u2october's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How a Self Serving Film Failed the Jesus Movement I recently had the chance to view the film, The Jesus Revolution. I have always been fascinated by Lonnie Frisbee, as my time in Christianity was marked by being an outside the box sort of person when it came to the application of the teachings of Jesus to my personal life. I was disappointed, but not surprised at the self serving, revisionist history of the Jesus Movement that is presented in the film. The fact that the film is entirely based on Greg Laurie’s revisionist autobiography that makes himself the central figure of the movement was a huge red flag for me, but allowed me to go into the viewing of the film with appropriate context. Greg Laurie has made a fortune off of the Jesus Movement, with his net worth being $20 million before the massive profits of the film. The only problem is that the Jesus Movement would not have happened without Lonnie Frisbee. The film purposely avoids the fact that Lonnie was gay, and that was the reason for Chuck Smith and Greg Laurie pushing him out and not the character assassination we see in the film. The biggest insult may have been at Frisbee’s funeral, where Smith and Laurie denigrated his legacy by attacking his sexual orientation. This movie was personally tough for me to take in, as my parents met during the Jesus Movement and it personally impacted the course of my life. I was also a closeted queer person who struggled with my identity inside the church. To watch this deliberate whitewashing produced by those who profited from making themselves the center of a movement was very disheartening. If you’re looking for a more accurate version of the Jesus Movement, I highly recommend the documentary: Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher as well as the three book autobiography set written by Frisbee himself, available at LonnieRayFrisbee.com The LGBTQ+ community has always had to fight for our right to exist, and to not be erased from history, especially in American christianity, but we will not disappear. Even those of us who have left the church will still fight for those who remain. :end transmission: 10:33 - 08.08.23 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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