BeachOfEden Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 For a number of years I remained on the HCBB...aka Hippie Christian Bullentin Board...and over this time I have seen irrational outburst of rage and intolerance from the modertors on the board, as well shockingly rude remarks and sexist comments from 2 long time members of the board, one the husband of one of the mods. In light of all this, many have asked why I stayed on there. The answer is that I had met a number of nice individuals there. Unforuantly, dispite this, the negatives outwayed any positives. The Last straw occured when I was talking to an individual there about the creation of our new free group here on MySpace called The Hippie Market Place..when he asked where that announcement thread and one of his other topics had gone to. Up untill this point..the only questional thing that had occured was that the main board mod Allison send me a email telling me that I had posted annoucement for my arts and crafts too many times..?? This struck me as really odd and did not add up. Sense when did it become a rule that members can not post their arts and crafts more than one time? I never heard of anyone else being told this. Then this guy, Grandpaps, posted a reply asking where his thread and 2 or mine went..and wow! All a sudden Allison went into an illogical highly enraged rant about how I was a terrible extremsist leftist liberal Christian and how my beliefs were "Filth", and how she discribed the Kingdom of God as "NOT being neither tolerant or moderate." As you might had guessed..she erased her tracks and quickly corrected ANYONE who dare disagree with her..but I HAVE THE PROOF SAVED HERE on my blog..BEFORE she had a chance to go back and erase it all. People should be warned before hand how extreme FAR RIGHT the HCBB is. There is NO explaination warning people how FAR RIGHT YOU HAVE TO BE to be welcome on the HBCC site. It simply says "The Hippie Christian Family." No one is fairly or justly warned how MODERATE, MAINSTREAM and basically ALL NON-Far Right Evangelical Protestants are NOT welcomed or tolerated there. There are plenty off stores of people who were badly spiritually and emotionally absued and burned and ultimately TURNED OFF of Christianity completely because of getting invloved with extreme break-off branches of the the orginal Jesus Movement back in the 60's and 70's. One of the most famous examples of this is the book "Leaving the Fold." Others examples are on Rick Ross web page under the section on Calvary Chapel. Sexism and intolerance is a themed in all the above stories and now the HCBB is the the current day answer to the extremist far right radicals from the Jesus movement of the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wayfarer2k Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 Sexism and intolerance is a themed in all the above stories and now the HCBB is the the current day answer to the extremist far right radicals from the Jesus movement of the past. I've never been to the HCBB. And I was, I guess, a little too young for the Jesus movement, per se. But I do remember the overtones of that movement: modern Contemporary Christian Music came from some of the folk singers associated with the JM; non-denominal churches grew out of the JM; even new translations of the bible came from the roots of the JM. What little I do know about it was that Jesus was seen as being within reach of everyone. No one was excluded from "finding him". And he was seen as a very personal guide for daily living, perhaps even mystical in some ways. Some of the communes of that movement actually tried to live as the first Christians did. My brother-in-law was part of Jesus People USA for quite a number of years and it was, for the most part, a good experience for him. But it always seems that if/when God moves in our culture and society, those movements tend to become "institutionalized" and, over time, exclusionary. What starts out as wide-open doors for people to experience God soon become gates that define who has and who has not experience God in a certain manner. It's too bad that things become institutionalized and controlled. Lines always seem to get drawn and then people are told to choose where they stand. I don't think God is impressed with our lines. But we have a fetish for them and it's a shame when the lines are more the focus than the love. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeachOfEden Posted September 20, 2008 Author Share Posted September 20, 2008 On the positive It was good that pastor Chuck Smith devolped this whole contemporary and seeker-sensitive approuch to church by welcoming the hippie culture and allowing their jeans, t-shirts, bare feet and the whole creation of Christian Rock. It was equally great even before all this that some Christian in the San Fran Bay area opened the first ever coffee shop called The Living Room, in 1967 and that by doing all this...brought many of the youth counter culture to God and Christ. This was all the good parts of the Jesus Movement of the 60's and early 70's. However... The negative...Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel, as pointed out in this article, forbids women from serving as elders ( pastors) in the church, promoting and fostering sexism in the church which surely goes against the whole Cilvil Rights marches of the 60's. In doing this they join the ranks of the Southern Baptist Convention, instead of following the positive lead as such moderate Protestant churches such as United Methodists. So we read these stories and what do they have in common with these far right individuals "Christian Hippies" on the HCBB? Well, let examine the key points from the story of Leaving The Fold and the ex-Calvery Chapel story Leaving My Religion on the Rick Ross website... (1) altered state, (2) Pentecostal. BOE: Why is it that chrasimatic religion and mind-altering drug use seem to always go hand and hand? This is to be questioned seriously!!! The Seeking of "Mind Altering" Experinces Through out this article, as well as in the Lonni Frisbee doc movie, again and again hippies who were heavy drug users seem to be attracted to highly charsimatic religions, seeking "Mind-altering" experiences. It is this wanting to "alter" one's mind that causes hippies to get into trouble with drugs to begin with. In Previous drug flip outs, the person expeinces "mind altering" mystical experinces. Now, the person, after becoming a Christian seeks to re-visit such experinces? But now considers it a "religious experience"? Is the goal of being a Christian or spiritual seeker to sharpen your underings of things..or "alter" your mind's preception? Are NOT these very two things in conflict with each other? How can you sharpen your perception and alter it all at the same time? (3) only male leadership. [/size](8) all male unlike most Protestant-based faiths expressly forbids women from holding leadership status over any man. (4) dangerous rocky territory if you happen to harbor any theological questions or liberal interpretations of Scripture. (5) anyone must either cover it up, shape up, or ship out. (6) I'd finally concluded that too many conditions and rules had been placed upon that love for it to qualify as either unconditional or free. (9) Whenever questions are not really answered but always turned back on you like there is something wrong with you for asking them, that's a sign that something is wrong." ( 7) Protestant-fundamentalist churches and here is a key point... (8) Cults, in my opinion, are about behaviors, not beliefs," explains Janja Lalich, an expert on cult systems and mind control and the director of Community Resources on Influence and Control, in Alameda. "Cults aren't always tiny religious groups off in some compound. I think anyone who says they have the answer, the one way, whatever it is, is potentially dangerous. (10) AFTER MANY YEARS spent living in "the World," I have learned that there is such a thing as happiness, peace, and even unconditional love, and that Calvary Chapel--religion in general, for that matter--holds no monopoly on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
October's Autumn Posted September 20, 2008 Share Posted September 20, 2008 I think these people have descrated the name/idea of "Hippie." The True Modern Day Hippie Christians are the Progressives. Shame on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeachOfEden Posted September 21, 2008 Author Share Posted September 21, 2008 Agreed! Hopefull this thread will go on the in the google search for all to read! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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