Bad Religion: Lil Nas X Weaponizes Christianity

Lil Nas X uses religion against those who have used religion against him… and he has an army of young people to back him up.

Written by Arundhati Ghosh

Photo courtesy of Columbia Records

Montero Lamar Hill, far better known as Lil Nas X, has a presence in the music industry that is of some note. He is the name behind many, many firsts for out gay Black men in music, from being the first one to win a Country Music Award to being the first person of color and first openly gay person to grace Forbes’ Highest-Paid Country Acts list. Apart from the barriers he constantly breaks, Lil Nas X is also notorious for his online presence — not only is he known for the way in which he trolls those who dislike him or his music via Twitter, he was also a known tweetdecker on the app prior to fame. Lil Nas X even used social media previously to heavily boost his work (look no further than the smash hit “Old Town Road,” which made headway on charts due to its popularity on TikTok and as a viral meme), but the disruption his recent song “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)” made has caused even more controversy than its predecessors. This time, Lil Nas X’s status as a rapper that has managed to remain ‘one of the boys’ despite traces of homophobia within his fanbase. 

In a proverbial sense, Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO” can be considered some sort of “shot heard ‘round the world.” Fans waited on its release for months, and snippets of it took off so easily among the youth that it quickly became a trending TikTok sound. Once the actual song dropped, it quickly reached  No. 1 on the Billboard charts and soon enough went platinum. Just as it skyrocketed to chart domination, it also took its rightful place on the Twitter trending page — though for reasons entirely separate from the song itself. “MONTERO'' has started a very important conversation on social media about the relationship between organized religion and homophobia/bigotry. Groups of people that would otherwise not interact — lawmakers and teenagers, soccer moms and gaming youtubers, etc. — are all taking sides to defend or damn “MONTERO.”

In understanding the relationship between the social media response to “MONTERO” and “MONTERO” itself, we can comprehend Lil Nas X’s intentions behind how he’s handled both the appreciation and the backlash he’s gotten. 

The already famous — or infamous, depending on who you are — chorus begins with a criticism of the object of Lil Nas X’s affections’ before delving into an overtly Biblical allegory: “Cocaine and drinkin' with your friends / You live in the dark, boy, I cannot pretend / I'm not phased, only here to sin / If Eve ain't in your garden, you know that you can / Call me when you want, call me when you need.” Lil Nas X is sure to point out that the object of his affections is committing numerous acts of sin, such as taking drugs, drinking alcohol, and cheating on his significant other. The only act he implicitly calls a sin, however, is engaging in sex acts with someone of the same sex. He also refers to Eve, Adam’s Biblical female counterpart, in a line that was evidently meant to anger those who abide by fundamentalist views; a popular argument against homosexuality is the idea that the Bible only spoke of the original relationship as one between a man and a woman, or Adam and Eve. By taking Eve out of the equation, Lil Nas X outright dismisses this argument due to his own experiences with love. 

At a later point in the song, Lil Nas X sings the following: “A sign of the times every time that I speak / A dime and a nine, it was mine every week / What a time, an incline, God was shinin' on me.” He is aware of the power of his position and the speed with which he has garnered success, essentially pointing out that he’s considered representative of his generation among the members of the music industry. “A dime and a nine” speaks of his success with “Old Town Road,” which charted at No. 1 for 19 weeks straight — a dime being 10 weeks, adding nine to it to make 19 — and he follows this point up by mentioning that God seems to be looking upon him favorably. There is no ‘despite’: God does not shine on him despite the fact that he is gay. His sexuality and his success are not mutually exclusive. 

The music video is the true reason behind most of the social media discontent over the song: The brightly colored visuals leave virtually nothing to the imagination, explicitly expressing anything that is implicitly alluded to in the lyrics. From kissing the snake that tempted Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden to being judged, condemned to hell, and giving Satan a lap dance following a pole dance, Lil Nas X’s message is obvious: He is here, he is queer, and he isn’t going anywhere, regardless of Christianity’s general views on his very existence. 

This has made many, many people mad. 

A major contributor to Lil Nas X’s success — the dissemination of his music via social media on a scale larger than most artists as well as his own social media prowess — is also a major contributor to the reception of “MONTERO” by two polarized sides of the American population. Even as Lil Nas X discussed his own religious trauma, there were preachers across the country lampooning him for his music video. On the flip side, numerous others took to Twitter and TikTok in support of the musician; there are a lot of anecdotes and personal testaments from people in the LGBTQ community who feel that they can heavily relate to the themes found in “MONTERO.” 

In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, contributor Richard Morgan, after mentioning that it took him years to come out and that he’s still “working on coming out as queer,” states, “Lil Nas X presumes the same freedoms in his homosexuality that heterosexual artists already enjoy in music videos suffused with naked bodies and allusions to, and pantomimes of, sex.” Morgan points out that Lil Nas X is essentially taking control of a narrative that many believe he doesn’t deserve control of. This not only affects those who came before the musician, but also those that came after. One user tweeted the following: "Lil Nas X being unapologetically BLACK & GAY, giving queer kids someone to look up to AND pissing of homophobes in the process >>>>>>>." Numerous tweet replies are in agreement with the original: by refusing to hide any aspects of himself, Lil Nas X has led by example in demonstrating the fact that every part of him is worth showing to the world despite what some may say. 

The rapper himself acknowledged the fact that he is opening doors for other young members of the LGBTQ community in a letter he wrote to a younger version of himself, mentioning that he “promised to die with the secret, but [“MONTERO”] will open doors for many other queer people to simply exist.” All in all, just as he’d foreseen in his letter, Lil Nas X has successfully resonated with a marginalized group of people, and given them enough voice to respond to their oppressors under the guise of religion.