I got a comment on a previous post about the movie “Ragamuffin”. It was a very nice post from a very nice guy who was disappointed in the movie. He was disappointed that they didn’t show more of Wayne’s funny, charming side. That seems to be a fairly common complaint, so I thought I’d post my response to him here. Keep in mind that I don’t speak for any of the folks who made the movie. This is all my opinion, and mine alone. That said . . .
Hey Tom – I think you’re kinda missing the point of the movie. They could have gone with a different angle (and actor) and shown Wayne’s charming, witty, funny side, but that’s the side everyone knows, and the side everyone (well a lot of people anyway) emulates. The side that I think most of us look at and say, “Why aren’t I like that?” But the upshot of making that movie would have just been preaching to the choir, and ultimately just glorifying Wayne as some kind of paragon of Christianity. Let’s face it, if you want that kind of stuff, you can find a shitload without really even trying. Just go to U-tube. What they were trying to do was make a movie that we could all watch and say, “Holy shit, I am just like Rich Mullins in so many ways! Maybe God loves me too.” A movie that ultimately glorifies God and not a musician who sang about him. Don’t get me wrong, I think Wayne was a good man, and a good Christian, if there is such a thing (at the very least, he was a better Christian than me), but I think part of the problem today is this whole cult of personality that has taken over. Even the “real” news is inundated with pointless pablum about celebrities and how great this one is or how bad that one is. The reason for this is that’s what the people apparently want. To hold up Miley Cyrus or Lindsey Lohan as examples of how terrible people are, or to hold up Tom Hanks or Princess Diana or Rich Mullins as examples of what we all ought to try to be. At the very least, us Christians ought to know better, but instead, we make heroes out of guys like Wayne or Amy Grant or Billy Graham, and have the nerve to be offended when we find out they’re just as jacked up as we are. It’s especially bad once somebody like that dies, whether that someone is a celebrity or just a family member. Once they’re dead, we sanctify them. We block out all the bad stuff about them, or, if we can’t block it out, we make it funny and endearing. I’ve lost both parents, a brother and a sister, and did that to all of them. Only when this movie came out did I really start dealing with all of it. Up til now, recognizing the bad aspects of their personalities and behavior seemed like a betrayal of their memory. Now that I’ve started actually dealing with it though, I realize that to deny those aspects or to try to laugh them off is really robbing them of their humanity, and that is unfair to them, and unfair to myself. I love and miss them all, but if I could have them back, I’d want them back warts and all, because that’s who they were. I think if you really want to know who Rich Mullins was, then the movie they made tells a necessary part, especially when taken in context with all the truly wonderful things about him that everyone already knows.
Well, sorry about getting on my soapbox. I do understand where you’re coming from, and I hope my little rant here won’t stop you from reading more (normally, I’m a lot funnier). Anyway, take care and thanks for reading.
Thank you! Your blog will need to be shared with some I know who did have a hard time with the Ragamuffin movie and the portrayal of your brother. Great stuff!
Kathy Jo – Glad you liked it, hope it didn’t get too preachy.Thanks for reading. Later, Moon
You were not too preachy! You are REAL! I find it rather refreshing – and sometimes disarming!!! LOL I shared this with my sister ( we are great prayer partners and WEAK), and she so appreciated it as well.
Thank you again!
You’re welcome again. Glad you’re sister liked it as well. Thanks for reading. Later, Moon
This was great, I’ve seen that complaint as well. Even a close friend who became a fan at the same time I did, which surprised me, I thought she’d get it. I think it did help prepare me to read the director’s notes on it, and then seeing the documentary, but I really thought it was well done regardless. My husband did not prepare himself, and he doesn’t know much about Rich at all (except what I’ve chewed his ear off with, especially recently), but even he came away deeply moved, loving it, getting the point of it.
But mostly I’m thanking you for what you said, about the cult of personality. You put into words what I’ve been trying to explain to people for years, about why I can’t stand Christian fiction novels and movies that show these people that are so good and sweet and pretty much 2D. I couldn’t get into Christy Miller books when I was a teen because she made me feel so rotten–she was always nice to the mean girls in school, she prayed for them, she didn’t get influenced to ignore the unpopular girl, never had an angry word for her sister . . .man, I was going to hell compared to her! But mostly I didn’t like it because I knew it wasn’t REAL! I knew “good” Christian girls who were more like me than Christy Miller, even the best of them. And I found all Christian fiction to be like that. You pointed out before that we do it with Bible characters even. I tried to read a book about Tamar (biblical fiction), because I’m fascinated with the women included in Christ’s genealogy, and I finally had to put it down because the author was making her out to be a saint who rejected her own culture out of some innate goodness in her. Which is nowhere in the scripture! And then, as you pointed out, we put that pressure on the “real” people like Christian singers and speakers. I homeschool and it happens with popular people in the homeschool community. That’s why, when I first saw your brother in concert, I became such a huge fan of him as a person, not just his music, because in that two hour show I could tell he was REAL. “Real” is so lacking, and it’s not the fault of the artists and speakers, although we’d like to judge them and make it their fault (I know I did). It’s the people that don’t want to see real so they put the pressure on. They WANT someone all the way good to emulate, and it devastates them to find out that they were flawed. That was someone’s excuse to me about why she DID like Christian fictional characters like the ones I described, because she liked reading about characters that were better than her, because it gave her hope. But I don’t see how. Hope comes from reading about what a screw up Abraham was, and then reading the verse that says, “And he was called a friend of God.” Man, if God didn’t think he had to leave out the ugly stuff, why do we keep trying to??
Ok, I guess I found my own soapbox. 😛 Sorry!!
Wow! Thanks for this blog…..I have just now happened upon it so I apologize for being late. Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts about Rich Mullins. I grew up in the church and I was always inundated with the fact that our “sin” would lead us straight to hell. Don’t get me wrong, I know that sin is something that we are always trying to “stop doing” but do you know how refreshing it is to know that it’s OK to talk about your sin and admit that you’re NOT perfect. I try, with all that is within me, to lead a good and holy life…..but…..here’s the thing…..I am a sinner and I struggle from time to time! Rich’s story and life, and his openness, is one thing that helps me realize that I serve a God who loves me…..imperfections and all! Thanks again for this blog!