Lil Nas X is brilliant at skewering the twisted zeitgeist of America’s religiosity. “J Christ,” his new music video, is no exception. Dressed as a femme Jesus wearing high-heeled boots and a flowing mane and waving at a moonwalking Michael Jackson, Lil Nas X takes the viewer through a vignette of biblical scenes that only he could imagine. Conservative Christians were quick to condemn it.
The “J Christ” video is a trolling tour de farce, combining celebrity culture, drag, biblical stories and the return of Jesus Christ.
The “J Christ” video is a trolling tour de farce, combining celebrity culture, drag, biblical stories and the return of Jesus Christ. Building off his previous video “Call Me By Your Name,” in which he descends into hell and gives the devil a lap dance, this time Lil Nas X has ascended into heaven. Except the heaven depicted in his video is filled exclusively with celebrities, a biting commentary about America’s cultural moment. The video features lookalikes for Ye, former President Barack Obama, Oprah and Dolly Parton among others mashed up with scenes from the lives of Noah, Moses and Jesus.
There’s also a well-built devil playing basketball.
In this video, we see the evolution of an artist challenging the limits of what is called art by some and blasphemy by others. In his book, “Blasphemy, Art That Offends,” S. Brent Plate declares that “No work of art is blasphemous in and of itself, it must be deemed so from within religious and/or political power structures.”
In the current religious and political power structures of an increasingly homophobic and transphobic American Christianity, Lil Nas X’s new video is garnering criticism by those who are offended by his take on biblical stories such as Noah’s flood, Jesus’ descent into hell, and his use of scripture, particularly 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: The old has passed away: Behold the new has come.”
Give Lil Nas X credit. He…
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