![\"RM.001\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/230\/2015\/10\/RM.001.png\")
<\/a>Rich Mullins had such a low\u00a0tolerance for B.S. I\u2019m convinced that, had he lived longer into the digital age, Rich\u00a0would still never have become a blogger.\u00a0He wouldn\u2019t be on snapchat or\u00a0instagram, and there\u2019s no way he would\u2019ve been on\u00a0Facebook. But twitter? I could see that.<\/p>\nRich was a master of the one-liner. Good songwriters work with\u00a0an incredible economy of words. Rich knew how to craft great one-liners\u00a0and how to set them up. He was also not short on opinions. Every time I was around Rich I felt like he was constantly apologizing for the last time he saw people and offended them. I love that.<\/p>\n
Rich had very strong political opinions, too. He had these great zingers, like: \u201cDemocracy isn\u2019t necessarily bad politics, its just bad math.\u201d Or, \u201cLord, save me from Washington.\u201d\u00a0I poked around to find a few of his great thoughts\u00a0on politics and copied them below. If you get a minute to hop on Youtube & listen to a few songs, I promise it\u2019ll do your heart good.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the big problem is that, as Christians, we forgot that our identity is wrapped up in Christ and for a long time we bought into the illusion that the will of the masses would be more generous and more benevolent than the will of one dictator. But democracy isn\u2019t necessarily bad politics, its just bad math. A thousand corrupt minds are just as evil as one corrupt mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for a long time I believed that there would be political solutions because, growing up in America, you endure several political campaigns and these people make promises and they say, we will do this and we will do that and you believe them because you don\u2019t know any better. And I really believed for a long time that this was all going to work. And I thank God now for Richard Nixon and for Gerald Ford and for all those people who betrayed any confidence that the American people could have in their government who said that the leadership of this country is not accountable to the people who elect them and who made so clear what we now know that no government works. And I wanted the government to work.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cSee, I think a lot of my songs are really political. I think nobody gets it, but it\u2019s hard for me to divide up my politics and my religious convictions. There\u2019s something offensive to me about having an American flag in a church building. When the CIA pretended to be missionaries and caused trouble in Chile so that all missionaries were kicked out, I think that makes the United States the enemy of the kingdom of God. I think a government that requires 18-year-old boys to register for the draft is anti-life. See, all the pro-lifers, they only think life is sacred if you are a fetus. I agree that life is sacred to fetuses, but I also think it\u2019s sacred to 18-year-olds. Where were you people when Nixon was in the White House? When Lyndon Johnson was escalating the war? Not that I necessarily think that everybody has to be a pacifist; I don\u2019t. But it does seem funny to me that so many people who are anti-abortion are pro-capital punishment. So many people who are anti-capital punishment are pro-abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe it\u2019s better for any organization to go the wrong way together than to go different ways separately.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m very hurt at the apathy in the church. I\u2019m very hurt over the determination of the government to destroy life and its not simply over the abortion issue. Anyone who has any awareness at all of Wounded Knee, not only the first Wounded Knee but what happened there, what 20 years ago, whatever. You kinda go, there can be no doubt that governments that are controlled by men are without exception anti-life and anti-Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cChristianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in your beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other thing is, as a Christian musician, because you\u2019re playing to an audience that is made up of a lot of people who have a very diverse kind of conviction\u2026 There are people who really believe that you must be a Republican in order to be a Christian. There are people who really believe that you must take an abstinence position. There are people who are very anti-war, and they think you must be anti-war. And there are all these people who take all these different things about what you as a Christian are supposed to be. So you end up spending a lot of time trying to defend why you are not this or why you are not that. And what I have realized is boy, I am not accountable to everyone that I meet on the street. I need to be accountable somewhere, and this is driving me crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very hurt at the apathy in the church. I am very hurt over the determination of the government to destroy life\u2026 I do long for heaven. Someday God will destroy injustice. Someday there will be a judgment because we have a loving and a forgiving Father. Maybe we will survive it\u2026 I enjoy the idea of a corporate identity. When I come into church I am no longer Rich Mullins, a music education student. I am no longer Rich Mullins a guy who grew up in Indiana. I am no longer Rich Mullins a guy who has a record contract. All of a sudden I am a member of the kingdom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do the nations rage?\u00a0Why do they plot and scheme?\u00a0Their bullets can\u2019t stop the prayers we pray in the name of the Prince of Peace.