CHARLIE DANIELS FINDS THE POWERFUL LURE OF FAME PALES IN COMPARISON TO THE POWER OF GOD

The rumbling really got started at four in the morning. The walls shook, the floor bounced, and the furniture danced.

For country music legend Charlie Daniels, it might have been just another day at the office. But even though he has performed with the likes of Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and a couple of the Beatles, he was not the one changing the landscape this time. This shaking was caused by the Rock that doesn’t roll.

The fact is, earthquakes don’t hit Middle Tennessee very often, but the experience won’t be forgotten any time soon. “The quake lasted only a few seconds,” said Charlie on his website, “but it felt like a giant had grabbed the side of the house and shook it violently.... Those few seconds were enough to convince me that earthquakes are one of the most powerful forces in existence.... A little reminder of the power of God once in a while really gets our attention.”

Yes, God truly demonstrated His power that beautiful spring morning, but the shaking hasn’t stopped in Charlie’s life yet. What’s more, God seems to be be using him to shake a lot of other people up, too. You might even say God is shakin’ the foundations of the entertainment industry with the words and music He’s given this hillbilly (a label he wears proudly) from Tennessee.

Charlie doesn’t believe in hiding who he is. His website (www.charliedaniels.com) has a soapbox section he writes just to show you who this giant of a man is. If you have any doubts about his faith, he writes:

“I believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, not a way, a truth and a life. I believe that no man can come to the Father except through the Son.

“Why do I believe that? Because that’s what the Bible says, which by the way, I believe every word of.

“I believe in school vouchers and that true marriage exists only between a man and a woman.

“Oh, and by the way, I do have a bass rig.”

Well, the bass rig may seem a bit of an afterthought, as it should be, but it gives an indication of how he applies his faith to life. And that’s not the end of it, either. In fact, his views seem to cause earthquakes wherever he turns up these days. He has openly called Sean Penn a traitor for visiting Saddam Hussein prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, and said Barbra Streisand’s rantings about President Bush are about as sensible “as Michael Jackson hanging a baby over a railing.”

And heaven forbid an entertainment superstar support the NRA and “own more guns than most people” which he takes “great delight in shooting.”

Son of a Conservationist

These are tough words from an avowed right-wing Christian, but they reveal a strong character, not a hateful one. His 30+ years with wife Hazel and his deep love for his children are another important measure of the man.

Family has always been a big priority in Charlie’s life, largely because of his father. He grew up in the war-torn 1940s hunting with his father in North Carolina, and stamped his memory of those times into the heart of every country music fan with the song “The Legend of Wooley Swamp,” a story taken from one of his many hunting trips with his father.

Carlton Daniels, Charlie's dad, was a lumberjack whose work took him all over the South. As a result, Charlie moved around a lot growing up. But in spite of a busy schedule, his dad passed on a strong faith in God and a true Christian work ethic that follows him to this day. "He was an honest, self-reliant man who loved music and singing, joking and laughing, good people and good food and his work. He could look at a tree and tell you within a fraction how many board feet of lumber it would make after it was cut down," Charlie reflected.

Then there’s hunting and fishing, both a little ways down the priority list, but on the list nonetheless. Charlie deeply loves the outdoors and has little tolerance for most environmentalists. As he told the Christian Sportsman, “There’s a lot of folks running around today calling themselves environmentalist who know about as much about the environment as a hog knows about an airplane. They’re just spouting off what other people say. Since my daddy was in the timber business, he was a conservationist. Timber is a renewable resource and he treated it as such. If you want to find a true environmentalist, go find a hunter or a fisherman or somebody who loves the woods and is in the woods all the time, like my daddy was. It’s the people who love the woods that take care of them.

“I think we should all be concerned with passing on an attitude of conservation toward the sports we love and the outdoors we love and really taking care of them, not just giving them lip service like so many do.”

In August 2003, the Charlie Daniels Band helped Buckmasters with its much acclaimed Expo. Charlie signed on to “celebrate our love of hunting and the close bonds it creates between our families and friends. The Buckmasters Expo is special. It says to the world: ‘We’re hunters and we’re proud of what we stand for.’ I like that. As hunters, we have so much to be proud of and so much to be thankful for. I applaud Buckmasters for standing up for hunting.”

Standing Up for God’s Principles
Charlie’s love for the outdoors makes him a strong believer in the ethical treatment of animals, but not the way some folks define it. He calls the ideas of groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) ridiculous. “I would like to see PETA go to the Arctic and tell the Eskimos that they can’t eat seals, whales, fish and polar bears. I seriously doubt if they’d listen, since they’d starve to death. That’s about all they have to eat up there....

“God gave man authority over this planet, every animal, every fish and every plant, and I claim the right that He gave me....
“I treat my animals well,” he continues. “I feed them and water them and if they are sick I have a vet come and look at them. And I also know that there are people who mistreat animals and I deplore the practice, but I’m much more concerned about the ethical treatment of human beings. How about the ethical treatment of unborn babies?”

Charlie’s always quick to tell anybody who is willing to listen how much he hates abortion, especially the jet-setters of Hollywood. Of course, few of them listen, but Charlie keeps preaching. And he rarely fails to tell folks how much he loves God and country.

Fame Carries a Large Burden
While Charlie Daniels isn’t afraid to speak his mind and tell people what they need to hear, he’s very understanding toward individuals who have lost their way. After all, money and fame have taken their toll on many performers through the years, and Charlie’s no different. He lost his way early on in his music career, even though he was raised in a Christian home.

The years of playing on the road and spending time with people in show business dragged Charlie away from the Lord. God didn’t let go of Charlie, though, as He slowly turned Charlie’s wilderness experience around. “I just got way away from the Lord and from the Bible for a while. I didn’t have a ‘Damascus Road’ experience or anything. It was just a gradual coming back.”

Today, though, Charlie has high regard for the Word of God. “To me, every word in that Bible is true and will always be true. Many people tell me the story of Noah or Jonah was just symbolism. No, it wasn’t symbolism – those things really happened. I think when we get away from interpreting the Bible literally, that’s when we get in trouble. There’s way too much liberal theology in the world today.

“People say we need to twist the Word of God around today so it’s more up to date and applies to this contemporary world just so they can live the way they want to live. We’re not supposed to twist the Word of God around today. That’s not the way it works. We’re supposed to twist the world and our lives around the Word of God. That’s the way it works.”

It’s hard to imagine the big, burly Charlie Daniels submitting to anyone or anything, but he makes it clear that he’s not as big as the God he serves. His father built into him a confidence that’s allowed him to take on the biggest heavy-hitters of Hollywood without a hint of fear. Fortunately, Carlton didn’t instill self-confidence. He taught Charlie to take confidence in the one living God, the Father of Jesus Christ, who empowers His children to live for Him.

Yes, it’s true, “A little reminder of the power of God once in a while really gets our attention.” There’s reason to give thanks to God for the power He’s demonstrating in the life of Charlie Daniels today. That power is definitely getting the attention of the supposed “untouchables” in Tinsel Town and it’s shaking their foundations more than any California earthquake ever could. And, just as importantly, the power of God is touching the lives of many red-blooded, patriotic Americans through Charlie’s words and music.

If your foundations are shaking, it might be an earthquake or it could be the fearless words of country music’s ambassador of goodwill. Either way, it’s God power that’s causing all the rumblin’.