What Dolly Parton Taught Us about Money and Generosity
Can you read one more thing about Dolly Parton? Of course you can. Dolly was the Uniter of these United States. When she passed away last week at the age of 80 there was collective heartbreak from all sides of the aisle.
I've been going down my own Dolly rabbit hole the past few days. Did you know that she played the saxophone? Or that her “Coat of Many Colors” still exists? Or that at Dollywood there’s an enclosure for injured bald eagles who cannot be safely let out into the wild?
One thing that recently struck me about Dolly was her relationship with money. My ears perked up as I listened to Terry Gross’s 2001 Fresh Air interview:
Gross: Now, you've said that when you were young, you knew you wanted to be a big star. Why did you want to be a star?
Parton: 'Cause I wanted to be rich. I wanted to travel. I wanted to be famous. I wanted to do stuff…
“'Cause I wanted to be rich.”
That’s not a thing that many people say out loud.
The New York Time’s Dolly Parton’s Other Legacy: A Fortune Given Away, Dollar by Dollar, listed a few things that Dolly did with her money:
The aforementioned habitat for injured bald eagles
$12.5 million (most in $1,000 monthly checks) to families who lost homes in the Tennessee wildfires of 2016
$1 million to help develop a Covid-19 vaccine
$500 cash gifts to graduating high school seniors in her home county where dropout rates plummeted from 35% to 6%
Millions to hospitals, to medical research, to disaster relief
And of course, maybe her most well-known legacy, her Imagination Library which has gifted more than 300,000,000 books since it started 31 years ago
Dolly Parton was a woman who knew how to steward her money for good. She knew that to be rich, and a Christian, came with great responsibility.
My friend and colleague, David Whiting, recently posted a six-minute video that grapples with the belief that money in and of itself is evil. He directly addresses the fear about talking about money because we don't want to be associated with the anti-Biblical prosperity gospel.
David also talks about how generosity is a blessing. As he says:
“I also know this: you can’t find a regretfully generous person. In fact, I rarely find a formerly generous person because they find the promises and principles of scripture are true.
Dolly surely lived by the promises and principles 2 Corinthians 9:6-8:
The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not regretfully or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.
We might not have the same level of wealth of Dolly Parton but we can decide what we will do with our money to bring goodness and light into our world.
We can be like Dolly because we, too, can live the abundant life with joy and generosity.
RIP Dolly.
Photo credit: Free use
###Cesie Delve Scheuermann (pronounced “CC Delv Sherman,” yes, really) is a Stewardship Consultant for the OR-ID Annual Conference. She is also a Senior Ministry Strategist with Horizons Stewardship – helping with capital campaigns and encouraging more generosity. For 25 years, while working as a volunteer and part-time consultant, she has helped raise millions of dollars for numerous churches and non-profit organizations. She wants you to hear this beautiful and haunting number by Dolly, Little Sparrow.
You can reach Cesie at inspiringgenerosity@gmail.com, at CesieScheuermann.com, or at cesieds@horizons.net. Want to schedule a meeting? She’s got you covered!
Schedule a meeting now.
If someone has forwarded this to you and you would like to subscribe to "Inspiring Generosity," click here. Miss an issue? Click here.