Michael Tait accusations.

illinoisguy said:
Okay, if Julie Roys is not fit or qualified to report on the various sex scandals, abuse scandals, and financial scandals among Christian televangelists, Christian megachurch preachers, Christian faith healers, Christian rockers and Christian rappers, is there another better source of information about these things that we are allowed to pay attention to? Or is it better that these things be un-reported and covered up?

I was an admirer of Jack Hyles and First Baptist Church of Hammond (I was baptized there) until Dr. Robert Sumner came forth with his revelations about the problems there. My perception was that Christians were entitled to know about these things, and I personally thanked Dr. Sumner for making them known. (I was a personal friend of Dr. Sumner and his family). Anyway, there was a massive torrent of accusations unleashed against Dr. Sumner by the Hyles defenders, all about the details of Sumner's faults and offenses, and lots of name-calling - Peter Ruckman called him "Scumner." So if Sumner was not morally fit enough to document the problems with Jack and Dave Hyles, then who was? And how was it a sin for Sumner to talk about Hyles, but not a sin for the "100% for Hyles" folks to tell us all about Sumner?

I'm sure that Julie Roys has some failings, some biases, and some skeletons in her closet, and she appears to be aligned with the liberal American Baptist Churches denomination. If this means she has no moral standing to report on the serious problems in modern celebrity Christianity, are there other journalists who do have such standing, or should the problems not be reported?
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I was thinking along the same lines but you stated it well.
 
If evangelical Christianity is to be self-correcting, with regard to the problems in our movement, then there needs to be some accountability and exposure for those who are guilty of abuse, immorality or slander. Of course, this principle would apply not only to those exposed by journalists such as Julie Roys, but also to Julie Roys herself. If she is guilty of making false or unfounded accusations, those who are aware of such misconduct on her part would be doing us all a service by documenting such offenses.

In the meantime, over the decades I have observed a pattern - whenever there are whistle-blowers who expose wrongdoing by our "anointed" big-shot Christian celebrities, then the whistle-blowers are always subjected to a barrage of personal attacks, smears and attacks on their motives and personal character, that have little or nothing to do with the guilt or innocence of the persons exposed. The emphasis seems to be to silence those making the accusations, and to cover up for those whose wrongdoing was exposed, at any cost.

We need to try to find a balance and exercise care and righteous judgment in these situations. Slander, libel and unfounded accusations cannot be tolerated, but neither can we accept a policy of covering up transgressions of our Christian leaders and silencing the victims by accusing them of gossip, bitterness, jealousy, touching the Lord's anointed, blah blah blah.

"Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear." - 1 Timothy 5:19-20. Paul's emphasis seems to be on exposing celebrity shenanigans (after careful investigation), not on covering them up.
 
"Recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavious, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexual activity are sadly, largely true."

I wanted to see a more credible source; sadly, there's no source more credible than the horse's mouth. This is on Tait's own Instagram account.

Just as an aside: as confessions and apologies go, this is pretty much exemplary. No shifting or deflecting the blame, no "mistakes were made." Tait owns his sin: acknowledges his responsibility, apologizes to those he's hurt, expresses repentance. No deflection of blame or passive "mistakes were made."

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Ransom said:
"Recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavious, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexual activity are sadly, largely true."

I wanted to see a more credible source; sadly, there's no source more credible than the horse's mouth. This is on Tait's own Instagram account.

Just as an aside: as confessions and apologies go, this is pretty much exemplary. No shifting or deflecting the blame, no "mistakes were made." Tait owns his sin: acknowledges his responsibility, apologizes to those he's hurt, expresses repentance. No deflection of blame or passive "mistakes were made."

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I'd like to think that a confession such as this would make it in it's entirety to the Roys Report without more muckraking or further criticism. At best, I see it being ignored and this whole episode dying out.
 
Ransom said:
"Recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavious, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexual activity are sadly, largely true."

I wanted to see a more credible source; sadly, there's no source more credible than the horse's mouth. This is on Tait's own Instagram account.

Just as an aside: as confessions and apologies go, this is pretty much exemplary. No shifting or deflecting the blame, no "mistakes were made." Tait owns his sin: acknowledges his responsibility, apologizes to those he's hurt, expresses repentance. No deflection of blame or passive "mistakes were made."
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I had little doubt this was true before this, but I agree this confession does contain everything you’d look for with true repentance. This saddens me on so many levels and, as I said in another post, the Christian celebrity culture just frustrates me. Around the Tait story is the recurring narrative that his homosexuality, alcohol and drug abuse were commonly known in CCM circles and such behavior wasn’t unique with Tait. Only the Lord knows but may He use this to cleanse the whole mess.

As to Tait, I pray for him and his suffering family. That it is true repentance and that we don’t see him back on stage in 6-8 months.
 
abcaines said:
I'd like to think that a confession such as this would make it in it's entirety to the Roys Report without more muckraking or further criticism. At best, I see it being ignored and this whole episode dying out.
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Julie will glory in her rightness. She's gloat that she got it right.
 
Ransom said:
"Recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavious, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexual activity are sadly, largely true."

I wanted to see a more credible source; sadly, there's no source more credible than the horse's mouth. This is on Tait's own Instagram account.

Just as an aside: as confessions and apologies go, this is pretty much exemplary. No shifting or deflecting the blame, no "mistakes were made." Tait owns his sin: acknowledges his responsibility, apologizes to those he's hurt, expresses repentance. No deflection of blame or passive "mistakes were made."

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This looks like a good start. I hope and pray that he is under adequate care of elders who will hold him accountable and will oversee his restoration. Far too many make such a confession and then just drop off the face of the earth. Sadly, it seems this way regarding Steve Lawson as he was never officially accountable to the eldership of the church that he was supposedly "Pastoring!"

We should pray for Michael Tait (and continue praying for Steve Lawson) and act like the church rather than certain scandal seekers who no better than the enemies of God who are looking for such occasions to further blaspheme the name of the LORD!
 
Ransom said:
Pity. The Newsboys predate Tait by decades, and there's also one DC Talk song that seems particularly apropos right now:

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Album was released 30 years ago. Getting old. I still mark it as one of the top 5 CCM albums in my book.
 
qwerty said:
Album was released 30 years ago. Getting old. I still mark it as one of the top 5 CCM albums in my book.
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*shrug* My favourite album just turned 40 last month--Brothers in Arms. I imagine you'd be hard pressed to name more than a handful of CCM albums from 1995. That and Jars of Clay, maybe, which was released round the same time and also achieved platinum status. Jesus Freak was a milestone. That particular song was a #1 hit on Christian radio for weeks.

Funny how Kevin Max apostasizing a few years back wasn't enough to get DC Talk banned from K-Love...
 
qwerty said:
Liver - the great Steve Taylor.... Produced and wrote for the Newsboys as well
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Good choice. (Well, that's three!)

And speaking of songs apropos for this thread, Taylor wrote one for his own album Meltdown:


(I was tempted to post the guitar version from Liver instead, but the truth is, I always liked the Europop vibe of the original.)
 
Speaking of Steve Taylor's involvement with the Newsboys, I can never decide whether his shining moment was the lyrics to "He Reigns," or his rap on their cover of "Boycott Hell":

 
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