Life’s Compilations
July 12, 2009 Leave a comment
Today I purchased a compilation of George Harrison music. The disc has all of his classic songs that I favor. There hasn’t been an album like this is in the past so I went ahead and paid $13.99 less 10% for a treasure trove of good music. Playing Harrison’s My Sweet Lord brought back memories of my senior year in high school. I will always cherish this time in my life for its spiritual richness.
The song My Sweet Lord was released in November of 1970. The next spring of 1971 I was in my final semester of high school. At this time the Jesus People movement was in full tilt. About the same time the Evangelical Christian church was embroiled in the liberal theology debate including the challenge to the doctrine of the Bible’s inerrancy. I believe the Lord got things moving with the Jesus People Movement. He moved His Spirit among the young people in order to bypass the talking heads of doctrine, heads often stuck in the sand about life as a Spirit-filled human being. (More about this another time.) Nobody won the theology debates. Each side took their theology and returned home to their churches claiming their own inerrancy. Of course, at the time, the release of the song My Sweet Lord was just another abomination to the theologically ‘correct’ group of people. George Harrison sang about Hare Krishna while the Christian “Hallelujah” was sung by the background singers. This Gnostic synthesis inflamed the torches held up in search of heretics and heretical teaching. Many Christian teenagers though, singing this song, wanted to see the Spirit of God move among the stodgy churches. These teens were soon brandished as rebellious teenagers ready for stoning. At least that was how their elder’s words came across. I know. I was one of the teenagers.
When we as teenagers sang the words to George Harrison’s song My Sweet Lord we exchanged Hare Krishna for “Jesus, Jesus” and “Lord Jesus”. We understood that Jesus and Krishna were not at all equal, they were not the same. We knew that Jesus was God and that Krishna was basically man’s attempt at finding a god they could use to sanction their lifestyle.
I along with many other local teens followed the Jesus People Movement which started in California (another heretical state of mind!). We joined other local groups of teens in the Chicago area. We went to Jesus Freak concerts, 2nd Chapter of Acts concerts, Andrae Crouch concerts, Jesus People Rallies, Bible studies and prayer meetings. I went to a Larry Norman concert in Wheaton, Illinois at the Dupage County Fairgrounds. Along the way we listened to Sammy Tippet, Hal Lindsey (author of The Late, Great Planet Earth) and many, many others speak. There were many teens who became followers of the Way. We baptized them in pools, ponds and lakes. The Spirit of God was moving in a tremendous way among the youth. Sadly, the elders thought it was another fad like Sonny and Cher or just a childish departure from the solid Biblical truth they had their foot down on. These elders often sought to quench the fire. But the fire lived on. It lives on in me.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father, except through Jesus.
One Way.
Cindy Wity 