The album “Preacher’s Kid” by Grace Baldridge (aka Semler), an “openly queer Christian artist,” was No. 1 on Apple’s iTunes’ Christian chart recently and currently is No. 6. The album features “explicit lyrics” and taunts about anti-homosexual “judgmentalism.” The opening track, “Bethlehem,” says, “I’m a child of God, just in case you forgot, and you cast me out every single chance that you got, and that’s your loss, not mine. I’ll be better than fine.” Baldridge said the album is “a project about coming out as a queer person of faith. I want to grab the No. 1 spot on the iTunes Christian music chart and claim it for anyone who has been cast out in the name of God” (“LGBTQ singer-songwriter,” Religion News Service, Feb. 10, 2021). In an interview with RNS, she said, “My dad is an Episcopal priest. I would describe myself as a faithfully skeptical Christian. I definitely struggle with a lot of doubt. I’m the person that stands up at Communion, going down the aisle, and in my head I’ll be like, ‘This is a cult, right? This is a little weird.’ Whether or not you’ve been burned by purity culture or toxic masculinity that’s been enforced and by rigid church teachings, or whether you’re a member of the LGBTQ-plus community and told you are not valuable and you do not deserve the same dignity as other people, we are speaking up for ourselves. I think in some ways, through this project, we’re able to do so by holding up a little bit of a mirror to Christian media, like, we’re here. You can’t ignore us anymore. We’re No. 1 right now.”
(Friday Church News Notes, February 19, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)