Dolly and Wendell

Last Tuesday our staff was eating lunch together when we got the news that Dolly Parton had died. I was surprised how emotional my reaction was. A long-range calendar planning session became an impromptu memorial service as we shared our favorite stories from her life and listened to some of her music. In the days that followed, I enjoyed lingering on many of the tributes in the news and on social media, and we even received a request to include Dolly Parton’s name in our prayers for the departed.

A week later, I learned in staff meeting of Wendell Berry’s death. My reaction was not as raw and emotional, but I still felt a deep and profound sense of loss. An important figure in the world and in my life had died. I have no business calling myself an true fan of his writing, but the thought of going forward in this world without his continued witness, especially in a time of increased environmental degradation and economic polarization, grieves me. I have added his name to our prayers for the departed, too.

Since their deaths, one of the things I have cherished about them both is to note with interest who is remembering and celebrating their lives. Neither Dolly Parton nor Wendell Berry was known primarily as a religious figure. Dolly was a singer, songwriter, and actor who also became distinguished in business and philanthropy. Wendell was a farmer, poet, novelist, essayist, and critic who was known for his commitment to the environment, rural life, and non-violence.

Dolly was raised Pentecostal but, as an adult, described herself as more spiritual than religious. Wendell was a Christian who frequently used religious imagery and characters in his writing but largely eschewed formal religious institutions. Despite their lack of public commitment to a particular church or denomination, both of their lives are being celebrated not only as examples of non-sectarian goodness but also as deeply and explicitly Christian witnesses to God’s love.

Both Wendell Berry and Dolly Parton grew up on farms in the American South, but their economic backgrounds differed considerably. Berry was born into an established Kentucky farming family, and his father also worked as a lawyer. He went to a military institute before going to the University of Kentucky and later Stanford University. Parton, on the other hand, grew up in a poor Tennessee family that used their meager harvest to barter for things like medical services. She started performing when she was a young child, and, although her musical career led to fame and fortune, she never lost touch with her Appalachian roots.

Of her philanthropic efforts, Parton is best known for her commitment to literacy. Originally, her efforts to support childhood education started near her home in Sevier County, Tennessee, but her Dollywood Foundation now mails books every month to 850,000 young children in over 1,600 communities. Her Wikipedia article also describes several quiet but generous efforts, including paying for college for all the employees of Dollywood, buying band uniforms for multiple high schools, and donating millions of dollars to several different hospitals.

Like many cultural icons with a diverse fanbase, Parton remained politically neutral, but that did not stop her from taking bold stands that could have cost her widespread support. Although cast in a comedic light, Parton’s role alongside Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda in the film 9 to 5 cemented her identity as one who advocated for gender equality, women’s rights, and the working class. In 2009, Dolly came out publicly in support of same-sex marriage, six years before the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that access to marriage was a right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

Wendell Berry never had the sort of popularity and fame as Dolly Parton, but his distinctive contributions to agricultural, environmental, cultural, and theological debates have made him a hero of many. More than anything, I appreciate Berry’s commitment to the sacredness of place, though, at the same time, I must acknowledge this concept has also become fuel for nationalist and groups. In his writing, Berry decried the industrialization of agriculture because of the damage it has done to the earth and to many of its inhabitants. He celebrated traditional farming techniques that promoted sustainable, long-term benefits for the land and its farmers.

As Berry’s Wikipedia entry suggests, not all of his advocacy was well received or, perhaps, well intentioned. In 1968 he demonstrated against the Vietnam War, declaring that he could no longer imagine a war that was either useful or necessary. Throughout his life, he repeatedly condemned the construction of coal-fired and nuclear power plants. In the aftermath of 9/11, he decried the political strategies of the Bush administration as being unamerican and inhumane. Using religious language, he wrote against the death penalty and called for a moratorium in his home state of Kentucky. And yet he also sued the University of Kentucky in an attempt to prevent the removal of a mural that had been criticized for romanticizing the experience of slaves.

During the last week and a half, I have heard and seen many reflections on the lives of Dolly Parton and Wendell Berry, almost all of which have been positive. A colleague in Texas, the Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dali, shared several posts about Dolly, but the one that helped me understand why her death was a surprisingly emotional experience for me was one in which she named that Parton’s commitment to LGBTQ+ people, poor people, and otherwise vulnerable people was not ancillary to her Christian faith but because of it. There are plenty of more conservative Christians who are celebrating Parton’s life, and I am glad they are, but they cannot diminish Dolly’s radical belief that God’s love and, therefore, our love belong to all people. Better than most preachers or religious leaders, dolly Parton helped Christians and non-Christians see and practice that.

Similarly, in the birding community, there are lots of people celebrating Wendell Berry’s commitment to the environment and to rural life. Although for me birding is a deeply spiritual and religious practice, most of my birding colleagues do not use either religious or spiritual language to describe it. For Berry, though, his commitment to the land and to those who inhabited it was a direct expression of his Christian faith, though his was an expression that often contradicted the dictates of institutional Christianity.

I often bristle at those who claim to “go to church” by taking a walk in the woods on a Sunday morning because I believe in the necessity of Christian community and corporate worship, but Berry had a different understanding of communion with God. As he wrote in “Sabbaths – 1979, IV,” one of his many Sabbath poems,

The bell calls in the town
Where forebears cleared the shaded land
And brought high daylight down
To shine on field and trodden road.
I hear, but understand
Contrarily, and walk into the woods.
I leave labor and load,
Take up a different story.
I keep an inventory
Of wonders and of uncommercial goods.
(see https://onbeing.org/poetry/sabbaths-1979-iv/)

Neither Berry nor Parton could be contained by a particular Christian denomination. In fact, both would likely espouse opinions that would make the leaders of any denomination bristle. Neither claimed to be a leader among Christians, yet both showed the world an example of how to follow Jesus faithfully. Both have been celebrated for the ways in which their faith directed their lives, and, most remarkably of all, the people doing the celebrating are often individuals who do not share their faith or at least who do not realize the connection.

In that way, I think it is safe to call Dolly Parton and Wendell Berry saints of God—holy ones who have been made holy through their faith in Jesus Christ. They were not perfect, but they were and are being made perfect by the Holy Spirit, which has been at work in them throughout their lives. I am not calling for the canonization of Saint Dolly or Saint Wendell. That represents a formal process that I am sure the church will consider in due time, but we do not need a date on the sanctoral calendar to recognize the work that God has accomplished through two of God’s own beloved children.

For the life and love and witness of Dolly Parton and Wendell Berry, we say thanks be to God.

Yours faithfully,

Evan D. Garner