This week Dr Georgia Carroll is preparing to deliver the keynote address at a conference in Melbourne, Australia. The conference has attracted global interest from academic institutions across the globe. The subject of this symposium? The stunning popularity and influence of the pop star Taylor Swift. With world leaders begging her to tour their countries to boost their economies, experts using her bops to train young people in CPR, and her romance with Travis Kelce helping girls feel at home in male-dominated sports her influence is certainly far-reaching. Another keynote speaker has gone so far as to say that Swift ‘has somehow become the most godlike superstar on the planet’.
But how godlike is she really? I’m left wondering whether she has managed to create anything that wasn’t there before; or fundamentally helped transform someone’s life; or give hope and the promise of eternal life to those in despair; and how long will her influence really last? I suspect that in a hundred years her legacy may be little more than a few catchy tunes.
All a far cry from the man Jesus Christ who actually is God. He may not have filled any stadiums but 2,000 years on his legacy continues to grow as he changes lives around the world.
