I got to hear Johnny Cash sing in person back in 1978 at a Billy Graham Crusade in Memphis. Here is a portion of an article about his Christian Testimony.
Cash also made major headlines when he shared his faith on The Johnny Cash Show, a popular variety program on ABC that ran from 1969 to 1971: “Well, folks,” he began, “I’ve introduced lots of hymns and gospel songs on this show. I just want to make it clear that I’m feeling what I’m singing about in this next one. I am a Christian … I want to dedicate this song to the proposition that God is the victor in my life. I’d be nothing without him. I want to get in a good lick right now for Number One.” (Yet there are those in the Church who questioned his decision, during one momentous episode of show, to sing the controversial lyric, “wishing Lord that I was stoned” from Kris Kristofferson’s hit “Sunday Morning Coming Down.”)
And while Cash longed to play only gospel music from the start—and would have if Sam Phillips hadn’t nixed his desires as economically unfeasible for Sun Records—he never shied away from performing secular-themed songs in the studio or on the concert stage throughout his career.
A huge influence on Cash in this potentially problematic area was, believe or not, evangelist Billy Graham, who sought out Johnny in the early ’70s when he heard of his commitment to God.
“He and I spent a lot of time talking the issues over, and we determined that I wasn’t called to be an evangelist …” Cash recalled of his first face-to-face conversations with Graham. “He had advised me to keep singing ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and ‘A Boy Named Sue’ and all those other outlaw songs if that’s what people wanted to hear and then, when it came time to do a gospel song, give it everything I had. Put my heart and soul into all my music, in fact; never compromise; take no prisoners. ‘Don’t apologize for who you are and what you’ve done in the past,’ he told me. ‘Be who you are and do what you do.’”
“I think I just like to share my faith, you know?” he said in recent years. “I don’t preach to people. I don’t ever push it on anybody, and I wouldn’t sing a gospel song on any show if I didn’t think the people would enjoy it. They seem to enjoy those as much or more than anything else. It’s not that I’m proselytizing. I’m not out there tryin’ to convince people, just to spread a little good news.”
As it turns out, Cash quickly became a welcome figure at both Billy Graham Crusades and on the ostentatious stages of Las Vegas. And while he insisted that these (seemingly) diametrically opposed venues were equally home in his heart and mind, U2′s Bono wasn’t convinced: “Johnny Cash doesn’t sing to the damned, he sings with the damned, and sometimes you feel he might prefer their company … “
I have never been to Wheaton College but I feel close to it. My favorite teacher in highschool, Mark Brink, was a graduate of Wheaton (Billy Graham also attended) and I got to hear about it. Also Bill Elliff who was my pastor at First Baptist Little Rock told me a very interesting story about Wheaton. He said he got to jump in a car in 1970 to take a trip to Wheaton to hear a fellow from Europe speak and when he got there a short fellow with a funny beard named Francis Schaeffer spoke about abortion and infanticide and other subjects he was not aware of.
Of course, if you know anything about this blog then you know that Francis Schaeffer was one of my heroes. It is no surprise at all to me that Wheaton College is taking the steps they are below.
Wheaton College, an evangelical institution, filed a lawsuit against the HHS mandate today, joining Catholic University of America in opposing the rule’s coercive trampling on religious liberty. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is representing Wheaton College in the school’s complaint. Left to right: John Garvey, President of Catholic University of America; William P. Mumma, President of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; Philip Ryken, President of Wheaton College.
Wheaton College, a leading evangelical postsecondary educational institution, has joined the chorus of organizations suing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over its mandate requiring nearly all insurance plans to cover abortion drugs and contraception.
“Wheaton College and other distinctively Christian institutions are faced with a clear and present threat to our religious liberty,” said Dr. Philip Ryken, president of Wheaton College, in an announcement today that the evangelical institution has joined a lawsuit with the Catholic University of America (CUA) against the anti-conscience mandate. “Our first president, the abolitionist Jonathan Blanchard, believed it was imperative to act in defense of freedom. In bringing this suit, we act in defense of freedom again.”
The HHS mandate lawsuits take on added significance since the Supreme Court ruling in late June that allowed Obamacare to stand. The mandate goes into effect on August 1. After that, as employers renew their health plans in the coming year, they will have to comply with the HHS mandate’s coercive requirement to cover abortion drugs, contraception, and sterilization—regardless of religious or moral objections.
As Ryken noted, the narrow religious exemption included in the final rule effectively only applies to churches and will provide no protection for countless religious employers that hold moral objections to the mandated services. In the case of Wheaton, coverage of abortion drugs would violate the commitment to protecting unborn life stated in the school’s “community covenant,” which is signed by faculty, staff, and students.
Throughout the spring, the Administration touted a so-called “accommodation” to the rule for non-exempt institutions. But that accommodation is nothing more than concept and holds no force of law. Moreover, the college views the rumored accommodation as a “shell game that does not resolve the moral issue that we have,” Ryken explained today.
Damage to religious liberty remains the fundamental problem, and the HHS policy sets an alarming new precedent, as Ryken explained: “The mandate, by providing an exemption for churches, but not for other religious institutions like Christian colleges, is in effect to create two classes of religious institutions in the U.S.: those that have full protection for their religious freedom and those who don’t.”
