转载：Contemporary Christian Music and Homosexuality

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In The Gospel Sound, which first appeared in 1971, Anthony Heilbut said, “The gospel church has long been a refuge for gays and lesbians, some of whom grew up to be among the greatest singers and musicians.”

Douglas Harrison, a homosexual who grew up Southern Baptist, said, “... you can’t swing a Dove Award without hitting upon evidence of the longstanding, deep-set presence of queer experience in, and its influence on, Christian music culture at all levels” (“Come Out from among Them,” Religion Dispatches, April 30, 2010).

In 1998, CCM star Kirk Franklin said that “homosexuality ... is a problem today in gospel music--a MAJOR CONCERN--and everybody knows it” (Church Boy, pp. 49, 50).

James Cleveland, who has been called the “King of Gospel,” was a homosexual who died of AIDS.

Marsha Stevens, author of the popular song “For Those Tears I Died (Come to the Water),” co-founded Children of the Day, one of the first Contemporary Christian Music groups associated with Calvary Chapel. In 1979, Marsha broke her sacred marriage vows and divorced her husband of seven years, with whom she had two children, because she had “fallen in love with a woman.” Eventually Marsha “married” Cindi Stevens-Pino who she calls “my wife.” She started her own label called BALM (Born Again Lesbian Music) and performs between 150 and 200 concerts a year. She has a program called “upBeat” through which she produces a praise and worship album annually with a variety of singers and songwriters.

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Popular CCM singer Ray Boltz announced his homosexuality in 2008. He divorced his wife to live with a man. Today he “tours the country playing at liberal churches and gay-pride events that receive him and his gay Christian message” (Jesus Rocks the World: The Definitive History of Contemporary Christian Music, vol. 2, p. 173).

In June 2013, popular CCM singer Sandi Patty performed with the homosexual Turtle Creek Chorale at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas. In July 2012, the Chorale had attended the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses (GALA) in Denver (“Turtle Creek Chorale’s 2012-2013 Season,” Turtlecreek.org).

In 2016, Trey Pearson, lead singer of the popular Christian rock band Everyday Sunday, “came out” as “gay.” The band’s 2001 namesake album has sold 250,000 copies. Pearson has toured with Toby Mac, Switchfoot, MercyMe, Jeremy Camp, and others. In a June 2016 cover story interview with 614 Magazine, the married father of two said, “I grew up in a very conservative Christian home where I was taught that sexual orientation was a matter of choice,” and though he was attracted to other males, he attempted to suppress his feelings. His “coming out” is presented in terms of “being true” to himself. The614 Magazine cover story was titled “Gay, Christian Rock Star: This Is Who I Am.” After counseling with emergent apostates like Rob Bell, Pearson says that “there is absolutely no conflict with accepting who I am and following Jesus,” because “God wants me to be healthy, authentic, whole, integrated, and my truest self.” For the Selfie generation, it’s all about ME, as prophesied in Scripture (“lovers of their own selves,” 2 Timothy 3:1-2). His vow to be faithful to his wife unto death is thrown aside, because his desire to be faithful to himself trumps everything. He claims to be “free” now and to be pursuing “health and wholeness.” In reality, he is in great bondage because he is being reconciled to his fallen nature. “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:19). To say that one should be true to “feelings” of homosexuality is no different than saying that a man who is attracted to women other than his wife or to children should be true to those “feelings.” The Bible plainly identifies such “feelings” as sin, and there is nothing right, godly, or honorable in yielding to them. The emergent program categorizes “loving, committed same-sex” relationships as honorable and as acceptable before God, claiming that Scripture only condemns abusive and idolatrous acts of homosexuality, but this is nonsense. The Bible plainly teaches that apart from the union of holy marriage, sexual activity is sin, and there is not a hint anywhere in Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, that a holy marriage can consist of a same-sex union. “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). The Lord Jesus Christ pointed to Genesis 2 as God’s standard for marriage. “And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:4-6).

Other homosexual CCM artists are Anthony Williams, Kirk Talley, Clay Aiken, Doug Pinnock of King’s X, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers of Indigo Girls, Jennifer Knapp, and Ty Herndon.

In April 2014, Dan Haseltine of the popular CCM band Jars of Clay announced his support for “gay marriage.” He wrote the following in a series of Twitter posts: 

“Not meaning to stir things up BUT… is there a non-speculative or non ‘slippery slope’ reason why gays shouldn’t marry? I don’t hear one. ... I’m trying to make sense of the conservative argument. But it doesn’t hold up to basic scrutiny. Feels akin to women’s suffrage. I just don’t see a negative effect to allowing gay marriage. No societal breakdown, no war on traditional marriage. ... I don’t think scripture ‘clearly’ states much of anything regarding morality. ... I don’t particularly care about Scriptures stance on what is ‘wrong.’ I care more about how it says we should treat people” (“Dan Haseltine,” MetroWeekly.com, April 22, 2014). 

Haseltine tried to back peddle a bit after his Twitter comments were made public, but he did not renounce the concept of a “homosexual Christian” or reject same-sex “marriage.” 

In August 2014, Vicky Beeching, British CCM musician, announced that she is a lesbian. Beeching, who has led worship music at many North American churches and whose “lyrics are sung by millions in America’s Bible Belt,” says, “I’m gay; God loves me just the way I am.”

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In an interview in October 2014, Brian Houston, pastor of Hillsong Church in Sydney, Australia, which birthed Hillsong worship music, refused to give a definitive answer when asked to clarify his stand on “same sex marriage.” He said that “the Western world is shifting its thinking on this issue, and churches are struggling to stay relevant” (Jonathan Merritt, “Hillsong’s Brian Houston says church won’t take a public position,” Religion News Service, Oct. 16, 2014). He said, “The real issues in people’s lives are too important for us to just reduce it down to a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer in a media outlet.” 

Earlier, Carl Lentz, pastor of Hillsong New York City, told CNN that Hillsong has “a lot of gay men and women in our church and I pray we always do,” and he claimed that he is “still waiting for someone to show me the quote where Jesus addressed it on the record in front of people” (“Hillsong New York pastor Carl Lentz,” Christian Today, June 6, 2014). 

What Jesus did was plainly and publicly limit marriage to one man and one woman as in the beginning of creation (Matthew 19). Obviously this leaves no room for “same sex marriage.” 

In the same CNN interview, Laura Lentz, Carl’s wife and Hillsong co-pastor, said, “It’s not our place to tell anyone how they should live, it’s--that’s their journey.”

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Conclusion

The reason for all of this is not difficult to discern. Typically, CCM musicians have been accepted as Christians upon the flimsiest testimony of faith and have not been properly instructed and discipled. ……

The fact that Contemporary Christian Music is home to many homosexuals and the fact that the vast majority of contemporary Christian musicians do not reprove this sin publicly is evidence of its deep apostasy.