Let me catch you up. . .
Jennifer Knapp, a singer/songwriter on a Christian label pumps out three albums. Some songs are refreshingly aggressive (to 17-year-old ears that had eschewed all secular music, anyway), and they curiously do not address romantic love. At Rebecca St. James' concerts, the audience would always hear a speech about saving yourself for marriage or becoming recycled virgins. Nothing of the sort was mentioned at Jennifer Knapp's shows.
She drops out of the CCM scene after touring for her third album. Rumours fly. She's pregnant. She's a lesbian. She's not a Christian anymore. She's fed up with the Christian music business.
Seven years later, she returns. It turns out none of those reasons are why she left. Oh, but yeah, she does have a girlfriend.
(Read the Christianity Today interview here. Scan the comments while you're at it.)
Anticlimactic, no?
I am thinking about feeling disappointed in Jennifer Knapp, and here's why: in the interview, she said she and her partner live together. I make the assumption that "living together" = "sexually active" (not that "living apart" = "inactive"), and I think that gay Christians are called to "sexual purity" just like straight ones. Being gay does not give you license here.
EDIT: I should point out though that there stands the possibility that since Knapp and her partner can't legally get married yet, perhaps they have made a commensurate commitment in another setting, just without a marriage license.
Did you read the comments though? In my last entry, I said that homosexuality is treated as worse sin, and I think some of the comments illustrated that nicely (meanly?).
"I am amazed at how many people are ignorant of the Word of God. It's clear, God's Word says, that people who engage in certain sins 'will not see the Kingdom of Heaven' and homosexuality is one of them."
"Christianity Today - A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction? I hardly think so! This article/interview with the now coming out Jennifer Knapp belongs in Rolling Stone where other Worldly, openly Gay people in the World can talk about their openly Gay stance, venting their issues with the Church, Christianity, the Bible, God & Jesus! It's obvious that Jennifer Knapp is NOT a believer and she as much as admits it when she talks about the clobber verses she doesn't like."
(Many commenters were able to remain hinged.)
I'm impressed that CT published the interview. I'm sure the reaction from their more conservative readership is not surprising them. Maybe there is even an office poll going. . . the one who most closely guesses the number of subscriptions dropped because of the interview gets a pizza.
