The Dolly Parton Deception

I had no intention to offer any comment on the death of Dolly Parton, a subject I deem to be a waste of time. However, the Christian community has chosen to celebrate this woman and seen to want to claim her as a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.

I'm not sure why apart from their overwhelming desire to claim celebrities. Parton's statements make it abundantly clear that her religion was little different from that of Oprah Winfrey - be a good person, love everybody, and be authentic. In her case she liked to throw around the name of 'Jesus' but it's clearly not the Christ of Scripture, but merely a self-affirming Jesus, one that will love you and save you no matter what - even if you ignore his commandments and refuse to repent of your sins. She made it clear that all that mattered was sincerity - whether you believed in Mother Nature, a higher power, or even nothing at all.
Dolly Parton possessed some talent but more than anything she created a brand that relied upon sexuality and playing up her own attributes. Her brand-appearance was so critical to her persona that she resorted to repeated cosmetic surgeries as she aged - revealing the superficial and plastic person that she really was.

In the 1980's she transferred her brand into movies such as the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and through feminist-themed works like 9 to 5.

Basically when I was growing up, Dolly Parton was kind of a living joke - her appearance on television made young boys blush, and most adults to roll their eyes. Even her attempts at being alluring were more akin to a circus side-show. She was tacky and constantly made off-colour jokes in reference to her anatomy. There's nothing wrong with being a full-figured woman (as it is said), but Parton had zero discretion, decorum, or modesty and in fact 'cashed in' on the same. There's a name for women who do that, who sell themselves.

Somehow in the 2000's, her brand was completely re-cast and she became the great humanitarian and philanthropist. It's interesting also because of the changes in feminism. The movement had despised her in the 1970's and 80's, but by the 2000's a woman like Parton could be celebrated for her power, authenticity, and self-expression. By the time she was receiving her honors at the Kennedy Center, a cultural shift had taken place across working class America. Songs like 'Redneck Woman' were atop the charts. The celebration of tackiness was in. The Gretchen Wilson song wasn't about the affirmation of poverty and rural values but rather a kind of defiant decadence, the affirmation of a kind of base lifestyle that (again) knows no decorum or discretion - or decency for that matter. There's nothing wrong with being poor and living in a run down house out in the country (like me) but what Wilson is promoting is a kind of low-life ethos. It was like the plastic angel-tackiness of Parton taken to the next downgraded stage.

There's no reason why Christians should want to claim this woman or celebrate her legacy.

The other reason we know her religiosity was fake was that there was no repentance regarding her former sluttish behaviour and in the creation of her brand. She was proud of it and her supposed authenticity. Evangelicals can embrace this kind of antinomian religion in the name of cheap grace - and deceive themselves in the process.

The fact that Trump has lowered the flag is nothing to me - I don't regard or recognize such things. It's his attempt to score points with a significant voting bloc in the South, Mid-west, Appalachia, and among certain types of Charismatic-feminist women.

However if I did care about such things, I would be rather insulted as the 'honour' supposedly belongs to leaders, military people, fallen police, and the like. To give this honour to a person like Dolly Parton just cheapens the gesture but I suppose given Trump's own proclivities toward degeneracy and tackiness, maybe he is in fact genuinely moved. A cheap woman who became a multi-millionaire is just the sort of thing he likes.