Walk The Line (Johnny Cash movie) - A Personal Review


When I was a pre-teen, I had a friend whose dad would come home from a grueling day of work as a welder, to shower and clean up to the sound of Johnny Cash blasting from his record player. At the time I could not understand his affinity for this music which just seemed to me to be off-key songs with hokey meanings. I was more into Creedance, Tommy James, and Steppenwolf.


Walk The Line portrays the first half of Cash's life story, warts and all.  His is a hardscrabble upbringing with a distant and disapproving father. The formulative event in his life occurs when his older brother, committed to becoming a minister, dies in a gruesome sawmill accident. This incindent is portrayed as haunting Cash for the rest of his life. He serves a stint in the army, where he picks up a guitar and learns to play. He works on some songs, but is too unsure of himself to actually sing for an audience. He marries his high school sweetheart, who never seems to understand or appreciate his love for country music. Through shere determination he finally makes a hit recording, and his career skyrockets.


Really dark moments of his life are portrayed in the movie. Unable to handle the fast pace and stardom, Cash turns to drugs for coping. He also enters into an affair with June Carter even though he has a wife and four children back home. The drugs pretty well destroy career and marriage.  Interestingly, his love for June Carter and her tenacious faith turn out to be the salvation for Johnny Cash. 


Joaquin Phoenix does a fine job with the songs. I admire that an actor would put forth such an effort to portray a character. Reese Witherspoon gives a less sterling performance with her portrayal of June Carter; she just seems to come across a little too peppy, a little too syrupy.


The concert at San Quentin, that closes the film, provides almost a mesmerizing closing. The prisoners are clapping and stomping in rhythm, the guards and warden are sweating to the connection of Cash with his audience, and the music again is great.  This is truly an entertaining and, I think, enriching film.


SOME PERSONAL INSIGHTS:


What a waste, spending one's life trying to win the approval of an unfair and distant parent.  We, as parents, probably have little realization of how deeply we we wound our children with careless words and behavior.  In considering the Johnny Cash portrayed in this movie, it seems that his struggle with his father is an important ingredient in forming the brooding, meloncholy personality that comes across so successfully in his music.  Is this not an example of "beauty from ashes"?


God can bless a mess. Cash had an affair with Carter, which contributed to the wreckage of his marriage. He hit rock bottom; arrested for drugs, time in jail, losing his home and almost his career, almost friendless. Yet this obviously imperfect woman was the catalyst for his salvation. She introduced him to a real faith in God, helped him to overcome drug addiction, and moved him back to the top of the charts.  God just plain loves the sinner, be it Johnny Cash or PastorDave!


We are all, in personal behavior and who we are deep within, a mixture of darkness and light. Sometimes Cash comes across as quite mean, even crazed. He mistreats others. There is no acceptable excuse for being unfaithful to your spouse. Yet this is the same man who became a great blessing to many people like myself. He made a movie about the life of Jesus called "The Gospel Road" which I have found to be quite appealing. He made a great recording of the reading of the New Testament. And, for years, he has stood up and testified to audiences far and wide about the grace and love of God.


I think I'll go out and buy a Johnny Cash album, and see if I can get a copy of "Gospel Road" on ebay.
12.31.05 (5:13 pm)   [edit]

23 Comments

Why Would Kyle Choose To Be Gay?

My College daughter was checking out her connections on MySpace recently, and looked up a friend from several years back, Kyle.  Prominently displayed on the website was a photograph of Kyle and his boyfriend, and an affirmation that he is gay.


 


About 12 years ago, he and his sister began attending the church I pastored.  This church was in a community literally out in the middle of nowhere, eight miles from the nearest town, grocery store, or gas station.  As I visited the homes anywhere remotely near the church, I got to know these two fine young people.  They began attending our activities at church- Bible studies, bike trips, etc.  Often I would drive about 4 miles to give these kids a ride to church, for their parents were not interested in spiritual matters.  I did gain a pretty good relationship with his mom.  But his dad was distant, uninvolved in the lives of his children, and spending every spare moment personally constructing a house next to their trailer, a never-ending project that literally was never finished.  I think I even remember talking with Kyle about Christ, praying with him during a sincere commitment, and baptizing him.


 


Now, Kyle is gay, and I am asking why.


 


I remember him as a nice and quiet young man, polite and respectful and faithful.  He played with my kids, and my youngest daughter went with his family for a week of vacation.  I went back to the church a couple of years ago, and Kyle was still attending.  I think he would arrange to get a ride to the church services. 


