Taylor Swift‘s latest song, “You Need To Calm Down,” is the most popular video on YouTube right now with roughly 30 million views since its premiere on Monday. The song is an homage to LGBTQ people and their culture — not without controversy — with a call for viewers to support the Equality Act at the very end of it.
It also features shots of Christian bigots who can’t handle the sight of a same-sex marriage, angrily holding up signs like “Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve,” “Get a Brain Morans!,” and “Homasekualty is sin!”
The haters are almost cartoonishly evil, with their lack of education and hygiene on full display, but the attitudes behind the characters are hardly a stretch. Those signs are far less hateful than what prominent Republicans advocate, and unlike the new rash of Independent Fundamentalist Baptist preachers, they don’t even call for the execution of LGBTQ people.
Still, Charisma‘s Jessilyn Lancaster is appalled by the mockery of Christians:
The video, while claiming to be inclusive, openly mocks Christians who protest homosexuality. Christians in the video are presented as country hicks with bad style and rotting teeth. They also misspell “homosexuality” on their protest signs.
Oh please. The video is far kinder to Christians than Charisma articles are regarding LGBTQ people. (Hell, at least the video suggests conservative Christians exist. Many evangelicals won’t even go that far when it comes to trans people.)
It’s telling that Lancaster saw that video and thought, “Hey! They’re making fun of me!” If the video is so wrong, then let conservative Christians prove it through their actions.
Saying that a video all about tolerance doesn’t have tolerance for your intolerance is a weak argument, and anyone who’s seen a comment thread online in the past decade knows how easy it is to spot Christian bigots. The signs in the video are simple but fair. Anyone who’s seen protesters at a Pride parade can attest to that.
And I will gladly take on the entire staff of Charisma in a spelling bee. I’m brown. Bring it.
(via Joe. My. God.)
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