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Gray Sabbath: Jesus People USA, Evangelical Left, and the Evolution of Christian Rock

2017; Penn State University Press; Volume: 28; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5325/utopianstudies.28.2.0366

2154-9648

Brady Kal Cox,

Race, History, and American Society

Historian Candy Gunther Brown has noted that since the mid-twentieth century, “evangelicalism has reemerged as the normative form of non-Catholic American Christianity, supplanting what is usually referred to as mainline Protestantism.”1 However, in the 1970s few people predicted that this would occur. In Gray Sabbath, Shawn David Young describes a lesser-known countercultural side of evangelicalism. Young explains, “This book explores a post–Jesus Movement ‘Jesus People’ commune that does not conform to our common understanding of evangelical Christianity (at least in the United States) or popular Christian music” (3). Through ethnographic and historical research, Young offers an analysis of how Jesus People USA (JPUSA), the Cornerstone Music Festival, and the music industry experienced ideological change in response to cultural pluralism. Young offers three core arguments. First, historians have demonstrated that most American communes are short-lived. Yet JPUSA has continued far beyond its 1972 inception. Young argues that JPUSA's commitment to engage and evolve with American culture has contributed to its longevity. Second, JPUSA and Cornerstone have offered new ways to understand evangelical popular music. Third, JPUSA and Cornerstone sustain a vestige of the original Jesus movement. Both the commune and the music festival have contributed a counternarrative to establishment evangelicalism (i.e., what is most commonly associated with evangelical Christianity).JPUSA began as a traveling music group and an offshoot of the larger Jesus movement in 1972. After a year of traveling, the group came to understand itself as an intentional community. Young points out, “Despite heartfelt attempts to create utopian worlds, these groups have mostly ended” (27). The ones that have sustained longevity have only succeeded in anachronistic expressions of isolationist Protestant Christianity (e.g., Mennonite and communal Amish groups). However, JPUSA settled in Chicago and quickly became involved with the local community in the Uptown neighborhood. Based on their interpretation of the New Testament, the community engaged the problems of homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness in Uptown. They understand their actions to be a type of humanitarianism that Jesus demonstrated in his life. In an interview with a member of the community, Young describes, “The mainstream evangelical church often evangelizes, she argued, without regard for the poor. When she considered whether the concept of evangelism includes social justice, [she] replied with shock, ‘How can it not mean that?’” (76). For JPUSA, identification with the poor is an essential aspect of life in the community. While JPUSA's choice to remain an activist group defies common understandings of communalism, Young argues that it is the reason why the group has been able to survive. The people who joined JPUSA all have some sort of interest in service. For some, their reading of the Bible has motivated this interest, and for others, it was due to their frustrations with American materialism. Whatever the case, it is this shared commitment to service that makes the community different from other utopian communities but also ensures its survival and longevity. Young explains, the founders of JPUSA “are still haunted by the failings of their evangelical brethren on the right” (77). The humanitarian efforts of JPUSA in Uptown are a response to the perceived failure of establishment evangelicalism to address real issues rather than engage in evangelism detached from good news.Young describes, “Members often note that longevity is merely a result of ideological flexibility and a continued ability to accommodate (absorb) the surrounding culture” (93). JPUSA's flexibility and ability to accommodate the surrounding culture are due to the community's evangelical roots—the vestige of the original Jesus movement. The Jesus movement challenged mainline Protestantism by reaffirming a commitment to a literal interpretation of the Bible. In order to appeal to younger people, the movement “maintained the evangelical heritage of cultural engagement by embracing pop culture as a means of social outreach” (13). Church historian Chris R. Armstrong affirms, “Evangelicalism is and has always been in its essence a reinventing movement.”2 The Jesus movement's message was artistically communicated through the medium of Christian music. JPUSA used the template created by the Jesus movement in order to engage American culture through music. Young explains, “Through Cornerstone, JPUSA challenged establishment evangelicalism and mainline contemporary Christian music” (173–74). Cornerstone operated on the evangelical fringe, and it provided a venue for fringe groups to interact and dialogue despite differences in theology, politics, or musical style. Cornerstone provided a safe place for evangelicals to experiment with and to be exposed to the left-wing ideals of JPUSA in an evangelical environment. The music and the presentations at Cornerstone challenged evangelical norms while still maintaining Christian orthodoxy. Young writes, “Through Cornerstone, JPUSA engaged culture, unlike other communal experiments” (220). It is this vestige of the original Jesus movement—the evangelical tradition of cultural engagement—that has enabled JPUSA through Cornerstone to challenge the larger evangelical structures and norms. It is also the reason that JPUSA has been able to sustain communal longevity, unlike many other communal groups.Young asks, “Is there a limit to any attempt at a New Testament semi-utopia?” (258). While this service-based communal movement might be a surprising development within establishment evangelicalism, it does have historical precedent in the history of Christianity. Theologian Sarah Coakley writes, “Quasi-sectarian movements can sometimes arise, manifesting disenchantment within the church type with the prevailing laxity or spiritual enervation of the church, but without actually leaving the confines of the ecclesiastical institution.”3 JPUSA is an example of a quasi-sectarian movement that is disenchanted with what the group believes to be the laxity of establishment evangelicalism. JPUSA has maintained ties to establishment evangelicalism (e.g., by affirming the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy). However, it is clear that “JPUSA's social activism reinforced a commitment to a way of living and a brand of Christianity quite alien to establishment evangelicalism” (221). Young concludes, “That JPUSA is service-based rather than retreat-based confirms [sociologist Rosabeth] Kanter's thesis: successful communes must avoid insularity while simultaneously affirming negotiable boundaries” (263). JPUSA has tried to locate a middle ground—the gray area—by negotiating the boundaries between establishment evangelicalism and the fringe, yet has maintained fundamental beliefs (e.g., crucicentrism and activism) that situate the group within the larger evangelical paradigm.Gray Sabbath is an exceptional study that is informative for those interested in American religion, communes, evangelicalism, and the history of Christian music. This work serves as an excellent analysis of a lesser-known side of evangelicalism. Young's example of JPUSA as a utopian ecclesiolae in ecclesia ought to encourage further studies regarding the role that similar communities play in critiquing and challenging institutional forms of Christianity. How do utopian ideals of community, in this case based on an interpretation of the New Testament, shape or challenge institutionalized forms of Christianity that can become lax in belief or action? Things are not always as black and white as they might appear. Evangelicalism has typically been characterized as a conservative right-wing movement, and communal efforts have typically been retreat-based. JPUSA is neither. Through a variety of academic disciplines, Young's work challenges the reader to look for the gray areas.