Jesus People USA

{{Short description|Christian intentional community in Chicago}} {{About|Jesus People USA|the Jesus people movement|Jesus movement}} {{multiple issues| {{refimprove|date=November 2025}} {{lead rewrite | reason = so that article intro complies with WP:LEAD, WP:VERIFY, and WP:ORIGINAL RESEARCH, in summarising article content rather than presenting new material, and in basing purported factual statements on sources, rather than on personal knowledge or plagiarism|date=November 2025}} }} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2018}} {{Infobox organization | name = Jesus People USA | image =  | map = | formation = 1972 | type = Christian | headquarters = | location = Chicago, Illinois | membership = | language = English | leader_title = | leader_name = | key_people = | budget = | website = {{URL|https://jesuspeoplechicago.org/}} }} '''Jesus People USA''' (JPUSA) is a Christian intentional community.<ref>{{cite web | author = Friedman, Stan | date = August 30, 2011 | title = Call of God Can Go in Unexpected Directions | work = Covenant News (covchurch.org) | url = http://www.covchurch.org/news/2011/08/30/call-of-god-can-go-in-unexpected-directions/ | access-date=January 28, 2013 | url-status = dead | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130414125125/http://www.covchurch.org/news/2011/08/30/call-of-god-can-go-in-unexpected-directions/ | archive-date=April 14, 2013 | location = Chicago, IL | publisher = The Evangelical Covenant Church}}</ref> JPUSA self-described in 2012 as having emerged in 1972<ref>{{cite web| author = JPUSA Staff | date = 2012-08-29 | title = About Us | work = JPUSA.org | url = http://jpusa.org/wp/about-us/ | access-date = 2025-11-06 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120829222230/http://jpusa.org/wp/about-us/ | archive-date = 2012-08-29 | location = Chicago, IL | publisher = Jesus People USA (JPUSA) | language = en | quote = <small>In 1972 JPUSA began when a ragtag group of Christians wanted to change the world for Jesus. Now more than forty years later, they are still at it. What started as simply inviting folks in for a meal became a feeding program. What began as a phone call from a mother looking for housing eventually became a shelter, and now a complex of ministries dedicated to housing and resource services. Working together, ordinary people have been able to accomplish extraordinary things.</small>}}</ref> from Jesus People Milwaukee;<ref name="Hippies-and-Beyond"/> JPUSA had "around 450 members plus other residents" in 1999.<ref name="Hippies-and-Beyond"/> == Background == Jesus People USA was described in 1999 as being "one of the largest single-site communes in the United States".<ref name="Hippies-and-Beyond">{{cite news | author = Miller, Timothy | year = 1999 | title = The Sixties Communes: Hippies and Beyond | series = Syracuse Studies on Peace and Conflict Resolution | edition = illustr. | page = 99 | isbn = 9780815606017 | location = Syracuse, NY | publisher = Syracuse University Press | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wVLu4F1aOgcC&q=JPUSA | access-date = 2025-11-06 }}</ref> In 2005, it was one of only a few communes with an eclectic cultural mix of hippies, punks, "crusties" and other members from various subcultures.<ref>{{cite book | author = Young, Shawn David | date = 2005 | title = Hippies, Jesus Freaks, and Music | isbn = 1593992017 | location = Ann Arbor, MI | publisher = Xanedu/Copley Original Works}}{{page needed|date=November 2025}}</ref>

JPUSA's social significance has been described as stemming from the group's continued presence in Chicago and its historic roots in the 1960s, according to sociologist Shawn David Young, and as one of the most significant of contemporary groups from the Jesus movement era:<blockquote>Founded in 1972, this community is one of the most significant surviving expressions of the original Jesus Movement of the sixties and seventies and represents a radical expression of contemporary countercultural evangelicalism. JPUSA's blend of Christian Socialism, theological orthodoxy, postmodern theory and ethos of edgy artistic expression (as demonstrated at their annual music festival) prove what some scholars have longed suspected: evangelicalism is a diverse, complex movement, which simply does not yield to any attempt at categorization.<ref name="Christian Radicalism in Chicago"> {{cite journal|last=Young|first=Shawn David|date=Summer 2010|title=From Hippies to Jesus Freaks: Christian Radicalism in Chicago's Inner-City|journal=Journal of Religion and Popular Culture|volume=22|issue=2|page=3|doi=10.3138/jrpc.22.2.003}} </ref></blockquote>

The JPUSA community produced ''Cornerstone'' magazine.{{when|date=November 2025}}{{cn|date=November 2025}}

== Controversy == === Enroth controversy === {{one source|section|date=November 2025}} As described by the ''Chicago Tribune'' in a 2001 longform article, JPUSA elders learned that Ronald Enroth was researching a sequel to his book ''Churches That Abuse'', which was said to mention issues of abuse within JPUSA.<ref name="CommuneIronGrip"/> Despite efforts of elders to convince Enroth to edit JPUSA out of the book, it was published in 1994 and included a full chapter of accounts of alleged abuse within the group.<ref name="CommuneIronGrip"/>

