This expression is taken from a short
screed written by
Hunter S. Thompson in 1971. It was published in 1971 in
Rolling Stone magazine, issue 90, and titled "
Memo from the Sports Desk: The So-Called "Jesus Freak" Scare." HST wrote the
diatribe under his
pseudonym,
Raoul Duke, and it is true to his normal form. It is a hate-filled, vitriolic three pages of hilarious bile which criticized the conservative evangelical Christian groups in the
United States, and which contained such memorable quotes as the following:
A recent emergency survey of our field-sources indicates a firestorm of lunacy brewing on the neo-religious front.
During the next few months we will almost certainly be inundated, even swamped, by a nightmare-blizzard of schlock, gibberish, swill & psuedo-religious bullshit of every type and description.
And best of all ...
We expect the phone lines to be tied up almost constantly by hired and/or rabid Jesus Freaks attempting to get things like "Today's Prayer Message,", etc., into our editorial columns. Our policy will be not to reject these things: No, we will accept them. They will all be switched to a special automated phone-extension in the basement of the building. Yail Bloor, eminent theologist, has prepared a series of recorded replies for calls of this nature. Any callers who resist automation can leave their names & numbers so Inspector Bloor can return their calls and deal with them personally between the hours of 2 and 6 AM.