On the Passing of Dolly Parton

I have a theory that, as the Body of Christ diversifies and ramifies like the roots and branches of a tree, its various expressions tend to produce both saints and sinners who become more and more specific to their particular traditions. Dolly Parton expressed a very particularly American Protestant kind of saintliness. The Catholic tradition could not have produced her any more than the Orthodox could have. She is inexplicable apart from her faith and, like all saints, she is magnetic and deeply attractive in her goodness.

The best arguments for Christ are those who obey him. And, of course, the same is true of saints who emerge in other traditions. Protestantism could never produce a St. Francis or St. Hildegard of Bingen and nor could Protestantism or the Catholic Church produce a St. Seraphim of Sarov or a St. Herman of Alaska. Similarly, when each of those traditions goes bad, they produce their own unique stench.

I was briefly fearful that Trump was going to exult over her death as he has exulted over the deaths of others. But he surprised and relieved me that I would not have to grind my teeth over that.

I remarked over on the Book of Face, “Maybe getting Trump to act like a normal human will be the first miracle cited in her canonization.”

It seemed to me self-evident that the quip was a) meant in jest and b) not a compliment to Trump. But the Internet is always able to find somebody who will manage put the darkest construction possible on something and did not disappoint on this occasion as a reader clapped back:

Imagine thinking he wrote this. No. But I’m going to point out that this is how men – particularly white men – get a pass over and over again. Despite overwhelming evidence that he is a sociopath who revels in cruelty & is driving your nation to fascism & destruction: she made him human I’ll take it!

FFS, people, someone aware of optics cynically wrote this. Stop it with him & every other white thug you give a pass to when they’re not overtly abusive.

Giving joking credit to Dolly for briefly normalizing one tweet from a sociopath and mass murderer is hardly “giving him a pass”. But by all means, keep bayoneting your allies. Sheesh.

For the record, I am perfectly aware that

1. The odds that he wrote this are vanishingly low. It is too literate for him to have composed it. And it was uncharacteristically other-centered. The real voice of Trump is audible in his interview with Glenn Beck, where he made it all about himself:

“We all knew her so well. I knew her a little bit…. She really liked me,” Trump said on The Glenn Beck Program Wednesday morning, suggesting that Parton never came out publicly in support of him because she would lose “20 percent of the fans.”

2. It was performative and a form of stolen valor. Just as he loves to steal popularity from Jesus, the Pope, World War II heroes, Sports Stars, and Movie Stars, so he naturally tries to steal popularity from Dolly Parton. In fact, he attempted to give her the Medal of Freedom twice and was foiled by her humility and good sense. So now he exploits her popularity after her death.

3. He remains a mortal enemy of her work for the common good.

So far from “giving him a pass”, calling it a “miracle” when a sociopathic narcissist and serial killer does one normal thing is, blazingly obviously, not a compliment to the sociopathic narcissist and serial killer.

All that said, I’m grateful to have lived in a time overlapping her life. She was good disciple of our Lord and she will shine for a very long time on earth as she does now in Heaven. Thank you, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for your faithful daughter Dolly.