For some fans, Dolly Parton was more than a musical idol – she was a spiritual icon

Filed 1h ago · Via The Conversation · The Buffoon Desk

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Bama Country

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Following Dolly Parton's death, a religious studies scholar reports an outpouring of grief that has taken on explicitly sacred language, with mourners ranging from a Jesuit priest to atheists insisting she is 'in heaven with Jesus.'

The piece traces Parton's own shifting relationship with Christianity — from denying being Christian in 1977 to later embracing the label on her own terms — alongside her support for LGBTQ+ rights and BLM. President Trump ordered flags at half-staff; a Pride flag in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood was separately lowered in her honor.

Churches in three states have already held 'gospel of Dolly' services blending her songs with scripture, and the essay argues her broad, non-proselytizing spirituality explains why fans of every stripe, and no stripe, are calling her a saint.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

When a pop star's death produces simultaneous tributes from a monk and a militant atheist, the unifying theology on display says less about heaven than about how starved everyone is for a shared object of devotion. Dolly, characteristically, would probably find the whole canonization business a little much and a little funny.

Source: Read the original at The Conversation → Scored: Bama Country · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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