Jesus and the Rich men north of Richmond

Jesus and the Rich men north of Richmond

I am taking a break from my blogs about the church in transition.  I have one more but I am saving it till next week.  This week I wanted to take a side trip.  It was motivated by the hype surrounding the first Republican debate, lots of talk about the economy, and a song that became popular almost out of nowhere.  So let’s talk about Jesus and the Rich men north of Richmond.

It has been called “an Anthem for the oppressed American”.  Oliver Anthony’s, aka Chris Lunsford, viral song has swept the nation.  It is a raw, gritty, protest song that has taken country music and the country by storm.  In part, Chris is the ultimate “not part of the establishment” icon.  A blue collar, high school dropout that has suffered much in his life, is angry about it and is willing to put it into a song.  Chris has struck a nerve with the American listening audience and has become the symbol of the “every man”.

The country music industry is in many cases hated by its fan base because so much of the success within the industry seems to be contrived and arranged by powerful people.  Chris is an outsider.  He recently turned down an 8 million dollar contract solidifying his position as "one of us not one of them”.  The song is long on heart and passion and short on big production values.  His voice may not be one of the great voices of all time and the score and lyrics are not the results of the efforts of professionals; he is the kind of guy who might live next door.

In the song, Chris takes aim at the powerful and corrupt in Washington DC, the “rich men north of Richmond.”  He argues, and I believe correctly, that the political elite in Washington are more interested in advancing their own agenda than the general welfare of the nation.  While there is no doubt that the highly centralized government is a major problem, it is too easy to paint with broad brush strokes a popular message of “all the politicians are bad”.  This song is not actually about solutions, it is about being angry that “they”, whoever “they” are, have done us bad.

At the core and root of the protest seems to be economics.  Chris is not satisfied with his salary, taxes, inflation, and an economic policy that leaves some people hungry while others are manipulating welfare.  Chris seems to be bipartisan with equal disdain for both Democrats and Republicans. As you can imagine everyone and his brother is getting cranked up by the protest diddy.  There is no doubt that Chris has touched the angry nerve of a lot that is wrong in America.  My personal political theory aside, I believe that he has found the most sensitive of all the peripheral issues in our nation, namely the apparent hypocrisy of many or most of our leaders that has led to policies that are very unpopular.  

However, Chris is as deeply mistaken as anyone in Washington.  The error into which Chris, Washington and the nation has fallen is the belief that the root problem is economic.  At the core of its belief Communism teaches that economics or the pursuit of prosperity for the masses is the main objective of government.  Remember the every 4 year political catch phrase, “It is the economy, stupid”?  But when economics is the primary driver the nations have built their houses on sand.  

What if a government were able to secure the peace and prosperity of all its citizens so that everyone had all their desires and wants, but in so doing introduced a society of the worst kind of immorality? What if the economy was great, but the hearts were wicked?  What if every perceived social injustice were eradicated, but truth and righteousness were lost?  Would this be a good government?  Believe me when I say I am not a fan of the status quo in our government.  If you ask me privately I will share my political theories with you, but in this forum I must say and say it very loudly, “Our nation's biggest problems are not economic or social”.  Our biggest problem is sin, both our fallen sinful nature and our sinful acts.  We will never resolve that core issue by pressing on, protesting or even acting against the peripheral issues of the day.  Sin makes every aspect of society rotten, but you don’t cure sin by working on societal ills.  Sin is only cured at the cross.