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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJune 2nd, 2016
I don’t have much Christian Rock on my Pandora, so I can’t say how big a deal this is. But judging by the size and number of headlines flying across the internets, this seems kinda big:
Since 1997, [Trey Pearson] been the core of Everyday Sunday, a highly successful alternative outfit who’s sold hundreds of thousands of records, scored multiple #1 singles on the national radio charts, toured all 50 states and 20 countries, and signed to a reputable label in Nashville. A Christian label.
… [From Trey’s letter]: “Most of us reach at least one pivotal moment in our lives that better defines who we are. These last several months have been the hardest—but also have ended up being the most freeing months—of my life. To make an extremely long story short, I have come to be able to admit to myself, and to my family, that I am gay.”
TP: There is a weight that has been lifted, and I have never felt so free. I cannot even believe the joy and lightness I feel from being able to accept myself, and love myself, for who I truly am … but I have also lost some of the closest people in my life. I have felt betrayal by people I loved a lot, and cared so much about. I have had some church people act like the worst people I have ever experienced in my life. I have some people in my life who I have felt a shift in the way they love me, and the way they see me. I want to be loved for who I am, not in spite of who I am. I’m starting over in so many ways. It is freeing, but it’s also starting out lonely.
The story that broke the news is here, which includes lengthy excerpts from his letter to his fans and an interview. You can find his full letter here.
Pearson is just another in a growing line of Christian musicians coming out, beginning with Ray Boltz, whose songs were once ubiquitous in evangelical churches throughout the 1990s. He came out in 2008.
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LJ
June 2nd, 2016
“beginning with Ray Boltz, whose songs were once ubiquitous”
I note the careful use of the past tense there. As with the music of Boltz, along with that of Jennifer Knapp and Vicki Beeching, it is nearly certain that Trey Pearson’s music will be heard far less often in Christian circles following this revelation. The same church that considers him “wounded” is well known for “shooting its wounded” (or in this case, as I would put it, “shooting its ‘wounded'”). It would, after all, be a terrible thing to listen to music made by someone who isn’t [pretending to be] 100% like us. We might, after all, realize that we weren’t totally correct on absolutely everything – the horror! (do I need to throw a sarcasm tag on that?)
SharonB
June 3rd, 2016
Just like they did with non LGBT Sandy Patti, and Amy Grant. However, after enough time in the wilderness they let them back in. LGBT artists, notsomuch.
LJ
June 3rd, 2016
@SharonB
Because regardless of what they say they believe, deep down inside they do indeed think that being LGB and/or T is a worse sin than the other sins.
Atriokke
June 4th, 2016
Nothing like basking in christian love. Hard to escape an ideology that attempts to set the foundations of morality. When I was a christian, I would have probably been that friend in his description of ‘I have some people in my life who I have felt a shift in the way they love me, and the way they see me’. Being a friend with a gay person (equivalent to, an evil person), would have required caution(harking back to that Pope line of ‘gayness is intrinsically morally evil’), proselytization and a distancing from said evil. Not very different from how i’d have treated atheists.
Im glad I can love gay ppl and atheists now without magical restraints, where instead of seeing them as akin to possessed, as just people.
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