I had the extraordinary privilege last weekend of attending an early screening of a new 55-minute documentary entitled “The Long Road Home: The Cash Family’s Untold Story.” The documentary, which was produced by Oxvision Media (and Cindy Cash), working with the Cash family, tells the tragic story of how drug addiction has ravaged generations of the Cash family.
At the screening, Mark Cash (Johnny Cash’s nephew and the son of Tommy Cash who had his own country hits), explained, “Addiction runs through my family like a fire.” The documentary tells the story of the Cash family’s multi-generational struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.
Mark declared, “If this documentary can help one person see there is light at the end of the tunnel, then we’ve done our job. There is hope.”
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“The Long Road Home” was screened at the “Storytellers Museum,” located adjacent to Johnny Cash’s former farm retreat in Bon Aqua, a suburb of Nashville.
Nine members of the Cash family appear in the film, including Johnny Cash’s daughter Cindy. The Cash family members are admirably open and frank about how various addictions have devastated their lives. In fact, the film is dedicated to Mark’s sister, Paula, who died from cirrhosis of the liver ten days after the film was completed.
The Cash family participated in this very personal documentary in the hope that it would be used to combat the epidemic of drug abuse in America by providing both a warning and a hope. They are quite open about the personal and family devastation addiction visits on families as well as the fact that recovery is achievable.
The documentary also points out that individuals who grow up in families that are battling addictions are eight times more likely to fall into addictive behaviors themselves.
Make no mistake about it. America is in the midst of an existential crisis of drug and alcohol abuse. Tens of thousands of Americans are dying every year from drugs and addiction behavior, and tens of thousands more are having their lives stifled, stunted, and sidetracked by various drug and alcohol addictions.
Several representatives of government-funded entities that combat addictive behaviors were present for the documentary’s screening and were enthusiastic about how “The Long Road Home” could be used both in prevention and in treatment of addictions.
Given the depth and breadth of the addiction problem in the U.S., we need all the tools we can muster to combat this destructive plague both with treatment and prevention. “The Long Road Home” is just such a tool and my hope and prayer is that it will be used widely both in treatment centers and prevention programs.
The Cash family is to be commended for their transparency and commitment. The audience who shared the screening with me was deeply moved by “The Long Road Home.” I pray God will use it tremendously in salvaging and rebuilding lives and in preventing people from falling into the clutches of addiction.
For more information about “The Long Road Home” and how you can bring it to your community, contact Jackson@RedRidgeEntertainment.com.
Dr. Richard Land, BA (Princeton, magna cum laude); D.Phil. (Oxford); Th.M (New Orleans Seminary). Dr. Land served as President of Southern Evangelical Seminary from July 2013 until July 2021. Upon his retirement, he was honored as President Emeritus and he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor of Theology & Ethics. Dr. Land previously served as President of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) where he was also honored as President Emeritus upon his retirement. Dr. Land has also served as an Executive Editor and columnist for The Christian Post since 2011.
Dr. Land explores many timely and critical topics in his daily radio feature, “Bringing Every Thought Captive,” and in his weekly column for CP.
