Alert: Album at Top of Christian Chart Poisons Young Believers' Minds on Sex, Jesus and Race
Over the last few weeks, large corporations like Facebook and Twitter have begun purging their platforms of conservative values. Apple has now joined the cause in an even more disturbing way.
According to Tyler Huckabee of Relevant magazine, an album titled “Preacher’s Kid” by the artist Semler has reached the top spot on the iTunes Christian chart. However, the content of the album is decidedly not Christian.
Semler’s real name is Grace Baldridge. Huckabee said she is indeed the daughter of a preacher, and she struggled growing up inside the church.
“The artist described the album as a ‘project about coming out as a queer person of faith,'” Huckabee said.
Baldridge does describe herself as a person of faith in the album, but her words do not show it. Instead, she takes shots at the church and the Christian faith as a whole.
“Album standout ‘Jesus From Texas’ is a bracing, furious reckoning with America’s spin on White Republican Jesus and the women in Baldridge’s life whose relational connection was complicated or even severed by this warped idea of a Savior,” Huckabee said.
It is hard to overstate just how despicable that statement is.
First, it conveys the notion that being a white Republican is wrong. But more importantly, what Huckabee calls “America’s spin on White Republican Jesus” seems to be the idea that churches believe in biblical values such as traditional marriage.
These values happen to be explicitly stated in the Bible.
Mark 10:6-9 says, “But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
This is a truth that companies like Apple and Relevant magazine simply don’t like, so they will do whatever they can to distort it.
Baldridge also accuses the church of damaging the communities they are actually helping.
“The mission trips are scams; they do more harm than good,” Baldridge said in the song “Bethlehem.” While some mission trips may not be successful, the vast majority are helping the communities they reach out to, despite what Baldridge says.
In addition to speaking negatively about the church, “Preacher’s Kid” also contains explicit language and concepts. In the same song, Baldridge alludes to the ideas of doing drugs, cursing and swearing off traditional marriage.
“My dad’s never cursed in his life,” she sang. “I asked if he smoked, he said, ‘twice.'”
“Well, by that standard I’m a god—n failure, I passed blunts the day I married my wife. But I’m a child of God, just in case you forgot, and you cast me out every single chance that you got.”
Honestly, Baldridge’s story is saddening. As we know, Jesus calls us to love everyone, and Baldridge should never have been “cast out” or mistreated because of her sins. We all have our own.
However, the problem is that Baldridge seems to want the church to accept not just her, but also her sins. The Bible tells us to love our neighbors despite their sins, but that’s not the same thing as accepting the sins themselves.
Publications like Relevant magazine attempt to misrepresent Christianity as a religion that does not accept “outsiders.” We know there are no “outsiders” in the kingdom of the Lord.
There are certainly some churches that do turn certain sinners away, and that is not a biblical practice at all. Jesus would have us accept these people into our community, but at the same time, he would implore us to hold them accountable for their sins and encourage repentance.
We hate the sin, not the sinner. Similarly, loving the sinner does not require us to love or even accept the sin.
While this album contains disturbing content, it is certainly Baldridge’s right to express such views. The bigger issue is that Apple has classified these anti-Christian views as “Christian.” When views that are explicitly in contrast to biblical teachings are called “Christian,” it has the potential for dire consequences.
Teenagers and even younger children with access to iTunes could easily search the platform for Christian music. Now, they instead run the risk of finding songs promoting sex, drug abuse and other anti-Christian practices.
In addition, people who are not familiar with the Bible may believe the lie that the views expressed in this album are actually Christian views. This can give non-believers a completely false idea of Christianity.
The best course of action here would be to keep this content away from your children. If they do happen to come across it, explain to them what true Christianity is and the manner in which Jesus would have us care for Baldridge herself.
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