If you know Nashville, then you probably know that there is nothing new about major country music stars also being Christian believers. In fact, it’s probably worthy of a headline or two if and when superstars send signals that they’re NOT at home in the Bible Belt.
That being said, I am still amazed when journalists produce stories about country artists and edit out the details in their lives and music that point toward faith. It happens all the time.
I’m not just talking about musicians putting a gospel song or two in their set lists when touring, as a kind of music-history exercise. I’m talking about reporters missing revelations in autobiographies, social-media statements to fans or mini-sermons on stage. I’m talking about passing up chances to talk with pastors who have known performers for years.
This brings me to the death of honky-tonk angel herself, Loretta Lynn — the matriarch for a generation or more of female artists in guitar town. As you would expect, the obits following her death stressed — with good cause, let me stress — her daring hit songs about blue-collar American life, with strong doses of reality about hard times, troubled homes, cracked marriages and lots of other sobering subjects.
Which is why, to cut to the chase, it’s even more important that this legend turned to Christian faith as an adult, in the midst of all that gritty stuff. Hold that thought. Here is a chunk of the Associated Press report that will appear in most American newspapers:
The Country Music Hall of Famer wrote fearlessly about sex and love, cheating husbands, divorce and birth control and sometimes got in trouble with radio programmers for material from which even rock performers once shied away.
Her biggest hits came in the 1960s and ’70s, including “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough,” “The Pill,” “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind),” “Rated X” and “You’re Looking at Country.” ...
Lynn knew that her songs were trailblazing, especially for country music, but she was just writing the truth that so many rural women like her experienced.
“I could see that other women was goin’ through the same thing, ‘cause I worked the clubs. I wasn’t the only one that was livin’ that life and I’m not the only one that’s gonna be livin’ today what I’m writin’,” she told The AP in 1995.
All true. Lynn never hid her struggles and it was clear that her songs hit home for many women whose lives were not the stuff of the ordinary products in mainstream entertainment (or the content of sermons in many church pulpits).
For more commentary along those lines, here is a key section of the totally faith-free (#WaitForIt) obituary at The Nashville Tennessean:
In the early 1970s, Lynn wrote and recorded songs that weighed in on women’s roles in a changing America. “Rated ‘X’” bemoaned treatment of divorced women as damaged goods, while “The Pill” celebrated birth control as a sexual and social equalizer. These were modern, countrified folk songs, with Lynn serving as the housewife’s Woody Guthrie.
While she eschewed any connection with the women’s liberation movement of Gloria Steinem, Lynn’s songs insisted on something resembling fair play between the sexes. Her messages reached a segment of the female population that found little sense in marches and bra burnings and the like.
Again, all true. That’s crucial material in any tribute to this fierce female artist.
But what happens if you look at some of the other events in Lynn’s life and the path that led her into a church baptism pool as an adult? Here’s the news headline at Aleteia, a religious website: “Loretta Lynn’s deep faith saw her through some terrible hardships.”
Here’s an essential passage, leading to a quotation from an obvious source:
She was married for nearly 50 years to Oliver (“Doo”) Lynn, whom she described in Still Woman Enough: A Memoir as “a good man and a hard worker. But he was an alcoholic, and it affected our marriage all the way through.” Her husband died aged 69 in 1996.
She also endured the loss of two of her children: Jack Benny Lynn died in 1984 at the age of 34 while trying to cross a river; and her eldest daughter, Betty Sue, died in 2013 at 64 from emphysema.
Thankfully, throughout her struggles, Lynn could turn to her music — and her faith. Although she wasn’t baptized as a child, she attended church on Sundays. In her book, Coal Miner’s Daughter, she explains: “I believed it all, but for some reason, I was never baptized. After I started in music, I got away from going to church and reading the Bible. I believe I was living the way God meant me to, but I wasn’t giving God the right attention.”
Why would journalists omit these kinds of details?
This is just a theory on my part. Maybe Lynn was too IMPORTANT, too GREAT as an artist to be considered a “real” believer of some kind? Would the fact that she was a Christian damage her credibility?
Let’s pick up some additional details from a feature by Christian Chronicle editor Bobby Ross, Jr., a GetReligion veteran who produces commentary for Religion Unplugged and, every now and then, news for the Associated Press (where he once worked with religion-beat patriarch Richard Ostling). The headline: “Loretta Lynn ‘was serious about her faith and a devout member of the church.”
In this case, we’re dealing with more details from Lynn’s famous autobiography “Coal Miner’s Daughter” — where she shared many details behind her baptism and ties to Churches of Christ. Let’s pick up the story with the conversion and baptism of her band member John Thornhill, the twin brother of her band leader Dave Thornhill.
John Thornhill stopped drinking and staying out late. He began praying whenever he got the chance. He bought grape juice and crackers for the Lord’s Supper on Sundays.
For about a year, Lynn studied the Bible with John Thornhill and — sometimes — argued over the Scriptures in the back of her bus. Eventually, the country star decided to be baptized.
“I was real nervous because the Bible says you have to be immersed, and like I’ve said so many times, I’m scared to death of water,” Lynn wrote.
“I’ve tried to keep up my religion since then,” she said in the 1976 book. “I can’t get to church most Sundays because of my traveling, but I’ll read the Bible whenever I can. I want to make another religious album someday, but it will have to be without instruments. The Church of Christ feels you should make music in your hearts, but they’re against instruments for religious music.”
This autobiography wasn’t the only obvious source for reporters willing to explore this side of Lynn’s life and art.
Journalists working in this digital age have been known, every now and then, to examine the contents of an artist’s social-media sites. That’s what the team at CBN.com did, yielding some interesting recent messages from Lynn:
In an Instagram post back in April of this year, Lynn shared a short message with her 295,000 followers about what her Christian faith meant to her at Easter. In that video message, the Country star explained how "The Third Man" was her favorite Gospel song.
"When I think about Easter I think about the incredible beauty of real love. Love that gives when it doesn't have to. Love that gives even when it doesn't receive. It's what Christ did for us. I think of hope and redemption and forgiveness. There aren't words to share how thankful I am for all God has done for me. "The Third Man" has always been my very favorite gospel song. Happy Easter," Lynn wrote.
Then, as the end drew near, Lynn — or perhaps a member of her media team — sent one last personal post to her fans:
"But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants." -- John 3: 21.
"Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. John 3:20-21" …
Yes, Loretta Lynn had done some hard living and she knew it. Why not include her turn toward faith, in the midst of all her pain and fame?
Just asking.
FIRST IMAGE: Portrait of Loretta Lynn, care of the Twitter feed of the Oak Ridge Boys.