Bring Your Own God : The Spirituality of Woody Guthrie

I loved this book! Rev. Edington writes with such great ease and holds your attention. I am not a bookworm and don't usually get tied down with a book; but it was hard for me to put down Bring Your Own God as I read about my brother Woody Guthrie's religion and his spiritual life. I read it through in one sitting. Bravo! Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon. Shawnee, Oklahoma. Sister of Woody Guthrie. Bring Your Own God-The Spirituality of Woody Guthrie welcomes us to join Woody as he travels that ribbon of highway on his life's journey. Like Edington's classic The Beat Face of God, which details the spirituality of Jack Kerouac and other Beat Generation writers, this book opens up doors into the heart and soul of an extraordinary man who remains a voice for all people. Bring Your Own God provides us with a fresh look and deeper understanding of the enduring legacy of one of the twentieth century's iconic artists. David Amram. Mr. Amram is an acclaimed and multitalented musician, composer, and author. His many compositions include Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie. Woody Guthrie was and remains a creative writer against greed and against those who infl ict poverty and hardships on others. He has been and is an inspirational hero to those who fi ght poverty and pain. Through the years, Woody has been accused of many unpatriotic activities, and numerous writings have been levied against him. He has been the subject of books and articles both negative and positive about his life and about his creativity. However, until Rev. Stephen Edington became interested, very little has been written about his spiritual beliefs. This book shows why Woody was a man of love, compassion, and creativity in spite of sadness, hardships, tragedy, and other emotional blockages. Guy Logsdon. Mr. Logsdon is a noted Woody Guthrie Scholar from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

What ultimately defined Woody Guthrie's life was an intense spiritual bond he felt not only with his fellow human beings, but with all of Being Itself. When he wrote, then, "All of my songs flow out of Christ" he was actually referring, I believe, to this greater, Universal Connection he felt with All of Life. Because Christianity was the particular religion with which he was most familiar, he writes, in this passage anyway, of his Universal Connection using Christian language. At the same time, however, in the songs and writings that are reflective of his spirituality Woody hardly confined himself to Christian language and thought. Recalling Guy Logsdon's observations, Guthrie was a true Universalist when it came to expressing his religious and spiritual inclinations. Much of what he wrote in this genre has only come to light in more recent years, long after his death, and has been set to music and recorded by other artists. Songs like Holy Ground, This Morning I Am Born Again, God's Promise, and Heaven—to name but a few—never even became songs for Woody. They were among the hundreds of verses he wrote as inspiration led him. As just noted, they've been set to music and recorded by others like Ellis Paul, or Slaid Cleaves, or The Klezmatics. But the lyrics themselves point to the passion that ultimately drove Woody Guthrie's life and work. Much of what has been touched on here will be revisited in greater detail in the chapters ahead. Woody was not raised with a structured and deliberate kind of religious education, in the manner, say, of Jack Kerouac's Catholicism. His sister, Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, points out: "If you read his book Bound for Glory, I believe from his writings (one can see) it would have been impossible for (Woody to have had) any kind of a structured, supervised routine for any kind of religion." But then, writing of herself and her siblings as they were all being raised, she continues, "It was in our hearts to do good. The Ten Commandments were our guidelines. We were taught love and kindness for each other, honesty always, honor for our parents, faith, good morals. We were ruled by Jesus and said the Lord's Prayer regularly. These rules were set forth by our father, Charley, and were imbedded in us forever." 7) In the pages ahead it is my hope to offer a deeper look into what it was that was "embedded" in Woody Guthrie forever. In the end there's really no need for a Church of Woody Guthrie. The "congregation" of those persons around the world—past, present, and future—who have been touched and blessed by his life and work are "church" enough. But that small structure sitting there next to the Housatonic River in western Massachusetts—a locale Woody himself never even laid eyes on—is as good a tribute to his life as one will find out there. One God—Many Forms One River—Many Streams One People—Many Faces One Mother—Many Children. Surely, Woody Guthrie could say "Amen!" to that.