Christianity Today Simps Taylor Swift

People in Evangelical media have an infatuation with Taylor Swift. In 2023, The Gospel Coalition published an article so gay they swiftly yanked it. Last year they did it again using her lyrics to tell a watered-down version of the gospel. Mid Eva token, Samuel Sey, publicly simped Taylor Swift. Now, Christianity Today has stepped up the cringe, but at least this defense of Taylor Swift was written by a woman.

In an article titled, Taylor Swift Makes Showgirls of Us All, the legacy media outlet dates itself to modern. And early on, it’s a brutal read.

This past weekend, the internet was overrun by takes—thoughtful takes, sloppy takes, bad takes, lazy takes about Taylor Swift’s new album The Life of a Showgirl. By Saturday, the discourse had devolved into fragmented skirmishes over the Max Martin vibes, the Motown callouts and modulations, and the lyrics. “Is Taylor Swift becoming a trad wife?!” “This song is so clearly a rip-off of ____.” “This is dull, mid pop.” “This is an album by an artist who obviously isn’t hungry anymore.” (I concede that the title track does sound a lot like “Cool” by The Jonas Brothers.)

This collective bonding ritual happens on social media every time Taylor Swift drops an album, bringing together fans and anti-fans alike. When we publicly perform our relationship to the pop star, it’s at least in part about our own self-construction.

I used to be a vocal anti-Swiftie, an obnoxiously performative one. In college, as a DJ at an alternative radio station, I would have confidently told you, “I don’t listen to Taylor Swift.” I was insufferably concerned with crafting a contrarian persona, and this disavowal was a quick way of identifying myself as cool. I scoffed at Swift’s 2014 pop pivot, though I couldn’t deny that “Shake It Off” was irresistibly fun (except for that bridge).

Clearly, the author has not overcome her pretentiousness, adopting the Swift trend when her music became more lyrically shallow.

My objection to Swift, at the time, was that she stood for a dominant culture I didn’t want to be associated with—mainstream pop. My rejection of her music was based on my own interest in identity construction. I wanted to be the sort of person who listened to bands my friends hadn’t heard of. (I was a real pleasure to be around.)

Over the years, my aversion to Swift’s music has mellowed. In part, this is because I grew out of the insecurity that drove me to meticulously curate playlists and a collection of hipster band T-shirts.

I’m now a casual and friendly listener: When Swift’s language gets too crude for the kids in the back seat, I play the clean versions of her songs. What’s the point in trying to resist the magnetism of “Style,” “Cruel Summer,” “Anti-Hero,” and “The Fate of Ophelia”? I used to think it was admirable to refuse to see their merits. Now I sing their praises and belt them out in the car.

Imagine being too woke for Taylor Swift.

Despite writing songs about love and sex and adding more free-flying expletives to her catalog, Swift has managed to preserve a veneer of “good girl” innocence. Unlike some of her pop princess forebears—Britney, Christina, Mariah—Taylor has always performed her sexuality somewhat awkwardly. Even when she’s slinking across the Reputation tour stage in a one-legged catsuit, she seems like she is trying on a character rather than embodying the pop bad girl. 

A decade ago, Swift said publicly that she doesn’t think of herself as “sexy.” Her ambivalent relationship with her perceived sex appeal perhaps endears her to her female fanbase. Videos of her clumsy dancing seem to only strengthen Swifties’ devotion: She’s just like us!

So the appeal of Taylor Swift is that she is a godmother to millennial quirkchungus women? This is a bioweapon on our culture, if true.

It’s hard to take the article seriously, so I won’t. It attempts to loosely advise Christians because Christianity Today is the only outlet paying for this soapbox.

Kelsey Kramer McGinnis, the worship correspondent for Christianity Today, was the author of the article. She has a parenting (cope?) book out this month.