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rich Mullins had such a low\u00a0tolerance for B.S. I\u2019m convinced that, had he lived longer into the digital age, Rich\u00a0would still never have become a blogger.\u00a0He wouldn\u2019t be on snapchat or\u00a0instagram, and there\u2019s no way he would\u2019ve been on\u00a0Facebook. But twitter? I could see that. Rich was a master of the one-liner. Good songwriters work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Rich Mullins Would Be 61 Today - He Was the Master of the One-Liner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rich Mullins had such a low\u00a0tolerance for B.S. I'm convinced that, had he lived longer into the digital age, Rich\u00a0would still never have become a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rich Mullins Would Be 61 Today - He Was the Master of the One-Liner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rich Mullins had such a low\u00a0tolerance for B.S. I'm convinced that, had he lived longer into the digital age, Rich\u00a0would still never have become a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Paperback Theology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-21T13:08:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-21T13:26:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/files\/2015\/10\/RM.001.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Tim_Suttle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Suttle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html\",\"name\":\"Rich Mullins Would Be 61 Today - He Was the Master of the One-Liner\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-10-21T13:08:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-10-21T13:26:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\"},\"description\":\"Rich Mullins had such a low\u00a0tolerance for B.S. I'm convinced that, had he lived longer into the digital age, Rich\u00a0would still never have become a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rich Mullins Would Be 61 Today – He Was the Master of the One-Liner\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/\",\"name\":\"Paperback Theology\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6\",\"name\":\"Tim Suttle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tim Suttle\"},\"description\":\"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), & An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \\\"Straight Back to Kansas.\\\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rich Mullins Would Be 61 Today - He Was the Master of the One-Liner","description":"Rich Mullins had such a low\u00a0tolerance for B.S. I'm convinced that, had he lived longer into the digital age, Rich\u00a0would still never have become a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rich Mullins Would Be 61 Today - He Was the Master of the One-Liner","og_description":"Rich Mullins had such a low\u00a0tolerance for B.S. I'm convinced that, had he lived longer into the digital age, Rich\u00a0would still never have become a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html","og_site_name":"Paperback Theology","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","article_published_time":"2016-10-21T13:08:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-10-21T13:26:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/files\/2015\/10\/RM.001.png"}],"author":"Tim Suttle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Tim_Suttle","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tim Suttle","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html","name":"Rich Mullins Would Be 61 Today - He Was the Master of the One-Liner","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-10-21T13:08:04+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-21T13:26:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6"},"description":"Rich Mullins had such a low\u00a0tolerance for B.S. I'm convinced that, had he lived longer into the digital age, Rich\u00a0would still never have become a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/2016\/10\/rich-mullins-would-be-61-today-he-was-the-master-of-the-one-liner.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rich Mullins Would Be 61 Today – He Was the Master of the One-Liner"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/","name":"Paperback Theology","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/63a7ffe567a014f809abae15ebfc44a6","name":"Tim Suttle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ce6d230b7d3a7d50e5fc4b6c265691fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tim Suttle"},"description":"Find out more about Tim at TimSuttle.com Tim Suttle is the senior pastor of RedemptionChurchkc.com. He is the author of several books including his most recent - Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (Zondervan 2014), Public Jesus (The House Studio, 2012), & An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade, 2011). Tim's work has been featured at The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, Sojourners, and other magazines and journals. Tim is also the founder and front-man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he toured for nearly a decade. The band's most recent album is \"Straight Back to Kansas.\" He helped to plant three thriving churches over the past 13 years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, Kan. Tim's blog, Paperback Theology, is hosted at Patheos.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=654515438","https:\/\/twitter.com\/@Tim_Suttle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/author\/timsuttle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/paperbacktheology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}