 Old Town Road Rapper Lil Nas X released a brand new single called J. Christ and the promotional material that he's put out in the lead-up to the release of this single has been nothing short of incredible because he is once again trolling evangelicals to perfection and expectably they are taking the bait. So I'm going to show you just a few promos that he put out followed by the reaction, his response to the reaction and then we'll dive into the significance of the art here because there is a lot of depth to it but you know there's a lot of people who can't see past just the imagery itself and the symbolism and them being triggered so they lash out but let's get to what he's put out there. So he released this gif of himself on a cross depicted as Jesus but the cross actually transforms into a mech which I think is badass. He also released an image depicting himself as an angel with guns which is very American. There's an image of him on a cross being crucified. I believe this is the actual cover art for the single and he also released a promotional video depicting the stairway to heaven featuring parodies of celebrities like Taylor Swift and I think Ed Sheeran, Oprah, Kanye West and also Barack Obama. So yeah. And in the final preview leading up to the release he shared a graphic of him being depicted as Moses parting the Red Sea. Now this isn't an official promotion that you're looking at right now but I would be remiss to not point out him sharing a clip of Candace Owens attacking him while his music plays. It's just he knows exactly what to do to piss them off and I love it. But it gets better because he put out a TikTok that is just blatantly blasphemous with a snippet of his song playing and we're gonna take a look at that by the way the song was already kind of like chip-tuned by him. I had to mess with the audio more so that way this video doesn't get copyright claims but here's what he put out. Now if you're not evangelical you might not know why this is so significant but he is basically making a mockery of communion which is a ritual in Christianity where you eat bread and wine or juice to symbolize you accepting the flesh and blood of Christ into your body not to be confused with cannibalism but when I was in church when I was a kid I was taught that this is basically something that you can't do lightly. It's like a really significant thing and if you partake in holy communion you have to genuinely offer yourself to Jesus otherwise it could backfire and you could go to hell. So him nonchalantly just fucking up a bunch of communion trays is going to offend evangelicals but I mean it shouldn't because so long as they're doing it correctly then it doesn't affect them but of course they got pissed. Now somebody responded saying are you serious with crying emojis and he responded saying now I don't like Lil Nas X either but y'all really gonna pretend y'all didn't want to do the shittest kids and he is absolutely right because I remember taking communion when I was like eight or nine not really knowing what's going on but wanting more servings myself because I was hungry and bored in church as kids typically are but I mean there is a broader discussion to be had here about evangelicalism and how children are taught to participate in supposedly sacred rituals while not understanding what it means which theoretically implies that their parents could be inadvertently subjecting their own kids to eternal damnation by indoctrinating them into these substantial processes when they're too young to even understand what's going on but it's an entirely different tangent for a different day. That video that he put out got him death threats and on Twitter he pointed out the irony of them calling him evil while threatening to kill him over what he did or saying that he should die over what he did but I want to get to some specific responses from evangelicals because they saw all of the promotional material and of course they were absolutely triggered they clutch their pearls and that includes individuals like Ali London who I guess is religious now or at least trying to tell on him to other evangelicals in his base so he writes singer Lil Nas X mocks Jesus in a teaser for his new single Jay Christ as he appears in underwear and silver boots in a video clip posted to his ex the singer has previously courted outrage for promoting satanic practices including selling sneakers containing human blood so you know Ali London of course has to try to get some engagement off of this I don't think he really cares but he knows that the right-wing people in his audience will care on top of that mega pastor Sean Foyt reacted to the cover art for his single with the scripture that reads most importantly I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come mocking the truth and following their own desires except people have always mocked religion and they've always said it's the end of day so whatever Rachel Wilson a pro-patriarchy evangelical author tweeted oh gee whiz I'm sure this won't be as blasphemous as possible and it probably will be but cope now there were some Christian rappers that even responded like right-wing Christian mega rapper CCG Gray who called it demonic only to later encourage his followers to ignore quote gay demon Lil Nas X because he's doing it for publicity now keep in mind that he said this after he took the bait himself but nonetheless now we should ignore him but I mean if Lil Nas X is doing all of this for publicity guess what it's