Kris Kristofferson’s “Why Me?” might be one of the best Christian redemption songs I have ever heard. It first appeared on his album “Jesus Was a Capricorn” that was released in 1972. Now Kristofferson was not known for being religious by any stretch of the imagination, but Catholic writer James T. Keane makes this case in a recent America article. In short, Kristofferson created some of the most beautiful Christian songs in recent memories. Johnny Cash definitely thought so.
Listening to Kristofferson describe this redemption moment reveals how marvelous this event really is. It is an event that can literally change the course of someone’s life. Kristofferson, as Keane’s article notes, was an extremely talented poetic artist. It is no wonder he connected deeply with Johnny Cash, who wrestled with his own demons of addiction (Kristofferson would write a touching Foreword to Steven Turner’s book The Man Called Cash). In both cases, hopelessness set in, yet a turnaround occurs from the outside.
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Hope is an important Christian virtue. It is an idea that needs its own reawakening. That is why the South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han’s recent book The Spirit of Hope is so surprising. Han is the same author of the anything-but-hopeful book The Burnout Society. Han writes relatively small books so thankfully he gets right to the point. One of his critiques is that we are fixated on sameness. All these new technologies and all we can expect are the same depressing messages or images.
Han declares that hope does not follow this boring programming. In fact, he claims that hope reveals the other. Han asserts: “In hope, one places one’s trust in what exceeds the self. Hope therefore approximates faith. It is the authority of the other as a transcendence that raises me up in the face of absolute despair, that enables me to stand in the abyss. The hopeful do not owe their standing to themselves” (Han, 79).
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I read Han’s short book on hope while I was reading biographies about Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter, and finally Kristofferson’s ex-wife and singing partner, Rita Coolidge. I was in the midst of writing last months post on Cash and Dylan. It was this literary combination that drew me to Kristofferson’s gospel music and its impact on Cash.
Cash, who was wrapping up his movie and music for The Gospel Road filmed in Israel, met with Kristofferson back home, after his church experience. Kristofferson reveals that Larry Gatlin was at the church that day. He declares that “Gatlin sang Help Me at church when I was there, and it about killed me” (Cash, Man in Black, 198). Kristofferson would later add Gatlin’s song to the Jesus Was a Capricorn album and it helped inspire “Why Me.”
Cash obviously loved “Why Me” but it was his song “Burden of Freedom” that caught his attention (and recently mine). Cash describes the moment he heard Kristofferson sing it. Cash writes that “throughout the song I could see Jesus carrying his cross, falling, struggling, making the long, torturous journey to Calvary” (Cash, 199). Here is the chorus that would be part of Cash’s film:
Lord, help me to shoulder the burden of freedom
And give me the courage to be what I can
And when I am wounded by those who condemn me
Lord, help me forgive them, they don’t understand
For all of Kristofferson’s spiritual output, he was not too keen on being known as a Christian artist. He and Coolidge joined Cash and his wife June Carter to perform at a Jesus Rock, Campus Crusade event in Dallas in 1972. However, as the concert progressed he realized that this overtly Christian concert was not his scene (Turner, 150-1). Cash invited them and wanted the young Christian crowd to hear Kristofferson’s songs. However, as Kristofferson suggests, Cash was not pushy, especially about religion.
In some ways, Kristofferson always kept his edge. I like to think of him more in line with liberation theology. He has an album called Third World Warrior! Kristofferson would even lend pretty substantial support to Cesar Chavez and the UFW (video has Baez, Kristofferson, and even Chavez). Cash, at the very least, is famous for singing stories about the plight of Native Americans and the incarcerated—Cash had an edge too (Beck, 74). In Richard Beck’s book Trains, Jesus, and Murder: The Gospel According to Johnny Cash he claims only Johnny Cash could get away with singing about all three. In fact, Kristofferson reveals that even when he was taking heat for his more radical political stances, Cash would always have his back.
When Cash made his comeback with the Rick Rubin produced American Recordings, Kristofferson’s song “Why Me” was one of the highlights. Cash captured the vulnerability in his voice that’s perfectly expressed in Kristofferson’s words. Both Cash and Kristofferson had their redemption moments, but still struggled with addiction throughout their lives, which was really tough for their loved ones. But that’s the point of grace. Forgiveness is key, perfection is not. Still, there are consequences for sin. Listening to Cash and Kristofferson sing, they are obviously aware of that.
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With my recent reading into the biographies and spirituality of singer-songwriters like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, it has opened up the importance of cultural history, including church history. For example, textbooks cover the conversions of Augustine, Luther, and Wesley. But what about Cash, Dylan, and even Kristofferson? Cash was the most transparent about his experience, whereas Dylan and Kristofferson remained ambiguous at least to the public. Billy Graham will only get more and more attention from present and future historians, but what about Cash, who sometimes accompanied Graham? Moreover, poetry does not have as much of a cultural hold over us like it once did. Does this mean that they are being replaced by the singer-songwriters? I mean Bob Dylan did win the Noble Prize in Literature in 2016.
I do believe that “Why Me” and “Burden of Freedom” are modern Christian classics and would love to see them sung as hymns. Probably the most famous hymn is “Amazing Grace.” That song has been sung by some of the most famous singers in music history. It is also famous for being a redemption song of a former slave ship captain turned slave abolitionist, Anglican minister, John Newton.
“Amazing Grace” has its own transformative history. The song is the Cherokee national anthem. I was not aware of this history till I started listening to Rita Coolidge’s songs because of her relationship to Kristofferson. Reading the stories of musicians might not seem like church history, but this discovery is just one example of the wonderful cultural histories these lives hold.
Coolidge noticed the importance of music and spirituality in a way that relates to both “Why Me” and “Amazing Grace.” In some ways it connects well with what Kristofferson said when he heard Gatlin sing “Help Me.” She closes her memoir with the following:
“At some point I really did realize that life is more of a spiritual journey than anything….When I wake up in the morning the first thing that I think is, I can sing. God gave me a gift. There is nothing like the power of music. I learned that firsthand from Daddy’s preaching [Coolidge’s father was a Baptist preacher]. When he’d do the invitation at the end of the sermon, they always played the saddest song: ‘Just as I am without one…’ And the congregation would think, Oh…I need to go rededicate my life to Jesus! But you know that some people didn’t walk down that aisle for any other reason except that the music made them cry” (Coolidge, 208-9). Coolidge is right—and like Cash, when I first listened to “Burden of Freedom” it also made me get a little teary eyed.
Cash and Kristofferson had legendary careers. Even at the twilight of their careers, they were part of the supergroup The Highwayman along with Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. But for all their gruff, rough personas, they used their songwriting abilities to express empathy and grace, especially for the outcasts, the least of these.
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