[January 1999 journal entry]
A close friend recently introduced me to the music of Rich Mullins. He gave me the last Rich Mullins CD (a two-disc set based on the demos he cut shortly before he died in a travel accident) and explained the nature, course, end of Mullins’ life. On the first of the two discs, Mullins plays/performs alone the demos for what turned out to be his last songs. On the second of the two discs, his band and various celebrated ‘Christian music artists’ (whose commercial interests and affluent lifestyles he did not share) present/interpret the demo songs in a more polished and commercially shaped form. I was drawn to Mullins alone; repelled by the ‘Christian music artists’. An analogy crossed my mind – i.e., that the teaching and life experiences of ‘Jesus’ behind/before Christian scripture are parallel to Mullins alone on disc one and the Christian scripture writers/ings are parallel to celebrated ‘Christian music artists’ on disc two.
