Is the term "Jesus Freak" bigoted?

[el_bryanto]

26 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Totally
	7 (27%)
	Probably
	0 (0%)
	Maybe
	0 (0%)
	Probably Not
	1 (4%)
	Totally Not
	17 (65%)
	What a bullshit poll!
	1 (4%)
	Only a Jesus Freak would post a bullshit poll like this
	0 (0%)
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[hrmjustin]

1. Absolutely yes!

[sufrommich]

2. I haven't heard that term since the 1970s,

does anyone still use it? It makes me think of the religious movement that happened among some young people when Jesus Christ Superstar was all the rage.

[el_bryanto]

4. Yep.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022540459

[etherealtruth]

18. Me too!

[RZM]

35. I remember 'Jesus Junkie' being more common

You never hear that one at all anymore.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

38. I used that phrase in a song I wrote last year...

And I play pretty modern punk-ish rock.

[Bucky]

43. I used to call my neighbor "Jesus Whore" but that was his actual name.

I blame the parents

[KamaAina]

53. It seems to have morphed over the years

from describing Christian hippies, as you mention, to being more or less synonymous with "Bible-thumper".

[Blue_Tires]

3. No, just antiquated...

Did that term even survive the 70s?

[slackmaster]

56. No. By the end of the 1970s, Fundamentalism had been co-opted by Jerry Falwell and the "Moral...

...Majority." The Jesus Freaks and the Campus Crusade for Christ, the Jews for Jesus, et al were gone.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. Way back when it was in vogue I think it was a term "Jesus Freaks" came up with for themselves.

[sufrommich]

10. I think so too. I don't remember it having

negative connotations,well other than some of your freak friends all of a sudden becoming Jesus freaks talking on and on about Jesus and ruining everyone's perfectly good buzz. Most of the Jesus freaks I remember from those days were just going along with a fad,like mood rings and pet rocks.

[HereSince1628]

6. It's my experience that only Wrigley disparagers talk about Bleacher Bums as "Cubs Freaks"

So, I say yes it's bigoted. As are all lovers of the "designated hitter"

[OriginalGeek]

15. I do not love the DH

however I grew up going to Rangers games with my dad. Sitting out in the bleachers and enjoying the too-little, too-late good things that came. Sunny Jim Sundberg rising up to throw a base-stealer out at 2nd. Back to back 3-run homers by Bobby Bonds (that was Barry's daddy)...SO I am torn about what to do with the DH. I prefer to focus on the good things the Rangers do as it simply isn't that easy to just stop believing in the Rangers - yet I don't want to be broad-brushed as a DH supporter only because I love the Rangers.

[OriginalGeek]

7. We non-religious folk are not allowed to use the JF-word

however they can use it for themselves.

[cthulu2016]

8. Yes, and No. Applied to all Christians, yes. Applied to Jesus Freaks, no.

Jesus Freaks are not merely devout Christians or even extremist Christians.

The Jesus Freak was an off-shoot of hippies (aka Freaks, as in "freak power&quot

In the 1970s some flower children got the Jesus fever and went around in bell-bottom jeans (often bra-less, on the female side—dstinctly counter-culture) and sandals with long hair preaching peace. They were big on the symbol "one way" with one finger pointed upward.

Any person who is extremely Christian and proselytizing and who would, at 50 paces, appear to be a hippie, is surely a Jesus Freak.

Michelle Bachman is a Jesus fanatic, and is a freakish person, but not really a Jesus freak.

Phillip K. Dick's psychotic break was triggered by an encounter with a young woman who seems, from the story, to have been a classic "Jesus Freak"

[el_bryanto]

12. Thank you for the history

I don't think that is how it would be used today though.

[cthulu2016]

22. I think most current usage is highly derogatory, but the bigotry question is not simple

If a term is consistently and conscientiously applied to certain bad people without encompassing others indiscriminately I don't mind it.

[Bluenorthwest]

48. It is what the term means however. The Churches that sprang from that movement are still thriving.

There are still actual Jesus Freaks. They are in fact one of the more kind and community oriented brands of Christian. A Jesus Freak is not a member of the religious right for example. People self identify as Jesus Freaks today....
Check out the following:
http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/default.aspx

http://jesusfreak.com/

[On the Road]

31. I Was a Part of That in the 70s

and I agree with your description pretty much completely.

[lunatica]

9. Bible Thumper would be more polite

[uselessobot]

17. yet ChristoFascist is more accurate.

[The Straight Story]

11. No more than Mohammed Freak or Moses Freak. Jews and Muslims are freaks too

They just get their freak on in different ways

[KittyWampus]

13. Depends on to whom one is referring to and what the intent of the speaker.

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. If I want 1000 angry replies to my OP, I'd refer to "Atheist Freaks" in the title nt

[defacto7]

57. I'll take it!

Sounds like something I'd be proud of.

edit: Maybe Atheism Freak would be more appropriate.... Godless Freak? Reason Freak? Science Freak? Fact Freak! That will do it... or Atheist Freak is just as good.

