I was thinking about how to begin this episode, which will include our visit with my parents and our hippie friends, when this word came to my mind - hippiedom. I was thinking of our lives back then as a journey out of “hippiedom”. All of our new experiences, were going to affect the relationships we had, with everyone we knew. The challenge we had at the time, was learning a new way of communicating, with family members and old friends. Their lives were still the same, ours on the other hand, had changed drastically. We were going to need God’s wisdom, in how to explain, why our purpose in life was different now.
I looked up the word “hippiedom” in the dictionary to see if it’s a real word. Sure enough it is, and here are some of the descriptions I found, that are varied and interesting. It means the condition, or state of being, characterized by unconventional dress, and the communal lifestyle, that developed in the 60s. The values were counterculture towards the established society, with an opposition to war, with liberal attitudes toward sexuality, and the use of marijuana and psychedelic drugs.
Funny, but I didn’t see music listed in any of the definitions. I would tend to say, since I lived through that period, that the music was the most obvious and driving force, behind the hippie movement of the 60s and early 70s.
So that leaves the question, what does it mean if someone comes out of the hippiedom world. Well, the most dangerous influence that we experienced, was believing in fake spirituality that was called the “New Age of Aquarius.” Of course the regular use of drugs, and living in this imaginary world of meditating, with so called spiritual music, held us captive.
Compared to the dictionary, there is also is a Biblical description. According to the Bible, in the book of Acts chapter 11, it says the “disciples were called Christians.” They were people who had heard the gospel of “repent and believe” from the apostles that Jesus had sent out. There are only two other references to the followers of Jesus being called Christians. These three verses are all in the context of persecution, that the new believers and apostles were going through at the time. Peter wrote in his first letter to the early church, “If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”
