Kristi Noem gets in Twitter beef with Lil Nas X over shoes, souls

[Torrain]

Ugh.

I appreciate that Nas feels victimised by Christian conservatives. That's something we in the Church have a lot to answer for.

But his approach is just going to make things far f**king worse for some queer kids. I grew up in evangelical circles, and as someone who's both Christian and grappling with their own sexuality, this is going to be real bad. It's hard enough to have conversations about sexuality in most Christian circles, without people like Nas becoming viral examples of queer millennials.

He'll make a s**t ton of cash off of these stupid shoes, while a non-zero number of kids will be forced listen to their parents return to ranting about how gay people are 'dark, and with the Enemy.' Thanks a lot Nas.

I'd far rather follow the example of a Vicky Beeching for instance, a Christian artist who came out (at the expense of her recording career), and now advocates for LGBT members of the Church. Nas is out to troll the church, and will thus be entirely ignored, and literally demonised by them. Beeching gave many of my family pause, and almost certainly made things easier when one of my siblings came out a few years ago.

One of my other concerns about all this is that it may lead outlets like Fox News and Talk Radio to dig back into 'satanic panic' mode. Which could reinvigorate conspiracy cults like Qanon, that rely on imagined demon worship for their claims that our world is controlled by an 'evil cabal'.

You seem to be blaming him as a gay artist in expressing his disdain for what religion has done to him for religious people's disproportionate, conspiratorial and wicked response to LGBT people in return.

I wouldn't put it that way.

Nas appears to be trying to reappropriate the idea of LGBT people being sent to hell, using a degree of camp. But if you use imagery that could fit right into a Chick tract, you're just handing the worst people pre-packaged anti-LGBT propaganda.

If Nas had invoked Mohammed instead, twerking on him and selling a shoe with his face on it, I'd feel similarly uncomfortable, (and concerned about the impact on LGBT Muslim youth). It's purposeful trolling, and while I understand the point he's making, I just feel like it's not a productive way to make it.

I appreciate that I'm coming from a pro-Christian, very anti-confrontational place, which is necessarily going to produce some weird opinions, and that my post veered into 'think of the children' territory. I'm new to a lot of this. I just think that this is a highly unhelpful way to make a point about evangelical intolerance.

(In truth, if it wasn't for the shoes, I think it would be a non-story. His music video would be little more controversial than Lady Gaga seducing Jesus in her 'Judas' video, and have already dropped out of the conversation. It's the whole 666 and human blood stuff that turned this from 'edgy' to 'red meat for evangelicals', and dragged both the product and video into the news).

[Holy Unifying Centrist]

https://twitter.com/LilNasX/status/1376322235972022272?s=19

This is actually pretty funny

[Mopsus]

If Nas had invoked Mohammed instead, twerking on him and selling a shoe with his face on it, I'd feel similarly uncomfortable, (and concerned about the impact on LGBT Muslim youth).

If he had done that, we would be most concerned about the impact it would have on Lil Nas X.

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

I can’t tell what’s sadder; people in this thread thinking 'Hell' and 'Satan' are actually real things that people should be concerned about, or BRTD - a 37 year old man - being eager to join a Christian mosh pit.

Yes, I believe that Hell and Satan are real and frightens me very much. I’d never associate with anyone who purchased these shoes.

There are other reasons why I cannot bring myself to be religious, but this sort of rhetoric is probably the primary one. The idea that wearing a pair of shoes can outweigh any substantive good that someone has done in their life and singlehandedly make them deserving of eternal damnation is... beyond my understanding, I'll just say that. Even if I'm not spiritual, I can see the appeal of a belief system where the good are rewarded and the bad are damned, but then to ascribe such weight to something as petty as wearing some shoes, instead of believing that someone's true character is what's most important, completely ruins it for me.

Imagine Jack is a employee at Walmart. He’s shows up early and stays late. Comes in on his day offs. Always does his job right. Helps customers. Friendly to everyone. Management loves him. Overall awesome employee.

Comes in one day with shoes that say “ Walmart”.

He gets fired. Would anyone defend him?

Wearing these shoes are insult to God

Comparing eternal damnation to being fired from Walmart is too big of a stretch even for me, someone who doesn't even believe in eternal damnation.

Also, your scenario makes absolutely no sense. Why the hell is he getting fired for wearing shoes that say the name of the company he works for?

I wrote he wore shoes that said “f*** Walmart”.

Okay, you're still comparing a company's profit motive and their defensiveness over their brand name to God's decisionmaking regarding eternal damnation.

