Faith leads are out on Taylor Swift‘s Tortured Poets Department as they claim the superstar has crossed the line going from secular to anti-Christian with many of the lyrics off her latest release.
Religious critics of Swift’s much-hyped record say the songstress’s writing implies that Christians are hateful, judgmental, vindictive people.
Shane Pruitt of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board pointed to specific lyrics he found objectionable.
In the song ‘But Daddy I Love Him,’ for instance, Swift croons: ‘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.’
She goes on to sing: ‘God save the most judgmental creeps,’ the same people she claims ‘Sanctimoniously perform soliloquies.’
‘You ain’t gotta pray for me,’ she goes on.
In another song, ‘Guilty As Sin,’ the billionaire pop princess 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.’
Many of the songs are also tagged with ‘E’ for explicit, making them arguably less than appropriate for a young Christian audience.
Pruitt, who is the National Next Gen director for the SBC’s board wrote about the line he feels Swift has crossed with her latest work:
‘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 wrote.
He added that he has historically been a Swift listener but thinks it may now be ‘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?’ he questioned.
Pruitt is not the only faithful entertainment consumer who found massive flaw with Swift’s latest offering.
MovieGuide, a Christian entertainment review company declares that Tortured Poets Department ‘mocks Christianity.’
‘While it’s no secret that Taylor Swift is not a Christian, she made her hatred for religion known through her newly released album ‘The Tortured Poets Department,” reads the MovieGuide review.
‘The album is full of minor quips that elevate Swift above God while also featuring two songs devoted to tearing down the Christian sexual ethic.’
Faith leader Shane Pruitt called Swift’s Tortured Poets Department into question in a Facebook post he titled ‘LYRICS MATTER’
Then the review got personal.
‘The fact that one of the most popular and famous celebrities of her generation cannot find happiness reveals that living in the world leads to death while living for Christ and under his teachings leads to life.
‘Unfortunately, Swift has chosen the path toward death and is reaping the fruits of her labor.’
Swift’s album, which arrived with a surprise extra 15 songs 10 days ago, has been adored by her fans and some critics alike, but not received uniformly well, with some claiming the hitmaker’s rushed double album lacks creativity and showcases immaturity as an artist.
One review from Paste Magazine, which removed the writer’s name from the article due to the all-but-certain threat of deranged hostility from Swift’s fan militia, said Swift has been unable to stop herself from creatively ‘infantiliz(ng) the very people who buy into her music and drive her successes upwards in the first place.’
The unnamed author claims The Tortured Poets Department’s eponymous track ‘featured some of Swift’s worse lyricism to date.’
Despite some less than positive reviews for TTPD, Swift’s album has already been met by massive commercial success and record shattering streaming numbers
The Tortured Poets Department was, however, an immediate hit with consumers. It sold some 1.4 million copies the Friday it was released and was as streamed on Spotify more than 300 million times in a single day
The author went on to ponder whether Swift, a freshly named Forbes billionaire, is still capable of experiencing ‘torture’ of the sort she writes about in this album.
‘If Swift can return to one of her dozen beach houses across the world, kick up her feet and say “I’m a poet of struggle,” then who is to say that millions – maybe billions – of people with access to a notes app and a social media account won’t dream that dream, too?’ read the review.
The Tortured Poets Department was, however, an immediate hit with consumers. It sold some 1.4 million copies the Friday it was released and was as streamed on Spotify more than 300 million times in a single day. The album’s first single, Fortnight, featuring Post Malone also shattered several records.
On Sunday, Billboard announced Swift’s album debuted at No. 1 atop the Billboard 200 marked her 14th No. 1 album, tying her for the most among solo performers. TTPD also received the most ever amount of streams in a week for an album.
