Should Christians Emulate Taylor Swift?

Show Notes:

Matt: Welcome to Ask the Pastor with Pastor J.D. Greear. I’m your host, Matt Love. You might be thinking… “What happened to Ask Me Anything?” Well, I’m glad you asked. We’ve decided to really reinvest in this podcast, keep it growing, and we’ve decided to add a new format, a new structure, and a new name! Ask Me Anything is now Ask the Pastor, and the pastor we’re asking is none other than J.D. Greear.

J.D.: Yes, we’re very excited about the new name, new format. But there is one drawback: Matt has a face for radio and podcasts, so that’s the only downside to this and I know all of you watching on video will have to just overlook that. 

Matt: J.D., let’s get right into it. Here’s a listener question from Madeline. She writes: “A friend of mine is a Swiftie. She has a Swiftie necklace she wears all the time, her lock screen is of Taylor, she wears Eras shirts, she brings up Taylor Swift any time she can. And she recently went to a concert…it is turning into an obsession. How can I help her see that as Christians, Taylor Swift is not someone we want to emulate?”

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J.D.: Here’s what I want to say first and foremost: I am not anti-Taylor Swift. So, Swifties, don’t hate on me, OK? My family—my daughters, especially—listens to her music from time to time. I took them to see the ERAS movie.

• I DO NOT think there’s anything inherently immoral about being a fan of hers.
• We’ve talked before on the Ask Me Anything podcast about whether or not Christians should listen to any secular music at all. You can go back and listen, but the bottom line is that that’s an area where every disciple of Jesus needs to use their own conscience.
  • I know people who do not listen to ANY secular music at all. That’s a conviction they have for themselves, and I can’t blame them for that. Some of them even make pretty compelling arguments about why they choose not to do so.
  • There are many others (and I’d put myself in this camp) who do listen to secular music–the Apostle Paul seems to have, too, FWIW, based on how he quotes some of the poets of the day—and to you I’d say (and this applies to movies and TV shows as well), you HAVE TO keep your guard up for what gets past your “filter.”
    • There’s a difference between music that is not inherently Christian and music that is inherently “Anti-Christ”/”Anti-God.” That celebrates the things that God hates and centers the theme. 
      • I always compare it with going to a secular party. You can go to a secular event with secular people and sometimes while you are there, they sin. That’s different from going with someone when the expressed purpose is to sin. To get drunk or do drugs or watch pornography or visit a prostitute, obviously.
      • In the same way, If the express purpose of the song, the theme, is sin, I wouldn’t touch it.
  • And then there’s also an awareness of which temptations you’re just particular susceptible to; ones you can’t get out of your head
    • It could a certain kind of sexual temptation that you know you are just particularly susceptible to. It could be materialism or even violence or focus on body image.
    • Luther, if your head is made of butter
  • Then there’s just the saturation question. 
    • Proverbs 4: “As a man thinks in his heart…”
    • Colossians 3 tells us to “Set our minds on things above, not on earthly things.” 
    • Again, I don’t personally take that to mean we should never consume any secular content. But the question is, what are we setting our minds on? What is consuming the majority of our thoughts?
• Is Taylor Swift someone you should listen to? I can’t answer that for you—you need to make that decision on your own – but I can tell you for me and my family, we find MOST of her songs decently acceptable.

Now, let me address the real question here: “Is Taylor Swift someone we want to emulate?” That’s another question entirely.

• Madeline here seems to be writing about a friend who’s made Taylor Swift into a hero of hers. I don’t know the girl she’s talking about, and I don’t know how far this emulation or obsession goes.
• But I have seen this emulation of celebrities rise to an unhealthy level in other people’s lives that I do know personally, and I can speak to that.

First, let’s address Taylor Swift herself.

• Does she write super-catchy, relatable songs? Yes. Are the majority of her songs inherently anti-God? No.
• But I wouldn’t say she’s some kind of hero that Christians need to be emulating.
  • Taylor has been outspoken about her support of abortion, particularly after Roe v. Wade was overturned last year.
  • She’s been very, very vocal about her support of the LGBTQ+ movement, both in comments and in her music itself – including her song “You Need to Calm Down.”
  • She openly teaches karma, a very anti-biblical worldview.
• I will say that in the “Eras Tour” movie, I was unsettled at how much focus was put on her and her amazing gifts, and how when those accolades were directed at her, she didn’t give glory to God, even in the shallow ways that some celebrities or pro athletes do when they point up to heaven. 
  • She just stood on the stage and received it, and then for one of her final songs did “Mastermind,” which I know is about love, but at that moment in the concert it seemed to also point to her great genius. 
  • I don’t know. Maybe I’m reading too much into that, but my spirit was bothered, I can at least say that. 
    • It felt like that moment in Acts where Herod was making a speech and the people shouted, “It is not the voice of a man, but a god!” and Acts says that Herod stood there and just received it, and it was so grievous to God that God struck him down immediately. 

But, again, I’m not just trying to bash Taylor Swift here. She makes no pretense about being a Christian. As Christians, we’d be hard-pressed to find ANY celebrity that’s truly worth emulating.

• • So when you latch onto a cultural icon, whether it’s Taylor Swift, or my favorite celebrity, Nicolas Cage, or anybody else – you have to approach them and their work with the understanding that we can APPRECIATE them without EMULATING them.

• Idolatry should bother us.

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• Matt: Starting next week, we’ll dive into a series of eight episodes focused on the spiritual disciplines—the basic practices of the Christian life. Don’t miss the first episode in that series next week as we talk about how to actually read your Bible..
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