working he knows exactly what to do to trigger you and you take the bait every single time he knows how to get clicks and this is what artists do to promote their work right wing outlets for example like Fox News as well as the Daily Wire all reported about his blasphemy and then hilariously enough his responses to them being triggered went more viral than the blasphemy itself arguably so he responded in a couple of ways and I want to get to how he responded because I think that he is an S tier troll he was part of stan culture before becoming an actual artist himself so I think that he's really aware of how to cleverly respond and monopolize and all of this publicity but so he explained first and foremost in a more serious way that using religious symbolism in music is not a new phenomenon and he's right he says people have been recreating biblical stories for thousands of years everybody devout Christians when Lil Nas X walks into the room though exactly and he retweeted images of rappers like Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West wearing thorn crowns like Jesus and it's not just hip-hop as another magazine explains quote religious symbols and iconography and music are nothing new or uncommon a 1995 study of music videos on MTV show 38% of them featured religious imagery this phenomenon has been seen across decades and genres from Madonna's 1989 pop song like a prayer whose video depicted the singer referencing her Catholic upbringing in front of burning crosses causing the Vatican to call for a boycott of her music so Lil Nas X is just following in the tradition of other artists who have done the same thing but it seems as if there's this extra layer of outrage because it's Lil Nas X I mean that's not to say that Madonna didn't gin up outrage or Sinead O'Connor didn't gin up outrage when attacking religion or criticizing religion but when it comes to Lil Nas X there's this sense that's relatively explicit from evangelicals to where they think that it's extra unacceptable because he's gay and we kind of see this towards queer artists so Sean Foyt for example one of the individuals was attacking him for his blasphemous imagery also attacked drag queen Christian singers like Flamie Grant because in the mind of an evangelical you're not allowed to even dabble in Christianity or experiment with religious imagery because you don't get membership to this club if you're gay and Lil Nas X addressed their attempt at gatekeeping Christianity in the most hilarious way possible writing making Christian music does not mean I can't suck dick no more the two are not mutually exclusive I am allowed to get on my knees from multiple reasons and he's not wrong there are plenty of LGBTQ plus people who are still religious some of them want to take back the religion that they were raised in so that way it's no longer hateful but I mean that tweet set off a firestorm for obvious reasons for example Christian rapper Holy Gabana responded on Instagram saying quote if Nas X want to be gay cool do you lil bro just don't title yourself a Christian and make others believe it's okay for us to live in habitual slash intentional sin people deserve truth and I stand on the word of God now I just want to take a moment to address that criticism specifically because according to him you can't be a Christian and live in sin simultaneously but interestingly enough this same individual makes a really convenient exception for himself and you can see this in the video that he has pinned to his Twitter profile Christians they'd say hey was not that you're saved will you get your face tattoos removed no I won't because you're asking me a question God didn't ask me himself God and say hey before you come be my son go I want you to remove your face tattoos humans look at the outer appearance God look at the heart oh well isn't that fucking convenient see I'm allowed to live in sin and keep my tattoos but Lil Nas X he's not allowed to still live in sin he actually has to turn away from his homosexuality if he wants to be a Christian except the book that you purport to love so much condemns both homosexuality and tattoos in the same goddamn section Leviticus 1928 reads quote you shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead nor tattoo any marks on you I am the Lord hmm interesting how you just forget about that or maybe you didn't know better schedule an appointment with a dermatologist to get those tattoos removed immediately so as to not live in sin right because you want to be a real Christian I mean these same rules apply to Lil Nas X and you do they not it's just the hypocrisy is so overwhelming and they don't even try to be consistent here but on a serious note again I genuinely don't know if Lil Nas X is actually religious perhaps he's not a Christian perhaps he's spiritual in some way but he is right that you can be both LGBTQ and religious I am not I'm an anti-theist but there are plenty of queer people who are religious but putting that aside he at least tried to convince evangelicals regardless if he's religious himself or not that he was sincere by posting a fake acceptance letter to Liberty University which is hilarious and he writes I know Twitter hates me right now but I want y'all to know I'm literally about to go to college for biblical studies in the fall not everything is a troll anyways I'm a student again let's go now if you look at the acceptance letter it looks very legitimate but there's one thing that should really get your attention