Think this affects modern CCM industry too or just those from that old school era? I’m thinking like Brandon Lake, Phil Wickham, etc seem at least a little more likely to call this shit out but maybe I’m way off
I do want to believe this as well, but it’s admittedly difficult to do that when very suddenly tour crew members are coming out of the woodwork to call all this shit to the floor. I think the reporting about Tait is emboldening some of them to speak up. The things I’m reading are…pretty despairing. The worst I’ve ever heard about Phil Wickham is just that he’s got a bit of an ego on him and can be a prima donna behind the scenes. Same with Chris Tomlin. I think every generation is going to have some good eggs and some bad ones. You’ll hear that the guys in Relient K are and have always been down to earth, and then in the same breath you’ll hear that Shawn McDonald abused his kid, which is why he got a divorce. Runs the gamut I suppose. On that note though, while I was reading people’s thoughts about all of this, I came across an old comment from several months ago wherein the person called out Tait as an abuser and that comment had a much more recent response which gave me pause. I guess be on the lookout for whatever this is about to be:
Hard to say, I think the praise & worship crowd is probably different than the band crowd - it's hard to imagine a p&w leader having a party bus. I think the bigger issue with these artists is how they commercialize the Gospel and sell bad theology. I'm sure there are some of these issues going on, but probably not as widespread.
And now here is the aforementioned Guardian article. Victims in this interview were age 13 to 29. Dude is a pedophile too. ‘He stole a piece of our souls’: Christian music star Michael Tait accused of sexual assault by three men
This one is tough, I saw NTB on their first big tour, have met all of the original members at other shows, and would say they were a pretty major band for me for several years
In fairness, I only really remember following their sudden trajectory in 06 when their first album came out because I was working at a Family Christian Bookstore (yikes) at the time and it was flying off the shelves. I quit the job a year later and started quietly exiting the faith so I never really knew how they came to be known amongst the fandom at the height of their popularity.
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Vocalist Ronnie Winter Condemns Trump Supporters: "If You Voted For Donald Trump, Do Not Come To My Shows..." - Theprp.com Two things. One, good on this dude. Two, is he okay? The picture both here and in his clip make him look unwell. I could be way off.
They are, they're just not usually overt about it, but for example, one of the tracks on 4 is called "Jesus Is My Rockstar". It's absolutely a part of their identity.
Does anyone have the BEC/T&N Happy Christmas albums they’d be willing to share? Somehow they’ve fallen through the cracks over the years as I transferred music between different hard drives. Happy Christmas (1998) Happy Christmas Vol. 2 (1999) Happy Christmas Vol. 3 (2000) Happy Christmas Vol. 4 (2005) Happy Christmas Vol. 5 (2010)
Man......just what an absolutely terrible speech. Like maybe I'm missing it but they never once mention the victims, the trauma? Like not once are they praying for those effected? It's just how devastating this has been to them and their.....kids? Like what the hell.....so very disappointed in this band. Each and every one of them standing their like a bunch of chumps complaining about their label dropping them and radios not spinning their songs. Like.....it's pathetic. Their handling of this situation has been very telling to their character, I feel.
Everything after Yeah, re: character, at least they’re being consistent. These guys (minus Adam) getting drunk before shows and making fun of their Christian fans, it’s not surprising they’re responding like this…”please keep giving us CCM moneyyy”
Absolutely gutting and that’s from the perspective of someone who has no connection with Newsboys music. I find it hard to believe that anyone can be that close to someone in their band and be completely oblivious to their abusive behaviour. The whole thing is distressing - even CCM just cutting them out is like “let’s just cut off the ‘bad’ bit and ignore our structure that enabled this”. I’ve been sickened by comments online that talk about praying for Tait rather than justice. Darren King posted a thoughtful video the other day but happened to mention he’s no longer part of church and more than 50% of the comments were about that including one that said that him leaving the church was EQUALLY scary to Tait’s behaviour. Errr, maybe equating actual grooming and abuse to leaving the church / having questions is the reason people are leaving… Just find the whole thing reprehensible from top to bottom. Will the CCM industry all fall down or will the fact that it’s literally a money making machine that relies on belief mean that it just keeps plodding on…?
Yeah, there’s no way they weren’t aware, especially when it went as far as that police report being filed after the sexual assault of the woman from their crew. Once that report was filed, oh they would KNOW. If they didn’t already know before that (I’ve got a bridge to sell ya!) they would ab-so-lute-ly have known then. A bandmate and crew member involved in a police report about rape? Oh yeah. They’d be made aware real quick. These guys are full of shit. I wish it would crumble, but with the way the world is, with how unfair and relentlessly cruel everything is, with how deeply entrenched and indoctrinated evangelicals are in their beliefs, things might shift ever so slightly but the industry itself will probably just keep plodding on. Meanwhile people like Amy Grant, Sandi Patty, Jennifer Knapp, Ray Boltz, Trey Pearson, etc. will remain forever on the outs for the terrible sin of being divorced, leaving their abusive spouses, and being gay. Darren King’s “sin” of leaving the faith will be mourned as a crime of the heart equal to sexual assault, and evangelicals will continue to “pray” that the only thing any of these people do is ask Jesus for forgiveness privately and then return to status quo. It is utterly exhausting.