In her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, former country music singer and current pop star Taylor Swift included numerous anti-Christian and explicit lyrics. Those are lyrics that have been condemned by parents who find them inappropriate and Christians online, with Christian faith leaders now joining in and torching Taylor over the anti-Christian content of her new album.
The lyrics at issue come mainly from two songs in the album, “But Daddy I Love Him” and “Guilty As Sin.” In the former, 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.”
Similarly, in that same song, she sings, in part, “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.”
Further, 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.” Mocking Matthew 5:28-30 in the same song, she sings, “What if he’s written ‘mine’ on my upper thigh only in my mind? / I keep recalling things we never did / Messy top-lip kiss, how I long for our trysts / Without ever touchin’ his skin / How can I be guilty as sin?”
Predictably, those lyrics have drawn the scorn of Christian faith leaders. For example, Shane Pruitt, who is National Next Gen director for the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board and co-author of a faith book title Calling Out the Called, tore into Swift in a lengthy post on Facebook in which he explained the problem with the lyrics.
In the post, Pruitt wrote, “LYRICS MATTER. Disclaimer, I’m definitely not the minister or parent that has the “no secular music” stance. Also, I fully realize unbelievers are going to act like unbelievers. HOWEVER, there is a difference between being secular, and being ANTI-CHRISTIAN.”
He then called out some of the lyrics in the album, writing, “For example, here are a few lyrics from Taylor Swift’s new album: 🎵 “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” 🎵 “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” 🎵 “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?” 🎵 “The smallest man who ever lived / I would’ve died for your sins”
After posting those lyrics, Pruitt said that it is time for Christians to reconsider their support of Swift, saying, “In transparency I used to listen to Taylor, HOWEVER I think now it’s time to reconsider. As Christians, who are filled with the Spirit should we be entertained by, sing with, and expose our kids to lyrics that aren’t just different than what you believe, but are actually mocking what you believe?”
Similarly, Sean Feucht, a Christian singer and worship leader wrote, in a post on X, “Almost half the songs on Taylor Swift’s new album contain explicit lyrics (E), make fun of Christians and straight up blaspheme God. Is this the music you want your kids listening to? You think I’m just being religious & overreacting? Read the lyrics & decide for yourself”
This album wasn’t the first time that Swift attacked Christianity. She did so as well in her 2019 song, “But You Need to Calm Down,” in which she attacked Christians for their stances on cultural issues. Watch that here:
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