Johnny Cash died five years ago today, and every day he becomes more religious. Or rather, each day you can find another Christian praising Cash's sorrowfully guilty, sin-prone faith and calling for today's Christians to be more like him. It's an odd canonization, at odds with what the rest of us expect from Christian role models, that began shortly before his death and accelerated when he passed on in the fall of 2003.
Three years ago, Touchstone magazine, recalled Cash's late-in-life rebellion against the record industry--they published an ad featuring a vintage photograph of Cash flipping the bird as a sarcastic appreciation to the executives who abandoned him, then wrote, "Yet there is something in the Cash appeal to the youth generation that Christians would do well to emulate."
The trend has culminated in "Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction," a compelling cultural critique by Rodney Clapp published earlier this year. Clapp offers Cash as the embodiment of an authentic American morality, and he parses Cash's image in theological and political terms. By every measure Clapp applies, Cash outshines the hubristic, triumphalist and rule-obsessed Christian of today's America. The key to Cash's sainthood is precisely his humble imperfection.
No mortal man can withstand this degree of mythologizing. As one blogger asks, "How could Johnny Cash be so profoundly Christian and patriotic, and yet so this-worldly, provocative, and controversial at the same time?" It's easy to forget that Cash repeatedly fell, for years at a time, into irrelevance. His current transformation from showman to saint may have less to do with an exemplary Christian life than with Christians wishing they could re-introduce themselves to the broader culture, as sinners and not saviors.
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Johnny Cash was a Awesome example, of what the Lord Jesus Christ,
can do in mans life. How God can turn a mans life around when we seek
our Lord, we shall find our Lord. When we call upon God he hears us, when we open the door and welcome the Lord in , he comes in. That is what he did for Johnny Cash, and that is what the Lord will do for any
who welcome and ask him into their heart. We are then Saints, Saved by
the Grace and Love of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Just as if we had
never sinned. The Lord remembers our Sin no more, when we come to him and ask for Forgiveness. The Lord is faithful and just, we are his.
We can rejoice in knowing God has written our name in the Book Of Life.
We can know we will spend Eternity with our God, our Lord and Savior.
Thank you Jesus. We can stand on your word, the truth is ours.
Praise God you have called me onto yourself, Esther in B.C. Canada
Dear Paul,
Have you checked out the lives of King David, The prodigal son and The Apostle Paul, just to name a few among so very many? And have you read 1 John 1 & 2?
Jack Shaw
Luke 1:37!
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.” (1 John 1:8-10 –NIV)
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2: 1-2 –NIV)
One can hardy say that Johnny Cash lived a holy and blameless life. But I wont pass judgement, I'll leave that to God.
The only thing I know is that his big hit "Folsom Penitentiary Blue" was really written by Big Joe Williams and I hear Joe sing it ten years before Johnny claimed to have written it.
As far as I know, Big Joe may have sold it to him when he ws hard up for money as was often the case, but I had a hard time forgiving Johnny for claiming it as his own.
Johnny wasn't a saint, he was a guy trying to make it. It wasn't his fault that his wife could sing and he couldn't.
If Big Joe Williams wrote "Folsom Penitentiary Blue", maybe his was a different song, since Johnny's was "Folsom PRISON BLUES".
I can't believe the love and kindness Johnny Cash showed especially the last few yrs of his life anyone would say anything bad about him.Even before he gave his heart to the Lord how many people he helped.He became such a wonderful person after giving his heart to the Lord though.He always had a wonderful voice and used it for the Lord for a good while.People have bad things to say about anyone though.Even Jesus was not accepted by his own and I am not comparing Johnny Cash to Jesus but you could see Christ in him the last few years.The love he showed though.I believe he died sooner because he loved June so much and Juns sure would not like the remarks that was made about him by scruffy she sure loved Johnny as much as he loved her.God Bless both of them I feel like I will see them again someday.I believe they are with the Lord I can't judge that though but they both followed Jesus greatest commandment to love thy neighbor.I pray for their children.
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