The Christian Right Has a Problem With Taylor Swift

The Christian Right has a problem with Taylor Swift, and it is a doozy. My email inbox and Social Media Feeds have been filled with pictures of Tayor Swift after the release of her new album, The Tortured Poet’s Department.

The picture is of Taylor in a black dress with a snake wrapped around her. The singer is wearing dark mascara and dark red lipstick.

The Latest Scandal

The posts and emails are forwarded from David Jeremiah, the evangelical Leader of Turning Point Ministries, a Far-Right Christian group and a wing of the GOP arm of the Evangelical movement trying to make America a Christian Nation. His Mentor was Tim LaHaye, the writer of the delightful Left Behind book series of Post-Rapture Hell on Earth.

Jeremiah didn’t write the piece, but it appears on his Turning Point Facebook page, and people forward it as if he did. This piece is disturbing because so many things in this world are much more horrifying than the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s songs, but this is what we choose to dwell on.

There is evidence that torture happened in Gaza to hostages. Columbia Students are protesting the genocide at the hands of Israel. Yet, here we are, discussing how Taylor Swift is turning our unsuspecting children into devil worshipers.

The mother of the Anti-Christ

The Far right has been dissing Taylor for a long time; most recently, it was the amount of time the NFL showed her face at Kansas City Chiefs games, where her boyfriend is a star player, as Mary Pezzulo shares.

I even saw one conspiracy where she and Kelce are being groomed to bring the anti-Christ into the world.  You can’t make this stuff up! Well, someone did make it up, but you get the picture.

Taylor Swift is a strong, independent woman. She has a great business mind and knows how to market herself, to the point that she is now a Billionaire. I think what bothers the far-right so much is that she refuses to sit down and shut up.

The Tortured Poet’s Department

The latest album is the grist for the rumor mill. In the aforementioned media post, the writer breaks down several songs and claims to know what they mean subversively.

Rather than taking the words at face value, the writer interjects that Swift is making fun of the church, that she is being sacrilegious, and that she is leading our children to think for themselves. Gasp! What gall she has.

While I have not listened to all the songs yet, I eventually will.  I have found that the more the right pushes against something as anti-Christian, the more I want to listen to it or read/see it.  Not that I am anti-Christian, but I am anti-religious. And I feel that the far-right is confusing religion with Christianity–and the two could not be further apart.

The Real Message

I think Taylor is really sending this message: Think for yourself. Be yourself. Don’t be afraid to be different. Certainly, there are what we call Easter Eggs in most of her songs. An Easter Egg is a hidden gem with meaning if you know the back story. Marvel and Star Wars movies have them in almost every movie.

These Easter Eggs are a way for the writer to tell an inside joke.  As an author, I often place these hidden gems in my writing.  I often tell people, don’t anger a writer, or you might end up in my next novel.

However, these pearl-clutching ne’er-do-wells (see what I did there? Look up the lyrics to But Daddy, I Love Him) want to find a more sinister alternative meaning so they can justify their hate of a strong woman.

As a Father of two strong women and 7 granddaughters, I am a champion of women being strong and standing up for themselves.  I don’t like or understand every Taylor Swift song, but I like her drive and determination.  I think she is an excellent role model for women of any age, and I hope she inspires many young women to be their best.