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'merican by Pablo Manriquez
First off, a disclaimer: I am not a psychologist or trained in psychology - the following is pure conjecture and speculation.
I was a high school student during the early 1970's. This followed directly the turbulent cultural changes of the 1960's. One cultural 60's phenomenon that carried into the 70's was the Jesus Freak Movement.
Jesus Freaks were typically lost, confused, teens - many with drug and alcohol abuse issues and many, many with abandonment issues. The majority that I came into contact with were from broken homes or homes with alcoholic parents.
They all appeared sincere and well meaning but really out there and confused. The most unusual and disturbing aspect of these guys, for me anyway, was that they almost all invariably had some form of prophet figure or enabling organization. The prophet (for lack of a better word) or the organization would supply them with little religious trinkets, or most often, little pamphlets that were very well illustrated in the style of the stoner comics of the day, which they would have tucked into their ever present, tattered, "Good News" bibles.
They would gain your acquaintance by catching you alone outside or at lunch and very gaily start some groovy conversation about something, usually, very serious: venereal disease, drugs, sex, drinking or war. Always talking to you as if you were their close friend or in on the secret. And when you started to leave, balk or question they would very rapidly bring out one of the pamphlets and start talking in sincere, stern, tones about the prophet or organization. If you balked, this first time, they would give a big smile and say, "Jesus loves you", leave the pamphlet and skip off.
They had an uncanny ability to remember your name and something you had talked about at a previous meeting. So on your next encounter they would catch you off guard by starting the conversation as if it had never ended. And to make matters even more difficult - many of them were stunningly beautiful girls dressed like gypsies or flower children. For a fifteen-year-old boy of the day - this was very hard to resist. However, there was going to be no kissing or handholding - these chicks were on a mission and it could get ugly pretty quick.
If you weren't on their team by the second meeting - they had one last trick up their sleeve for the third and final encounter - they would either bring a classmate, that had converted, or an older really groovy guy that somehow hung around the school without alarming the faculty - those were very different times.
The older dude would initially try music or sports topics to break the ice and if that didn't work he would resort, pretty rapidly, to intimidation - hell and plagues and boils. And when that didn't work he would be very rude, dismissive and condescending in a spiteful Christian way. And as you looked up, you would notice that a crowd of the anointed had formed and they all would saunter away - smirking over their shoulders.
9-12 March in DC-4 by Andrew Allferis
I very distinctly remember the creepy feeling those encounters gave me as a fifteen or sixteen year old high school student. I get the same creepy feeling watching the Glenn Beck Program.
