The Radiant Mission
The Radiant Mission
113. Taylor Swift, Witchcraft, and the Dark Side of Music’s Influence on Youth
What if the enchanting melodies of your favorite pop stars are shaping more than just your playlist? Join us on The Radiant Mission Podcast as we unravel the powerful influence of celebrity idolization, focusing on Taylor Swift's evolution and the unsettling trend towards darker themes in Hollywood. As co-hosts and sisters, Rebecca Twomey and Rachel Smith share personal stories of admiration for Swift, urging parents to carefully consider the media their children consume within Christian communities. The discussions weave through the impact of celebrities like Swift and Sam Smith on young fans, raising important questions about the values and messages being internalized.
Celebrity culture and modern-day witchcraft—an unusual connection, but one that begs deeper exploration. We venture into the whimsical yet controversial world of magic and witchcraft as we link the mesmerizing effect of Swift's music, particularly her song "Enchanted," to mystical imagery often associated with witchcraft. Through nostalgic reflections on the release of "1989," we challenge our listeners to consider the subconscious messages conveyed by popular music and their potential effects on personal beliefs and behaviors.
Music has the power to shape emotions, especially for children, and our candid conversation reflects on this profound impact. We recount how Taylor Swift's album "Speak Now" resonated during personal struggles, illustrating how music can influence emotions and behaviors. As explicit content becomes more prevalent, we stress the importance of vigilance in curating what young listeners are exposed to. Our reflections not only navigate the complex topics of music consumption and celebrity influence but also strive to inspire discernment in a world saturated with powerful media messages.
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Hello and welcome to the Radiant Mission podcast. My name is Rebecca Tomey and I'm here with my lovely co-host and sister, rachel Smith. Hi, everyone, you're waiting for that extra Smith this time. Yeah, we are on a mission to encourage and inspire you as you're navigating through your life and with your relationship with Yahweh, and we are currently in a series about being countercultural and the ways of the world and exposing darkness, and today we are going to talk about something that is absolutely terrifying, and that is Taylor Swift.
Rebecca Twomey:It actually is terrifying talking about this. That's what I meant, and there's the joke. It actually is terrifying to talk about Taylor Swift at all, because, god forbid you have any opinion about Taylor Swift that is not positive. You'll get eaten alive. I'm kind of ready for that, though. Eat us alive. We're in the comments, we're ready. We're ready to talk about it. I mean, hopefully we will just stick to, like, the most obvious aspects, like we don't have anything personal against her or anything she does.
Rebecca Twomey:I feel like we should start and prevencing that we used to love Taylor Swift, yeah, okay. So really, the truth is that what we want to talk about is an example of really we're using taylor swift specifically to talk about something that's overarching in our society and that is celebrities and hollywood culture and this idea of idolization of a person yeah, and the transformation that happens within these stars and musicians specifically, that they are often turned by this Hollywood system and agenda or darkness. There's so many words that we could use, and we could use any artist yeah, really any secular artist we could use to have this conversation, but we or me has chosen Taylor Swift specifically because of the way that our young girls are now so drawn to her, especially in the church and in Christian communities, that I think she is the person that we should use to have this discussion, because, you know, 10-year-old girls aren't necessarily going to be listening to Eminem, right, right, I hope, yeah, well, and it and it's. It's a matter of we're kind of going to A critical look at what young girls are consuming, because this is why I wanted to preface that we once were Taylor Swift fans. Yep, is I listened to her music when she first came out, when she was 16 and I was 17.
Rebecca Twomey:Or, you know, first came out mainstream, that you could actually buy an album. That's back when we bought CDs, and so it was almost like I grew up with her in a lot of ways, that her music was always love songs about her high school and then, you know, into her 20s, her relationships, like that's always been her thing. We were both young. When I first saw you, yeah, I was thinking more like teardrops on my guitar. Oh, it's so depressing, there drops on my guitar.
Rebecca Twomey:I wouldn't give evidence that we really were Taylor Swift fans. Yes, and and and, both of us. And there has been a shift both in society and culture and in her and in us. Yeah, and in us, yeah, and in us, yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's like it's not just her that's changed, everything has changed.
Rebecca Twomey:Exactly the whole episode is going to be lyrics, but there are some just blatant things that we cannot ignore. No, we can't. That she's made. That make us uncomfortable and uneasy.
