Dolly Parton's Legacy: A Faith That Made Room for Everyone

Dolly Parton's 1994 memoir describes the unlikely setting of her spiritual awakening: an abandoned church in rural Tennessee, known locally as a place for sex, drugs, and violence. Rather than being deterred by the used condoms, a broken piano, and explicit graffiti, Parton recalled it fondly as a place where she prayed as a girl. She wrote of singing hymns, looking at the drawings, and praying until she "broke through some sort of spirit wall and found God," concluding that in that one place were "God, music and sex."

This ability to hold the sacred and the profane together defined Parton's public persona. Her faith, inherited from a Pentecostal preacher grandfather, was always on display, even when her relationship with institutional church was complicated. For many LGBTQ+ Christians who grew up hearing their identities condemned, Parton's unwavering acceptance was transformative.

"Her approach to solidarity was inspiring for me as a young, queer Christian girl realizing I was gay," said Ciarra Jones, a 32-year-old consultant from Oakland. "Dolly, for me, was one of those lights."

Parton's support was not a recent development. In a 1984 interview with Andy Warhol, she acknowledged her large gay following. When Warhol suggested she would make a great preacher, she replied, "What do you mean? I am a great preacher." Her 1991 song "Family" explicitly included "some are gay" among those who are not turned away.

She was often asked about her views. In 2016, she told Larry King, "We are all God's children." She also declined to be a crusader, saying, "I don't condemn nor condone anything. I just love and accept people where they are for who they are."

For some, this quiet conviction was a radical act. Duncan Teater, a film student at USC who grew up gay in conservative Christian Kentucky, said her confidence in the worth of every human being, spoken "without hesitation and in such simple and loving words," was both radical and political.

Parton's inclusive vision extended to Dollywood, the theme park she founded in East Tennessee. The park's mission statement cites Christian values, and it hosts a chapel with weekly services. Yet it also welcomes everyone. Patrick Burrows, a theology scholar who visited over 100 times, wrote in his Harvard dissertation that Dollywood taught him "how to be gay and how to be a Christian." He noted the park's unique space where gay couples and people in "Jesus saved me" shirts coexist peacefully, calling it the "Dollyverse."