A friend of mine once talked about how those of us who were part of the Jesus Movement received a “double dose of Jesus.” Instead of being high on drugs, we were high on God. I must admit I enjoyed that high because that high was about love, peace, and joy. It was about sharing myself with others and unconditional love.
My husband also told me that the “cool” people at his high school, Millikin High School in Long Beach, California, in the late 1960s, were the Jesus Freaks. Yes, in the 1960s and 1970s it was “cool” to be high on drugs, but it was also a time when it was “way-cool” to be “high on God and/or Jesus.” I needed a “Jesus-God Fix” every day it seemed and I kept going back for more.
I was attracted to the “way-cool God and/or Jesus” of those decades. The hippies that were born-again Christians, the original Jesus freaks, never wore shoes, had long hair, carried big bibles, loved one another, liked nature, and loved the earth. They played guitars and wore flowers in their hair. I wanted to be part of that scene, but didn’t think Jews were allowed in. Hearing about Jews for Jesus gave me the idea that perhaps I was allowed in after all.
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| My lifelong friend Marion was and is also a “Jesus Freak” - This photo was taken in the late 1970s at The Atherton House which was sort of a Jesus Freak Commune that Dan and I lived at for three years |
When I arrived in southern California, I made it my goal to find an ideal community of god-loving people and to move in with them. I didn’t quite know where to begin, but when I found out that Jews for Jesus had a branch in Los Angeles, that was a start. I was invited to stay in a house during the summer of 1978 that a young married couple, Alan and Ruth Snyder, who were house-sitting for Jews for Jesus while the young men who lived in the house were away in New York City participating in a Jews for Jesus Summer Campaign.
After I moved in, I was very disappointed with the experience there since Alan and Ruth stayed to themselves and did not include me in their lives really. They did attend the weekly Jews for Jesus bible study on Tuesday nights, but there was just no activity going on in the house which was what I had hoped for.
I expected to talk to them about God and love all the time, and was disappointed, but on Sundays, they did take me to their church, The Vineyard of the Valley.
The pastor of the Vineyard, Kenn Gullikson, was a young man with long blond hair. His smile was infectious and he wore colorful, multi-colored Hawaiian shirts and shorts or jeans as he led the congregation in music and also when he preached. There was love in his face as he sang lyrics from 1 Corinthians:13 about love.
I kept going back to the Vineyard for a piece of that love, but the fellowship was just too large and I never found a group to share that love with there. I was just one of many who attended, but I still enjoyed hearing the music, seeing Kenn Gullikson’s smile, and hearing what he had to say. When the congregation sang with him, the sounds were so, so beautiful since so many Hollywood musicians attended the Vineyard. I remember him once saying he wished he could take everyone who attended home with him. That’s what I wanted and needed at the time.
Through the Vineyard, I found all sorts of smaller groups of God loving Jesus freak types. One night, I went to the Hollywood Free Theatre which was really a group of Hollywood actors and singers who were into God. We did improvisations that night acting out real life situations and allowed God to lead.
What I remember most was that those who attended wore such unusual clothes. Some wore robes or had turbans on their heads. Long hippie-type dresses made of bedspreads were worn by many of the women who were there.
I discovered most of the young aspiring actors there survived by doing extra work in movies in Hollywood, and I was invited to take part, so when a friend of mine from Colorado College came to see me, the two of us spent an entire night in an auditorium at Cal State Northridge as extras in the movie The Fast Break starring Gabe Kaplan. All we did was sit in that auditorium throughout the night pretending to be fans watching a basketball game. We made $25 for our efforts. The friends I met at the Hollywood Free Theater trusted God to provide and doing extra work paid the bills.
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| Keith Green and Kenn Gullikson |
It was also at the Vineyard that first I heard about Keith Green’s community. The Vineyard of the Valley was loosely connected with Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa which was where the Jesus Movement originally began.
I told people at the Vineyard about my desire to live in a Christian community, and was directed to Keith Green’s group since Keith Green’s group sometimes attended the Vineyard. Keith Green was rock singer, turned Jesus freak, who was committed to sharing God’s love with everyone. His wife, Melody, was Jewish, and Keith Green also had Jewish relatives. Jewish and gentile young people interested in God’s love seemed to be drawn to Keith and Melody Green. The two had made a commitment to take anyone into their lives that needed them. In the late 1970s, he had published a few music albums about God and his community was known as one of the places that young people hungry for Jesus and God went to. I wanted to visit and perhaps be a part of Keith Green’s commune because I thought that my need to get my “double dose of Jesus” or God fix would be taken care of if I became part of that group.
