Like many who watched Ken Burn’s
“Country Music” documentary on PBS, I set one of our radio buttons to a country
station. Or maybe I’m the only one. Anyway, I’ve found myself listening to more
country songs—songs that tell a story.
There are the stories of George Strait’s rodeo riders with skewed-priorities
heading off to Amarillo or Cheyenne. There are the tales of “big-iron” carrying
cowboys from an earlier era told by Marty Robbins, who introduced us to Agua
Fria, if not El Paso. And there are the ballads of Kenny Rogers.
I’ve heard Rogers’s “Coward of the
County” quite often lately. The song, in case you don’t know, tells the story
of the singer/narrator’s nephew Tommy, whose father died (hanged?) in prison.
When he was only ten, Tommy was taken to the prison to visit his father for the
last time. There, his remorseful father told him:
Son my life is over, but yours has just begun
Promise me, son
Not to do the things I've done
Walk away from trouble if you can
Now it don't mean you're weak
If you turn the other cheek
And I hope you're old enough to understand
Son, you don't have to fight to be a man
Tommy follows his father’s words so
scrupulously that he becomes known as the coward of the county. We’re not told
if that was an official title but people called him, “Yellow.” Then, Tommy’s girl/wife
Becky is assaulted by the three Gatlin boys. Finally angry enough to act, Tommy
tracks down the brothers and, after a frenzied fight, leaves them all on the
barroom floor. (It’s not clear if Tommy as beaten them with his fists or with
his guns, if they are knocked-out or dead.)
The song ends with Tommy, speaking
to his father’s spirit, “Sometimes you gotta fight when you’re a man.”
First, this is not the greatest
song ever written. Popular? Yes. Great? No. The plot has holes through which
you can drive “a train bound for nowhere.” Second, I’m not sure Tommy
understood what his father was saying. His father said, “Walk away from trouble
IF you can.” (Obviously, Dad knew there are times when you can’t walk
away from trouble; why Tommy’s uncle didn’t help him understand this is
anyone’s guess.)
If, as some suggest, the song is
set in the South, Tommy’s father may have been urging his son to reject the old
“culture of honor” that demanded a swift and violent response to every
perceived slight, a mindset that even sanctioned dueling. In short, Tommy’s dad
may have been saying, “Measure your responses. Sometimes walking away is the
right thing; sometimes it’s standing your ground.” Or if Dad had been into
“pop” psychology (pun intended), he might have said, “Remember, the only way to
win a game with a toxic person is to not play.” Still, the story allows us to
wonder if Tommy had the come across Luther and Calvin’s perspective on turning
the other cheek: Christian love allows you to accept a personal insult or
injury but does not allow you to stand by when others are being hurt. But I
digress.
Just as Tommy got his father’s
words wrong, we may get the Bible’s words wrong. Paul tells the Ephesians,
“Don’t be drunk with wine” and, somehow, his words become a general prohibition
against drinking any alcohol. The apostle rightly points out the danger of
drunkenness but he doesn’t demand we become teetotalers. If you choose avoid
alcohol, fine; but those who have made that choice don’t have the right to
question the integrity of those who have made other choices.
Many have misunderstood and misused
Jesus’s words in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not judge so you won’t be judged”
(Matthew 7:1). Some imagine Jesus giving a “Go, ye, right ahead” to any
behavior—except, perhaps, judging. Instead, Jesus is addressing those
self-righteous persons who are always ready to criticize others but who never
engage in self-criticism (7:3-5). In the larger context of the Sermon and the
New Testament, we learn Christian love demands we judge self-destructive and
abusive behavior when we find it.
When we examine any statement in
the Bible we need to ask certain questions: What does it say? Who is being
addressed? Do the words also apply to me? Is this a directive for all time and
every Christian or did it address a particular situation? Is the author
describing behavior or prescribing behavior? How does my understanding of the
words compare with how other Christians understand them?
Tommy’s life would have been easier
if he had been given a little more guidance—from his uncle (who knew what was
going on but watched in silence) and his mother (who plays no role in the
song). While I believe every Christian is capable of reading and understanding
the Bible, sometimes we may need a little help, especially if we take a wrong
turn.
Shortly after my father became a
believer he stumbled across some literature that claimed Christians were
obliged to keep all the Old Testament laws with their dietary demands and
emphasis on not becoming “defiled.” (My father was a pipefitter/plumber so he
sometimes dealt with a lot of “defiling” stuff.) He struggled with how to
reorder his life to live up to those demands. Fortunately, our pastor guided
him to a better understanding of the issue and showed him how believers had been
freed from the burden of the ceremonial law.
If Tommy had really listened to
what his father said there might not have been a song—and Becky might not have
endured a nightmare. When you read some puzzling statement in the Bible, I’d
recommend you reread it carefully, ponder it thoughtfully, and talk about it
with someone you trust.