Rebecca Twomey:I think the point here is that if she had stayed the same as she was those first couple of albums, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Yeah, but the reason we are having this conversation is because of how things have unfolded after the last gosh, we're old. I was going to say decade is more than a decade. No, it's like two. Yeah, it's almost 20 years, actually it is. I just turned 36. Oh my, it is 20 years. Wow, yeah, it's really nuts. Yeah, and you brought up that we're.
Rebecca Twomey:You know, we could use all kinds of other celebrities as an example, and perhaps at some point we can reference other ones too, because certain themes in her music videos or her performances we're seeing more and more from Hollywood in general, we're seeing more and more from Hollywood in general, and they're disturbing and oftentimes demonic, and I feel like that is a grander picture of the spiritual condition of our society. Yeah, exactly, and yeah, so exactly. I think the question that many people are posing in Christian communities is Taylor Swift a witch? But the same question or asked another way, I think could be is Hollywood influenced by the devil or has Hollywood turned demonic? I mean, there are many different ways we can ask this question.
Rebecca Twomey:Because let's talk about another example real quick Sam Smith. Not saying he's ever been any golden child as far as ethics go, necessarily, but when he first started on the scene with music, you know he was pretty dressed, pretty normally and singing kind of like her right, he was singing his love songs or whatever. I didn't really listen to Sam Smith, so I can't really speak too much to that. But now, if you want to fast forward years into his career, he's literally on stage dressed as the devil, yeah, and people in cages, and just the presentation that is being put out is extremely demonic and extremely dark, and that is what has happened to taylor swift, and that is why I think there is a call to concern, to be concerned and to really this is also parents to parents, right, and I have two daughters, one of which is old enough to be influenced by things. The other one's a baby.
Rebecca Twomey:But I have to ask myself these questions Would I let my daughter listen to Taylor Swift? You know, a person might say, well, I only let her listen to, like the early stuff, the stuff I listened to and that's great and everything. But I think it's important to just like we make choices when it comes to where we shop or who we support. That's a question we need to ask ourselves too. Is maybe it's PG to listen to a couple of the first albums, but then it's not PG anymore after a bit. Is that the road that we want to go down? What happens when your daughter then discovers that there's more of her music that she hasn't heard or been allowed to listen to or wants to, and now it's the stuff where she's talking about murdering people and using language and the darker stuff, because that's what happened over time is things got darker and darker. So before we get on too many tangents, I want to set the stage a little bit for even what I mean and what we mean when we talk about witch and using the word witch.
Rebecca Twomey:Okay, in the first episode to the series I talked about divination very briefly. But this idea of divination, the word term divination is the practice of seeking knowledge or insight about the future that is unknown, through the supernatural or symbolism. So it's associated with spirituality, you might say mystical, occult traditions etc. But it includes tarot reading, astrology, scrying, palmistry, runes, I Ching, numerology, treatment, interpretation, etc. This is a topic we want to get into further. We have some guests that are going to talk about some of this stuff as we get into it, so we're not going to spend the whole episode necessarily diving into this.
Rebecca Twomey:But witches fall under divination because they engage in what's called magical practices or considered magical practices. You will often hear, especially on I've noticed on TLC discovery plus type programs people that do tarot reading or mediums. They will say I'm a witch and people just literally self-subscribe themselves to that. You know, there's all this witchy culture. Now, being witchy is a thing yeah, absolutely.
Rebecca Twomey:And divination is specifically mentioned in the Bible and I think I might have written it down somewhere in here Many, many times that we are to avoid and turn from all divination. One of the chapters I was just reading in that Bible study last night I think it was in Isaiah specifically said the people had totally gone to divination. They were, you know, bowing to idols, creating idols and just in total disarray and sin. And we are called as believers to stay away from this stuff array and sin. And we are called as believers to stay away from this stuff. Right, because whether it's ancient times or whatever it is they do, what they're playing with the fire that they're playing with is actual demons. So if we're coming at this from the Christian worldview, which we are, you know, just assuming most people listening to our podcasts are Christian women and that's, you know, kind of our appeal here, like you said, this is our opinions and perspective as mothers and we are Christian women. In the Bible that God says don't suffer a witch is because what witches were and are meddling with is demons. Demons are giving them information. Demons are talking to them and he doesn't want us messing with that at all. It's playing with darkness.
