In a world without taboos the only taboo is God. A higher power reminds of limitations, authority, and that something greater than number one exists. The rock star imagines himself as a human deity, and his many worshippers treat him accordingly. God’s a real buzz kill in that anthropocentric universe.

Babel, Mumford & Sons’ foot-stomping, banjo-infused second album better suited for the local EnormoDome than a front porch in Appalachia, outsold all but two other albums on iTunes in 2012. It’s up for four Grammy awards.

The cool kids aren’t happy.

“The religious overtones on Mumford & Sons’ sophomore album come as no surprise,” the Los Angeles Times blurts out in the first line of its critique. The paper notes that “frontman Marcus Mumford first circulated in the scene around the Vineyard, an international network of evangelical Christian churches (Mumford’s parents are leaders of the community in the U.K.). So when he notes that ‘this cup of yours tastes holy,’ as he does here in ‘Whispers in the Dark,’ you figure the guy knows what holiness tastes like.”

An NPR piece on the backlash against the band notes that the group’s singer was “raised in a devout Christian household” and that the “rise of the megachurch… has a lot to do with the newest wave of folk-rock taking hold.” The writer references a “rock ‘n’ roll code” that celebrates outsiders and subversives. Mr. Mumford, a Christian in the pop world of Lady Gaga, Ke$ha and Eminem, rebels against that code. This makes him a conformist. Do you follow?

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