The late country music star modeled what church leaders need: A bold willingness to stand up for women.
This past week saw the death of country music legend Loretta Lynn at the age of 90. One need not have been a country music fan (as I am) to find this woman’s life important. Her story is especially significant at a time when, five years into the mainstreamed #MeToo movement, we still face serious questions about the treatment of women in both the church and the world.
When I think of Loretta Lynn, my thoughts don’t go first to her music—although I love it and could recite lyrics all day. I think of the self-described “Honky Tonk Girl” and her meeting with Richard Nixon.
Invited to perform at the White House at the height of the Vietnam War, Lynn took advantage of an audience with first lady Pat Nixon to raise the matter of someone she thought was unjustly imprisoned.
“Pat,” she said, “I’ve been wanting to write a letter to … Richard.”
Of course, one does not refer to the president of the United States by his first name—and especially not in the White House. Lynn chalked up her faux pas to her background as a coal miner’s daughter and the fact that she hadn’t spent a lot of time in places of power. When a television announcer in Chicago asked her why she had referred to the president as “Richard,” she said, “They called Jesus ‘Jesus,’ didn’t they?”
In some ways, that one anecdote sums up much of why Loretta Lynn caught the imagination of so many people. With one sentence, she gently poked at an institution that needed more authenticity. And she did it with a mischievous wink, letting her listeners know that she was not nearly as unsophisticated as she let on and that she knew exactly what she was doing. …
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