Rebecca Twomey:Yes, I'll give a great resource for this Jen Niza. Her handle is xpsychicsaved. She was a psychic medium for a long time. She was saved by Jesus and now she exposes the truth about divination and witchcraft and tarot and astrology and all that stuff. She can speak to this much better than we can because she lived it. There's many, many other people Angela. What is her last name? I'll put it in the show notes Angela Marie. She's another one that got out of that world.
Rebecca Twomey:But they were literally communicating with demons. And so if you have in your life, ever experienced someone or even been involved yourself with, let's say, a psychic medium and they have known things about your family and saying like they were communicating with your dead family member or whatever, they were not, they were actually communicating with a demon that knows your family and that has been observing your family for a long time, for thousands of years, like demons are ancient, absolutely. And then that goes back to our conversation on. We could even point back to our series on spiritual warfare, which was all the way back in, like episode three, where we talk about the history of demons. In a sense, so might want to go back on that in a sense, so might want to go back on that. But yeah, divination is.
Rebecca Twomey:It's interesting because I think it's becoming more and more popular, popularized these days, and that's scary to me how much witchcraft focus so many TV shows, so many things that are on regular, you know, netflix or Hulu or Amazon Prime, discovery, plus all those. It's become so mainstream. And also in the appeal to children. And also in the appeal to children, like I've even seen toys in the children's aisles at like Target or Walmart that are an actual witch's Cauldron. Cauldron, yes, and they do. It's literally marketed, as do spells and create a little creature. And this is becoming so mainstream.
Rebecca Twomey:It's almost like people are desensitized that this was once looked down upon A hundred percent. The word that I was about to, that was on the tip of my tongue, was we are desensitized. I don't know if you realize this. You and I are recording right now on Halloween. I do realize that, yeah, we're recording on Halloween, because we don't celebrate Halloween, because it's demonic and no offense. If you're listening, just go listen to our series on Halloween, you'll understand more. We did episodes on this. Yeah, to our series on Halloween. You'll understand more. We did episodes on this.
Rebecca Twomey:But think about how desensitized the Christian community is to the word witch, to images of witches, and I guarantee, listen, ladies, we're calling you out a little bit, we're not trying to offend you, but if you dress up your little girl as a witch for Halloween today, sis, questions, we have questions and I think, more than anything, you have to ask the Lord why you are being called to dress your little girl up like a witch today. Because we are called to be set apart and we are called to not participate in the things of this world, and that includes witchcraft. Yes, and this stuff is real. It's not pretend. It's like Hollywood makes it seem fun and cute and cool and innocent, but this is real. It's not just like a fantasy unicorn creature.
Rebecca Twomey:Witches are real and there's self-professing witches who practice magic and call it white magic or black magic today. Yep, exactly, and when they say they're tapping into the light, y'all, the light is satan. Yeah, he was called lucifer, which literally means light bringer. Exactly, did you see that thing? Did I send you that thing about the catholic church? Yes, yeah, yeah, and their new character. That's lucy. Yeah, lucifer, I read it as loose, but, yeah, sure, loose Lucifer, whatever. Anyway, I don't want to get on a side tangent about the Lucifer character that's being promoted, but that's all right.
Rebecca Twomey:Something that I want to point out many celebrities have outright said in interviews or on video that they have sold their soul to the devil to get where they are, and many of them have said, point blank I'm a witch too. Yes, yes, they say these. I mean, we're talking about taylor swift. Today she says in some of her songs like, or in her tweets maybe, maybe it's just the tweets, I don't think I have this written down that she's accused of being a witch or called a witch, but there are reasons behind it, which are some of those reasons I do want to talk about. So I have a couple of those below. Let's talk about that for a minute here.
Rebecca Twomey:I don't know if there was anything else that we wanted to talk about with witchcraft, necessarily, but we'll talk about Taylor Swift. So I kind of laughed when I was making these notes, because enchanting, she has an enchanting influence over us. She's cast this spell on millions of people that really could be likened to the power of a witch enchanting an audience, right, but it's kind of funny because isn't that one album called Enchanted or something like that? Yeah, I mean, she has a song called that. It was enchanting to me. Yeah, that is kind of funny. Funny, I always love that song too, I know.
