I loved to sing along with the church youth group, especially when we sang “Sometimes by Step”. I didn’t know who originally sang or wrote the song. I just liked singing the song at church. I got older. I out grew the youth group. I slowly, but surely just about quit church all together, again.
I took a job processing insurance claims at a large insurance company just prior to the birth of our first child, my daughter. It was a pretty easy job. The schedule was flexible, all I had to do was type, and we could even bring a radio to listen too in our cubicles. I brought a boom box from home with a cd and a cassette player. I don’t remember how the subject of Christian music came up, but my supervisor and I started talking about it one day. I didn’t know too much, and she seemed very knowledgeable on the subject. She even gave me a tape by some guy named Rich Mullins. The tape was called “This World As Best As I Remember It, Volume II”; little did either of us know that this token of friendship would forever change my life.
I was awed. I listened to it all day, every day. The lyrics were poetry in motion. The music was incredible. Pianos, hammered dulcimers, heck, he even played plastic cups on table tops! Not to mention the tape had “Sometimes by Step” on it. I finally had a name and a face to go with my favorite praise and worship song. As it turns out, that song was only the tip of the iceberg.
Another song on the album called “The Maker of Noses” reminded me of just how “worldly” or secular I was on the verge of becoming. I knew I had to get back into church, and I did. Thanks to Rich Mullins. Instead of returning to the church with the youth group and the contemporary worship, my wife and I decided to rejoin the church I grew up in. My mother was going there, along with my grandparents and a few aunts and uncles. The church of my childhood was in need of members. So we joined.
Sadly, Rich had already passed away prior to my discovering his music. I would love to see him in concert; I’m sure I will in Heaven. My love for God and church was a roaring fire, thanks to Rich’s music. I bought every cd I could find by him. I knew, and still know, nearly all of his songs by heart. What I didn’t know was anything about the man. Judging by the depth and content of his lyrics, though, if anyone had it all figured out, it was Rich; I was certain of that.
My brother received a book as a present on his birthday. He read it and then let me borrow it. It was a book about the life and legacy of my hero, Rich Mullins. I devoured it. I read and reread it. Rich was every bit as fascinating a person as was his music. He took a vow of poverty, giving nearly all of his superstar income to charity and living in a trailer on an Indian reservation teaching the bible and music. I learned that Rich contributed articles to magazines and spent a lot of time as a missionary, touching and changing the lives of many people. His prose was as brilliant as his lyrics. One thing, however, troubled me. The more I read about Rich, both in books and on the internet, the more I kept noticing the word “Catholic”.
Keep in mind that I’m a good Baptist. I have good Baptist sensibilities. I didn’t even know any Catholics. The only thing I’d ever heard about Catholics was bad. They worshipped the Pope, and Mary. They could buy or work their way into heaven, or worse, purgatory. Based on what I knew, I always lumped the Catholic Church under the heading of “Cult”, right beside Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses; honestly on top of them. I heard the names “Catholic” and “Whore of Babylon” together many times.
What on earth was this brilliant man of faith doing? How could he consider becoming Roman Catholic? Surely Rich had been misunderstood. Maybe he was trying to convert Catholics, not convert to Catholicism. Well, I wasn’t about to spend the rest of my life wondering. I got online and typed “Catholic, Rich Mullins” into the Google search box. I found this article by a guy named Terry Mattingly:
Rich Mullins – Enigmatic, Restless, Catholic
Father Matt McGinness had never heard the song playing on his car radio, even though “Sing Your Praise to the Lord” was one of superstar Amy Grant’s biggest hits.
“Gosh, I really like that song,” the priest told a musician friend that night back in 1995. “Well, thanks,” responded Rich Mullins. This mystified the priest, who asked what he meant. “I wrote that,” said Mullins.
McGinness hadn’t realized that Mullins was that famous. The priest simply knew him as another seeker who kept asking questions about doctrine, history and art and was developing a unique spiritual bond with St. Francis of Assisi. At the time of his death in a Sept. 19 car crash Mullins was taking the final steps to enter Catholicism.
“Rich had made up his mind and he wasn’t hiding anymore,” said McGinness, chaplain of the Newman Center at Wichita State University. “But I really don’t think it’s fair to make him the poster child for Catholic converts. …The key to Rich is that he was searching for a deep, lasting unity with God. He was such a reflective man and that quality brought him both peace and a great deal of anxiety.”
Even friends described Mullins as “enigmatic” and “eccentric” and there was much more to him than hit songs, led by the youth-rally anthem “Awesome God.” Grant summed up his legacy during last month’s Dove Awards in Nashville, in which Mullins received his first “artist of the year” award.
“Rich Mullins was the uneasy conscience of Christian music,” she said. “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.”
McGinness said Mullins often said he felt called to a life of chastity and service, while staying active in music. It was hard to predict his future. His final recordings are slated for release on June 30 as “The Jesus Record.”
“Rich didn’t know for sure if he was called to ministry, which in the Catholic context would be the priesthood,” said McGinness. “He also feared that converting to Catholicism could mean losing his audience. … He knew there might be rough days ahead.”
It’s crucial to remember that Mullins grew up surrounded by fiercely independent brands of Protestantism such as the Quakers and the Churches of Christ, said his brother David Mullins, minister at the Oak Grove Christian Church in Beckley, W. Va. This taught him to fear formality and hierarchies, while also yearning for a faith that united people in all times and places – - with no labels.
“Rich had a very low view of church structures, but he had very high ideals about what the church could be,” said his brother. “He was sincerely drawn to Catholicism, but he also wondered where he would fit in the Roman Catholic Church.”
Nevertheless, Mullins’ recent music was steeped in Catholicism, from his autobiographical album “A Liturgy, A Legacy & A Ragamuffin Band” to his “Canticle of the Plains” musical about a Kansas cowboy he called St. Frank. His greatest-hits set was filled with photos of Celtic churches, crucifixes, nuns and statues of Mary. He quoted G.K. Chesterton and Flannery O’Connor, defended the pope and told one interviewer: “I think that a lot of Protestants think that Pentecost happened and then the church disappeared until the Reformation. So there is this long span of time when there was no church. That can’t be if Jesus was telling the truth.”
After playing telephone tag for a week, McGinness and Mullins talked one last time the night before the fatal accident. Mullins was going to Mass weekly, if not more often. He was ready to say his first confession and be confirmed. They set a meeting in two days. Others said Mullins was aiming for Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis.
“There was a sense of urgency,” said the priest. “He told me, ‘This may sound strange, but I HAVE to receive the body and blood of Christ.’ I told him, ‘That doesn’t sound strange at all. That sounds wonderful.’ … Of course, I’ll always remember that conversation. Rich finally sounded like he was at peace with his decision.”
Sadly, Rich died before his meeting with the Priest. I was stunned. He was serious, but how? I kept the words “Catholic” in the search engine, but backspaced over Rich’s name. Thus began my journey. I was going to prove Rich wrong. I was going to prove that Catholicism was man made additions to the simple, clear message of Scripture. I was going to prove that the Pope was the Anti-Christ.
I was going to be surprised.
