Black, Edith

Biography / Administrative History

The Christian World Liberation Front (CWLF) was founded in 1969 in Berkeley, California, by Jack Sparks and others from the Campus Crusade for Christ. Disagreeing with the need for headquarters approval of any published material, they became an independent entity.

Sparks, a former teacher at Penn State in statistics and research design, led the organization to become one of the most recognizable Christian groups in Berkeley. Along with individual approaches and distribution of their literature, the group led impromtu gatherings and performed street theater around the University of California campus and Telegraph Avenue. Their mission was to evangelize and convert students and street people.

In 1975, the CWLF disbanded over questions of authority. Neither group continued under the CWLF name. Some members followed Jack Sparks, who formed the New Apostolic Order, which later became the Evangelical Orthodox Church. Other members formed the Berkeley Christian Coalition, which became the Spiritual Counterfeits Project. This organization, despite a defamation lawsuit filed by Witness Lee that forced them into bankruptcy, still collects and interprets information on new religious organizations.

The CWLF published Right On, one of the first underground papers of the Jesus movement. After the split, the Berkeley Christian Coalition published Radix . More intellectual than many similar publications, the papers featured interviews with local figures ( such as Loni Hancock) and nationally known people (Theodore Roszak, for instance) and used the language of the radical and revolutionary culture with their particular Christian orientation.

Sources

Edward E. Plowman, "Whatever Happened to the Jesus Movement," Christianity Today, October 24, 1975, 46-48.

"Spiritual Counterfeits Project," Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_Counterfeits_Project (accessed February 28, 2008).

From the guide to the Christian World Liberation Front collection, 1970-1988, (The Graduate Theological Union. Library.)