A popular social media personality found herself in hot water when she posed in a “religious-themed” bikini. The images sparked a wave of backlash after she posted a photo of herself in a swimsuit that viewers deemed “disrespectful” and “blasphemous.”
TikTok sensation Addison Rae sparked outrage when she posted a photo of herself in a swimsuit that was deemed disrespectful and insulting to Christianity. The image just showed the top of the swimsuit. However, that was enough to spark a major online backlash.
The scandalous bikini comes from the company “Praying” and has the top printed with “Father” on one side and “Son” on the other, while the bottom says “Holy Spirit.” We’re not exactly sure who was intended as the target audience for this item, but we do know that many people didn’t like it.
According to Page Six, the star’s prominent friends praised the look, with photographer Mark “The Cobrasnake” Hunter calling it a “home run” and singer Tate McRae writing, “Oh my god Addison.” Many commentators, however, expressed their displeasure with the religious-themed swim style and left critical remarks.
Despite Rae’s millions of Instagram followers, while some “lapped up the look,” the majority found it disrespectful. “Nah this disrespectful to Jesus. Sad what y’all do for money,” one person wrote, while another upset viewer added, “This is not okay! BLASPHEMY!” Another wrote, “Is nobody gonna talk about this disrespecting religions,” while a fourth deemed the bikini “so messed up.”
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Some even said it was unforgivable. “You have done a very foolish deed, young lady,” posted another critic. “You have committed blasphemy against the Holy Trinity. You have brought condemnation upon yourself. Blasphemy can be forgiven but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit can not.”
The controversy also spread to Twitter. “All I’m going to say is — these people are going to learn the hard way not to play with GOD. Just wait and watch,” one user posted, while another asked, “Why do you gotta disrespect Christianity like that? You don’t disrespect any other religion, just Christianity? And why do you have to create it, @adidas? Not that I was ever a fan of Adidas (or Addison Rae for that matter) but I’ll never buy anything from Adidas.”
Some of the social media star’s fans took to Twitter to defend her. “It’s just a bikini, it’s such a first-world problem. Don’t y’all have other stuff to worry about,” one person wrote, while another added, “I don’t care I’ll say it. The Addison Rae Holy Spirit bikini is so cute.” And a third person said, “I lowkey love that Addison Rae Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bikini.”
The “blasphemous” bikini was not just worn by Addison Rae. Christina Aguilera appeared in the French version of the two-piece, which was printed with “Père,” “Fils,” and “Esprit Saint,” and captioned her video, “A religious experience.” The pop star’s post did not receive the same level of criticism as Rae’s. However, media outlets speculated that something was lost in translation.
The online backlash appeared to put pressure on Addison Rae to remove the offensive photo. Although Rae deleted the post after commenters slammed it as “blasphemous,” TikTok user Hannah Kosh saved the image beforehand and posted it on her profile with a brief recap of the controversy, noting that viewers thought it was disrespectful to Christianity.
One social media user summed up the bathing suit controversy by making an observation about those advisors who surround the TikTok star. “In all seriousness. No one on her team was like ‘Hmm maybe this will upset people. Especially in today’s world.’ Hire a new team.” They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but that may not have been true in this case.