Wheaton College is a distinctively Protestant institution, in our hiring practices, in our theology, but we have a respect for Roman Catholic institutions and, in this case, we recognize that we have common cause with the Catholic University of America and other Catholic institutions in defending religious liberty. We’re, in fact, co-belligerents in this fight against government action. I think the fact that evangelicals and Catholics are coming together on this issue ought to be a sign to all Americans that something really significant in terms of religious liberty is at stake.
All Americans benefit from religious liberty, and we should all be prepared to defend it. Today’s news of Wheaton joining the legal challenge should call attention to the seriousness of the HHS mandate’s threat to religious freedom specifically and the potential for future collisions with conscience under centralized health care policy like that embodied in Obamacare.
Liberals are going on and on about what a great deal Obamacare is for poor states like Arkansas, but do the feds even know how to implement Obamacare? Wisconsin Health Secretary: ‘No Such Thing as a State-Run Exchange’ Posted by Michael F. Cannon Dennis Smith directed the Medicaid program for President George W. Bush and [...]
Third-Party Payer is the Biggest Economic Problem With America’s Health Care System Published on Jul 10, 2012 by CFPEcon101 This mini-documentary from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation explains that “third-party payer” is the main problem with America’s health care system. This is why undoing Obamacare, while desirable, is just a small first step [...]
I have been writing President Obama letters and have not received a personal response yet. (He reads 10 letters a day personally and responds to each of them.) However, I did receive a form letter in the form of an email on June 22, 2012. I don’t know which letter of mine generated this response so I have [...]
Moving Forward On Entitlements: Dan Mitchell Entitlement spending will bury this country if we do nothing about it. Medicare Part D Proves That Competition Lowers Health Care Spending Drew Gonshorowski June 6, 2012 at 7:03 am Some policymakers have difficulty understanding competition’s role in health care. There is a historical reason: With a legacy of [...]
Since I’ve bashed the biased and inaccurate work of the Congressional Budget Office, I found this cartoon very amusing. And this cartoon on business taxation is very appropriate after yesterday’s post about a potential corporate tax rate reduction from the Obama Administration. Government Cost-Overruns, the English Version June 17, 2012 by Dan Mitchell Many of us [...]
At the end of this post is a message by RC Sproul in which he discusses Sagan. Over the years I have confronted many atheists. Here is one story below: I really believe Hebrews 4:12 when it asserts: For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the [...]
In “Evangelical dynasty undone,” Arkansas Times Blog, August 20, 2011,Max Brantley wrote: Ever heard of the influential evangelical Francis Schaeffer? (Mike Huckabee once said his favorite book after the Bible was Schaeffer’s “Whatever Happened to the Human Race” and he’s been described as having a “profound” influence on Michele Bachmann.) Best reading of the morning is this New York [...]
In today’s news you will read about Kirk Cameron taking on the atheist Stephen Hawking over some recent assertions he made concerning the existence of heaven. Back in December of 1995 I had the opportunity to correspond with Carl Sagan about a year before his untimely death. Sarah Anne Hughes in her article,”Kirk Cameron criticizes [...]
I got to hear Johnny Cash sing in person back in 1978 at a Billy Graham Crusade in Memphis. Here is a portion of an article about his Christian Testimony.
Cash also made major headlines when he shared his faith on The Johnny Cash Show, a popular variety program on ABC that ran from 1969 to 1971: “Well, folks,” he began, “I’ve introduced lots of hymns and gospel songs on this show. I just want to make it clear that I’m feeling what I’m singing about in this next one. I am a Christian … I want to dedicate this song to the proposition that God is the victor in my life. I’d be nothing without him. I want to get in a good lick right now for Number One.” (Yet there are those in the Church who questioned his decision, during one momentous episode of show, to sing the controversial lyric, “wishing Lord that I was stoned” from Kris Kristofferson’s hit “Sunday Morning Coming Down.”)
And while Cash longed to play only gospel music from the start—and would have if Sam Phillips hadn’t nixed his desires as economically unfeasible for Sun Records—he never shied away from performing secular-themed songs in the studio or on the concert stage throughout his career.
A huge influence on Cash in this potentially problematic area was, believe or not, evangelist Billy Graham, who sought out Johnny in the early ’70s when he heard of his commitment to God.
“He and I spent a lot of time talking the issues over, and we determined that I wasn’t called to be an evangelist …” Cash recalled of his first face-to-face conversations with Graham. “He had advised me to keep singing ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and ‘A Boy Named Sue’ and all those other outlaw songs if that’s what people wanted to hear and then, when it came time to do a gospel song, give it everything I had. Put my heart and soul into all my music, in fact; never compromise; take no prisoners. ‘Don’t apologize for who you are and what you’ve done in the past,’ he told me. ‘Be who you are and do what you do.’”
“I think I just like to share my faith, you know?” he said in recent years. “I don’t preach to people. I don’t ever push it on anybody, and I wouldn’t sing a gospel song on any show if I didn’t think the people would enjoy it. They seem to enjoy those as much or more than anything else. It’s not that I’m proselytizing. I’m not out there tryin’ to convince people, just to spread a little good news.”
As it turns out, Cash quickly became a welcome figure at both Billy Graham Crusades and on the ostentatious stages of Las Vegas. And while he insisted that these (seemingly) diametrically opposed venues were equally home in his heart and mind, U2′s Bono wasn’t convinced: “Johnny Cash doesn’t sing to the damned, he sings with the damned, and sometimes you feel he might prefer their company … “
