Loretta Lynn_ Coal Miner's Daughter - Loretta Lynn [94]
I’ve never believed that man was too sinful; if he was, God would have destroyed him, like he did Sodom and Gomorrah. I think it’s up to a person to make their own life, good or bad. But I never considered getting baptized, or making a strong stand about God until John Thornhill and I started talking about religion, even arguing, sometimes.
John is the twin brother of Dave Thornhill, my lead guitar player, and they joined the band about the same time. John played the bass. He liked to drink and cuss like most of the boys when he first joined the band. He even owned his own airplane. His wife was real religious, but John kind of went his own way. Then he started flying with a preacher who said to him one day, “John, I think it’s about time you got baptized.”
Nobody is sure what convinced John, but he agreed to get baptized. The next morning, real early, he called up his twin brother and said, “Guess what?” Dave thought it must be something real serious to call so early in the morning, but John said, “I just got baptized.” That kind of surprised everybody.
After that, John was a different person. He carried his Bible study books with him on the bus, and he’d read and pray whenever he got the chance. He was a born-again Christian, and they’re the strongest kind.
It was kind of strange for the other boys. John stopped drinking and staying out late, and if the boys would see a pretty girl outside the bus John wouldn’t even go to the window to look. I think the boys were not sure how to take this new side of John, but he just did what he felt was best.
On Saturday night, John would go out and buy some grape juice and he’d offer to have Communion on Sunday. I was interested in what he was thinking about, so I started studying with him. We’d say a prayer and have Communion and then we’d study the Bible together. And he’d be telling me I should get further in my studies.
I got pretty familiar with parts of the Bible. It’s my favorite book. There’s sadness, happiness, foolishness, wisdom, anything you want to feel in the Bible. But the most important thing, for me, is the story about the Jews and how they were God’s Chosen People, and how Jesus came to earth for all of us. That’s what I believe. But even with all the studying, I didn’t feel like getting baptized.
That went on for about a year, while I was getting sick so much. One time, when I was in the hospital, John came to visit me. I didn’t think I was ever gonna come out of that hospital alive. John said, “If you believe, then you should be baptized, just to say you’re a Christian.”
I was still resisting it, you know, when I went back on the road again. But one night me and John were having an argument in the back of the bus.
I said, “I’m going to Heaven. I don’t drink or blackguard or run around, so I know I’m going to Heaven.”
And John said, “Loretta, unless you get baptized in Jesus’ name, it’s not enough.”
We were still arguing while I flipped through the Bible, looking for a place to read. You know how it is sometimes, you flip over the pages and suddenly your eye catches something. Well, that book just flew open to James 2:26, where it says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead, too.”
To me, that meant it wasn’t enough to behave yourself, to do good things. You really had to stand up and show your faith, to be counted as a believer in Christ.
I didn’t say anything at the time to John. But in the back of my mind, I decided I was going to get baptized sometime. Then I landed in the hospital another time, in 1972, and that’s when I made up my mind. As soon as I got out, I told my daughter-in-law, Pat, that I was ready. She’s got an uncle, Dr. Joe McClure, who used to be a preacher until he