I’m Not Sure I Want to be a Christian Anymore

The name has been co-opted and hijacked…

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Like many, many people who write on religious topics on Medium. I was once an evangelical. Nope! Not just an evangelical. A hyper, street witnessing Jesus Freak evangelical. That was in the 70’s. Like lots of young folks in the US, I had protested the war, done my share of acid trips, and was trying desperately (and I was a teenager — mostly skipping school) to turn on and drop out.

Then I met the hippie Jesus Freaks. They really snagged me. They would come to the hippie park in Kansas City and tell us all about Jesus. I don’t know what got to me. Maybe it was my attendance at a very fundamentalist church when I was a child (I have discussed some of that here), or maybe it was because I honestly felt that they loved me. Mostly though, it was not that far a stretch. After all, they were all just part of the big countercultural soup of the 60’s and 70’s. I did truly think I gave my heart to Christ. I even moved into the Jesus commune. ( is a picture of the place.)

I totally dropped out of high school and began my career as a street preacher. Eventually, I returned to my education, even going to the university and meeting my fellow Jesus Freak wife to be.