mattbraunlin
Member
Pat Boone or Johnny Cash: The Right to Choose
This blurb is aimed primarily at young people. It involves a bit of a history lesson, delving into the early years of pop-culture. I will examine the legacies of the two men named in the title, and attempt to explain them as a microcosm of the current state of the Church.
Let's start with Pat Boone.
Pat Boone was an extremely successful recording artist of the 1950's. He made a good deal of his fortune by taking the hits of rock'n'roll heroes and sanitizing them for conservative Christian audiences.
Let me give you an example.
Little Richard's revolutionary 1957 song Tutti Frutti was the prototypical anthem of youthful rebellion. If you have ever listened to a song to piss off your parents, you owe something to Little Richard. Tutti Frutti's lyrics describe two separate women, Sue and Daisy, and the writer's obsession with each.
So what did Pat Boone do? He rewrote the lyrics, first describing his love for Sue, then describing Daisy as a temptation, which he forsakes because of his fidelity to Sue.
Boone made a career of taking cutting-edge rock'n'roll songs and making them lame.
Much has been said of Boone's popularization of rock'n'roll as a legitimate force; Little Richard himself described him as 'the man who made me a millionaire.' But his overarching legacy is one of nauseating wholesomeness, of oppressive censorship, of bland mediocrity which has made him a grand laughingstock to anyone like me who has studied the history of popular culture.
Now let's look at Johnny Cash.
Johnny Cash was the most iconic figure country music has ever produced. He was one of those transcendental artists, with people all over the musical spectrum championing him and his music.
He was also a profoundly troubled man; his drug addictions almost killed him, his first marriage ended in disgrace, and he lost his older brother in a horrific accident at a sawmill when he was twelve. He had a powerful dark side; to his dying day, he was never able to escape the shroud of demons which chased him his entire life.
And he gave the whole damned thing to Jesus.
Johnny was perhaps the most crucial figure in my coming to Christ. His stunning legacy of giving his tormented soul to Jesus has brought comfort and inspiration to millions.
Let me give you an example.
Johnny Cash had a tremendous compassion for prisoners. He performed many free concerts for inmates of brutal maximum security prisons. One of these concerts was filmed and recorded and became the album At San Quentin.
On this album, Cash swears continuously, makes a highly inappropriate joke when a cameraman bends over, tells off his network authorities, sings a song about the prison itself which almost causes a riot, and sings a song of contempt for the police who put him in jail for a night for defacing public property. He also flips off a crew member who was hassling him, in what would become one of the most iconic photos in pop-music history (google johnny cash middle finger, you'll find it).
And what does he do next?
He preaches the gospel.
He sings gorgeous, rugged renditions of timeless hymns. He teaches about the Holy Land. He tenders his love and comfort to the inmates on death row listening on wire who were not allowed to attend. He emphasizes the vital beauty of family.
He brings Jesus into the dark and murky lives of hardened criminals, and a number of them accepted Christ as a result.
I'm a bit out of breath here, but having examined these two men, let me now get to my ultimate point:
The current Church picked Pat Boone. It picked the harmless, the squeaky-clean, the judgemental and the safe. And it has quite cleverly arranged things so that there is no alternative. It's Pat Boone or apostasy, and all the Johnny Cashes have been left out in the cold.
And out in the cold from what, precisely?
The Pat Boone Church has become an invisible wisp. An irrelevant doorstop with virtually no cultural significance or clout. And as a result, Jesus means about as much to young people like you as Windows '95.
That is why I have broken ties with the current Church. Because when I go there I have to pretend I'm somebody I'm not. I am intensely lonely, but I'd rather walk alone with Christ than be a fraud.
I choose Johnny Cash.
As an afterthought, I would like to ask the Pat Boone church a question: do you think you stand a chance against the evils of our time? It is an historical fact that you don't. The Babylonian cesspool we call what remains of civilization is a testament to your weakness.
We need a culturally intelligent church. We need a sneering church. We need a rough, cussing militia, lithe and swift and muscular as a leopard. We need a church born out of a ravenous hunger to stare down our foes at high noon in the name of Jesus Christ.
And that ain't you.
My purpose, in a nutshell, is to contradict the Pat Boone Church. To take part in the creation of an alternative. To spark the creation of a new force, through which Christ can speak to the troubled, to the wayward, to the rebel and to the freak, and let you know that He longs for your friendship. That he has a great plan for you, and that there is no limit to what he can accomplish through you.
