Reporters Jim Douglas Henry, Jeremy James, Jeanne La Chard, Denis Tuohy, Desmond Wilcox, Harold Williamson

Tonight: The Jesus Trip
'You don't have to take drugs. The only pill you need is the Gos-pill.' 'Don't drop acid. Drop Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.' These, and other slogans like them, are part of the vocabulary of a new United States youth phenomenon - the Jesus movement.

Wearied by the excesses of their own drug culture and even more So by the materialism, as they see it, of their elders, thousands of young Americans are seeking another outlet for their energies in Christianity - heady, fundamentalist Christianity where the Bible is the only word of truth and the only safeguard against an imminent and vengeful doomsday.

Mingling with the drug addicts along Hollywood Boulevard and spreading coast to coast, advocates of the 'Jesus Trip' are winning increasing numbers of converts from the ranks of the disenchanted. One sect alone, the Children of God, has built up a membership of 700 full-time evangelists in two years.

Abjuring drink, drugs and extramarital sex, they have retreated to their own rural communes to study the Bible and praise the Lord until they are ready to convert their fellow-countrymen. Their life style is built around rock-based religious music; their message is a mixture of idealism and intolerance.