Although I'm not religious, you could convince me that there is a god. But if I really wanted to defend the virtues of said god, I would not make him seem so petty and vindictive. I like to think that if I was a god, I wouldn't doom a person to eternal damnation just because they wore some shoes that I didn't like if they were otherwise a good person.

The lord is very virtuous, more than any human could imagine. I don’t need to defend that. I believe there is one god. And I believe God will punish those who wear such disrespectful and blatant imagery. I am defending Kristi’s right to criticize Lil Nas X and adding my own criticism  

Bless your homophobic heart

[Devout Centrist]

Everyone ignoring the fact that Little Nas X murders Satan in the video.

[politics_king]

Ah yes, let's get into a beef with a musician over fairy tale fire man themed customized shoes. Noem is a clown.

[GALeftist]

Also, why oh why are Christian people still being centered even in this video of a black queer person reckoning with the lasting trauma the church left him with? I was in an uncommonly good church growing up, in my opinion, but if you look at it without rose colored glasses it is undeniable that queer people who grow up in organized religion often struggle with feelings of self-hatred because established religious doctrine is that their very identity is sinful. I would imagine and have heard that this harm is only compounded for people of color (of whom Lil Nas X is one) because of the often central role organized religion has in their communities. Now one of those people decides to make art concerning those feelings and all anyone can think about are the poor Christians who might be offended? Let's remove the plank in our own eye and ensure that kids aren't being brought up in deeply harmful environments before concerning ourselves with the hurt feelings of those who perpetuate such environments to begin with.

[afleitch]

Ugh.

I appreciate that Nas feels victimised by Christian conservatives. That's something we in the Church have a lot to answer for.

But his approach is just going to make things far f**king worse for some queer kids. I grew up in evangelical circles, and as someone who's both Christian and grappling with their own sexuality, this is going to be real bad. It's hard enough to have conversations about sexuality in most Christian circles, without people like Nas becoming viral examples of queer millennials.

He'll make a s**t ton of cash off of these stupid shoes, while a non-zero number of kids will be forced listen to their parents return to ranting about how gay people are 'dark, and with the Enemy.' Thanks a lot Nas.

I'd far rather follow the example of a Vicky Beeching for instance, a Christian artist who came out (at the expense of her recording career), and now advocates for LGBT members of the Church. Nas is out to troll the church, and will thus be entirely ignored, and literally demonised by them. Beeching gave many of my family pause, and almost certainly made things easier when one of my siblings came out a few years ago.

One of my other concerns about all this is that it may lead outlets like Fox News and Talk Radio to dig back into 'satanic panic' mode. Which could reinvigorate conspiracy cults like Qanon, that rely on imagined demon worship for their claims that our world is controlled by an 'evil cabal'.

You seem to be blaming him as a gay artist in expressing his disdain for what religion has done to him for religious people's disproportionate, conspiratorial and wicked response to LGBT people in return.

I wouldn't put it that way.

Nas appears to be trying to reappropriate the idea of LGBT people being sent to hell, using a degree of camp. But if you use imagery that could fit right into a Chick tract, you're just handing the worst people pre-packaged anti-LGBT propaganda.

If Nas had invoked Mohammed instead, twerking on him and selling a shoe with his face on it, I'd feel similarly uncomfortable, (and concerned about the impact on LGBT Muslim youth). It's purposeful trolling, and while I understand the point he's making, I just feel like it's not a productive way to make it.

I appreciate that I'm coming from a pro-Christian, very anti-confrontational place, which is necessarily going to produce some weird opinions, and that my post veered into 'think of the children' territory. I'm new to a lot of this. I just think that this is a highly unhelpful way to make a point about evangelical intolerance.

(In truth, if it wasn't for the shoes, I think it would be a non-story. His music video would be little more controversial than Lady Gaga seducing Jesus in her 'Judas' video, and have already dropped out of the conversation. It's the whole 666 and human blood stuff that turned this from 'edgy' to 'red meat for evangelicals', and dragged both the product and video into the news).

My problem is that in this whole furore there has been yet again the centring of Christians and how they 'feel' rather than on the real pain he experienced.

This happens a lot, with marriage, equality law. It's always centred around 'how does it affect religious people/belief'; the conversation is always appropriated. Sadly nothing Lil Nas says, does or creates is going to change people's opinion of him as a gay artist if they don't like the fact he's gay.

[afleitch]

Also, why oh why are Christian people still being centered even in this video of a black queer person reckoning with the lasting trauma the church left him with? I was in an uncommonly good church growing up, in my opinion, but if you look at it without rose colored glasses it is undeniable that queer people who grow up in organized religion often struggle with feelings of self-hatred because established religious doctrine is that their very identity is sinful. I would imagine and have heard that this harm is only compounded for people of color (of whom Lil Nas X is one) because of the often central role organized religion has in their communities. Now one of those people decides to make art concerning those feelings and all anyone can think about are the poor Christians who might be offended? Let's remove the plank in our own eye and ensure that kids aren't being brought up in deeply harmful environments before concerning ourselves with the hurt feelings of those who perpetuate such environments to begin with.

