Billy Strings and the Threat of Jesus

Reflections on Bible Belt Christianity

I took my oldest son—home for Christmas after his first semester in college—to a Billy Strings concert in December. For the uninitiated, Billy Strings is a virtuoso bluegrass guitar player, and his band—Billy Failing (banjo), Royal Massat (bass), Jarrod Walker (mandolin), and Alex Hargreaves (fiddle)—is no less talented. They play bluegrass, but they also improvise. If you can imagine Ralph Stanley merging with the Grateful Dead, that will give you some idea of a Billy Strings concert. You’ll witness three-minute bluegrass favorites spliced between twenty-minute exploratory jam sessions.

A Billy Strings concert contains a mix of original music and traditional bluegrass standards. Because of the historical overlap between bluegrass and gospel, Billy often rolls out a gospel tune or two at his shows. On this night, for example, the band played “Harbour of Love” by the Stanley Brothers, a song about reaching heaven after repenting and praying to God for forgiveness. Resonating with the song’s message, we enjoyed the surprise of getting to hear our favorite guitar player perform a song about God’s grace. It was a cool experience for both of us.

However, we soon found out that not everyone appreciated Billy’s performance of a gospel song. During intermission, we waited in the long merchandise line to get a shirt and listened as people around us opined on the first set of music. Directly behind us in line, we overheard an inebriated man tell his friends in an expletive-filled tirade that Billy needs to shut up with all those songs about Jesus.

It was a jarring experience for me. I grew up in the Deep South. I’m talking prong on the buckle of the Bible Belt. I’m used to people not following Jesus, but where I’m from, no one ever talks bad about him. In fact, the favorite genre of music among my kin is country. For as long as I can remember, including a lyric about Jesus has served as a surefire way to guarantee a hit country song. Jesus, take the wheel. Jesus and mama always loved me. I don’t think Jesus done it that way. In the Deep South, we eat up songs about Jesus.

I’m used to being around people who think Jesus is cool. He reminds us of grandma. We’re used to seeing grandpa’s old Bible on the kitchen table underneath his deer rifle on the wall. No matter how we’re living, we’re going to be at church on Easter, and no one likes using God’s name before certain words. We may not pray personally, but we want our kids in schools where they’re still free to pray before football games on Friday nights. The Jesus I grew up learning about is always there to help you when you need a hand.

As I stood there in stunned silence listening to this man vocalize hatred toward my Lord and Savior, a strange thought occurred to me—perhaps this angry man at the YUM Center is closer to the truth than the people I grew up around.

Hear me out. In the Bible Belt, Jesus affirms, accepts, and assures but rarely makes demands. People like this version of Jesus because he doesn’t ask them for anything. He pretty much leaves us alone, waiting to be taken down off the shelf and used when needed. In other words, people in the Bible Belt are often cool with Jesus because the Jesus they’re cool with isn’t the real Jesus.

The drunk man in line at the Billy Strings concert certainly wasn’t a follower of Jesus, but he at least understood that Jesus is a threat. Jesus doesn’t leave us alone. He refuses to leave the status quo uninterrupted. This man went to the Billy Strings concert to party and have a good time. He didn’t like Billy making him think about grandpa’s Bible and the life he ought to be living. He rightly saw Jesus as a threat.

When we read the Bible, we discover that the people who understand Jesus only have one of two responses. They either hate Jesus or they submit to him in repentance and faith. In the leadup to Jesus’ crucifixion, the Jewish religious leaders understand Jesus’ claims and rightly see him as a threat who needs to be eliminated. Pilate doesn’t fully understand his significance and thus responds with lukewarmness. He doesn’t think he deserves death but ultimately caves to the demand to crucify him.

If you’ve never viewed Jesus as a threat, you’ve never understood who Jesus is. He’s either a threat or he’s Lord and Savior. He doesn’t give us the option of viewing him as cool and harmless.