Tennessee-born singer and guitarist Julien Baker, who identifies as gay and Christian, said many of the songs on her new album were inspired by hymns that she heard growing up.
“Many of my songs just come together in quatrains because that’s how a hymn goes,” the singer explained in an interview with The New York Times on Sunday ahead of her second album, “Turn Out the Lights”, which is being released Oct. 27.
“Another thing that I love about hymns is that despite being antiquated modes of worship — maybe — they contain these really emotive phrases. All of my favorite hymns are admissions of faults, and finding redemption even in those.”
Baker, 22, grew up in a religious household, “soaking up evangelical doctrine” and participating in church music, the NYTimes described. “At 17, she came out as gay to her parents, expecting the worst. But instead, her father combed the Bible for passages about love and acceptance,” the article pointed out.
In a 2016 interview with noisey, she recalled saying “I think I’m going to hell” when she came out to her parents. But her father told her she’s not going to hell and her mother told her God loves her.
From that, Baker concluded, “Tolerance exists.” Baker has been open about her past, her struggles and ongoing questions and doubts. She went through a period of rebellion during her teen years but eventually returned to church.
“I started playing in music groups associated with church, which was an easy way to get my foot in the door. Every Sunday I had to learn songs that I had seen an hour beforehand,” she told Westword last year.
As for her relationship with God, she said that her upbringing taught her about God’s amazing ability to save people. “But God also made us, is a perfect creator, and calls us beloved. It took a lot of getting over evangelical theology to say, ‘No, I have worth.’ My mistakes can be useful, I don’t have to be penalized for being an imperfect flesh human being. My journey to accepting parts of myself that I thought were ugly influenced my record and writing for the future,” the singer said.
She noted that world tragedies, such as genocide in the Sudan and the Holocaust, for a while made her think there was no God after all.
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This is a sensitive issue for many, in an age of every growing ‘fluidity’. Where Should Christians stand and how should we approach this matter? Let us know your thoughts.
Here are a few videos from former Lesbian and emcee Jackie Hill on her journey!
