The Wild Christian Ride of Flamy Grant

metroweekly.com:

Bible Belt Baby, was released last October, it didn’t gain as much exposure until Sean Feucht, a Christian nationalist preacher with ties to former President Donald Trump, criticized her and fellow Christian musician, Derek Webb, for working together on the song “Good Day.”Feucht also criticized Grant for performing in drag, calling her collaboration with Webb a sign of “the last days,” and claiming that she’d never carve out a spot within the Christian music genre.Feucht’s comments, which came amid an ongoing right-wing campaign against drag and the visibility of transgender people — as evidenced by the introduction of more than 500 bills specifically targeting public expressions of gender-nonconformity in 49 states — only served to boost Grant’s profile.Not long after people learned of Feucht’s feud with Grant, Bible Belt Baby shot to the top of the iTunes Christian music charts, remaining there for nine straight days, while “Good Day” reached as high as No.

2 on the individual song charts.While the expectation for Christian music stars has generally been to embrace the right-wing ideology that so often accompanies evangelical religious beliefs, Grant’s success on the charts was indicative that there might be some space — even among the genre’s most fervent fans — for artists that don’t adhere to expectations or conform to a certain mold.

Grant feels Bible Belt Baby is very much a product of the Christian music world.“When I pulled back and looked at the record as a whole after it was finished, I was like, ‘This feels very much like the telling of a spiritual journey,'” she says. “I grew up Christian, and I’ve had to reckon with Christianity and how it impacts me as a queer person, how it impacts my friends and the.