I am waiting for God's signal.
This blurb is aimed primarily at young people. It involves a bit of a history lesson, delving into the early years of pop-culture. I will examine the legacies of the two men named in the title, and attempt to explain them as a microcosm of the current state of the Church.
Let's start with Pat Boone.
Pat Boone was an extremely successful recording artist of the 1950's. He made a good deal of his fortune by taking the hits of rock'n'roll heroes and sanitizing them for conservative Christian audiences.
Let me give you an example.
Little Richard's revolutionary 1957 song Tutti Frutti was the prototypical anthem of youthful rebellion. If you have ever listened to a song to piss off your parents, you owe something to Little Richard. Tutti Frutti's lyrics describe two separate women, Sue and Daisy, and the writer's obsession with each.
So what did Pat Boone do? He rewrote the lyrics, first describing his love for Sue, then describing Daisy as a temptation, which he forsakes because of his fidelity to Sue.
Boone made a career of taking cutting-edge rock'n'roll songs and making them lame.
Much has been said of Boone's popularization of rock'n'roll as a legitimate force; Little Richard himself described him as 'the man who made me a millionaire.' But his overarching legacy is one of nauseating wholesomeness, of oppressive censorship, of bland mediocrity which has made him a grand laughingstock to anyone like me who has studied the history of popular culture.
Now let's look at Johnny Cash.
Johnny Cash was the most iconic figure country music has ever produced. He was one of those transcendental artists, with people all over the musical spectrum championing him and his music.
He was also a profoundly troubled man; his drug addictions almost killed him, his first marriage ended in disgrace, and he lost his older brother in a horrific accident at a sawmill when he was twelve. He had a powerful dark side; to his dying day, he was never able to escape the shroud of demons which chased him his entire life.
And he gave the whole damned thing to Jesus.
Johnny was perhaps the most crucial figure in my coming to Christ. His stunning legacy of giving his tormented soul to Jesus has brought comfort and inspiration to millions.
Let me give you an example.
Johnny Cash had a tremendous compassion for prisoners. He performed many free concerts for inmates of brutal maximum security prisons. One of these concerts was filmed and recorded and became the album At San Quentin.
On this album, Cash swears continuously, makes a highly inappropriate joke when a cameraman bends over, tells off his network authorities, sings a song about the prison itself which almost causes a riot, and sings a song of contempt for the police who put him in jail for a night for defacing public property. He also flips off a crew member who was hassling him, in what would become one of the most iconic photos in pop-music history (google johnny cash middle finger, you'll find it).
And what does he do next?
He preaches the gospel.
He sings gorgeous, rugged renditions of timeless hymns. He teaches about the Holy Land. He tenders his love and comfort to the inmates on death row listening on wire who were not allowed to attend. He emphasizes the vital beauty of family.
He brings Jesus into the dark and murky lives of hardened criminals, and a number of them accepted Christ as a result.
I'm a bit out of breath here, but having examined these two men, let me now get to my ultimate point:
The current Church picked Pat Boone. It picked the harmless, the squeaky-clean, the judgemental and the safe. And it has quite cleverly arranged things so that there is no alternative. It's Pat Boone or apostasy, and all the Johnny Cashes have been left out in the cold.
And out in the cold from what, precisely?
The Pat Boone Church has become an invisible wisp. An irrelevant doorstop with virtually no cultural significance or clout. And as a result, Jesus means about as much to young people like you as Windows '95.
That is why I have broken ties with the current Church. Because when I go there I have to pretend I'm somebody I'm not. I am intensely lonely, but I'd rather walk alone with Christ than be a fraud.
I choose Johnny Cash.
As an afterthought, I would like to ask the Pat Boone church a question: do you think you stand a chance against the evils of our time? It is an historical fact that you don't. The Babylonian cesspool we call what remains of civilization is a testament to your weakness.
We need a culturally intelligent church. We need a sneering church. We need a rough, cussing militia, lithe and swift and muscular as a leopard. We need a church born out of a ravenous hunger to stare down our foes at high noon in the name of Jesus Christ.
And that ain't you.
My purpose, in a nutshell, is to contradict the Pat Boone Church. To take part in the creation of an alternative. To spark the creation of a new force, through which Christ can speak to the troubled, to the wayward, to the rebel and to the freak, and let you know that He longs for your friendship. That he has a great plan for you, and that there is no limit to what he can accomplish through you.
I am waiting for God's signal.
