Is the term "Jesus Freak" bigoted?

[slackmaster]

55. The term is anchored firmly to the late 1960s and early 1970s. I can assure you it wasn't bigoted...

...at the time because although it may have been intended as pejorative by some at the time, it was unashamedly embraced by the young Christian revivalists at whom it was aimed. I remember the times very well - There were always a few of them around me that I was aware of starting in 1971.

Two young men who sang in the school choir with me were caught up in the movement. I remember how they signed my yearbook that year. One signed his name with "Servant of Jesus," the other as "Servant of our lord Jesus." Both clean-cut, well-behaved and studious, neither was even slightly bothered by being called Jesus Freaks even though they weren't hippies. (ETA - The youth for Jesus movement provided a more socially acceptable entree into hippie culture than did the extant Flower Children.)

I thought they were a little eccentric but in the context of the time and the place they didn't seem really out of line. Most of us including me did practice some form of religion - Mostly Christians, a significant Jewish community, a Buddhist here, a Bahai or two, and even a few Muslims. 1971 was also the first year I became aware of openly homosexual schoolmates - Sitting right next to me in choir along with the Jesus Freaks and most of the hottest girls in school. It was a great time of expansion of my personal horizons. It was a good time of peace and cooperation in spite of the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Even Republicans and Democrats intermarried, something you would never expect to see if your only window on the world of politics was the present Democratic Underground.

Trying to tag a term so firmly rooted to a specific time and to some extent place in our culture with a term like "bigoted" by placing it in a contemporary context makes no sense to me. The Jesus Freaks were a phenomenon of the past, as were the Holy Rollers, Bible Thumpers, Happy Clappys, and the various kinds of people who have been simply called Fundamentalists over the centuries.

The real Jesus Freaks are almost as long gone as the Beatniks. I don't have a problem with people using the terms in a modern context, but please don't try to imbue them with value judgements that weren't appropriate when the terms were being used in their own current lexicon.