Katie Pruitt found her singing voice when she signed up for Broadway Dreams, a program that introduces kids to the world of musical theater through intensive workshops with Broadway veterans. It was also one of the first places where she saw an expansive world beyond the faith tradition she grew up in. 

I recently spoke to Pruitt about her new album “Mantras,” her spiritual journey away from restrictive Christianity and the skit that is a rite of passage for white evangelical kids in the South. 

Pruitt prefers “she/they” pronouns, noting, “I’m dabbling in ‘they’ because sometimes I feel more masculine and, I don’t know, I’m like ‘who cares?’ Let’s try it on.” This article will alternate between the two out of respect for their preference. 

Reflecting on Broadway Dreams, Pruitt said, “I was in a lot of other theater programs that felt like youth group. But with this one, there were people from all different walks of life, including a lot of queer people.” 

It was the first time they saw their own identity normalized. 

In “White Lies, White Jesus and You” from “Mantras,” Pruitt remembers her religious adolescence and all the elements of faith she has put behind her. But she does so with grace for those still in that world. 

They said they don’t want to criticize anyone who finds comfort in faith, which was the impetus for an early line song: “If you say that Jesus gives you peace of mind/That’s a good enough reason for me.” 

In a Ted Talk she gave in 2022 about her songwriting process, Pruitt explained that songs create a “separate safe space for honesty” and a world “where the rules of everyday conversation don’t apply.” At some point in her songwriting journey, she “stopped hiding behind metaphors” and just told her story. 

When they begin to write a song, they picture a place or a person they need to talk to the most and then imagine being honest without any consequence. I asked her who those people were when she wrote “White Lies, White Jesus and You.” 

“The year that I wrote it, LGBTQ rights were being attacked–transgender ‘bathroom bills,’ book bans, things that were saying ‘we don’t want anything or anyone different in our schools,” they said. “I didn’t have a specific person in mind, but rather a small handful of interactions over the years with the ‘Love the sinner, hate the sin’ crowd.”

Pruitt says these people are attempting to communicate that “who you are is inherently wrong, but I love you anyway. It’s like they want to justify their hate but soften the blow a little.” 

For Pruitt, this still hurts. They say the song is “about the times I’ve tried to please those people and keep them in my life” but then “realized how hurtful and toxic it is for me.” 

Pruitt was raised Catholic, but I went into the conversation assuming she had grown up as a Protestant Evangelical. When I mentioned this, she immediately laughed and asked, “Because of the Lifehouse skit?” 

For many white, evangelical Christian millennials from the South, the phrase “Lifehouse Skit” evokes (or triggers) a world of memories (or trauma). It was a dramatic enactment of a battle between Jesus and forces of darkness for the souls of youth, set to the song “Everything” by Lifehouse. I joked with Pruitt that many of us Generation X evangelicals are a little bitter that it has become synonymous with Lifehouse because, for us, the skit was set to Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” 

The video for “White Lies, White Jesus and You” features the skit. 

Pruitt gets reflective when speaking about this. “I think it is so interesting. The more I have gotten away from Christianity, and all the ways I’ve kind of come back to it as a student, I find this version of Jesus as a white dude with blue eyes and abs so confusing. It’s just so far away from the truth.” 

They added, “It is militant, dangerous, and not how God intended people to be.”

In “All My Friends,” the opening track from the album, Pruitt chronicles many of the ways her fellow millennials are navigating new and ancient spiritual and religious landscapes. It is a catchy folk-rocker that both questions and honors the process of trying on new beliefs for yourself:

“Everybody’s hooked on something
A second chance or a second coming
Some kind of savior to say you’re so unique
A new mantra every other week
All my friends are finding new beliefs.”

Like the “Mantras” album, my conversation with Pruitt revealed a rising artist embodying courage and vulnerability. 

“Two years ago, when I was writing this record,” they said, “I was in a bad mental headspace. But therapy and journaling was really cathartic for me.” She added that the album was about “getting to a place where I could treat myself as a friend. It taught me a lot.”

“Mantras” will be released on April 5th from Rounder Records. Pruitt is currently on tour to promote the album.