Rebecca Twomey:So, something that's interesting, and I'm actually I was ready to call us out on this, and I think I should, because I think that was the album. That was the album we listened to when I came to your apartment. Right, that's no, it was the one you You're talking about, the one that came out when I was in college. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was that one. It was. Let me look up real quick. I'm literally looking up Taylor Swift's albums. I got to go back. I'll remember it based on the cover, because I remember buying the CD. It was remember it based on the cover, because I remember buying the cd. It was 1989. Okay, that makes sense. That I think that makes sense. Yeah, it was 1989, which came out in 2014.
Rebecca Twomey:What I wanted to say about this wait, no, I would have graduated college by then. Oh, yeah, 2014, we're talking about red. Like I'm married in 2014, I feel like, yeah, yeah, we're talking about red, her album red, are you sure? No, I don't think it was red, are you sure? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was it this one that had Enchanted to meet you on it. I thought so too. Oh well, that is then Speak Now. That came out in 2010. I think it could have been that. Yeah, it's that one. It would have been that one. Yes, because I remember listening to this specific song. Okay, enchanted is on the album red. Right, we got it figured out. Yeah, mine, sparks fly back to december. Oh, you remember that song.
Rebecca Twomey:Yes, and so what I wanted to say about this and call us out, is that you and I were not necessarily walking with the lord at the time in which we were listening to this album. In fact, I would say we were walking the opposite, because I visited you at college and you and I went out and drank alcohol way too much of it and we're so sick that we the next day, laid in bed listening to this album together, sick, feeling bad about ourselves, and I felt like, when I was planning for this episode, that that was significant, because I don't know enough about this to be educated on this and I want to get other guests on here that are. You know way more about this than me, but music has the ability words have the ability to cast spells and to put us in certain places and at certain frequencies we could even say. And so when we listen to things that are depressing or dark actually, mike, my husband mentioned this and he was on an episode a while ago about a time in his life he was listening to really negative music and his life was that at that time. But I kind of feel like with Taylor, it was about heartbreak and all of these like negative, sad things and that was kind of we just we were absorbing that and taking it on and it had its own power over us during that time where, you know, we weren't listening to this on the way to church, getting pumped up to go talk about Jesus, right yeah, at least I wasn't, right yeah, what you're saying is and this is an undeniable fact music influences us, yes, and if we don't think that it does consciously, it is doing it subconsciously. It is repeating messages and there's a whole science, too, that you referenced frequencies that affect us on a physiological level and it affects us mentally and it affects our bodies, and it's so covert though it doesn't, and again, using the word desensitized, we're so desensitized and de-spiritualize everything and we just take everything for face value and everything is innocent and everything is fine, that we don't realize how these things actually are impacting us and our mental health and our physical health and the choices that we make.
Rebecca Twomey:And ironically, since I had this, I searched these albums. There's also a song on that album called Haunted. There you go, there's Enchanted, and there's I don't I. I remember I never really liked the song haunted, though, but you're right in that the more you feed something, the more truth it has. I mean, we've talked about this in the past, when we talk about birth, that we're fed all these negative messages about birth and then, by the time that we're 25 to 35, having our first baby we're scared to give birth because that's what we've been taught. And, honestly, music is really a form of hypnosis if you think about it. Yes, that is a great way to put it. It's a form of hypnosis. It really is. You're hypnotizing yourself with the same message over and over and over and over again. So I ask you, what are you feeding yourself with? And perhaps that is why many are very defensive of taylor swift because they have been hypnotized by the music. Yeah, just a thought.
Rebecca Twomey:But the other thing that you just mentioned here by, you know, the the song's called enchanted or haunted is there is a lot of fascination with mystical themes. In her albums she uses a lot of mystical and magical imagery. In her music video for willow she features she's featured as a cloaked figure in an enchanted forest, playing with light orbs and walking through magical realms, and it's a very mystical, witchy vibe. And this is the same thing that people saw in concert, where the people are like in cloaks, going in a circle, doing that whole witchy tribune thing, whatever you call it. I don yeah, yeah. Then the other part of this is there's symbolism within the lyrics and those kind of witchy elements to it. Like in I did something bad, she says oh, I did write this in my notes. Good, she writes down and she sings in the lyrics Anyway, they're burning all the witches, even if you aren't one. And really you know, it's kind of a subtle nod to her connection with these witchy themes because she's kind of playfully acknowledging this perception of her as being witchy or a witch.
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, I'm not sure if you've seen it, but her song or her music video for the song karma, which she did with the popular singer ice spice. I have never actually watched these through. I've well, I mean the new stuff, right? Yes, not intentionally, only for research purposes. Yeah, so I watched this music video more recently. I mean, this song I don't even think is that new. I think it came out a few years ago.
