{"id":37845,"date":"2020-11-13T12:18:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-13T12:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/dolly-parton-on-faith-and-afterlife\/"},"modified":"2020-11-13T12:18:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T12:18:00","slug":"dolly-parton-on-faith-and-afterlife","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/dolly-parton-on-faith-and-afterlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolly Parton on Faith and the Afterlife"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On the final episode of the podcast <em>Dolly Parton&rsquo;s America<\/em>, Dolly offered various responses to the question: &ldquo;What is the theology of Dolly Parton?&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>After stating that she was &ldquo;spiritual not religious,&rdquo; Parton said, &ldquo;The Bible says let every man seek out his own salvation, and that means to save himself. Whatever it takes to save you, and if you can get to that place and find your own peace then you can do good for other people if you are at peace with yourself.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>When asked about the afterlife, Parton responded, &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t really know, you just hope, and you have faith. That&rsquo;s what faith is. I think it&rsquo;s not the end of me. I don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s the end of any of us. I think we&rsquo;re recycled and if nothing else we just go back into that great flow of divine energy and hopefully we spread ourselves around in other wonderful ways.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3398,3402,3552,3737,3888,4034,4186,4486,4530,4667,4697,4921,5065,5154,5202,5303],"tax_ctp_topics":[384,396],"class_list":["post-37845","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-afterlife","tax_ctp_tags-agnosticism","tax_ctp_tags-celebrities","tax_ctp_tags-death","tax_ctp_tags-eternity","tax_ctp_tags-future-life","tax_ctp_tags-humanism","tax_ctp_tags-modernism","tax_ctp_tags-need-for-salvation","tax_ctp_tags-postmodernism","tax_ctp_tags-preparation-for-death","tax_ctp_tags-self-help","tax_ctp_tags-spirituality","tax_ctp_tags-theology","tax_ctp_tags-unbelief","tax_ctp_tags-worldview"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dolly Parton on Faith and the Afterlife - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/dolly-parton-on-faith-and-afterlife\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dolly Parton on Faith and the Afterlife - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the final episode of the podcast Dolly Parton&rsquo;s America, Dolly offered various responses to the question: &ldquo;What is the theology of Dolly Parton?&rdquo; After stating that she was &ldquo;spiritual not religious,&rdquo; Parton said, &ldquo;The Bible says let every man seek out his own salvation, and that means to save himself. 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