and that is it's signed by Jerry Falwell who's dead and as LGBTQ nation explains in reality the current president of Liberty University is actually Don D. E. Costin the university's founder evangelical pastor and anti LGBTQ plus activist Jerry Falwell senior died in 2007 his son Jerry Falwell Jr. served as Liberty University's president from 2007 to 2020 when he resigned amid a sex scandal involving himself his wife and a former poll boy but on the subject of Jerry Falwell Jr. he actually responded and his response was unexpectedly reasonable quote this is the real Jerry Falwell president of Liberty University from 2007 to 2020 and that is my signature I know this is a joke but I wouldn't have hesitated to sign that letter for you to enroll don't believe all the lies that you have been told the last three years no judgment at L. U. only grace now first of all that's bullshit because Liberty University is an extremely religious organization that is vehemently anti LGBTQ plus but having said that though it still is really weird to see Jerry Falwell Jr. of all people have the most normal response to Lil Nas X among all the religious people who responded now moving on I do think that it is reasonable to deduce that Lil Nas X is being purposefully provocative for PR purposes but at the same time that doesn't mean that what he's doing isn't art because it is it's still art and it has a significant meaning and he confirmed this saying the problem is y'all judge everything at face value I've never released a visual without an underlying meaning and y'all know that but since I'm a troll y'all discount my art as pissing people off and I think that he's exactly right like if you troll a lot then sure people aren't gonna take you as seriously and not know when you're serious but he has evidence of what he's saying in his song Montero he stirred up an even bigger shitstorm because of his depiction of satanic imagery there's actually a really deep meaning to that music video as mckels street of out magazine explains if you haven't been paying attention in Montero Nas X combines Greek mythology and biblical references to essentially tell the story of queer self-empowerment in this world he traces an arc of being judged and condemned by society for his sexuality eventually being killed and sent to hell but on his way there he reclaims his sexuality and harnesses his sexual energy in order to seduce Satan and take over hell so from the perspective of a queer man who grew up being told that he'd go to hell for embracing his true self he chose to take back the power that that threat of eternal damnation had over him and embrace his true self despite the consequences I'm gonna be myself no matter what and if I go to hell so be it I'll serve cunt there too that was the message of his music video now I don't know where he's going to go with his latest music video because at the time that I record this video I haven't had the chance to watch it yet it's not out at the time that I filmed this on Thursday but blasphemous imagery especially from queer artists is always going to be meaningful to me because for LGBTQ plus people blasphemy is a form of rebellion evangelicals and anti LGBTQ plus organizations vote and lobby against our rights and very existence and our liberation often comes down to a fight with these same people so when there's this fundamental disrespect for our basic humanity and basic rights well you can understand why the feeling is mutual and why there's this animosity between both groups I mean churches have taught hate for centuries and they forced queer people to think that we're defective and sinful for just being ourselves and the threat of hell has been used as a form of psychological warfare as a cudgel against us to make us feel guilty for just being who we are being different right so after being told again and again that we're gonna go to hell if we don't obey God and be straight and sis openly defying God is an inherent act of rebellion for queer people but then again I don't know why he's using this imagery or how he's going to use it personally but I mean if you're a true believer what Lil Nas X does shouldn't matter his imagery doesn't impact your Christianity right it's what you do that matters to your God but by poking the bear Lil Nas X he's kind of exposing the inherent nationalism behind evangelicalism it's not just about this personal relationship that they supposedly have with Jesus Christ most evangelicals want to impose their beliefs and rules on all of society they're not content to just believe it themselves they want all of us to be indoctrinated into it as well and Lil Nas X is able to effortlessly expose that and get them to give the game away so I absolutely love and respect Lil Nas X I think he's absolutely hilarious and brilliant and a side note his new single may have actually been made with the most unorthodox instrument ever so I'll leave you with that on that funny note and yeah I'm Lil Nas X and this is how I make the beat to my new song so first I like went ahead and and then I uploaded the part into logic and right here I started playing with the pitch a little bit let's try I try going high and I tried to go all the way high and I was like what if you went like mad low right and then that brought me to this and I was like wait a fuck a minute and then that's what made me go ahead and say fuck it and I made this this let's play it up a little bit she stroked my face with the vagina she stroked my penis and balls