Rebecca Twomey:The music video, the themes are literally like a heaven versus literally her going to hell and wearing like a horned mask, a horned mask. And then it continues with the imagery, pulling from ancient Egyptian culture, of like riding in the, in the boat, like the river sticks and delivering souls to the afterlife. And you just the imagery combined with the lyrics of that song, talking about karma is a God, and it's just undeniably powerful, not creepy. I know I'm like at a loss for words of where I was. I was going with this Cause you were talking about these, the witchy symbolism, and this is very blatant anti-Christian is sure? Yes, we're just talking about this from the Christian perspective and that is something that I feel she has very much changed about herself over the years. She's changed her form and reinvented herself a bunch of times and I would say that people would even have considered her to be this good Christian girl when she first started. But that's not the presentation that she has anymore. Her blatant support of abortion and other issues, I think has kind of shown where she stands on things, and they're very much against the church and the Bible. But just talking on this theme of witchcraft right, and we talked about her changing forms that's kind of shapeshifty, isn't it a little creepy?
Rebecca Twomey:She's gone through multiple career reinventions. She went from being a country star to a pop star and now she's this indie folk storyteller who her most recent album? She sounds exactly like Lana Del Rey, like it sounds like she's trying to be Lana Del Rey in a lot of ways, which is strange, and it's like even through every transformation, she has cast a spell on every new audience the country one, the pop one, this indie folk, yeah, storyteller, and it's like just this blatant acceptance and it's very interesting and I just kind of feel that that that has a bit of witchiness to it. Um, speaking of her music videos, there is an obsessive attention to detail that the Swifties talk about, that she's known for leaving Easter egg clues in her music videos and her social media posts that people spend hours and hours decoding and that there's literal people whose entire YouTube accounts are for doing this. They're dedicated to finding these hidden, crafted messages and these secret trails and these, like she's this master of cryptic spells and it's kind of crazy to me a little bit. It's kind of crazy. It's kind of crazy. It's like its own, it's its own obsession and there's an idolization behind that that I just, I don't know, it doesn't sit right with me to of mystery and to decode something and and just leaving little breadcrumbs which, just as I said, had that sentence come out of my mouth. Isn't it a witch who leaves? But no, no, it's. Uh. Yeah, and hansel and gretel, it was the witch who left the breadcrumbs for the little kids. No, the kids leave the breadcrumbs to find their way back and the witch is the one who lures them away.
Rebecca Twomey:Okay, I got, I got witches on the mind, which is on the mind, okay, so I have a funny one here in my notes and you're gonna love this because you have cats. But oh, you're your cat, my cat theory here. Okay, so think about sabrina, the teenage witch, and the cat that's like the talking cat. Yeah, you know, there's a lot of symbolism between witches and cats. Oh yeah, and Taylor Swift is obsessed with cats. Obsessed with cats. She has three cats. Maybe she had other cats, I don't know, but apparently right now she has Meredith, olivia and Benjamin you looked up the cat's names and a witch having feline companions is like a thing, so it's just adding another layer. It's not helping her case.
Rebecca Twomey:There is that lore I mean, this goes back like thousands of years that actually, ironically, we've isn't cleopatra a witch and she had a cat. No, that cats are so associated, like symbolically, with witches that they used to believe, you know, several hundred years ago, that witches would transform into cats. So they especially black cats, so they didn't trust them, and that's one of the reasons. There's that, you know, kind of stigma and the irony that we've already mentioned that we're recording this on halloween. I, one of my cats is a inside, outside cat and I, every year that we've lived in a neighborhood, make a really big point. Like I mentioned it to my husband multiple times before I came on to record tonight Do not let our cat outside. I will not let him be outside on Halloween night, because still to this day and he rolls his eyes at me that I'm just being paranoid, being paranoid, but to this day, people capture and kill cats on Halloween Because for hundreds of years it started as this I don't know what you want to call it, but the story that witches would transform into cats.
