Confessions of a Saboteur and Subversive Agent of the JLM

Today I have decided to confess that for the last 50 years I have been a covert, subversive revolutionary for the outlawed organization JLM (Jesus Liberation Movement). I was recruited to this organization in 1956 at the tender age of 16 years with the promise that I would become a vital agent of change for this revolutionary body. The liberation movement was aimed not only at liberating people controlled by internal and external forces, but to insure that the Spirit of Jesus was also liberated to be a continuing influence in the world and not controlled by any one person or body.

Prior to this decision, I had been oblivious that for many years, my mother, who persistently encouraged me to believe that the world in which I lived could be a better place, had subjected me to an initial grooming for this role. She had encouraged me to believe that all people should be afforded the opportunity to develop their full potential and that it was possible to establish a more socially just and financially equitable society. Further, she insisted that we could not leave these tasks to others, that we all had a responsibility to ensure these were not simply hollow words, but through our own endeavours we could make this a living reality.

I am now aware that even as a small child my thoughts and actions were being formed and even manipulated by my mother who encouraged me to look for the best in people and to do whatever I could to help them to achieve their full potential. She also encouraged me to read the subversive literature of Hugo, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. However, the impact of this indoctrination only became significant when at the age of sixteen, I came in contact with the JLM.

It was explained to me at the time of my recruitment that the revolution to which I was being called had in fact been operating for nearly 2000 years and that many organizations such as national Governments and the Christian Church had attempted to destroy it. They had subtly pretended to adopt its principals whilst all the time undermining its authority by watering down its principals, its beliefs and its practice. The major task of the true revolutionary was to smuggle the influence of the JLM into the Christian Church and the administration of Government activities and in fact into all aspects of living. I was given strict instructions to operate covertly, for fear that as soon as people realized what my true mission was they would pretend to support it with the prime purpose of emasculating its power.

It was made abundantly clear to me by my mentors at the time of my recruitment that my role was to be a covert one. I was to at all times remain under cover so that the real purpose of my orders could be carried out without detection. It was suggested that I should belong to the organizational church as my cover and even to accept a full time working arrangement. It was also made abundantly clear that I should not allow myself to be seduced by the organizational Christian Church, but that I should remain true to my commitment to the revolutionary arm of the JLM and all that it stood for. My true mission goals would continue to remain covert to prevent them from being undermined.

My reason for coming in from the cold at this time is to reveal, in the life I have left to me, what my allegiance to the JLM has meant personally and why I have given my life to the task of smuggling Jesus into the Christian Church against all opposition. In the person of Jesus I have discovered a human being who has a faith and belief in the inherent goodness of common humanity, and who seeks to offer the opportunity for all people to be liberated from the fears and restrictions placed upon them by the structures of society and their own feelings of insecurity. Our founder, Jesus of Nazareth, had been quick to point out the dangers to civil liberties of a hierarchal religion and a power obsessed, brutal government.

My role over the years has undergone a process of refinement but the revolutionary zeal still remains. My mother’s encouragement to be an agent of change is I believe stronger today than at any other time in my life. I have tried to assist the people I meet to discern that they have the ability to reach a sense of wholeness of being, by recognizing the power that resides within them, in much the same as did the founder of our revolutionary movement.

I was carefully taught that the best modus operandi was to alert people to the fact that the power to change was within them, in much the same way that the founder of our revolutionary movement had been able to effect change: this indwelling power was connected by a spiritual force to the great energy of the universe. The power becomes visible in the words and actions of people operating in normal everyday situations, but often in a subversive way such as through humour, wit, sarcasm, or exaggeration. Many people who became influential in the movement were unaware that they had become instruments of the revolution. Some of the greatest exponents of liberation could not raise to consciousness the reasons for their behaviour, which in no way demeaned their efforts.

Having come out will not deter me from continuing my mission as it has now become a vital part of who I am and what I have become.

Viva la Revolution.

John W H Smith