 


I point out to you that Kyle lives in a small-town environment in a culturally conservative part of the country.  Most people connected with his life would perceive being gay as a sin, or at least a sad aberration.  I could possibly see someone adapting this lifestyle choice in a more urban, progressive location, but not in this town.  He will most likely be ostracized by the religious community and ridiculed by neighbors and former friends.  His dad will disown him, and his mom will be broken-hearted.  And his conscience, shaped by a connection to church and a conservative culture, will not allow him to have peace.


 


Why would Kyle choose to be gay?


 


Before Kyle came along, I thought I understood this matter.  Many stumbled into gay behavior because they had trouble with heterosexual relationships; they were physically unattractive, or had particular personality traits that made them unappealing to the other sex.  Some, in their formative years of identity, were “discovered” by a gay person who introduced them into the lifestyle.  Still others, and perhaps Kyle would fall into this category, had deeply troubling disconnects with significant role models.  And, some persons moved from home and comfortable culture, and were lured into the lifestyle by attractive persons in the College and work scenes, persons actually evangelizing for the cause.


 


    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;       


 


I have to be honest.  Personally, I have little affinity for the current gay culture.  I think it is disingenuous how Hollywood and the media are so in-your-face with their promotion for acceptability of homosexuality.  Why does Ellen Degeneres win all the awards, and why is Brokeback Mountain being touted as such a great movie, and why are gays so unfailingly portrayed as attractive in our media?  There is an agenda!  AIDS is still, despite what we are being taught, primarily passed along through unprotected sex on the part of homosexuals.  The gay lifestyle does involve multiple partners and recreational sex with little personal and spiritual connection.  My observation of the gay scene is that I see a lot of unhappy people.  Of the gay persons I have known, I have never known one who was at peace with his life. 


 


I remember, last year, traveling across the state and stopping at the Rest Area to go to the bathroom.  A man followed me in and watched me urinate, leering at me the whole time.  I had forgotten that rest areas in this state are a popular hooking-up spot for gays!


 


So, there is a lot about homosexuality that is so very unattractive to me.  And I think my outlook is typical of many.


 


  But, concerning every gay person I have come to know and even call friend, all have been kind and earnest, not lecherous or militant, just wanting to live and let live.


 


My question, again:  Living around folks like me, and many much more harsh and less understanding than me, why would Kyle choose to be gay?  He’s heard the teachings of the Bible about the subject, no doubt even from me.  He’s a Bible believer; why would he choose to be gay?  He’s headed for a hard life, probably lots of conflict and unhappiness.  He is a good kid and a smart kid.  He could choose a better life.  Why would he be gay?


 


I’ve tried to be honest and thoughtful.  I’ve intentionally tried not to use the thoughts of others in formulating this writing.  What I do not want is anyone going ballistic on me and attacking me out of blind anger.  And, if you are going to call me a sinner for asking my question, then you had best do your homework and be ready for a challenge. 


 


I love Kyle.  Help me to understand this young man.


 


 


 

12.23.05 (6:49 pm)   [edit]

116 Comments

Two Quick Quotations: Are They Compatible?

UPCOMING POSTS


I have several matters about which to write and solicit your comments in the next week or two, if I can only find time! 

 


I am almost finished with part 2 of my previous blog about “loving and killing”. 

 


I’d like to comment on the historical origin of December 25 as the date for celebrating the birth of Christ- I question whether it is historically accurate. 

 


I’d like to talk about a couple of strange dreams, including one in which I was declared the next Pope. 

 


There is a John Lennon song entitled “Wheels” that I believe has a fine message.

 


I’m intrigued by the carefully drawn picture of Angelina Jolie, no doubt fueled by her publicists, as a moral deviant.  I believe such is connected to the media love affair with Ellen Degeneres and the newly crowned sure-to-win-all-the awards Brokeback Mountain.

 


And my mom, aged 86, wants me to perform her wedding. She just met this guy of the same age.  I think he is a little, shall I say, eccentric?  She wants me to perform their wedding on Christmas day.  Should I, could I, would I?

 


So, Stay tuned! 

---------------------


 

INCLUSION & EXCLUSION 


As for now, please give me some feedback about the following:

 


“God is defined by Jesus but is not confined to Jesus.” – Huston Smith, author

 


“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” – Jesus, John 14:6 (NASB)

 


How do you reconcile the two statements?

 


 
12.17.05 (9:15 am)   [edit]

12 Comments

Can You Love A Person And Yet Kill That Person?


