Elvis, a prodigal son?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the woman reached the stage, the musicians behind Elvis Presley could see that she was carrying a crown on a plush pillow."It's for you," she said.\" \/>\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\/tmatt\/2002\/08\/elvis-a-prodigal-son\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Elvis, a prodigal son?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the woman reached the stage, the musicians behind Elvis Presley could see that she was carrying a crown on a plush pillow."It's for you," she said.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/08\/elvis-a-prodigal-son\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2002-08-28T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T20:52:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/08\/elvis-a-prodigal-son\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/08\/elvis-a-prodigal-son\/\",\"name\":\"Elvis, a prodigal son?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2002-08-28T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-30T20:52:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"As the woman reached the stage, the musicians behind Elvis Presley could see that she was carrying a crown on a plush pillow.\\\"It's for you,\\\" she said.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/08\/elvis-a-prodigal-son\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/08\/elvis-a-prodigal-son\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/08\/elvis-a-prodigal-son\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Elvis, a prodigal son?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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{"id":1193,"date":"2002-08-28T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2002-08-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2002\/08\/28\/elvis-a-prodigal-son\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T15:52:13","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T20:52:13","slug":"elvis-a-prodigal-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2002\/08\/elvis-a-prodigal-son\/","title":{"rendered":"Elvis, a prodigal son?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As the woman reached the stage, the musicians behind Elvis Presley could see that she was carrying a crown on a plush pillow.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s for you,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re the king.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Gospel superstar J.D. Sumner recalled that Presley took her hand that night in Las Vegas and replied: \u201cNo, honey, I\u2019m not the king. Christ is the king. I\u2019m just a singer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Anyone digging through the mud of Presley\u2019s sad decline can find many signs that he was crying out to God as well as wrestling with his demons. Like many Southern sinners, Elvis did more than his share of Sunday morning weeping while trying to shake off the shame of Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n

So was Elvis a backsliding believer or a hypocritical satyr? A quarter century after his death, it\u2019s amazing that Presley can still get people all shook up in churches as well as casinos.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cTo judge from some media coverage, you\u2019d think Presley was a saint \u2014 a role model to emulate,\u201d said evangelical activist Charles Colson, in a recent radio commentary. In their stories about Graceland pilgrims flocking to Memphis, what the journalists \u201cneglected to mention was that, even though Elvis took much of his style from gospel sources, his primary message was the antithesis of biblical standards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Colson noted that one ABC News clip showed \u201cElvis singing, \u2018To spend one night with you is what I pray for.\u2019 Wow! Did he really think God answered prayers to expedite one-night stands?\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The final verdict: \u201cElvis is an object lesson in the wages of sin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

No one would deny that Presley started a cultural earthquake, said Christian radio veteran Dave Fisher, who wrote Colson\u2019s BreakPoint.org<\/a> radio script. The crucial issue is whether \u201chis impact on our culture was uplifting or degrading.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Yes, Presley honored his mother by singing \u201cPrecious Lord, Take My Hand\u201d on the Ed Sullivan Show. But he also helped inspire a cultural and sexual revolution, said Fisher. \u201cJust analyze the lyrics of the songs. \u2026 Many were quite sexual. He wasn\u2019t using the four-letter words that a lot of singers and bands today would use. But they were still suggestive. He opened the door for what was to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

What about that gospel side of Presley? It\u2019s true that he wandered in the wilderness of sex, drugs and rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, said Steve Beard, creator of Thunderstruck.org<\/a>, a website on faith and popular culture. It\u2019s also true that Elvis was an \u201ceccentric religious seeker on turbodrive,\u201d soaking up Hinduism, numerology, transcendental meditation, Buddhism<\/a>, Theosophy and whatever else caught fire in the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n

But as his health failed, Presley\u2019s long-time confidant Rick Stanley \u2014 who later became a Baptist evangelist \u2014 remembers the singer saying Christian prayers of repentance. Only hours before his death, Stanley said he heard Elvis pray: \u201cDear Lord, please show me a way. I\u2019m tired and confused and I need your help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

No picture of Elvis is complete without faith, as well as failure. He was not the first or the last devout country boy to stray in the big city.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIf Elvis was a prodigal son, then it seems that he died on the way back to his Father\u2019s house,\u201d said Beard. \u201cThat\u2019s tragic. That\u2019s a tragic story and it\u2019s a story that ought to inspire compassion, not condemnation. \u2026 We all need to be reminded that mercy and grace are still Christian virtues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

If there is a cautionary tale here, it is another reminder that believers should be careful when dealing with heroes, said scholar Gene Edward Veith, co-author of \u201cHonky-Tonk Gospel: The Story of Sin and Salvation in Country Music.\u201d The lives of celebrities are often full of mixed blessings.<\/p>\n\n

The boy who made his profession of faith in a Baptist church in Tupelo, Miss., struggled to hold on to that faith for the rest of his life. The Elvis story is packed with pain, piety, sin, struggle, glory, guilt and repentance.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cVery few artistic people make good role models,\u201d said Veith. \u201cThat isn\u2019t what artists are about. The conflicts that make them great in the first place are the very same conflicts that would make them bad role models. \u2026 It\u2019s the paradoxes we see in Elvis that made him the great artist that he was.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"