Taylor Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Division, has garnered criticism from religion leaders who’ve taken to social media this week to precise their distaste with the lyrical content material that they imagine mocks God and Christians.
Launched final Friday, critics have voiced concern over lyrics that appear to counsel that Christians are each hateful and judgemental.
Within the music “However Daddy I Love Him,” Swift sings:
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“However daddy I really like him / I simply discovered these individuals solely elevate you / To cage you / Sarahs and Hannahs of their Sunday greatest / Clutchin’ their pearls, sighing, ‘What a large number’ / I simply discovered these individuals attempt to prevent ‘Trigger they hate you.”
In the identical music, Swift sings:
“God save probably the most judgmental creeps / Who say they need what’s greatest for me / Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I will by no means see / Thinkin’ it may well change the beat / Of my coronary heart when he touches me / And counteract the chemistry / And undo the future / You ain’t gotta pray for me / Me and my wild boy and all of this wild pleasure / If all you need is grey for me / Then it is simply white noise, and it is simply my alternative.”
Within the music “Responsible As Sin,” Swift sings: “What if I roll the stone away? / They’re gonna crucify me anyway / What if the best way you maintain me is definitely what’s holy.”
Eleven of the 31 songs include an “E” underneath the album’s description itemizing, which stands for “specific.” And several other songs have the F-word included inside the lyrics.
Shane Pruitt, the Nationwide Subsequent Gen director for the Southern Baptist Conference’s North American Mission Board and co-author of Calling Out the Referred to as, wrote in a Fb publish that there’s a distinction between being secular and being “Anti-Christian.” He urged Christian mother and father to significantly take into account if they need to enable their kids to hearken to Swift’s music.
“I am undoubtedly not the minister or mother or father that has the ‘no secular music’ stance,” Pruitt wrote. “Additionally, I absolutely understand unbelievers are going to behave like unbelievers. HOWEVER, there’s a distinction between being secular and being ANTI-CHRISTIAN.”
Pruitt added that he used to hearken to Swift however mentioned he thinks “now it is time to rethink.”
“As Christians, who’re full of the Spirit, ought to we be entertained by, sing with, and expose our children to lyrics that are not simply totally different than what you imagine, however are literally mocking what you imagine?” Pruitt requested.
The Christian leisure evaluate firm MovieGuide believes the album “mocks Christianity.”
“Whereas it is no secret that Taylor Swift will not be a Christian, she made her hatred for faith identified via her newly launched album ‘The Tortured Poets Division,'” MovieGuide confused in its evaluate.
“The album is filled with minor quips that elevate Swift above God whereas additionally that includes two songs devoted to ripping down the Christian sexual ethic.”
MovieGuide contends the lyrics to the music “I Can Repair Him (No Actually I Can)” include rhetoric alluding to the concept God would not wish to “elevate a finger.”
The lyrics learn: “They shake their heads sayin’, ‘God assist her,’ / Once I inform ’em he is my man/ however your good Lord would not elevate a finger / I can repair him, no, actually, I can. And solely I can.”
“The truth that one of the vital fashionable and well-known celebrities of her era can not discover happiness reveals that residing on the earth results in demise whereas residing for Christ and underneath his teachings results in life,” the evaluate acknowledged.
“Sadly, Swift has chosen the trail towards demise and is reaping the fruits of her labor.”
MovieGuide additionally objects to the lyrics of the music “Florida!!!,” which the group says is about “going off the deep finish and all in on worldly enjoyable and leisure.”
“Whereas Swift has since clarified that this music was a couple of fantasy relatively than an precise expertise she has had, it nonetheless glorifies going off the deep and interesting in full debauchery,” the group states.
Sean Feucht, a conservative Christian singer and former worship chief at Bethel Church who based the Let Us Worship motion, took to X, previously generally known as Twitter, to share how he believes the brand new album is making enjoyable of Christians.
“Nearly half the songs on Taylor Swift’s new album include specific lyrics (E), make enjoyable of Christians and straight up blaspheme God. Is that this the music you need your children listening to?” Feucht wrote.
“You assume I am simply being spiritual & overreacting? Learn the lyrics & resolve for your self.”
Alex Clark, host of the Turning Level USA podcast “The Spillover,” who additionally launched the popular culture present “POPlitics!” did not take kindly to Feucht’s feedback on Swift.
“Sean Feucht, no matter his identify is … let’s not even get into his personal controversies and who he aligns with and all of the sketchy stuff that this man, who he surrounds himself with within the Christian neighborhood. Trigger that could possibly be an entire different episode. So, it is like OK, we’ll take recommendation from these individuals who have their very own conditions and it is like, so are you by no means going to observe any Netflix films? You are by no means going to hearken to any artist. If that is the factors that we’re going with, … principally, it’s a must to say: ‘I am by no means going to hearken to music,'” Clark mentioned on her present.
Whereas many religion and worship leaders have criticized Swift’s album, Forbes experiences that The Tortured Poets Division wanted just a few hours earlier than it turned the bestselling album of 2024 within the U.S. The album offered roughly 1.4 million copies in simply its first full day of availability.
Nicole VanDyke is a reporter for The Christian Publish.