Can you love a person, and yet kill that person?


 


I’m going to ask the question and address its complexity in this post, and ask for your thoughtful opinions.  Then I intend to be quite personal, and probably vulnerable, in the next post.


 


Can you love a person, and yet kill that person?  I believe you can.  Initially I stated this position to a fellow-blogger in a debate about the awful war in Iraq, and he has made a couple of comments about its inconsistency and incredulity.  I have to admit it does sound like an amazing position.  Yet it is the position taken, wittingly or not, by most who claim that love is their guiding principle in life.  And, certainly I mean the Christian. 


 


Human life is sacred; the Christian believes the other person is made in the image of God.  He is stamped with divinity, no matter how he appears or what he may do.


 


Inherent, and really non-negotiable, is the command for the follower of Christ to love others.  All others.  “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.” – John 13:33.  “He that loves not knows not God, for God is love.” – I John 4:8.  Biblically, theologically, there is really no argument.  The Greek word is “agape”.  I like the simple yet packed-with-meaning definition of the Holman Bible Dictionary: “Unselfish, loyal, and benevolent concern for the well-being of another.”  Every word has a careful and precise meaning.


 


Can you love a person and yet kill that person?


 


I’m going to dismiss the psychotic individual, exemplified by the likes of the killer of John Lennon or portrayed in an ugly movie.


 


Can you love a person, and yet execute him for breach of civil law?  Would you throw the switch to engage the electric chair, or press the button for the lethal injection?


 


Can you love a person as a law enforcement officer, and yet carry a gun and use it to stop a person from committing a violent crime?


 


Can you love a person, and yet fire a bullet into his head to stop him from bringing harm to yourself or your family?


 


Can you love a person and yet kill that person in an act of war?  Not just a declaration of warfare, but actual combat, where you fire the bullet into that person’s body.


    & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p;     ;         & nbsp;   &n bsp;   &nb sp;   &nbs p; 


I believe the movie Saving Private Ryan contains a tremendous study of the moral dilemma of combat.  Several fellow soldiers, whom we have gotten to know and like through the developing plot, are killed in a firefight.  A German soldier is captured.  The American soldiers want him to meet the same fate as their comrades.  Even their captain, a complex character played by Tom Hanks, despises this man and in on the brink of pulling the trigger himself.  Under gunpoint and taunting, the German is forced to dig his own grave, all the time pitifully begging for his life.  Finally the captain makes the decision.  Their mission will not allow them to bring along a POW.  Ethics will not allow him to kill this man.  Under protest and spite of the other soldiers, he orders the prisoner to walk toward the battlefront and surrender himself to the first allied soldier he meets, even as he knows this will not happen.  Later, this same German soldier confronts one of these men in a vicious hand-to-hand fight to the death with a knife.  The German is stronger and gets the upper hand of the American.  In what I think is a most haunting scene, the overpowering German pushes the knife into the chest of his combatant even as he looks into his face.  He speaks soothingly and compassionately even as he ends the man’s life.  No animosity.  No hatred.  Yet no mercy; it is war.  I’m given the idea that, if these two men were to meet another place and another time, they could play cards and share drinks.  They could be buddies.  Probably when they meet one day in heaven, they would discuss the matter, and there would be no animosity.  It was just business; the ugly business of war.


 


I solicit your give-and-take. 

 

12.09.05 (10:13 am)   [edit]

23 Comments

Gene, My Mechanic, And My Minister

Gene is my auto mechanic, and also a member of my church who never attends.  Most weekends he will be hunting or fishing, or spending time with his grandchildren.  Until recently, his yard was filled with about a dozen circular pens that held fighting chickens.  He told me he never fought 'em, just raised 'em.  He's an interesting man, and I will find myself in conversation with him a couple of times per month.  His garage door is always open for me.  Even when he is in his house, cooking or eating- two of his favorite avocations- he insists that I come in and “sit a spell.”


 


A few years ago Gene was going through a very difficult time in his life.  His daughter was giving him lots of trouble. His wife sued him for divorce, and hired a lawyer who was aggressively seeking to seize his money and property.  For about two months he came to church every Sunday.  He even dated a few of the single ladies of the church.  Interestingly, after this woman dragged him through a messy divorce and took much of his money, she decided she made a mistake and wanted to come home.  And Gene took her back.  They're not married; he's “shacking up” with his wife.  And now that matters have smoothed out, Gene no longer comes to church. 


