The real issue with Lil Nas X’s “Montero” song and music video isn’t its devil imagery or homosexual nature, it is misrepresentation of God.
You might know Lil Nas X from his hit song “Old Town Road” which spent a record breaking 17 weeks as the number one song on the Billboard Hot 100. Lil Nas has continued releasing music, such as “Panini” and “HOLIDAY” since his 2019 success.
Most recently, Lil Nas released his new song “MONTERO” along with a music video on March 26th. There has been a ton of backlash after the release of this song, especially from conservative Christians.
So why does this particular song and music video have Christians up in arms? There are constantly hugely popular songs that go against the way God has called usd to live, so what is the big deal about this one?
Well, the premise of the video is Lil Nas reinterpreting classic Biblical stories. He starts out portraying Eve being tempted by the devil in the Garden, next he is chained up in the Colosseum being screamed at and having things thrown at him. Some believe this is supposed to be a reinterpretation of a Christian martyr and others think that he is supposed to be Jesus before His crucifixion.
Lil Nas then begins to ascends to heaven until he decides to go down to hell, on a stripper pole at that. You may already be shocked by the content of the video, but wait, there’s more.
Lil Nas finds the devil, begins to give him a lap dance and then kills him and becomes the devil himself.
Safe to say it’s a lot.
Conservative Christians were not happy with the video and immediately started calling out Lil Nas and the disturbing imagery in the music video. Next thing you know critics from both sides are attacking the other.
Christians cited this as another example of the corrupt and evil nature of the world we live in. While supporters of the video claimed Christians were proving their need to use fear based control through using their morals or beliefs.
There are definitely many issues with this video from a Christian perspective. It is easy as Christians to see something like this and immediately become upset because we feel that it is outright wrong and against our morals.
But I believe that we first need to look at the Bible and see what God Himself says about these things. If we become angry off just our human feelings alone and act out of anger because of that, we do not have righteous anger.
Think about the story in Matthew 21 where Jesus goes into the temple, becomes angry and throws everyone out. We know Jesus lived a perfect life and therefore his anger is rooted in righteousness. He is not angry at the people in the temple because they made him personally mad, but because they were doing things that go against God.
This is how we must first go into forming an opinion about Lil Nas and his artistic choices.
We cannot approach this with our western, modern day Christian morals, but with the words from God Himself in the Bible.
First off, we know that God says in the Bible that homosexuality is wrong. Therefore we can know that it is a sin before God.
But, I do not think that Lil Nas singing about or acting out his sexuality is the real issue with this song and video.
What is clear to me after watching the video and looking at Lil Nas’ social media pages is his deep misunderstanding of who God is, which just further shows how deeply society misunderstands Him.
For Lil Nas and much of society, Christianity is Christians. They are not interested in God or his word because of the Christians they themselves know. This is why I believe Christianity gets so much hate.
Society understands that Christians have high morals and that Christians try their best to be “perfect,” so when Christians inevitably fail and hurt other people they associate that with what Christianity truly is. To them it is just a bunch of people who are happy to tell you all the ways you don’t measure up while they are constantly slipping up as well.
Anyone who has followed Lil Nas career at all since 2019 can see how skillful he is at social media and understanding “meme culture.” Many of Lil Nas recent social media posts show what his view is of those who are upset by his video.
These posts by Lil Nas X show him poking fun at those who are upset with him. In no way that I have been able to see, has he at all shown any empathy to those who are upset by “Montero.” His only understanding of those upset is that they are wholeheartedly wrong and judgmental and should just ignore what he is doing.
Lil Nas also posted a video to TikTok that just further proves my point of his misunderstanding of what the Bible actually says.
As human beings, we are all overwhelmingly sinful and all deserve to go to Hell, but by the grace of God, He sent his son Jesus Christ to die for us so that we would not get the condemnation we deserve.
Former Disney Channel Star, China Anne Mclain, posted a TikTok in response to Lil Nas X’s in defense of God himself and what we as Christians are truly called to believe.
Lil Nas is also hugely popular on social media, besides his popularity as a musician, so he has many people listening to every word he says – or types. I can speak as a young person on social media that when everyone is roasting Christianity and talking about how hateful and judgmental Christians are it can be hard to not consider if there is some truth to these claims; even as a Christian who knows God’s true nature.
At the end of the day I do not agree with Lil Nas X’s song or video choices and I think that they disrespect God in many ways, but I do not think this gives me the right to judge him in any way.
China Anne Mclain posted this TikTok following the previous one which touches on this issue for Christians, and non-Christians.
John 8:7, ESV: “And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone”
I understand the idea of releasing something wildly controversial because it will get people talking. I get that Lil Nas was trying to create more conversations about being a black, gay man in America and in a way I think he was effective in opening up conversations.
Circumstances like this one further remind me how hard it can be as a Christian to feel like you are going against the way the world we know works. Seeds of doubt can begin to be planted when the way the Bible tells you to live does not line up with the way society is structured. But, the Bible tells us that the nature of Christianity is that it is in constant conflict with the ways of the world.
Romans 12:2, ESV: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
God calls us to be in the world but not of the world. It is our job to spread the good news and do our best to be good reflections of who Jesus really is. But ultimately things like this can just remind us how imperfect this world we live in really is and encourage us that a better world is coming.
Do you agree with my thoughts about Lil Nas X’s song and video?
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