Rebecca Twomey:And then you know there's, especially in the United States, like the witch hunts, that early you know, colonial people would go on and that there's the Salem witch trials then, and that they became obsessive of and afraid. That they became obsessive of and afraid especially of black cats, and that I don't know if you want to call it myth or rumor or whatever you want to call it has continued that people just do messed up things to cats, especially on Halloween, messed up things to cats, especially on halloween, and it's become even a common thing that they sacrifice because people are literally out there doing demonic things. Witchcraft and cats are one of the things that that are involved in it, whether it's positively or negatively. So did you get your cat in before this happened, or what? Oh, yeah, yeah, he was I. This afternoon I was like come on, come on, pickles, come inside. And now I won't let him go outside till tomorrow. Well, at least you know that he won't get possessed by a demon tonight. Well, I say because he's so friendly, like he would just go right up to someone who would just grab him. And you know, I don't know, although we still have not confirmed that he does not have other owners pickles could be george to someone else and jimmy to someone else.
Rebecca Twomey:Probably has like five families. Yeah, the other night we were on a walk and he likes to follow us when we go for walks and he always stops at one point. He won't go past a certain person's yard because it has barking dogs behind the fence and I create this whole headcanon that it's that dog's territory and he won't go into that dog's realm. So he just waits for us to, because we walk around a pond and a circle and he waits for us to come back and always when we're walking back up on the sidewalk he's rolling around in the grass while someone's petting him. And this woman was petting him and her daughter was walking in front of her, towards us, and she were like, oh, that's our cat. And she's like, oh, really, he's so friendly. My mom was trying to bring him home and I was like he's probably got multiple families. We're just his first family. Yeah, because he is mostly an outdoor cat.
Rebecca Twomey:We've talked about him before on the podcast, but he's a farm cat. They lived on a farm so he was like used to being outside and then when they moved into a closer neighborhood, he's still out and about and then comes back. Yeah, exactly, yeah. He at night is miserable, he wants to be outside all night. And this is why, chris yeah, because he's a witch and he needs the light of the moon. Oh, the cat's the witch. Now it's the light of the moon. I guess that is true. Maybe you're actually saving other people from him tonight, from him casting spells.
Rebecca Twomey:Now, cats are, they are very interesting animals, just in their lore. That's what's funny about you bringing this up, is, you know? I think it's just kind of a funny. This one's a funny one. Yeah, it's like a silly one, but the lore for cats and their symbolism is just. It goes back to ancient Egypt that cats have this spiritual connection. I listen, man, I think there's something deeper to it. You know that. I know weird theory, that I think that demons sometimes just house themselves in cats as a little storage unit for a while. Well, demons house themselves in anything, including people. So they could house themselves in cats yes, and they could house themselves in cats yes, and they could house themselves in rats yes, and in hats. Now we're going off the rails. Totally Well, that one was a fun one.
Rebecca Twomey:The last one that I have on my list here is that it's interesting to me the longevity of her career and that now I used to say this about a lot of artists, like you know, our parents listening to oldies or whatever rock, what is that called classic rock? Yeah. And then when you hear of someone going to like a classic rock concert, you're like, wow, they're still making music, right, like oh. And then people would be like, yeah, that's their job, they're a career musician, yeah. But the thing that's interesting to me about Taylor Swift is that she has not only remained a musician for 25 years. She has not only remained a musician for 25 years, but she has remained relevant. It's not like she made a bunch of albums and people are listening to. She's playing the old stuff, right, yeah. Yeah, she's making new music and she's getting more popular, yeah, more popular than ever. She's.
Rebecca Twomey:She was not this big when we know, like she was definitely big, but not this big when we listen to her, that longevity is crazy the different musical eras. It's like she's defying time in an almost magical way. Yeah, and that's it. That's all I've got on taylor swift, her association or affiliation with being a witch. I don't know if she's one or not, but the last thing that I want to mention, which isn't about her being a witch necessarily, is back to this idea of what we allow our girls to listen to. Here's the real reason like taylor swift, having cats, whatever, but the real reason I have cats and I'm not a witch exactly, wait, are you, um? The real?
Rebecca Twomey:The real reason why I think that we, as mothers, should question our daughters listening to Taylor Swift is the increase in language, the content of her work, the hatred that has grown, like it used to be all like you broke my heart and now it's like I'm going to murder you in your sleep, kind of stuff. And like this, sexually explicit too. It's sexually explicit now and in the torture poet society. There are 57 swear words compared to the 31 that she had back in 2022. In 2020, in her album evermore, there was 19. Oh, she has an album that was called folklore. That one only had 10 swear words, but her old records were way cleaner, and now you know it was like one simple bad word. You know D-A-M, but now fast forward and there are just crazy amounts of swear words. So just to talk about this real quick, she has the F word 42 times in her new stuff, the S word 25 times, hell 20 times, d-a-m, 19 times, g-d nine times, and then some other stuff I'm not going to mention.
