Andy Griffith

This article was originally in an email from Khouse.org

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Jimmy And Andy: Loving God From Tinseltown To Mayberry

Jimmy and Andy: Loving God From Tinseltown To Mayberry

from the July 03, 2012 eNews issue

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The 1946 movie It's A Wonderful Life has a poignant scene in which despairing George Bailey sits at a restaurant counter seeking God's help. His uncle Billy has misplaced $8000 that was to be deposited in the bank that day, and George is facing arrest and jail time because of it. He does not know that half the town is praying for him. He sits at the counter and begs, "God...God...dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if You're up there and You can hear me, show me the way, I'm at the end of my rope. Show me the way, God..."

In the movie, George Bailey breaks down crying. The tears weren't scripted, but the actor Jimmy Stewart became overwhelmed with genuine emotion as the scene was being filmed. Stewart wrote in a 1977 edition of Guideposts, "As I said those words, I felt the loneliness and hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn, and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing. This was not planned at all, but the power of that prayer, the realization that our Father in heaven is there to help the hopeless had reduced me to tears."

Stewart was a faithful member of Brentwood Presbyterian in southern California. "[T]hat church was the one in which Gloria and I were married," Stewart relates. "A few years after that it was the same church I'd slip into during the day when Gloria was near death after our twin girls were born. Then after we moved, we attended Beverly Hills Presbyterian…"

Stewart's faith was more than pew-sitting, though, and it came out in his movies. At age 72, Stewart played the part of Mr. Krueger in the humble Christmas special Mr. Krueger's Christmas, about an aged widower whose daydreams get him through a lonely Christmas. In it, there's a scene in which Mr. Krueger sits in the stable and offers his gratitude to the baby Jesus, and the viewer suspects the actor himself is sharing from the well of in his heart.

According to the Jimmy Stewart Museum in his hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania, visitors come from all over the world, "to see where he grew up and acquired the values he embraced thoughout his life – hard work, love of country, love of family, love of community and most of all love of God."

It has been 15 years since Jimmy Stewart passed away July 2, 1997.

It's been just hours, though, since Andy Griffith left this world - early the morning of July 3, 2012.

Griffith himself was a committed Christian, and he walked out his faith both in his private and public lives. Famous as Sheriff (and occasionally Justice of the Peace) Andy Taylor of the small town of Mayberry, Griffith has offered wholesome fun to the homes of millions of Americans since 1960. The show was filled with humor and good old-fashioned moral wisdom, and Griffith will be sorely missed.

Mike Gross, a TV producer in Los Angeles who hails from North Carolina, expressed the thoughts of many who loved the show, saying, "Somehow, The Andy Griffith Show - TAGS - transcended class, and sophistication. It could be enjoyed by southern rednecks and urban sophisticates alike…"

"True story," Gross continued, "At Davidson College in North Carolina I'd carry my 13-inch black-and-white TV to the cafeteria at dinner time, because dinner conflicted with TAGS. I'd get my food, plug in, and eat dinner and watch TAGS with a handful of southern buddies, but within a week - and for the rest of the year -these Boston meatheads were all gathered around my TV at dinner, watching TAGS with me, howling."

One of the unique aspects of the Andy Griffith show was the music often played on the show. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's John McEuen credits Andy Griffith with inspiring him into his own music career. He said of Griffith, "[He] always took me back to a place I had never been, but like so many, wanted to go to."

In a number of episodes, Andy would pick on the guitar while the hillbilly family, the Darlings (the bluegrass group The Dillards), would play banjo and base and mandolin and fiddle with delightful skill and deadpan faces. Griffith later went on to make gospel music albums, singing dozens of favorite hymns. And even as the world heard the news of his passing, we're certain that thousands puckered up their lips and whistled the well-loved Andy Griffith theme song.

Griffith once told Guideposts, "I firmly believe that in every situation, no matter how difficult, God extends grace greater than the hardship, and strength and peace of mind that can lead us to a place higher than where we were before."

Hollywood has its problems. It has its greedy Mr. Potters, just like the town of Bedford Falls in the Jimmy Stewart movie. It has plenty of those willing to let corruption and immorality pervade in the pursuit of making a buck. Yet, it also has the occasional Andy Taylor and George Bailey. Andy Griffith and Jimmy Stewart were both simple men who loved God, and God used them to touch the hearts of millions.

We pray God will continue to raise up more men like them, men who will not be ashamed to direct attention to their Savior with genuine love and humor, whether they live in Hollywood or Mayberry.

• Hometown Boy - The Jimmy Stewart Museum

• Andy Griffith: An Appreciation - The Examiner

• Andy Griffith Dead: Christian Actor Also Gospel Singer - The Huffington Post