The Angle: April 2023

So You Say You Want a Revolution...

One of the joys...and burdens...of my life is that I save everything, at least for a while. Oh yes, I go through periodic dejunking and clean out stuff whose time has come to move on to the trash or to become someone else's treasure. My home has always looked relatively neat, if you don't count the basement,* but I still keep a lot of things I've deemed too significant to let go. It's why there is a copy of a fifty-two-year-old Time magazine sitting in the "Truly Miscellaneous" folder in my file cabinet.

On June 21, 1971, Time Magazine's cover had a psychedelic portrait of Jesus Christ on it, the featured story titled "The Jesus Revolution". If it sounds familiar, you are probably one of those who saw the recent movie by the same name. The movie, which I've yet to see, tells in part the story of the Jesus Movement of the 1960s and 70s. My son saw the film and reported, "Hey, Mom! Your magazine is in this movie!" A peripheral part of the movie plot, so I'm told, is about the Time reporter doing research for the writing of this magazine article.

In April of 1971, I was a senior in high school. During Holy Week of that year I had had a profound and lasting encounter with God. Some would say I was saved, or became a believer or gave my life to the Lord. I probably would say that God/Jesus became real to me. It was a time in the the spiritual history of this country that all sorts of weird and wonderful things were happening to a lot people and churches, and I found myself in the midst of it.** I shared my experiences with a few of my high school friends and one of them, having a subscription to Time magazine, passed along the Jesus Revolution issue, thinking I'd be interested in it, "being into that kind of thing." That magazine became one of those items deemed too significant to let go.

After I heard about the Jesus Revolution movie from my son and several friends, I did a deep dive into the most likely spots that I may have stored the now vintage Time magazine. I found it, reread it and then took some snaps of the article. They may be a blast from the past for some, or a time traveling portal into the 1970s for others. They are posted below to read and enjoy.

The last page of the article mentions an upcoming Catholic Charismatic Conference at Notre Dame that was expecting 3,000 attendees. They underestimated - 6,000 people showed up. I was one of them...

(Click on an individual picture and it should open up in an enlargeable and readable format. You may have to right click on the picture and open it up in a new window, but it will eventually be scrollable and readable.)