The #1 Christian album in the country right now belongs to drag queen Flamy Grant
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The #1 Christian album in the country right now belongs to drag queen Flamy Grant
The success of "Bible Belt Baby" comes in response to an insult from Christian Nationalist Sean Feucht
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The bestselling Christian album in the country right now, according to the iTunes charts, is Bible Belt Baby by drag queen Flamy Grant (an incredible stage name), and it’s all thanks to a prominent Christian Nationalist.
On Wednesday, MAGA cultist Sean Feucht took to X (or Twitter or whatever the hell it’s called today) to denounce a collaboration between Flamy Grant and singer Derek Webb, who used to perform with the Christian band Caedmon’s Call.
“These are truly the last days,” wrote the COVID superspreader.
Both Grant and Webb chimed in, as did Christians who felt the collaboration was worth celebrating. As one person put it, “I love seeing Christ’s love reflected through the queer community.” Another wrote that “standing with the marginalized will do much, much more to reveal the light and love of Jesus than the hand-wringing and pearl-clutching of a bunch of religious gatekeepers.”
Some of that was in reference to a music video Webb recently released in which Grant helps him transform into a drag queen. The opening of the video urges people to be better allies to marginalized communities.
Webb, in turn, was also featured on the song “Good Day” on Grant’s new album:
All of this must have infuriated Feucht, who has a habit of implying that anyone to his left isn’t a True Christian™. It didn’t help that another Christian musician—Tiffany Arbuckle, who sang for the Christian band Plumb—praised the duo during a party in Nashville marking the release of Webb’s latest album.
Feucht can’t handle Christians showing compassion to drag queens, especially since MAGA Republicans have been using them as scapegoats for all kinds of problems. Speaking in Christianese, with an asshole accent, Feucht told Grant “hardly anyone listens or cares what you do.”
Grant later posted a video explaining what Feucht said, and asked fans to fight back: “Good Day deserves a spot on the #christianmusic charts, dontcha think?”
Looks like enough of Grant’s fans agreed.
The new record is now the most popular Christian album in the country while the single “Good Day” was also the top-selling single on the Christian charts for a short time this week. That makes Grant the first (and, so far, only) drag queen to top those lists.
… 24 hours ago, conservative worship leader Sean Feucht came for @derekwebb and me and said “good thing no one is interested or listens to you.” And so I took a risk and asked y’all to help me get a 10-month old worship song by a drag queen onto the Christian iTunes Charts.
I told my housemate @girlofcardigan last night before we went to bed: “I hope this doesn’t flop. That would be pretty embarrassing.”
Y’all. We did not flop. You fucking activated. As of this moment, Good Day is the number one song. *AND* Bible Belt Baby is the number one album.
Did I mention that it’s 10 months old??? 🤯 Not only am I the first drag artist to chart in Christian music; I’m the first to hit # 1. (All due respect to my bestie @gracebaldridge for blazing this trail.)
I don’t know what else to say except: if you’re gonna come for a drag queen, you better be ready for how she comes back. She comes back with an army of love.
Maybe the best part of this story involves another Feucht fuck-up. In his angry tweet, he claimed Webb was a “former” worship leader, as if to suggest his faith wasn’t sincere. Turns out Webb was never a worship leader. But Flamy Grant (whose real name is Matthew Blake) was a worship leader for 22 years.
Blake has said in interviews that their stage name was inspired by “arguably the most successful Christian artist of all time” and that Christian and gospel music were the only things they were allowed to hear growing up. Which is to say Blake knows Christianity. Blake has lived Christianity. Webb, too, has gone through a “deconstructing” of his faith but his new album is meant to remind Christians that there are still aspects of the religion that can be “beautiful and meaningful and true.”
Sean Feucht, on the other hand, is a Trump-loving conservative who uses Christianity as a weapon to hurt other people and a tool to spread misinformation. He has no business implying other people are doing Christianity wrong.
The #1 Christian album in the country right now belongs to drag queen Flamy Grant
I'm not gonna listen to the album, because Christian music just ain't my thing, but...
𝘋𝘢𝘮𝘯, girl!
Now, moderate and progressive Christians, I want you to take notes. Pay attention. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘴𝘵:
𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 is the kind of thing we want to see more of from you. This is 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 the energy we want you to carry with you to the ballot box on election day, when you'll be voting for whether or not the performer you just showed so much love for is allowed to keep performing- or to keep existing. If you can vote for an album to show your support for a Queen, but don't follow through by voting for a politician who's going to protect her rights, then this was a meaningless gesture.
All you have to do is remember what made you press 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 button when it comes time to press 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 button.
Attempting to sort out who was, or was not, a TRUE Christian has spilled enough blood to float the Navy. I simply cannot deal with these people any more.