MAN IN BLACK

I watched the movie WALK THE LINE this weekend and once again found myself questioning the perpetual happiness shoveled by so many preachers, writers and much of the Christian Music industry in America these days. There are a handful of quotes within the film that felt like finger-pointing sermons jabbed into the gut of all us Christians who work as artists, preachers and story tellers of faith - me included. But the most unrelenting and hardest to dodge sermon comes not from the dialogue of the small scoped film (it covers such a small portion of Johnny Cash's life) but from the life of the Man In Black himself. I hope those who go to the theaters for a first taste of Cash delve deeper into the full story of his life, go for seconds and thirds listening intently to his music and see the lessons he taught in word and deed.

Far from perfect, Johnny Cash cannot be revered for the same reasons as Mother Teresa or Billy Graham. He stumbled often and fell hard. But his honesty is worshipable, his lack of concern for covering his bruises and breaks, his propensity to roll up his sleeves and show us more than we'd like at times. And his relentless revealing of his faults seems to have bred empathy and mourning for the rest of mankind, the other broken and poor of body and spirit, all of us in his audience. This empathy for the wounded and sinful isn't as clear in the film WALK THE LINE as it is in his vast song catalog. The earliest example I remember hearing is "THE MAN IN BLACK". I remember watching this midnight clad man with the baritone pipes crooning about poverty and criminals on the television one Saturday night. I had no idea that one day this song, his dress code, would affect my own theology and lyricism twenty years later. Here is Johnny Cash's own explanation for that dress code, and reason once again to question the upbeat and positive trends of today's Christian music business and pursue empathy fueled by honesty instead:

"Man In Black" by Johnny Cash

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen' that we all were on their side.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black