seas as "rockin' and rollin'"!  And the swaying, dancing and clapping during their music actually did set the stage for the greatest musical phenomenon in modern history!

Okay, we'll continue this post tomorrow ... so stay tuned ...