Friday, August 28, 2026

SojoMail - Dolly Parton gave me the courage to say goodbye

By Betsy Shirley
Editor in Chief, Sojourners

This week, we lost the queen of country music: Dolly Parton died on Tuesday after a brief battle with cancer. Even before her death, the 10-time Grammy winner and philanthropist was called “Saint Dolly.” She was an unusual sort of saint: With folksy charm and sparkly outfits, she talked about her belief in God and love for everyone. She created a program for children’s literacy, spoke up for LGBTQ+ rights, and donated generously to fund disaster relief, healthcare, rural development, and—during a critical moment in COVID-19 pandemic—the Moderna vaccine.

But before we had that Dolly, she was just the “girl singer” on The Porter Wagoner Show at The Grand Old Opry. In many ways, it was her big break, writes Nashville resident (and Sojourners multimedia graphic designer) Ryan McQuade. Yet as Parton’s voice grew, her musical partnership with Wagoner started to chafe. Wagoner became aggressive; Parton knew something needed to change, but struggled to leave.

Many of us who’ve left churches or faith communities that raised us know the feeling. For Ryan, Parton’s dynamic mirrored his struggle to leave his dream job at a Catholic ministry—a place he’d dreamed about working since high school, but where he never felt fully himself as a gay man. And despite feeling constrained, it was hard to let go of “the version of myself I had dreamed of becoming since high school.”

“Life rarely gives us a clean break,” writes Ryan. “The threads we tie with other people can take years to untangle.”

Elsewhere this week: Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained a Haitian pastor and a visiting U.S. delegation hosted by a liberation theology group was denied entry to Israel. In a new twist on religious accommodation law, a statistical scientist is suing his employer for violating his religious right to climate care. The next time you’re about to dismiss something you suspect is an internet bot, here’s a parable for you. And for culture columnist Cassidy Klein, August is a month of spiders, thunderstorms, and the genre-defying work of Clarice Lispector.

Dolly Parton Gave Me the Courage to Outgrow My Faith Community (by Ryan McQuade)

Dolly fought for her freedom and success. Once she had it, she passed it on to others.

Read the full article

Community Notes

What’s a Dolly Parton song that is meaningful to you? Let us know by hitting ‘reply’ — we read everything you send to us, and you may even see your answers appear in next week’s SojoMail. Some Sojourners staff favorites: “Joshua,” “World on Fire,” and “Jolene.”

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