Johnny money's Gospel versus the Temptations of Nationalism

(RNS) — Marching via dark streets beneath torches, the mob proudly displayed their swastikas, shouting "Heil, Hitler" and chanting the chilling chorus, "Blood and soil! Blood and soil!"

one of the vital marchers, captured by way of a photographer, wore a Johnny money T-shirt.

This wasn't Nineteen Thirties Germany. This became Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

The affiliation of Johnny money with the hate-filled, white-supremacist "Unite the appropriate" rally in Charlottesville drew a pointy and public rebuke from the money household. money's daughter Rosanne posted a passionate observe on her facebook page on behalf of herself and the different cash infants.

under the heading "A message from the babies of Johnny money," Rosanne described her father as "a person whose coronary heart beat with the rhythm of affection and social justice. … His pacifism and inclusive patriotism had been two of his most defining qualities. He can be horrified at even an off-the-cuff use of his identify or photograph for an idea or a trigger centered in persecution and hatred. … Our dad told each of us, time and again during our lives, 'toddlers, which you could select love or hate. I opt for love.'"

if you happen to feel of the song of the man in Black, you often think of the song the place cash speaks up for the poor, the struggling and the disenfranchised, songs that "beat with the rhythm of love and social justice."

but cash turned into an outspoken patriot and he adored america, and his patriotism regularly made the gospel messages present in his song liable to distortion and misappropriation, in the exact same manner that patriotism and nationalism of all kinds can distort and twist the gospel. Nationalistic nostalgia can lead us into some dark, stricken waters. A neo-Nazi may turn out to be wearing your T-shirt.

No tune stronger captures this dynamic than "Ragged historic Flag." The song, from the 1974 album of the equal title, recounts a narrative of loss and decay. The flag — and the nation it represents — has been broken.

The difficulty with this "narrative of injury" is that it conjures up emotions of resentment, causing us to look anxiously across the political aisle, our backyard fences and our country wide borders as we search for the culprits who're hurting the united states. The image of the ragged old flag — a broken the usa — creates suspicion and paranoia, and that fear breeds intolerance and hate.

we will keep the gospel witness of Johnny cash free from the temptations of patriotic nostalgia via specializing in how his music spoke up for the americans the American Dream has left in the back of. The tune of Johnny money is at its most beneficial, artistically and theologically, when he requires an "inclusive patriotism." When cash sings "These are my people" in his love music to the united states, we retain in view his advocacy for Native americans, the prisoners cheering in Folsom and San Quentin, the top notch depression farmers in Arkansas and the African American artists he invited on "The Johnny cash display" within the early 1970s.

For us to prevent the lure of nostalgia, the songs we sing about the us have to be advanced and infrequently important. Such criticism is an expression of love and an act of patriotism. My favourite lyric of cash's during this regard comes from his little-known tune "All God's children Ain't Free," from the album "Orange Blossom special": "I'd sing more about greater of this land, however all God's infants ain't free."

I don't are looking to suggest that cash thoroughly reconciled the political tensions and inconsistencies we look at in his music and lifestyles. but cash's tune would be hopelessly vulnerable to patriotic nostalgia if albums like "At Folsom detention center" and "Bitter Tears," an album of Native American protest songs, didn't exist.

Our capability for prophetic critique flows out of these conflicts and tensions — the gap between countrywide aspiration and national failure, between countrywide delight and country wide guilt. When this skill for criticism erodes we lose what Walter Brueggemann has referred to as "the prophetic imagination," the capability to think about our nation standing beneath the judgment of God.

To make sure, this might be tougher or less demanding depending upon how you feel about the us, however cultivating a means for prophetic critique is the project of each Christian, notably for those who are living in a nation you are pleased with and grateful for.

As Ralph Gleason wrote of money's political witness throughout the tumultuous years of Nixon, race riots and Vietnam: "He's struggling. He's now not ultimate, however he's trying. He loves this country but he's attempting to retain that from which means he hates any other."

In our personal afflicted, polarized political local weather, none of us is excellent, and most of us are struggling. Like Johnny cash, lots of us are trying to like our nation without that meaning we need to hate somebody else. we are grateful for our freedoms, however we're also crying out for "a greater perfect union."

within the end, I think money himself summed it up superior: We'd "sing more about more of this land, but all God's infants ain't free."

(adapted from Trains, Jesus, & homicide: The Gospel in accordance with Johnny cash with the aid of Richard Beck. Copyright © 2019 Fortress Press, an imprint of 1517 Media. Used by using permission. The views expressed in this commentary don't necessarily replicate those of religion news provider.)

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