Snap!

[Joe Republic]

Everyone ignoring the fact that Little Nas X murders Satan in the video.

The correlation between people’s anger towards something and the probability they haven’t actually seen it is perfectly direct.

[KaiserDave]

Where is Lil NasBol? Very disappointed to see no content from him lately

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

Everyone ignoring the fact that Little Nas X murders Satan in the video.

Gays, much like praying mantises, kill their partner after sex. I know I am a gays

[Skunk]

Whenever I find John Dule's brand of Internet atheism annoying, the Christians on here are quick to remind me that they're way more embarrassing. It's a music video and a pair of shoes, get a grip people.

[Mopsus]

After watching the video I’ve decided that it’s actually about the excesses of the gay lifestyle. Based.

[afleitch]

Everyone ignoring the fact that Little Nas X murders Satan in the video.

Gays, much like praying mantises, kill their partner after sex. I know I am a gays

We might murder an ass or a dick, but it's a mercy killing

[Ashley Biden's Diary]

Does this "Satanic Panic" nonsense exist in other western countries or are American Evangelicals just a special brand of stupid?

[GP270watch]

Does this "Satanic Panic" nonsense exist in other western countries or are American Evangelicals just a special brand of stupid?

“Three quarters of the American population literally believe in religious miracles. The numbers who believe in the devil, in resurrection, in God doing this and that - it's astonishing. These numbers aren't duplicated anywhere else in the industrial world. You'd have to maybe go to mosques in Iran or do a poll among old ladies in Sicily to get numbers like this. Yet this is the American population.”

-- Noam Chomsky

[Dr. MB]

People in this thread are literally defending "Satan shoes"?  Sure, it's within his First Amendment rights to promote these, but Christians must push back when it means the difference of where someone will spend eternity.

30 Anyone who is not with Me is against Me, and anyone who does not gather with Me scatters. 31 Because of this, I tell you, people will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy, but the blasphemy against[a] the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the one to come.

This verse is pretty often misinterpreted.

https://www.gotquestions.org/blasphemy-Holy-Spirit.html

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has to do with accusing Jesus Christ of being demon-possessed instead of Spirit-filled. This particular type of blasphemy cannot be duplicated today. The Pharisees were in a unique moment in history: they had the Law and the Prophets, they had the Holy Spirit stirring their hearts, they had the Son of God Himself standing right in front of them, and they saw with their own eyes the miracles He did. Never before in the history of the world (and never since) had so much divine light been granted to men; if anyone should have recognized Jesus for who He was, it was the Pharisees. Yet they chose defiance. They purposely attributed the work of the Spirit to the devil, even though they knew the truth and had the proof. Jesus declared their willful blindness to be unpardonable. Their blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was their final rejection of God’s grace. They had set their course, and God was going to let them sail into perdition unhindered.

[Nightcore Nationalist]

I never bought the hype behind Noem among those who viewed her as a 2024 frontrunner.  If she folds like a cheap suit against her corporate masters (NCAA), how can she run a winning campaign?  This is just meaningless culture war posturing.

Where is Lil NasBol? Very disappointed to see no content from him lately

LMFAO!!

[afleitch]

https://mobile.twitter.com/The_Law_Boy/status/1376333865099345920

[If my soul was made of stone]

https://mobile.twitter.com/The_Law_Boy/status/1376333865099345920

[Born to Slay. Forced to Work.]

https://mobile.twitter.com/The_Law_Boy/status/1376333865099345920

Let’s not go to the far southern Appalachians, tis a silly place

[politics_king]

Lil Nas X

He’s going to burn in Hell and I’m not ashamed to say it.

If that's true, then God is an idiot. Guess I'm headed that way myself. Cheers!

Don’t you dare say that

Watch me.

Burn in Hell, see if I care

Can't burn in a place that doesn't exist.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

There are many many MANY LGBT people who love God and would be appalled by Lil Nas X's antics here. He DOES NOT speak for all LGBT people. I know many who given a choice between Jesus Christ and Lil Nas X would choose Jesus time and time again in a nanosecond.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Lil Nas X wants us to trade faith in Jesus Christ and $1,018 for a pair of shoes.

Nope, not a deal that's worth it at all! I'm not taking that trade.

I wouldn't take it even if it was just $1,018 for that matter either.