Saint Dolly

She’s been America’s actual religious leader for decades

When I tried to think of a religious figure who has connected Americans to God, cheered and encouraged, taught and uplifted, without disparagement of any human group—the list got smaller.

And in the end, I could think of only one.

If you can get over a cleric wearing a dress, I suggest America’s actual reigning priest, its minister, leading and officiating at the human church, has been Dolly Parton.

I think over her career, happening at a time when the “real” religious figures were understood to be Billy Graham, Charles Stanley, Jerry Falwell, Jim Bakker, John MacArthur.

They called down judgment on sinners, put people with AIDS in hell, organized the “religious right”—as Dolly Parton was singing.

But isn’t she a religious figure? She always framed herself that way. A 1977 profile (asking “What would you get if you crossed Mae West with Norman Vincent Peale?”) follows her as she walks around a countryside, stretching her arms out. “Oh, I just love it outdoors!” she exclaims. “You can just feel God all around you.”

She discusses writing a song like “The Seeker,” explaining that she knew she enjoyed sinning too much to be really religious, in the way everyone else thought of it…