Rebecca Twomey:But yeah, I feel like that alone is just a reason to be cautious about what your kids listen to, because do you want your kids saying these things or thinking these things are being exposed to explicit language and sexual talk and self-loathing and self-love, but hating everyone else? You know, that's kind of where I wanted to circle this around to which are not. And is she a witch? I don't know. But is her content or other artists, not necessarily just Taylor Swift? Is that content stuff that we want our kids to be listening to as Christian moms to? You know, right? I think it comes down to. Let me look up the verse real quick While you're looking that up, our mom had these conversations with us a lot when we were growing up that she'd be like very intent on what we were listening to musically and say things like that's devil music and I didn't understand it.
Rebecca Twomey:I thought she was being a little dramatic when I was a kid, but now I get it. I get it, yeah, so it's, I, I think, the way to think about if for our children, for our little girl, it's like is it edifying or like paul says in the philippians, edifying or like paul says in the philippians, whatever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are good. Report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise. Think on these things and so that's. That's what I would challenge listeners with young girls especially, is are the, the lyrics and the messages in her music or any other artist's, because a lot of them are like this nowadays Is that pure and wholesome and edifying to our children that we're trying to raise up in the word of God and encourage them to in their relationship and their walk with him? I think we could sum this up with Taylor Swift lyrics actually, is it going to be forever or are you going to go down in flames? You were just thinking about the whole time I said that what's going to be forever? Your relationship with God or your descent into the relationship with Taylor Swift, because, at the end of the day, that's the thing is.
Rebecca Twomey:People idolize these celebrities, and that word there is key. What does it mean to make an idol? Clear is key. What does it mean to make an idol? So? Should a believer be making an idol of any human, especially a super wealthy one, that will never know that we exist? Absolutely, yep. Questions to ponder on, friends, and we just encourage you pray on it. You know, I know that it's hard, especially to take something out, but it gets easier. You know, just. You know, really, just stop listening to it. Yeah, that's like, and the, the. If we want to go back to that language, the spell breaks. It's true, I used to.
Rebecca Twomey:I used to be obsessed with and this is a topic for a different day. I was obsessed with some Christian artists that I now believe are honestly in a pretty similar category, and I felt a conviction listening to my favorite song that I would listen to over and over again all the time, and this is one of the times that I really felt the Holy Spirit. I heard him speak to me and just cut me to my core, and conviction is the Lord asked me who are you worshiping, me or them? And in that moment I'm like I can never listen to this music again. And this was a quote, unquote Christian artist and I just delete, and my very favorite. Like I had quotes from their songs all over my walls and I deleted all of it off my phone and the spell has broken.
Rebecca Twomey:I don't feel like I need to listen to that music. I don't want to listen to that music like now I have time. The truth is, you don't have time to listen to that music because the only music that you have time for is danny go. Yeah, yeah, it's kids music, that's true. Maybe this makes this makes it easier is when you only listen to what your kids listen to, which my kids don't listen to. Taylor Swift, all my kids listen to is pie, pie, pumpkin, pumpkin pie. That sounds like a chant. None of us like pumpkin pie either. So it's not working. Maybe your kids will. I did think about that. I thought about how Thanksgiving is coming up and I'm like I wonder if Ben will want to try pumpkin pie because of this song. But yeah, anyway, we'll see.
Rebecca Twomey:Thanks for joining me and, on that note, yeah, thanks for joining me to talk about this fun topic and get burned at the stakes by taylor swifties. Yeah, please don't come. For us it's, um, just a theory, just a theory. And again, there's many other artists that we could uh, talk about and maybe we will if we ever have time or interest. Yeah, we'll offend other people. If there's any artists that you want us to offend you about, send us a message. You can send us a text, actually on Buzzsprout. But thank you, guys for tuning in, for being on this journey. If you would like to follow along outside the podcast, you can join the mission on Instagram, at the Radiant Facebook, at the radiant mission podcast, or on YouTube you can find us by searching for my name or Rebecca. To me, t W O M E Y. And today we're going to close with Matthew 633. Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. We're wishing you a radiant week and we'll see you next time. Bye everyone, bye guys.
