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They had been the topic of a June 21, 1971 cowl story in TIME Journal titled “The Jesus Revolution.” “There may be an unusual morning freshness to this motion, a buoyant environment of hope and love together with the same old insurgent zeal,” the story gushed. “Their love appears extra honest than a slogan, deeper than the fast-fading sentiments of the flower youngsters; what startles the outsider is the extraordinary sense of pleasure that they can talk.”
That’s the story and the message of a brand new movie, additionally referred to as “Jesus Revolution,” primarily based on a e-book by one of many leaders of the “Jesus freaks,” Greg Laurie. This film will not be about sure particulars, like certainly one of its real-life characters’ homosexuality and historical past of substance abuse and instability. Nor does this movie discover laborious questions on how the cleaning of baptism doesn’t essentially result in a perpetually “buoyant environment of hope and love.” As a substitute, it is a gently informed story preaching to the converts, assuming that evangelical Christianity is unassailably the reply with out contemplating this explicit type of worship might not be the reply for all.
Kelsey Grammer performs Chuck Smith, a minister in California who presides over a standard church named Calvary Chapel. Smith’s daughter persuades him to speak to the long-haired and improbably named Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie). Initially sure that Frisbee is simply an irresponsible hippie, Smith is impressed along with his sincerity, humility, and dedication to the messages of Jesus about generosity and a spirit of welcome. Frisbee tells Smith there’s a chance to succeed in hippies as a result of the entire issues that fear him, their rejection of their mother and father’ values. Their experimentation with medication is a search “for all the appropriate issues in all of the incorrect locations.” He believes he can present them that the appropriate place is God.
Smith brings Frisbee and his followers into his residence and his church. When the parishioners complain concerning the newcomers’ soiled naked toes, the pastor does what Jesus did: he washes their toes. Some members of the church depart in disgust. Others are touched by the newcomers’ sincerity.
And there are lots of newcomers. There are joyous mass baptisms within the Pacific Ocean. Smith’s promise is a giant one: “It’s not one thing to clarify. It’s one thing to be skilled. What you’re seeing is a logo of latest life. Each doubt, each remorse, all washed away perpetually.”
