... so apparently,Jennifer Knapp has announced that she's a lesbian, and has been in a same-sex relationship for eight years.
The results from her Christian fanbase are what one would expect in this situation. So far, I think my favorite comment -- not in the link above -- has been someone advising fellow Christians to refrain from bashing her, but to also not support her, instead. This includes refraining from purchasing her upcoming album, as well as her prior albums. This commenter also said that all Christians were to remember that only God can judge, and they have no place telling her she's a sinner, and thus don't pass earthly judgment on her.
Now, where I come from, advising people to not purchase an artist's material because the artists lifestyle or belief system is immoral is passing judgment on that artist. I am judging that artist to be incapable with my system of morality, and so refraining from associating with said artist. But that's just me.
Or another one about how Christians don't judge people, they judge actions. I'm uncertain how the two are separated -- there would be no actions to judge unless the people were committing the actions. It's like calling someone a liar, and then saying, "I'm not judging you, I'm judging your action." The two can't be distinguished. Or in a murder trial -- you are judging what the person has done, and then holding that person accountable for the action.
There's also the standard "We just have to pray that God will help her/use someone to show her the truth." So far, my favorite pray comment is "We have to pray that God would help her to pray to Him ... " I was hoping for a comment along the lines, "God is using this to tell us to pray to Him that Jennifer will come to God and be healed."
I do admire Jennifer's courage in confessing this, and I'm glad that she's reached a point where she can be honest about who she is. And that she had the courage to do this, even though she had to know the backlash that would result.
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4 comments:
Yeah, they don't condemn you, but they shun you. And is there anything worse than that? Isn't the worst prison punishment solitary confinement?
Whatever happens to "unconditional love" anyway? So they love her while they think she is one of their own, and remove her from their fellowship is she dares to disagree. To me that sounds like small-town tribal rage.
Lorena,
**Whatever happens to "unconditional love" anyway?**
It's part of the separation between loving the sinner and hating the sin, apparently. They don't hate who she is, they hate what she does. Though in my mind, who you are dictates what you do, so I'm not sure how both can't be hated.
Kay,
Yup. I was going to purchase her CD even before this new revelation, but now I wish I could purchase 20 of them. Not only because of the reaction she's getting, but also in applause to her sense of ethics. She announced this before Christians purchased her CD, so that they would know the truth and not feel cheated or exploited after purchasing it. That points to a sense of ethics.
My wife and I had the privileged of seeing her in concert a couple of weeks before her big announcement. She spoke poignently about her inability to be honest about herself led to her leaving music for a while. Very easy to understand in the christian music world, even apart from homosexuality. I wondered later how many of the christians who were raising their arms at the concert were questioning their worship a couple weeks later. I do think it is a huge statement that Jennifer Knapp is not only coming back to music, albeit on a secular label, but is retaining and speaking about her Christianity at the same time.
She was touring with Derick Webb, who performed a song, What Matters More, basically making the statement that christians shouldn't be so focused on homosexuality as a problem when there are more important issues out there. I was very moved by the fact that he is willing to go out on a limb to make that statement.
Webb's song is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC0j6FTg1xU
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