As the Tribune reports, the release of the book<blockquote>set off a firestorm of debate among religious scholars. Dozens, like Ruth Tucker, a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, would defend [JPUSA] vehemently, saying Enroth was "sadly misdirected and his research methods seriously flawed." Others, like Paul Martin, the director of Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, one of the few residential treatment centers in the world for former members of "abusive groups," would support Enroth's findings, saying that his facility had been getting a flood of requests for help from former members and that the commune "displays virtually every sign that I watch for in overly authoritarian and totalistic groups."<ref name="CommuneIronGrip">{{ cite news | author = Trib Staff | orig-date = April 1, 2001 | date = 20 August 2021 | title = Commune's Iron Grip Tests Faith of Converts | format = first of a two part series | newspaper = Chicago Tribune (Trib) |  url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/2001/04/01/communes-iron-grip-tests-faith-of-converts/ | access-date = 2025-11-06}}</ref></blockquote>

Ronald Enroth responded to JPUSA's attempt, through their earlier correspondence, to influence his work, stating in the book:<blockquote>There has been much correspondence between leaders of the Covenant Church and JPUSA and me since I began to do the research for this book. They have questioned the integrity of my reports, the reliability of my respondents, and my sociological methodology, but I have conducted more than seventy hours of in-depth interviews and telephone conversations with more than forty former members of JPUSA. They have also largely discounted the reports of abusive conditions past and present in the JPUSA community. ... Unwilling to admit serious deficiencies and insensitivity in their pastoral style, the leaders of JPUSA have instead sought to discredit the former members who have cooperated with my research efforts.<ref name="Enroth 1994">{{cite book |last=Enroth |first=Ronald M. |author-link=Ronald Enroth |title=Recovering from churches that abuse |publisher=Zondervan Pub. House |location=Grand Rapids, MI |year=1994 |isbn=9780310398707 |oclc=30318174}}{{Page needed|date=July 2018}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=July 2018}}</blockquote>

As the ''Chicago Tribune'' notes in the same article, the leaders of JPUSA "would come to believe the book was 'poison in the well.'"<ref name="CommuneIronGrip"/> In the second part of the ''Tribune'' series on the group, Kirsten Scharnberg reports that as a result of the book's description of JPUSA, scores of members decided to leave the group.<ref name="CommuneIronGrip2">{{ cite news | first= Kirsten |last=Scharnberg | date = April 2, 2001 | title = Exodus From Commune Ignites Battle for Souls | format = first of a two part series | newspaper = Chicago Tribune | url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/2001/04/02/exodus-from-commune-ignites-battle-for-souls/ | access-date = 2025-11-06 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201126235544/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2001-04-02-0104020221-story.html | archive-date = 26 November 2020 }}</ref>

=== ''Chicago Tribune'' criticism ===

In 2001, the ''Chicago Tribune'' published a two-part article primarily critical of the movement, with quotes from several ex-members accusing the group of authoritarian practices.<ref name="CommuneIronGrip"/><ref name="CommuneIronGrip2"/> One of the JPUSA activities criticized in the article includes "adult spankings," employed after charismatic leader Jack Winters introduced it as a means to heal the "inner child." The practice, which lasted approximately four years in the mid-1970s, was abandoned by the group, with leaders citing it as reflective of how "spiritually immature" the group was at the time.<ref name="CommuneIronGrip"/>

JPUSA issued a response to the two-part article, found on their website, which accuses the article of "anti-religious bias and cultural intolerance."<ref name="Thor 2007">{{cite web |author=Thor |title=An Official Response To The Chicago Tribune From Jesus People USA |website=jpusa.org |date=2007-02-09 |url=http://www.jpusa.org/tribune_response.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070209173018/http://www.jpusa.org/tribune_response.html |archive-date=2007-02-09 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060831162343/http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/jpusa.html Religious Movements profile of JPUSA] (hosted by the University of Virginia) * [http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/aprilweb-only/4-2-24.0.html?start=6#related Christianity Today's coverage of JPUSA and controversies] * [http://www.apologeticsindex.org/j18.html The Apologetics Index's profile of JPUSA] (critical, links to many Enroth saga documents) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110926213140/http://www.cornerstonemag.com/conflict/badpastors.htm A journalist living at JPUSA discusses the Enroth saga] * [https://symmetrysoverrated.blogspot.com/2008/10/life-in-christian-commune-my-year-at_09.html My Year At JPUSA] (An anthropology student's report) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100911111045/http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/art22%282%29-jesusfreaks.html Christian Radicalism in Chicago’s Inner-City] (Academic article on JPUSA) * [https://web.archive.org/web/20021005062817/http://www.people.virginia.edu/~jmb5b/jp.html A 1990 MA Thesis on JPUSA]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jesus People USA}} Category:1972 establishments in Illinois Category:Christian communities Category:Christian denominations established in the 20th century Category:Christian rock Category:Christianity in Chicago Category:Intentional communities in the United States Category:Jesus movement Category:Religious organizations based in Chicago Category:Christian organizations established in 1972