ABSTRACT
Parents, teachers, politicians, and employers evidence alarm over the “alienation” of youth, of workers, of voters, of individuals in general. Political analysts blame lack of citizen participation in the political process on alienation of the people from their government and their society. The immense literature on alienation within sociology evidences little agreement on the concept and on the best way to use the concept in empirical research. The Jesus movement emerged during a period of violent ruptures within American society. It shared with other social movements an awareness of the difficulties of war, racism, drug addiction, violence, and other social problems. But its message was generally one of disengagement rather than confrontation. The solution was to come through individual change. The only way to change society was to change men’s hearts. Wicked and sinful people, non-Christians, would by necessity create and maintain a world of sin.