I decided to check out Keith Green’s community on the 4th of July holiday 1978. I took my teenage Jewish cousin with me. The commune was located somewhere in Woodland Hills. When we arrived, we were greeted by someone named Kathleen who gave us a full tour of the community, which was really just five separate houses in a typical suburban neighborhood on an average street. After a short tour and lots of questions, my cousin and I met a group of kids that lived in the commune. Most of the kids were Jewish. I remember we all sat in a small bedroom on the floor and talked about God’s love. When we left, they gave my cousin one of Keith Green’s record albums.
When my cousin and I got into my car, Loren told me that the experience was “just too weird” and gave me the record album. He did not want it, but I certainly did. I didn’t think the experience was weird at all, but sadly, I realized that day that I could not join Keith Green’s community. I had a job, and was told by Kathleen that all the people in their group quit their jobs and worked as a group to support the community. I just didn’t feel ready to give up my private life for God.
About a month later, I gave up on the idea of living in a commune, left my job in Los Angeles, and moved in with my Grandma Fannie in Long Beach. Grandpa Max had passed away about a year or two before I arrived, and Grandma was quite lonely. I enjoyed living in Grandma’s large house that was only two blocks from the beach in Belmont Shore, a beach community in Long Beach. Grandma attended the Long Beach Jewish Community Center every Tuesday and Sunday.
Although I was with family in Long Beach, I still had the strong desire to hang out with young people who loved God. I was delighted to discover that Calvary Chapel, which was the heart of the Jesus Movement, had fellowships all over southern California and that there was a Calvary Chapel right in Long Beach!
On the first day I attended Calvary Chapel of Long Beach, I announced the following to the first person I met: “God led me here!” I was so glad to find loving “Jesus freaks” in Long Beach! I began going to Calvary Chapel on Fridays, Tuesdays, and Sundays. I was hungry for friends that would sit on the floor and hug and sing about God and love. Grandma Fannie thought my interest in God was rather odd, but understood my need to have young friends.
Calvary Chapel of Long Beach sponsored a camping trip to Catalina Island during Labor Day weekend 1978. Although I hadn’t gone camping since my days at Camp Fire Girl summer camp when I was ten, I wanted to go on that camping trip. I pictured myself sitting on the beach with a bunch of young people, holding hands in a circle, and talking about God. I had to go on that trip to continue my quest to get high on God.
The group that went to Catalina met at the Lord’s Bookstore before we got on the huge boat that left on Friday night for the island. I was delighted to be with so many young people on that boat, but I was especially attracted to Dan Farris, because he was the only other college graduate in our group.
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| My husband Dan is the guy with the mustache on the right! |
Dan met me about a week before at the Lord’s Bookstore. On the night we met, a movie was being shown at the Lord’s Bookstore about the end of the world. I had very little interest in seeing the movie, but I needed to get my “double dose God fix,” so I attended. Dan’s reason for going was to meet girls. His fairly long brown long hair, mustache, jeans, and hat were what I remember about him from that night, but what he remembers about me was that I was wearing knee socks and looked like a little kid in my pony tail and short dress. He was over a foot taller than me and to him, I was a tiny little thing full of tremendous energy and vigor, and my openness and friendliness blew him away. He had to see me again.
Dan was thrilled that I was taking part in the Catalina camping trip, and during the boat ride to the island, we talked and talked. The next morning, when the group woke up on the sandy white beach on Catalina Island, I sought Dan out and the two of us continued to talk. There wasn’t that much to do on that island except talk actually, and we spent the entire day together. I remember hiking up to the top of cliff with Dan and admiring the water and the beautiful white like waves that we saw below us. I told him about my family, my skating, and the new job I was about to start when the holiday weekend was over. Dan didn’t have all that much to say, but was absolutely thrilled by my honest conversation. I truly believe Dan and I fell in love overnight.
Dan’s life was also about getting his daily God fix. When the camping trip ended, we began to officially date. Our courtship consisted of walking around the Belmont Shore beach area, talking about God, talking about our families and life, talking about love and peace, and going to Calvary Chapel events and bible studies. Going to the Calvary Chapel events just really gave us an excuse to see one another, but also, being with others who loved God helped me to continue to get my daily “double dose of Jesus-God fix.”
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Excerpt From
Un Sentenced for Life
Jo Ann Schneider Farris
https://books.apple.com/us/book/un-sentenced-for-life/id975243325
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