Skip to main content

Faith & Spirit Quote by Billy Ray Cyrus

"I am and always will be a sinner. But that's the beautiful thing about Jesus. I'll always try to be a better person in the eyes of God. But I'm not all of a sudden stepping up on a pedestal and saying I'm holier than thou, 'cause I'm not!"

About this Quote

Cyrus is doing two things at once: confessing weakness and preemptively disarming the audience that loves to weaponize faith. The line "I am and always will be a sinner" isn’t performative self-loathing; it’s a credibility move. In celebrity culture, where every misstep gets repackaged as moral failure, admitting ongoing imperfection becomes a shield against the gotcha cycle. He’s not claiming a redemption arc with a clean ending. He’s insisting on a messy, continuous one.

The clever pivot is "But that's the beautiful thing about Jesus". He reframes religion away from purity politics and toward grace, making Christianity less a scoreboard and more a relationship. That matters coming from a country music figure, a world where public religiosity can slide into branding. Cyrus signals he knows that risk. "I’ll always try to be a better person in the eyes of God" keeps the accountability vertical (Godward) instead of horizontal (audienceward). He’s not asking for applause; he’s asking for room to grow.

Then comes the real subtext: "I’m not... stepping up on a pedestal". That’s aimed at two crowds at once - the skeptics who assume religious talk equals hypocrisy, and the believers who expect testimony to sound like triumph. Cyrus rejects the "holier than thou" posture that often turns faith into social dominance. The intent is reputation management, sure, but it’s also a cultural critique: holiness, he suggests, isn’t a status. It’s a practice conducted under the assumption you’ll never fully graduate.

Quote Details

TopicFaith
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Cyrus, Billy Ray. (2026, January 16). I am and always will be a sinner. But that's the beautiful thing about Jesus. I'll always try to be a better person in the eyes of God. But I'm not all of a sudden stepping up on a pedestal and saying I'm holier than thou, 'cause I'm not! FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-and-always-will-be-a-sinner-but-thats-the-135489/

Chicago Style
Cyrus, Billy Ray. "I am and always will be a sinner. But that's the beautiful thing about Jesus. I'll always try to be a better person in the eyes of God. But I'm not all of a sudden stepping up on a pedestal and saying I'm holier than thou, 'cause I'm not!" FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-and-always-will-be-a-sinner-but-thats-the-135489/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I am and always will be a sinner. But that's the beautiful thing about Jesus. I'll always try to be a better person in the eyes of God. But I'm not all of a sudden stepping up on a pedestal and saying I'm holier than thou, 'cause I'm not!" FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-am-and-always-will-be-a-sinner-but-thats-the-135489/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Billy Add to List
Billy Ray Cyrus on Sin, Grace, and Humble Faith
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

USA Flag

Billy Ray Cyrus (born August 25, 1961) is a Musician from USA.

7 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Jerry Falwell, Clergyman