(RNS) — Marching through darkish streets under torches, the mob proudly displayed their swastikas, shouting "Heil, Hitler" and chanting the chilling refrain, "Blood and soil! Blood and soil!"
one of the most marchers, captured by using a photographer, wore a Johnny cash T-shirt.
This wasn't Nineteen Thirties Germany. This become Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
The affiliation of Johnny money with the hate-crammed, white-supremacist "Unite the right" rally in Charlottesville drew a pointy and public rebuke from the money household. cash's daughter Rosanne posted a passionate observe on her fb page on behalf of herself and the other money infants.
beneath the heading "A message from the little ones of Johnny money," Rosanne described her father as "a person whose heart beat with the rhythm of love and social justice. … His pacifism and inclusive patriotism have been two of his most defining traits. He could be horrified at even an informal use of his name or photograph for an idea or a trigger founded in persecution and hatred. … Our dad instructed every of us, again and again right through our lives, 'little ones, which you can select love or hate. I select love.'"
when you feel of the song of the man in Black, you by and large think of the tune where money speaks up for the poor, the struggling and the disenfranchised, songs that "beat with the rhythm of affection and social justice."
but money was an outspoken patriot and he loved america, and his patriotism commonly made the gospel messages present in his tune liable to distortion and misappropriation, in exactly the same manner that patriotism and nationalism of all sorts can distort and twist the gospel. Nationalistic nostalgia can lead us into some darkish, waters. A neo-Nazi may turn out to be donning your T-shirt.
No song more desirable captures this dynamic than "Ragged old Flag." The track, from the 1974 album of the same title, recounts a narrative of loss and decay. The flag — and the nation it represents — has been damaged.
The problem with this "narrative of harm" is that it conjures up emotions of resentment, inflicting us to see anxiously across the political aisle, our backyard fences and our country wide borders as we search for the culprits who are hurting america. The photo of the ragged historical flag — a damaged the us — creates suspicion and paranoia, and that concern breeds intolerance and hate.
we can preserve the gospel witness of Johnny money free from the temptations of patriotic nostalgia through focusing on how his music spoke up for the individuals the American Dream has left in the back of. The song of Johnny cash is at its superior, artistically and theologically, when he requires an "inclusive patriotism." When money sings "These are my individuals" in his love track to the united states, we hold in view his advocacy for Native americans, the prisoners cheering in Folsom and San Quentin, the extremely good melancholy farmers in Arkansas and the African American artists he invited on "The Johnny money exhibit" within the early Seventies.
For us to steer clear of the trap of nostalgia, the songs we sing about the usa have to be advanced and sometimes important. Such criticism is an expression of affection and an act of patriotism. My favorite lyric of money's in this regard comes from his little-standard music "All God's little ones Ain't Free," from the album "Orange Blossom particular": "I'd sing extra about extra of this land, but all God's toddlers ain't free."
I don't need to imply that cash completely reconciled the political tensions and inconsistencies we look at in his song and life. but money's song could be hopelessly at risk of patriotic nostalgia if albums like "At Folsom jail" and "Bitter Tears," an album of Native American protest songs, didn't exist.
Our means for prophetic critique flows out of those conflicts and tensions — the gap between countrywide aspiration and countrywide failure, between country wide satisfaction and country wide guilt. When this capability for criticism erodes we lose what Walter Brueggemann has known as "the prophetic creativeness," the capacity to think about our nation standing under the judgment of God.
To be certain, this could be harder or more straightforward based upon how you consider about the usa, but cultivating a potential for prophetic critique is the assignment of each Christian, exceptionally if you happen to reside in a nation you are happy with and grateful for.
As Ralph Gleason wrote of cash's political witness all over the tumultuous years of Nixon, race riots and Vietnam: "He's struggling. He's no longer best, however he's making an attempt. He loves this country but he's attempting to keep that from which means he hates any other."
In our own afflicted, polarized political climate, none of us is ultimate, and most of us are struggling. Like Johnny cash, lots of us are attempting to like our country without that which means we need to hate someone else. we are grateful for our freedoms, but we are additionally crying out for "a extra superb union."
within the conclusion, I think cash himself summed it up most excellent: We'd "sing extra about greater of this land, however all God's toddlers ain't free."
(adapted from Trains, Jesus, & homicide: The Gospel according to Johnny money by way of Richard Beck. Copyright © 2019 Fortress Press, an imprint of 1517 Media. Used via permission. The views expressed in this commentary don't always replicate these of religion information provider.)
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