“On a hill, far away, stood an old rugged cross,” a woman (Ida Bolender) sings these words to a little girl (Norma Jeane). The only honest depiction of faith in the Lifetime miniseries “The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe” which aired May 30th and 31st of 2015. The rest of the miniseries was venomous, Christian Science spewing from her mentally unstable mother with no clear differentiation between Christianity and the mentally ill. Devout Baptists Wayne and Ida Bolender took in Norma when she was two weeks old and loved her along with the other foster kids. They attended Hawthorne Community Church and lived on an agricultural farm. Unfortunately Norma’s mother took her from the Bolender’s before age ten – Norma/Marilyn loved this home referring to Wayne Bolender as “Daddy” all of her life (she never knew her biological father). Norma’s removal began a slide into emotional distress, a fear of mental illness, immorality, and drugs/alcohol which lead to an early death. Imagine the international impact Monroe could have had within Christianity if she was able to live within a stable, nurturing environment.