This road leads to Rainbowville,
Going my way.
Up ahead is Blue Bird Hill,
Going my way.

Just pack a basket full of wishes
And off you start
With Sunday morning in your heart.

Round the bend you’ll see a sign
“Dreamers Highway.”
Happiness is down the line,
Going my way.

The smiles you’ll gather
Will look well on you.
Oh, I hope you’re going my way too.

A little over an hour into Going My Way, Bing Crosby’s character, Father Chuck O’Malley, sings the song that shares a title with its film, “Going My Way.” Father O’Malley has come to check up on Carol, a runaway who aspires to be a singer and who, it would seem, has fallen into the clutches of Ted Haines Jr., who is on his way to being as heartless a landlord as his father. Ted has no intentions of throwing Carol out of her apartment, however. It would seem (especially to the nosey Mrs. Quimp) that Ted aims to make the penniless Carol his mistress. And that’s why Father O’Malley pays Carol (and Ted) a visit. The couple relate how they met and proudly give Father O’Malley a tour of Carol’s apartment, which is stocked full of gifts from Ted, evidence of his intentions to purchase Carol’s affections.

Rather than ream the young people out over their potentially scandalous relationship, Father O’Malley sits down at Carol’s piano and explains how music has always been important to him and how there came a point in his life when he had to make a decision about his future career path: “whether to write the nation’s songs or go my way.” His thoughts about music then transition to his beliefs about religion: “Religion doesn’t have to be this (pounding on the low notes of the piano), takin’ all the fun out of everything. It can be bright (tinkling the high notes on the piano), bring you closer to happiness.” What follows the priest’s music/religion thoughts is the song “Going My Way,” which moves Carol to tears and Ted to deep thoughtfulness. After Father O’Malley quietly excuses himself from the apartment, a choked up Carol muses, “It’s a nice thought, going my way…isn’t it?”

Ted and Carol react to Father O’Malley’s singing “Going My Way.”

I’ve been musing all week about just what “Going My Way” means—especially in light of the connection Father O’Malley makes between music and religion and the response of those who listen to the song (the song reappears toward the end of the film in a performance given for a group of music producers by Father O’Malley’s boys choir and his friend, a famous opera star, Genevieve Linden). What I’ve come up with are some hopefully coherent thoughts regarding individual purpose and practical Christianity.

The concept of “going my way” is first mentioned when Father O’Malley is recalling his decision to join the priesthood instead of pursuing music as a career. He tells Carol and Ted that he finds much joy in helping other people, so he is satisfied that he made the right decision in choosing to join the church. Yet, his combining the story of (perhaps) his biggest life decision with a comparison of how most people view religion (dull, strict, stifling) with what religion should be (inspiring, joyous) elevates the concept of “going my way” into a new realm, that of morality. Yes, Father O’Malley’s own personal “way” is the priesthood; but he’s not your typical priest, as is evidenced right from the film’s beginning.

Father O’Malley is clearly not a typical priest, as Father Fitzgibbon quickly notices.

By the time Father O’Malley first sings “Going My Way,” viewers of the film have seen enough of the progressive priest to know that his methods of caring for his flock are unconventional—in other words, his “way” is to promote the morality of the church through creative means that meet the needs of those within his parish in a way that cold, rule-driven religion cannot. Father O’Malley’s Christianity is warm and practical. He doesn’t run around the neighborhood giving people guilt trips and hassling them about their church attendance records (although he does ask Ted if he goes to church). Instead, he sees the young boys of his parish involved in petty crime and befriends them, taking them to baseball games and building their self-esteem by forming a boys choir to allow them to feel pride in something positive. He gives Carol an impromptu singing lesson (along with a little cash to tide her over until she finds a job). He pulls the church out of its financial morass and revitalizes Father Fitzgibbon, forming a warm friendship with the old man that bridges the generations and traditions that divide them at first. In the song he sings Carol and Ted, then, Father O’Malley is inviting the young couple to join his way of life–a personal, individualized religion that is warm and overflowing with a practical love that meets the needs of those around it.

Father O’Malley meeting the practical needs of the young men in his parish–a positive male role model.

For Me Then…

Going My Way is a feel-good flick—a morale-boosting, hope-building, two-hour stroll through conflicts that seem slight and issues that pale in comparison to the carnage of the war that enveloped the world in 1944. But on a less cosmic level, to me this film is about real-life, everyday, hands-on Christianity. So often, we Christians are encouraged to share the good news of salvation with those around us who have never heard it or who have never accepted that Jesus died for them, but just as often we turn a blind eye to the physical or emotional needs of those same people. It’s one thing to share with someone that God will provide for all his/her needs; but it’s another thing to act out that message by seeing that person needs a warm coat and giving him/her my own. It’s one thing to tell someone he/she needs a Savior; it’s another thing to see that person needs a friend and to fill that void in his/her life. What Father O’Malley shows Going My Way‘s viewers is that religion shouldn’t be primarily about rules–condemning those who break them and rewarding those who go through the motions. Rather, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27).