The Tragedy of Taylor Swift

I know, I know, everyone is talking about her...

“What if I roll the stone away? / They’re going to crucify me anyway,”

I didn’t even catch it the first time I listened to the song… but the second time, everything changed.

First, you need to know…

1. I’ve been a fan of Swift since I was 16. I saw her on a morning show and realized I was only a few months younger than her! What a thrill!

2. I listen to a lot of music, both Christian and secular, and find value and beauty in the work of many unbelievers - accidentally reflecting the beauty of their creator.

3. I have definitely compromised too much, at times, on what I watch, listen to and even recommend to others.

But there’s a bigger question that boiled over as I listened to The Tortured Poets Department…

Who is Jesus to me?

That’s a strange question to come from a Taylor Swift album… but here we are.

Who is Jesus to me?

[If you haven’t read THIS RECENT POST - Christ Before Happiness, Health and Hygiene - I recommend it because what follows is heavily a result of those thoughts.]

Photo by Rosa Rafael on Unsplash

I have made excuses for years…

As the artist has grown up, Swift's music has become increasingly “grown up.” I remember texting a friend after one album release, just noticing how many songs reference drinking… I chalked it up to a young, fabulously wealthy woman trying to figure out life in a world that worships her.

In subsequence albums, her lyrics grew more vulgar, more sexualized and her politics drifted more aggressively left… Not surprising but disappointing.

But this album crosses a new line.

And it’s not like I found myself approaching the limit and needing to step back. It was a shocking bucket of ice water, waking me up to realize I had crossed the line in this area long ago.

That I had a blind spot as a fan that was hiding a very dark reality…

There were other clues, other crass references to the church and God…

• in “But Daddy I Love Him,” she calls on God to “save the most judgmental creeps” and trashes the “Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best” who she feels only try to save the people they hate.

• “I Can Fix Him (No Really, I Can),” Swift describes how people “shake their heads” at her relationship and say “God help her,” but she tells the critics that “your good lord doesn’t need to lift a finger,” because only she can turn this “dangerous man” into an “angel.” 

But it wasn’t until “Guilty as Sin” that this haunting question crept in… Who is Jesus to me?

Photo by Joel Lee on Unsplash

The average dude will fight you for insulting his mom or sister.

Teammates rush to avenge a cheap shot on their comrade.

Parents storm the principal’s office when their kids are being bullied.

Heck, Taylor Swift fans will bombard complete strangers will garish abuse over the slightest negativity towards their queen.

Who is Jesus to me?

“What if I roll the stone away? / They’re going to crucify me anyway,”

Hearing that line - again, I totally missed it the first time through the album - woke me up.

Swift casually puts herself in the place of the Savior.

Do I care? How much compromise am I willing to indulge? How many excuses can I make for her drinking and immorality and language?

What about when she openly mocks my Lord, his cross and his grave? What then?

I was texting with a former student - herself, one of the truly elite diehard Swifties - about the tragedy of Swift’s constant disappointment. How she looks for satisfaction in all these places that constantly wreck her… And we wished she’d find fulfillment in the only source that lasts, in Christ. And I still with that for her.

But as I now have two little kids, and hope to teach them that who Jesus is is the most important question of their entire lives, I can no longer overlook or excuse blasphemy. It’s not your stone to roll away, Taylor. And you weren’t the one crucified.

I know my being “out” on Taylor Swift doesn’t move the needle. I’m not declaring some boycott or petition. I’ll echo Joshua’s words…

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”