Men who’ve left homosexuality behind for a life following Christ say they have two responses to Taylor Swift’s new music video for her single “You Need to Calm Down” that promotes the LGBT movement. One message is for Swift and her fans, the other is for the Christian community.
Swift’s music video is an ode to the LGBT community and features a star-studded cast including professing Christian R&B singer Ciara, and preachers’ kid pop star Katy Perry. Others featured in the video include daytime TV host Ellen DeGeneres, actor Ryan Reynolds, transgender actor Laverne Cox, and the cast of Netflix’s “Queer Eye.”
The pop star’s message, as described in her lyrics, is that people need to stop spewing hate. The song’s lyrics include lines such as: “And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate, ’cause shade never made anybody less gay.” She also sang that those who oppose the lifestyle “would rather be in the Dark Ages.”
The video features an angry mob holding signs that read: “Adam & Eve not Adam & Steve” and “Homasekuality is sin!” The misspelling of homosexuality intentionally presumes that Christians who oppose same-sex relationships are not only homophobic and transphobic, but also are uneducated.
The majority of Christian denominations worldwide adhere to the Bible’s stance on homosexuality and teach that while it’s a sin, believers are commanded to love the sinner. Swift’s video seems to be poking fun at the Phelps family of Topeka, Kansas, who are best known as the protest group called the Westboro Baptists. Despite its name, the group is not affiliated with any Baptist denomination and has gained notoriety over the years for protesting outside churches, NASCAR races, and soldiers’ funerals. At the protests, members are often seen holding signs that read: “God Hates F—.”
Singer Ciara received some heat from Christian fans for the role she played in Swift’s video where she’s seen officiating a gay wedding and jumping for joy. Ciara shared a clip of her part in the video on Instagram but hit back at Christian fans who didn’t like what they saw.
In the comments section, one follower said: “Ciara. You shouldn’t be doing this. We respect u too much, Being at a gay wedding is one thing and joining them together is even more a greater sin. We love you but this is wrong.”
Ciara snapped back, writing, “Firstly, Christians don’t judge. Secondly, #YouNeedToCalmDown.”
Luis Javier Ruiz, CEO of the ministry Fearless Identity and a survivor of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting who has since walked away from homosexuality, responded to Ciara’s decision to show her support for same-sex marriage and the LGBT movement by starring in the video.
Ruiz, who now travels across the U.S. to hold Freedom Marches where he and others share their transformation in Christ, said he respectfully disagrees with Ciara’s views on the topic.
“Going to anyone’s wedding is being a testimony of the union and showing that you agree with the event that is happening bound by God,” he told The Christian Post in an interview on Tuesday. “I can’t affirm what God’s word does not affirm and I can’t call love what God’s word does not call love.
“If they are my friends, they will understand,” Ruiz said. “And with that, saying God accepts everyone as they are but the Gospel demands change. We are walking into a time where you will be asked to choose between your faith belief in God or culture or society’s belief, and I chose Jesus.”
In the New Testament along with many other verses of scripture, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God,” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
Singer Edward Byrd, who has joined forces with Ruiz, the Freedom March, and Uprooted Heart Inc., a group of millennials across the country who are boldly sharing how Jesus delivered them from a lifestyle of homosexuality, says Swift’s video “unfortunately” has some truth to it, as many Christians are not loving toward the LGBT community.
“This narrative that Taylor Swift is showing is not false, and for that my heart breaks and I apologize,” he told CP. “For so long, we as a church have treated homosexuality like the worst and highest sin, like His death and resurrection didn’t include homosexuality! There is redemption for all people.”
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Jeannie Law
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