Rich Mullins was the uneasy conscience of Christian music. He didn't live like a star. He'd taken a vow of poverty so that what he earned could be used to help others.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Television preachers extract money from the poor to live in a style and to indulge in shameful acts which equal or outdo the worst of the Renaissance Popes.
You wouldn't expect a Christian character to be an Indie rocker guy.
These wealthy people were very interested in contemporary music. They wanted to help diffuse it and get it to be known to other people.
The faith that anyone could move from rags to riches - with enough guts and gumption, hard work and nose to the grindstone - was once at the core of the American Dream.
Both religions and musicals work best with energetic and committed believers. Cynicism or detachment would have destroyed the magic - something true of religion, too.
Jesus discouraged the accumulation of wealth, worried about its effects on those who had it, and took special pleasure in helping the poor, dedicating his efforts to them. He must have shaken his head at the large gaps between rich and poor throughout ancient Palestine in the first century.
Rich people are so eccentric, and I don't think people really realize. Especially by the turn of the century, they were living like rappers, and there was no income tax. They are some of the most fascinating people, and I am endlessly fascinated.
I'm not sure that I would have become a Christian if I had continued to live in Hollywood because the notion wouldn't have occurred to me.
I put Catholic guilt to work pretty good for a rich rock star.
Elvis was rock'n'roll. He came from the poverty and the pain.