Pastor’s Blog – July 2011

You may remember the name of Gary Gilmore. Some of you will even remember the circumstances under which it became newspaper headlines back in 1976. Gary Gilmore, at 35, had been a career criminal, in and out of jail, displaying anti-social behavior, when in 1976 he committed two murders in Utah, and became the first person executed after the Supreme Court decision repeal of a ban on capital punishment. At the time, Utah had two methods of execution – firing squad or hanging — so the presiding judge allowed Gilmore to choose between the two. Gilmore’s reply was, “I’d prefer to be shot.” The execution was set for November 15, 1976 at 8 a.m. Gilmore received several stays of execution, brought about by the efforts of the American Civil Liberties Union, the last of which occurred just hours before the re-scheduled execution date of January 17. That stay was overturned at 7:30 a.m. that morning, and the execution was allowed to proceed as planned. During the time Gilmore was on death row awaiting his execution, he attempted suicide twice, the first time on November 16 as a result of the first stay issued, and a couple months later.

Gary Gilmore was indeed a lost soul, with few redeeming qualities to be defended. His claim to fame was that his crimes paralleled him to a historical moment in the justice system. Had he killed a year or so later, he would have been just another faceless prisoner awaiting execution amidst a sea of others whom the populace would never know of, care about, or sit in judgment on. Norman Mailer’s book, ‘The Executioner’s Song” gave Gilmore validity as a real person with real life issues, but did little to endear him to our hearts.

Well, I told you that story so I could tell you this one!

While Gary Gilmore sat on death row, resisting attempts to secure him pardons and stays, he received a telephone call from a true giant of the Christian faith. Johnny Cash had heard that Gilmore was a fan. Cash also understood life in prison, the roads not planned out, but taken anyway. He often touched that corner of life that gets beaten down early, and warped by situations, places and peoples. He had wisdom to realize that not all have the tools to rebuild a broken life, nor the perspective to think it could even be done. Johnny Cash had lived through his own hell of drugs, booze, broken families and dreams. For my money, he packed more credibility into a single country lyric than the combined work of most of the Christian song writers that tour and make major bucks on the contemporary Christian circuit. He was in relationship with the Jesus of the gospels, who sought to heal, to offer forgiveness and hope, who came along side the marginalized, the poor, the hopeless. In a statement issued on the occasion of the pardoning of Cash for a crime committed years before in Starkville, Mississippi, Pastor Bert Montgomery, of University Baptist Church, offered these thoughts:
“I’m certain Cash wasn’t cold-hearted and indifferent to the families of Gilmore’s victims and their pain, but neither was Cash indifferent to the personal pain and uncontrolled anger that can put a man on death row. Cash, more than just about any preacher I know, was able to extend mercy to the merciless, love to the unlovable, and offer a hope of redemption to those most of us mark off as far beyond redemption.
I suspect Johnny knew deeper than most of us, that if God could love him, with all of his excesses and faults and extremes, “such a worm as I” he sings in the old hymn, then God could love anybody, even a cold-hearted murderer.”

More than from any other, I learned to be a Christian man from Johnny Cash. He handled his imperfections with honesty and humility. He refused to be pigeon-holed into any musical genre, and even into his seventies, remained a factor on the contemporary music scene, earning the respect of modern musician and producers alike. He was a friend of Billy Graham and a rebel always, taking the deep truths of scripture and making them accessible through his music and, more importantly, through personal example. His relationship with Christ could not allow him to compromise. He was known as a true American patriot, as well as a veteran, yet as he spoke for our flag he spoke out against various wars and American aggression. He tried hard to be true to his savior.

Yours for “Walkin’ the Line” of faith

Pastor John