[NCTraveler]

16. Sometimes.

When is is used to describe all believers. Yes. To describe Phelps. No.

[Initech]

19. Just like the word "teabagger" they coined the phrase.

Exhibit A:

[dawg]

33. Um ...

people were calling overly-zealous Christians "Jesus Freaks" before the members of DC Talk were even born.

[Initech]

36. True. But DC Talk are the ones who used it in their favor.

[dawg]

40. That's just an example of using a slur as a point of pride.

Rappers are kind of famous for that. But that doesn't mean it's okay for *you* to say it just because they do.

(And yes, I know it's kind of weak to refer to DC Talk as "rappers", but they do rap some, and I think the analogy is a good one.)

[FreeState]

20. I know lots of Born Again Christians who call themselves that n/t

[TeeYiYi]

21. I have to vote for Totally Not...

...since I just barely used the term in a post about Michelle Shocked.

When I was in high school, there was a group of Jesus Freaks that referred to themselves as Jesus Freaks. They seemed pretty comfortable with the moniker. That's where I learned it. They were hippies with bibles in tie dyed clothing and sandals, smelling of jasmine and patchouli oil. Good people. We used to cross paths behind the school on the back steps during smoke breaks.

TYY

[HubertHeaver]

37. And just what were you guys smoking?

[tularetom]

23. Well they claim to love jesus and they're certainly freaks (in the classic sense)

You tell me, I have no clue.

[Bucky]

45. freak in the "classic sense" means drug abuser

But the only Christians who abuse Jesus are the ones who act the least freaky. I call that irony.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

24. Jesus Freak history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_freak

Jesus freak is a term arising from the late 1960s and early 1970s counterculture and is used as a pejorative for those involved in the Jesus movement. As Tom Wolfe illustrates in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, the term "freak" with a preceding qualifier was a strictly neutral term and described any counter-culture member with a specific interest in a given subject; hence "acid freak" "Jesus freak." The term "freak" was in common enough currency that Hunter S. Thompson's failed bid for sheriff of Aspen, Colorado was as a member of the "Freak Power" party. However, many later members of the movement, misunderstanding the counter-cultural roots believed the term to be negative, and co-opted and embraced the term, and its usage broadened to describe a Christian subculture throughout the hippie and back-to-the-land movements that focused on universal love and pacifism, and relished the radical nature of Jesus' message. Jesus freaks often carried and distributed copies of the "Good News for Modern Man," [1] a 1966 translation of the New Testament written in modern English. In Australia, and other countries, the term Jesus freak, along with Bible basher, is still used in a derogatory manner. In Germany, there is a Christian youth culture, also called Jesus Freaks, that claims to have its roots in the American movement.

[pipi_k]

26. What if we

replace the word "Jesus" with some other word...

like:

ice cream
shoe
music
clean

just to name a few...

Are those bigoted?

I don't think this question is so black and white

[Bucky]

44. I see a rainbow of nuance here.

ice cream freak = bigoted

shoe freak = not bigoted

music freak = not bigoted

clean freak = extremely bigoted

[LeftInTX]

27. Makes me think of this:

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

28. Uh oh.....

I hope I'm not bigoted towards myself

[Bucky]

46. Are you a freak about Liberal Jesus or simply liberal about your Jesus freakiness?

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

50. I loooove that question...

because I never really thought about it before. I view Jesus as a liberal. So I guess I am a freak about the liberal Jesus. I am also very liberal politically and socially. Hmmmmmmm....thanks for giving me something to ponder.

[pscot]

29. It's certainly impolite

[PufPuf23]

30. In 70s no (as self-identified movement, and subset of hippie/freak culture)

Now I wouldn't use the term because would consider bigoted so probably yes in 21st century.

There are some pretty freaky interpretations and rationalizations attributed by some Believers in Jesus tho.

[OriginalGeek]

32. 11 long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse microbus

[slackmaster]

63. How I wish I could give a Rec to a reply

Thanks, OG.

[Iggo]

34. Nope. It's insulting.

[Jamaal510]

39. I don't think it is bigoted,

but as a Christian myself, I'm not a big fan of the term.

[dawg]

41. As a Christian, I wouldn't take any offense from being called a Jesus Freak, but we still shouldn't

call people that. It totally ruins our credibility as liberals when we object to other groups being insulted, mistreated and marginalized, but then we stoop to the same sort of behavior ourselves whenever it suits our purposes.

