Lil Nas X has reached the top. His song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” won the MTV Video of the Year Award.
Your teens shouldn’t watch this video. If they already have, they may wish they had not. The imagery is disturbing and powerful. The lyrics that will play over and over in their mind are contrary to everything they have been taught as Christians.
But the video is being widely viewed and embraced by teens. According to Walt Mueller, President of the Center for Parent Youth Understanding (CPYU), it has been watched on YouTube alone at least 300 million times and, in Mueller’s words, “it is nurturing young viewers into celebrating living one’s life outside of God’s good and grand design.”
As parents, youth workers, and Christian teachers, says Mueller, you must be familiar with the message of this video and you must be prepared to enter into conversation with your teens about it.
Mueller has produced a review of “Montero” that challenges viewers (or potential viewers) to:
- Discover what is the message / world view
- Discern how does it stand in light of the biblical message / world view
- Decide what do I do with it?
Mueller’s review is specific enough to show how contrary the message of “Montero” is to wholesome Christian teaching — and how disturbing — so that you can get a picture of Lil Nas X’s message without having to warch the video. So even the information contained in Mueller’s review is disturbing. The following summary includes quotes from both Mueller and Lil Nas X, leaving out some of the more graphic details.
Discovering the message
“Lil Nas X’s message,” writes Mueller, “visually and lyrically unfolds as an autobiographical metaphor of hope and freedom realized in ‘coming out’ for those who, like Lil Nas X, feel locked in the closet due to what are seen as outmoded Christian standards for sexuality. He has said that the song is an expression of his rebellion against his Christian upbringing . . . and celebration of the freedom from shame he has experienced through boldly embracing his homosexuality. ”
In a note to his younger, 14-year-old self he writes, ‘this [coming out] will open doors for many other queer people to simply exist.”
Then comes “a lusty homoerotic lyrical thread where he expresses his desire for all types of sexual experiences, along with drug and alcohol use. He sings, ‘I’m not fazed / I’m only here to sin.’
“The scene shifts to the Colosseum where the fallen ‘now out’ Lil Nas X is bound in chains and subjected to trial by past versions of himself and a huge crowd, which eventually casts stones.”
“Now dead, Lil Nas X is depicted ascending into the clouds toward an angelic figure. But as he is rising . . .” he joyfully changes direction and descends to hell via a stripper pole.
“The video concludes with Lil Nas X turning the tables and seducing Satan. . . ,” kills him, “removes Satan’s horns [a symbol of power] and victoriously places them on his own head.”
To be continued
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