Swift reaction
How else would an unbeliever think, act?
Taylor Swift attended the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. iHeartRadioCA
Swifties.
Their loyalty to–and in far too many cases, worship of–Taylor Swift knows no bounds.
Each new album.
Each new song.
Each new tour.
The Swifties hang on her brand, even following her to the NFL.
And yes, some of them have put her in a spot of god-like status. Anyone guilty of that simply needs to calm down and snap into reality.
As much as I would enjoy making this an anti-Taylor Swift screed, I’ll refrain, despite her serious provocations of Christians on her new album.
Her anthology of 31 songs titled “Tortured Poets Department” is stirring debates among Christians. It involves the content of multiple songs. The Christian Post’s Nicole VanDyke reported:
In the song ‘But Daddy I Love Him,’ Swift sings:
‘But daddy I love him / I just learned these people only raise you / To cage you / Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best / Clutchin' their pearls, sighing, 'What a mess' / I just learned these people try and save you 'Cause they hate you.’
In the same song, Swift sings:
‘God save the most judgmental creeps/ Who say they want what's best for me/ Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see/ Thinkin' it can change the beat/ Of my heart when he touches me/ And counteract the chemistry/ And undo the destiny/ You ain't gotta pray for me/ Me and my wild boy and all of this wild joy/ If all you want is gray for me/ Then it's just white noise, and it's just my choice.’
In the song ‘Guilty As Sin,’ Swift sings: ‘What if I roll the stone away?/ They're gonna crucify me anyway/ What if the way you hold me is actually what's holy.’
Eleven of the 31 songs contain an ‘E’ under the album's description listing, which stands for ‘explicit.’ And several songs have the F-word included within the lyrics.
Meanwhile, the song “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” contains this lyric: “I would've died for your sins/Instead, I just died inside.”
You can’t defend lyrics that intentionally provoke Christians. She knew what she was doing in crafting these songs, giving energy to sin, and she knew it would generate responses, or even angry reactions within the American Christian community.
Entertainers and celebrities live by a public relations rule. Any news is good news. Make people talk.
“But Daddy I Love Him,” “Guilty as Sin, " and the lyric of “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” mock God and Christianity. She uses specific words that have a clear spiritual connotation that are twisted into lyrics about Swift to alter their plain meaning.
This woman in her 30s has made a career of writing about her broken relationships and heartbreak. Perhaps, instead of mocking her parents and their faith, heeding their advice was in order. In more recent years, some of the content in her shows is dark–yes, evil.
How else do you expect her to act, Dear Christian? She is not a follower of Jesus Christ. Expecting anything else is unrealistic. However, Taylor Swift, if you’re going to live your life as if God doesn’t exist, you had better be right because the consequences are eternal.
Many Christians who have reacted to lyrics and messages from this collection of songs with a standard knee-jerk legalistic response. Blasting fellow Christian with the statement that “listening to Taylor Swift’s music is a sin” is the wrong approach.
Music is an area of Christian freedom and liberty. I agree emphatically with Samuel Sey, who wrote:
She is a god to many ‘Swifties,’ and some of her worshippers are Christians. If you are a Christian and you are tempted to idolize Taylor Swift, you should probably stop listening to Taylor Swift. Jesus said, ‘If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell (Matthew 5:29).’
So if Taylor Swift causes you to sin, you should cut her music off. Remove her songs from Spotify. However, that doesn’t mean it’s a sin to listen to Taylor Swift. Anyone who says that is elevating their opinions over the word of God.
Unless the Bible speaks specifically to some activity or behavior, Christians must realize that discernment in this area of freedom becomes really important. Perhaps instead of legalistic statements we should be asking questions.
Why would a follower of Jesus Christ want to listen to lyrics that mock their faith? Why profit a person who has turned dark to entertain people?
The harsh reality is there are movies, television shows, music, podcasts, blogs, numerous forums and formats in which information is taken in by anyone, including a Christ follower. These tackle any number of topics, with people communicating in various ways, including vulgarity.
Christians need the proper self-awareness to know if it causes them to sin, avoid it. However, the sweeping broad brush is wrong.
An overriding principle flows from Philippians 4:8 (NASB): “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”
It requires discernment, conviction from the Holy Spirit, and obedience.