[Bluenorthwest]

42. It is a vey specific term, so if used properly it is just descriptive and if not it would be

inaccurate.

[Bucky]

47. Exactly. I think the term gets misapplied a whole lot.

Unless you're talking about the hippyish "back to the earth" movement Christians, or people who fit into that milieu, then it's mislabeling. But lots of precise terms lose their precision over time. I've seen the term used on DU to describe Christians who simply proselytize too aggressively.

[Bluenorthwest]

49. It is still commonly used by people to identify themselves

Jesusfreakhideout.com™ is one of the world's largest Christian music online resources. Created in August of 1996 as what originated as a small webpage titled "The Jesus Freak Hideout," the site was the flourishing creation of music fan and graphic designer John DiBiase. In August of 1998, the site blossomed into Jesusfreakhideout.com, bearing a big vision for spreading faith-based music across the globe via the web.

http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/about.asp


So perhaps some misuse it, but the term is still in use in the original form so it is hard to claim it is a bigoted term in and of itself which is what the OP asks.

[HockeyMom]

51. Marks you as being of a certain age

Nobody younger than 50 years old would even think of that. Bigoted? No.

[rustydog]

52. the term is more descriptive than bigoted

[Kurovski]

54. Sure, like for instance, I'm a cock freak.

So much better than a "Bantam basher."

[slackmaster]

55. The term is anchored firmly to the late 1960s and early 1970s. I can assure you it wasn't bigoted...

...at the time because although it may have been intended as pejorative by some at the time, it was unashamedly embraced by the young Christian revivalists at whom it was aimed. I remember the times very well - There were always a few of them around me that I was aware of starting in 1971.

Two young men who sang in the school choir with me were caught up in the movement. I remember how they signed my yearbook that year. One signed his name with "Servant of Jesus," the other as "Servant of our lord Jesus." Both clean-cut, well-behaved and studious, neither was even slightly bothered by being called Jesus Freaks even though they weren't hippies. (ETA - The youth for Jesus movement provided a more socially acceptable entree into hippie culture than did the extant Flower Children.)

I thought they were a little eccentric but in the context of the time and the place they didn't seem really out of line. Most of us including me did practice some form of religion - Mostly Christians, a significant Jewish community, a Buddhist here, a Bahai or two, and even a few Muslims. 1971 was also the first year I became aware of openly homosexual schoolmates - Sitting right next to me in choir along with the Jesus Freaks and most of the hottest girls in school. It was a great time of expansion of my personal horizons. It was a good time of peace and cooperation in spite of the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Even Republicans and Democrats intermarried, something you would never expect to see if your only window on the world of politics was the present Democratic Underground.

Trying to tag a term so firmly rooted to a specific time and to some extent place in our culture with a term like "bigoted" by placing it in a contemporary context makes no sense to me. The Jesus Freaks were a phenomenon of the past, as were the Holy Rollers, Bible Thumpers, Happy Clappys, and the various kinds of people who have been simply called Fundamentalists over the centuries.

The real Jesus Freaks are almost as long gone as the Beatniks. I don't have a problem with people using the terms in a modern context, but please don't try to imbue them with value judgements that weren't appropriate when the terms were being used in their own current lexicon.

[Old and In the Way]

58. This is an interesting post.

It daawned on me that this site really has the capability of determing what the community standards are with the use of certain words / phrases here at DU. I might suggest a forum dedicated to polls only which will determine, by majority vote of the community posters, what the acceptable standards are. If the majority allowed use of the words, no alerts could be considered. There may be close votes - 50/50 splits - but I'd still abide by the current majority outcome, either way. Seems like DU has devolved over the years and has become infested with single issue ideologues, some posters being relentless in policing their worldviews on the rest of us.

ps I‘d suggest keeping the poster names unpublished - no value in pitting DUers against each other....would certainly enhance participation if these polls were anonymous.

[slackmaster]

60. I think the community directs an inappropriate level of attention to minutiae of meaning...

...of words and phrases. The problem I see is that meanings shift in the broader world, sometimes quickly. When I was a teenager you didn't want to be called a geek. Now geeks are among the most respected members of our society because we have money. I try to avoid those misunderstandings and conflicts by using objective terms.

I would never refer to anyone in modern times as a Jesus Freak unless the person had voluntarily put on that mantle and was happy wearing it. I also avoid terms like Christo-Fascist and whatever else people have come up with. If Fundamentalist describes the person's religiosity with reasonable accuracy, I'll use that. Or just say the person is religious.

[Marrah_G]

59. We used to call them bible thumpers

[slackmaster]

62. How about Holy Rollers and Happy Clappys?

Do you remember Holy Hubert, by chance? I met him, and his protege Jed Smock.

[cherokeeprogressive]

61. Not when it's used as a compliment...

Oops. Wait.