 


Shortly after I moved to this area, Mr. Gene took it upon himself to keep my old cars running.  My cars have been of the 8 to 10 year-old variety, with enough wear-and-tear to start breaking down.  Tune-ups, brake jobs, radiator problems, generators, alternators, belts, hoses, even serious internal engine problems- Gene does it all for me.  Once my car just would not start.  Gene raised the hood, perused the engine, and proceeded to splash water on the side of motor.  It started, and he then replaced some type of computerized module.  Try getting the dealership to provide such service!  Just the other day my daughter's motor locked up.  Gene told me what parts to secure, and he spent hours replacing various pieces, and at the end of the day insisted that I owed him $40.  I left him a hundred, which was still a tremendous bargain.  This man never charges me a fraction of what his work is worth.


 


What about Gene's spiritual well-being?  He never attends church, yet always is ready to assure others that the good Lord looks after him.  He doesn't invest his resources in the church, yet he is all-the-time doing repair work for people at a fraction of the cost he could charge.  He's living with a woman without being married to her, but she is his former wife.  Gene has a bad heart, and some would say he is not ready to meet his maker.  To me, when I think of this man, I consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:31-46, and particularly the familiar quotation: “...I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

 


I stop by periodically to visit with Gene, especially when my old car is in the process of breaking down once again.  He always seems happy to see me.  We talk about his problems and my problems.  We talk about the Lord, and he is keenly focused and interested in that subject.  I guess he has some forward movement to make in his spiritual journey; we all do.  He just does not live according to the conventional rules of my cultural Christianity.  But I am not too worried about his reservation in Heaven.


 


How about you?

12.05.05 (8:47 am)   [edit]

9 Comments

PastorDave Gets A Traffic Ticket (or 2)


It happens every so often, part of the price to be paid for living in a metro area and driving lots of miles. Usually I’m guilty, even if it seems everybody else does it and never gets caught. It is no fun for the wallet, and especially for the insurance premiums. All I can do is grit my teeth and take my medicine.


But I’m thinking, “Not this time!”


I picked up my son from High School, and he had to be at work within the hour. He works at Chick-fil-A- I consider to be a great place for a kid to work. The school traffic is always horrendous. Lots of teenagers with heavy SUV’s and pickup trucks and shiny vehicles I’ve never been able to afford, driving like they have no fear of death or respect for the other guy. Parents like me, just trying to survive the journey. And, of course, the ever-present international still discerning which side of the road to drive. I take my familiar route and turn to make it to the 4-way stop, when I spot the officer in a parking lot about 200 feet down the road. He is signaling for me to pull into the lot. Actually he instructs for me to pull next to a car that is backing out, and should I follow his directions I will be hit. I delay following his directions until the car is out of the way. The he leisurely strolls up to my car.


One time I told such an officer that I understood, that he was just doing his job. Not this guy. He asked me to roll down my window and told me that I had committed two infractions. One, my passenger was not wearing his seatbelt. Sure enough, to my surprise, he was right. I almost always make sure my riders are buckled up, but this time I had forgotten. I had been so involved showing Brock my new watch- a Timex Indiglo, $24.95. So, guilty, I admit. I’m thinking my son is old enough, at 16, to know to buckle up. Therefore, I’m thinking he will pay the fine. But, the libertarian in me believes the government has no business forcing a citizen to wear a restraint belt, or helmet. I don’t guess I’ll plead that case in court!


And, he said I slow-rolled the stop sign. I said, incredulously, “What?” He explained that the two cars in front of me stopped, but I did not. I objected. I am sure I stopped. I gave him some words of objection, and insisted that he indicate that I disagree with his analysis on the ticket. I was not happy. Now, 6 hours later, I still am not happy.


I am considering, seriously, showing up in court on January 31 and pleading my innocence before the judge. I believe the officer is mistaken. His view was at a disadvantage. I feel I can research the issue, take some photographs of the area and perhaps draw some diagrams, ask the officer some questions which may cast doubt on the validity of his observations, and try to beat the case. Maybe, just maybe, the officer will not show up for court and my case will be dismissed. I could even ask for a postponement of my hearing, and reschedule for a date when he would be most likely to be absent. Who knows. I feel it would be a learning experience, and the worst I would have to do is pay the fine anyhow.


What do you think; am I wasting my time? Should I as a Christian and pastor do this, or just acquiesce to the ticket? Am I being a good citizen by exercising my right to plead my case? Would Jesus pay a ticket for a crime he did not commit? What would you do?
12.01.05 (6:33 pm)   [edit]

18 Comments