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It’s not every day that you convince a large group of students to drop their Southern Baptists affiliation and pick up something completely different. For whatever reasons James and Benson had the ability to make this happen, they could get the students reading Nee, and they could have their hand in Major Ian Thomas visiting the campus.
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There was at that time a genuine move of the Spirit of God among millions of young people. I personally was saved at the tail end of this period.
When I hear or read about people's dismay at the LC stories from those days, I can only say that "
things were different." American society as a whole was much more trusting towards other people. For example, I used to hitch hike home from high school every day, and always got good fast rides. I was never worried about a bad ride, especially in the middle of the day. Christians would get radically saved and then hitch out to a commune someone would tell them about. As soon as I met another Christian, I felt closer to them than my own family.
Jonestown had a tremendously negative impact upon all of America. Personally I feel it signaled the end of the move of the Spirit. Suspicion mounted towards Christians as potential cults. The war in Nam ended and racial tensions over MLK had subsided. Watergate made us all the more suspicious of politicians. Cheap drugs and free sex moved in to replace the joy of the holy Spirit.