So, in my life, I was two kinds of "freak." First a freak because those of us who were immersed in the counterculture eschewed the term "hippie," preferring to be called "freaks" because we did not want to be a normal part of the broken, hypocritical culture we experienced around us, including marriage, school, government, and religion. And then, when I became a Christian, "Jesus Freak" seemed an apt term for us young believers who passionately embraced the commitment to follow Jesus in radical discipleship.

About the author

Vern Fein experienced radical changes in a short period of time during the 1960s. Prominent in the Free Speech Movement at a Big Ten campus, he then headed up The Committee to End the War in Vietnam and the more radical Students for a Democratic Society before he became a Christian Pastor in two churches up until his recent retirement.