When people talk about young people worshipping or idolizing their pop icons, it's usually meant figuratively. But Harvard Memorial Church took the concept a bit further last month by inviting students to consider Taylor Swift lyrics as "sacred."
Indeed, Swift's lyrics have used a lot of Christian words and images of late – or more accurately, misused them:
Taylor Swift: "What if I roll the stone away? They're gonna crucify me anyway. What if the way you hold me is actually what's holy?" (Lyrics from her song "Guilty as Sin?")
Event planners used the ancient Christian monastic reading practice known as Lectio Divina, in which a "passage" is read four times, the better to meditate on them. "But the insights you gain from this practice will not necessarily be connected to the Christian tradition or 'religious' in nature," the planners warn.
Biblical apologist Dr. Alex McFarland notes that Harvard started as a seminary dedicated to revering the Word of God. He offers this rebuke to the well-known Ivy League school.
"On a spiritual level this is blasphemous and such a slap in the face of Harvard's once solidly Christian history," he tells AFN. "It's very unfortunate that in the chapel at Harvard University, the chapel would be desecrated, taking Taylor Swift song lyrics and reading them as if they are holy scripture."
Organizers invited students to "engage with the Taylor Swift canon that honors the important emotional and spiritual role her work plays in many peoples' lives." McFarland's reaction?
"If 'having a deep personal meaning' makes something wholly writ, then I guess the recipe for Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts, for me, just became scripture."
Harvard Memorial Church has also hosted a "Queer-Affirming and Feminist Bible Study" several times this semester.
