Leading Hippies To Jesus
From James Donahue’s Journal
Among the more ridiculous public projects I ever got involved in was a Christian movement in Kalamazoo to lead the hippies in the community to Jesus. Because I was the religion editor/reporter and attended a Bible church, I was invited to join a group that was attempting to open and operate a church centered coffee shop designed to attract the hippie crowd. Through this contact the object was to attempt to win these “wicked children” into Christianity.
I don’t know why anyone ever thought that would work. The very movement was one of rebellion, and the Christian philosophy was among the many things that were repelling the youth. The Hippies turned to free love, communal living, drugs, alcohol and everything the church stood opposed to.
In my own person contacts with the local hippies, I found myself more attracted to their concept of freedom than I was to the doctrines of the church. They drove around in Volkswagen station wagons all painted in bright rainbow colors, and dressed in the same bright colors. The women wore no makeup. If they were naturally ugly, they didn’t hide it. Even the attractive women didn’t look that good now that I think of it.
During the time I was in Kalamazoo I attended meetings of the revival group, but we never saw a coffee shop opened and never did any more than talk about what we hoped to achieve.
In the meantime, because of my work in the music world, I made contact with many young hippies who were deep into rock and roll. They sensed a friend in me, although I didn’t realize it until the day they tangled with the police. I had a group of hippies show up at the newspaper one day and ask to speak with me. I took them into one of our conference rooms where they told how the city police stopped a group of them riding bicycles through town. They said their bikes were confiscated for no given reason. They said they had not violated any laws and thought it was just pure harassment. I told them I would see what I could do.
I returned to my desk and made a call to the city police and asked about the incident. I didn’t get a satisfactory answer. I was sitting frustrated, wondering what to do next to get to the bottom of this story, when the managing editor called me in his office. Apparently he had received a call from the police. He told me I was not going to write any stories defending hippies in Kalamazoo. He said he thought they were a disgraceful bunch of law breakers that needed to be run out of town. He also said he never wanted to see me entertaining or having anything to do with hippies in the newspaper offices again.
I left his office boiling with rage. I had never experienced such narrow mindedness on the part of a newspaper editor before that experience, and rarely since. There may have been one exception at Port Huron some years later.
From James Donahue’s Journal
Among the more ridiculous public projects I ever got involved in was a Christian movement in Kalamazoo to lead the hippies in the community to Jesus. Because I was the religion editor/reporter and attended a Bible church, I was invited to join a group that was attempting to open and operate a church centered coffee shop designed to attract the hippie crowd. Through this contact the object was to attempt to win these “wicked children” into Christianity.
I don’t know why anyone ever thought that would work. The very movement was one of rebellion, and the Christian philosophy was among the many things that were repelling the youth. The Hippies turned to free love, communal living, drugs, alcohol and everything the church stood opposed to.
In my own person contacts with the local hippies, I found myself more attracted to their concept of freedom than I was to the doctrines of the church. They drove around in Volkswagen station wagons all painted in bright rainbow colors, and dressed in the same bright colors. The women wore no makeup. If they were naturally ugly, they didn’t hide it. Even the attractive women didn’t look that good now that I think of it.
During the time I was in Kalamazoo I attended meetings of the revival group, but we never saw a coffee shop opened and never did any more than talk about what we hoped to achieve.
In the meantime, because of my work in the music world, I made contact with many young hippies who were deep into rock and roll. They sensed a friend in me, although I didn’t realize it until the day they tangled with the police. I had a group of hippies show up at the newspaper one day and ask to speak with me. I took them into one of our conference rooms where they told how the city police stopped a group of them riding bicycles through town. They said their bikes were confiscated for no given reason. They said they had not violated any laws and thought it was just pure harassment. I told them I would see what I could do.
I returned to my desk and made a call to the city police and asked about the incident. I didn’t get a satisfactory answer. I was sitting frustrated, wondering what to do next to get to the bottom of this story, when the managing editor called me in his office. Apparently he had received a call from the police. He told me I was not going to write any stories defending hippies in Kalamazoo. He said he thought they were a disgraceful bunch of law breakers that needed to be run out of town. He also said he never wanted to see me entertaining or having anything to do with hippies in the newspaper offices again.
I left his office boiling with rage. I had never experienced such narrow mindedness on the part of a newspaper editor before that experience, and rarely since. There may have been one exception at Port Huron some years later.