Turncoat of Many Colors

Dolly Parton is dead, and the damage she did to Christianity is on display in the adoration ignorant Christians are pouring out.

Dolly Parton celebrated sexual perversion. She had homosexual family members, and she encouraged them to come out. She was a heroine to homosexuals. Her Dollywood amusement park was known for welcoming them. She stood up for their behavior in many interviews.

Hypocritically, she held herself out as a Christian. She waved her Christianity like a flag. She also persecuted Christians who stood for God’s word, which is unequivocally against all types of sexual sin and condemns homosexual practices in both Testaments. She persecuted them in a backhanded way, as many modern, virtue-signaling nominal Christians do, saying it wasn’t her place to judge. By that, she meant to shame any real Christian who was willing to risk unpopularity by obeying the Lord and pointing out sin.

She has a lot of company. I complain about this a lot. The world is full of counterfeit Christians who think the entire Bible consists of two words: “Judge not.” This is Satan’s abridgement of several verses in the book of Matthew, and I will reproduce them here now, in full. People like Parton never mention the words that follow “Judge not.”

Judge not, that ye be not judged.

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

I put the words Parton ignored–the words Satan hates–in bold type so they would stand out.

Let’s go through it.

First of all, ancient Jews had a funny way of speaking, and this includes Yeshua. For example, they would tell us to hate this and love that, or they would say not to do this, but to do that, not really meaning what modern people would understand them to mean.

In the book of Luke, Yeshua said:

And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

Did he really mean we should have no fear at all of people who kill others? Of course not. Even Yeshua avoided his enemies more than once. What he meant was that we should fear God more.

When the apostles celebrated because they had cast demons out, Yeshua said this:

Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

Was he really saying they shouldn’t rejoice over casting demons out? You tell me. Demons cause deafness, muteness, mental illness, diseases, disability, and death, among other things. They torment people for decades. The suffering can be extreme. Are Christians supposed to refrain from celebrating when one is cast out? No. Yeshua was just saying salvation was much more important that casting out demons, which can’t follow anyone to heaven.

When Yeshua told the apostles not to judge, he was not saying what Dolly Parton thought he was saying. He was telling them to judge themselves first, at least as harshly as they judged others. And what was the end of all this? Not just to help them clean up their own acts but to help them judge others more effectively. If not, this part makes no sense: “then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”

Tell me how you can correct another person without making a judgment. It’s not possible.

If you don’t think Christians should judge others, you haven’t read either Testament. Yeshua judged other people repeatedly. So did John the Baptist. So did Paul. So did Jude. So did Peter. Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel…how long a list do you want?

Satan and Dolly Parton took two words out of context and used them to dismiss thousands of words from the same loving God, who wanted to save us from destruction when he gave us his warnings.

Do you think Dolly Parton worried about your salvation?

It’s sad that we let attention-craving, greedy, corrupt, dishonest, uninformed celebrities teach us about politics. Letting them teach us about Christianity is many times worse.

Dolly Parton was not a minister. She was not a prophet or apostle. She didn’t pastor a church. She wasn’t even primarily a gospel singer. She was a popularity-seeker who was heavily burdened with pride and ambition. The Rock in a blond wig. She never healed anyone. She never prophesied. She didn’t baptize people. She never, ever stood up for God against the crowd. She rolled over on her back every day and let the body of Satan rub her belly, and in reward, Satan gave her the treats she wanted.

People will argue that she was a philanthropist, and that this is all we should think about. Al Capone was a philanthropist. Pablo Escobar built housing projects.

Parton’s giving made her more popular and richer and was surely calculated to do so, like Capone’s. It was an investment in her career and her image. It was largely self-serving, and it doesn’t undo the harm she did by persecuting the body of Christ and encouraging people to destroy themselves.

I don’t know who is in hell and who isn’t, and I don’t know if Dolly Parton is there now, but if she isn’t, it’s not because she didn’t try.

I’ve noticed that there are a lot of female celebrities who fit into the glamorous/fabulous category who promote sexual sin and use philanthropy and public service as a shield. Josephine Baker was an extreme slut, but her giving and her public service were extraordinary. Same goes for Marlene Dietrich. Edith Piaf. Tallulah Bankhead. Zsa Zsa Gabor. Similar things can be said of Madonna. Cher. Pam Anderson. Kim Kardashian.

Satan holds himself and many of his prominent children out as angels of light for three reasons: to make people prefer him to God, to promote sin and drag people to hell, and to foment persecution of actual Christians who are the enemies of his kingdom. He makes good use of the public’s favorite divas.

God has never told us he has changed his mind about sexual sin. The Bible isn’t Wikipedia. You can’t log in and change it at will, and a successful music career doesn’t qualify you to overrule God. It didn’t qualify Satan.

I know lots of conservative Christians think Dolly Parton was a saint. Donald Trump has ordered federal employees to keep flags at half mast for a solid week because she died, even though she was an enemy of conservatives and didn’t do anything much for our country. She made herself rich and wrapped herself in public approval. She got everything she wanted on Earth while fighting God’s people. Lots of anti-Christian celebrities have done the same thing. It’s odd that it should be considered grounds for something approaching the honor of a state funeral.

By the way, most charity does not come from celebrities. It is dwarfed by the giving of ordinary people who aren’t worshiped for it and who don’t proclaim it before the public. Recorded contributions, which make up a minority of all donations, amounted to over $600 billion last year. Removing Dolly Parton’s contribution from recorded and unrecorded donations would be like removing one sprinkle from an ice cream cone.

Another point: the charity you do with lots of publicity doesn’t count with God. Yeshua said so. It’s like it never happened, but the evil purposes stay on your record.

Dolly Parton was like many celebrities. She was like the insecure, popularity-craving substitute teacher who brings candy and lets the kids do whatever they want instead of teaching them.

I don’t care if I annoy people by writing these things. They’re important. They will help people. Supporting perversion and going to hell are extremely harmful. Worshiping ridiculous people who perform in bizarre costumes is idolatry.

When you see people like Elvis, Dolly Parton, Liberace, Michael Jackson, Eddie Murphy, Dave Chappelle, Prince, Madonna, Cher, Lady Gaga, David Bowie, Elton John, and others dress up like comic book characters in costumes that cost as much as cars, you ought to know God is not driving them. Imagine putting a getup like theirs on and going to the grocery store. What kind of ego does that take?

Christians aren’t supposed to be popular, as Yeshua confirmed, so being unpopular shouldn’t bother us. I’m never going to be popular, and if I were, it would be a sign of my destruction. I might as well be on the right side.

Let’s not celebrate the famous turncoats who use us as their footlights. Let’s try to have some salt in us and side with the word of the one who was tortured to death for us.