You're Proving Taylor's Point

How the Evangelical backlash to "The Tortured Poets Department" shows that we've fallen prey to cultural outrage and have forgotten Gospel love

“God save the most judgmental creeps
Who say they want what's best for me
Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see.”

Global icon, pop superstar, and — let’s not forget — human being, Taylor Swift sings this bridge on “But Daddy I Love Him.” The sixth track on her new album The Tortured Poets Department, is, on the surface, a love story between a small-town girl and a boy who, according to the others in this town, is “crazy” and no good. The subtext of this song, and others on the album, has caught the attention of Christian influencers on social media. The common comments amongst this small but vocal sub-sect of Christianity are that the album “makes fun of Christians” and contains “blasphemy against God.”

This backlash seems to be coming from the same groups who believed the conspiracy theories about Swift’s alleged (disproven) role as a government psy-op or that she is some kind of witch. The reaction to the album is simply the next phase of the evangelical outrage campaign against the singer. Some are accusing songs like “But Daddy I Love Him,” “Guilty as Sin,” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” of committing “blasphemy.” But, what exactly is blasphemy?

It’s important to note that we have somewhat twisted the Biblical concept of blasphemy. Blasphemy in the Bible is not, as Christianity.com states, “something that offends the religious sensibilities of others,” but something that directly assaults God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit (the trinity). Blasphemy, then, must be “deliberate or direct” attacks against God himself. In “But Daddy I Love Him,” Swift is voicing frustrations at the so-called “judgmental creeps” in their “Sunday best,” the “vipers dressed in empath’s clothing.” This may be offensive to some, but is it blasphemy? Not according to the Biblical definition. Instead, Taylor seems to indicate in these lyrics that while these people are acting like they want to help her, they’re doing so in a performative, inauthentic way. The people in this song don’t actually care about her well-being; they care about making themselves look good. Swift is not mocking them; she is calling out their hypocrisy. One comment I saw on Facebook summarized the song well: “it’s not a mockery, it’s a mirror.”

This point makes me think of the Pharisees in the New Testament. When Jesus spoke of blasphemy, he usually directed these critiques at the Pharisees, aka the religious leaders of the day. Jesus criticized the Pharisees for attacking other individuals for being less “holy” than they themselves. I can’t help but make the connection between these Pharisees and the so-called Christian “influencers” on social media who are saying radical things about Swift in order to garner clicks on their latest TikTok video or Facebook post.

GotQuestions.org, a great resource for Christians, says: “Followers of God are also responsible to make sure their behavior doesn’t incite others to blaspheme God,” citing the apostle Paul in Romans 2. Does this outrage over an unsaved singer’s album incite others to blaspheme God? It’s a real question, one that Christians should consider before being so quick to speak on social media.

Two other songs on the album, “Guilty as Sin” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” received similar criticisms. These songs, however, are simply following a tradition that manifests in the arts and culture quite often: Biblical allusion. Swift is using images and ideas we in the West are familiar with because of the influence of the Bible on our culture (sin, crucifixion, etc.). This has been the case in music, literature, and the other arts for a long time.

Let me give a quick example: Eric Church (my favorite country artist) has a song titled “Like Jesus Does,” off his album Chief. In the song, Church points out all the ways his wife loves him “like Jesus does,” including knowing who he is better than he knows himself, and forgiving him even when he can’t forgive himself. He’s not saying his wife loves him on the same level that an all-loving Savior loves him; he is pointing out ways in which the love of his life reflects the love of Christ. In another song, “Country Music Jesus,” Church is conjuring up the image of a savior to express his thoughts on the current state of country music, how he wishes a new figure would come in to “save” a genre that is going through an identity crisis.

Are these songs blasphemous? Rather than intentionally and directly insulting God, I would argue the songs are simply drawing on concepts we are familiar with to make a point. To condemn Swift for this would be to condemn other artists, ranging from your favorite country music singer to Shakespeare. I see very little of this happening, so why is Swift being specifically targeted?

I’m not saying that Swift’s lyrics in these songs are gospel truth, or even moral (I’m not a fan of the way she seemingly makes herself out to be the “Christ” figure in those two songs). But I also think it’s unfair to attack an artist for simply trying to express complex emotions in an artistic, vivid way. I don’t want to be the type of Christian who says you SHOULD or SHOULD NOT listen to a certain artist or genre. Please do not read this post as a complete endorsement of Taylor Swift or all her music. Art is complex, as it should be. It is made by flawed but curious human beings. This especially true for people who are not in Christ, people trying to find meaning and purpose in life.

The types of reactions to The Tortured Poets Department are the latest examples of how so many Christians have fallen prey to outrage culture, forgetting that our primary call is showing the type of love that can only come from the truth of the Gospel. How many of us are praying for their salvation and living in a way that demonstrates what true Christlikeness is? Instead of helping these artists and listeners find true meaning, we turn them away with our anger, negativity, and superiority complexes. We can “speak with the tongues of angels,” “understand all mysteries and all knowledge,” have “faith to move mountains,” but if we do not have love for those around us, we are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Part of Swift’s apparent frustration is that she’s seen too much judgment and not enough love from those “who want what’s best for me.”

Let’s not be the type of Christian that proves Taylor’s point.