Allegations of sexual misconduct have hit the Christian music community.
At least five men accused internationally known Christian musician Michael Tait of sexual assault, in what Andrew Mall, associate music professor at Northeastern University, called “the highest-profile case” he’s seen in this section of the music industry.
While this is news to the world, others said Tait’s behavior was “the biggest open secret in Christian music.” Northeastern experts said the alleged incidents were likely exacerbated by the insularity and beliefs of this particular branch of Christianity.
“My hope is that, at the very least, it shifts the conversation within evangelical churches and communities to recognize that this stuff happens,” said Mall, who wrote a book on the Christian music industry. “So many of the young people that grow up in these churches grow up in sheltered environments. They don’t have access to media, or are led to believe that some media isn’t very truthful. There’s less of a concept that (sexual abuse) does happen in the evangelical bubble.”
Tait’s career dates to the late 1980s, when he helped found the band DC Talks while attending Liberty University, an evangelical Christian college. The band released five albums and won multiple Grammys. When it went on hiatus in 2000, Tait performed solo before joining Newsboys, another Christian rock band. He has sold 18 million albums of Christian music, encouraging sobriety and abstinence.
Over the summer, multiple men said Tait sexually assaulted them, with several alleging that they suspect he drugged them. Others said Tait came on to them with unwanted touching or sexual advances.
Tait posted a statement on Instagram admitting to touching men “in an unwanted sensual way” and abusing alcohol and cocaine. A police investigation into the accusations is underway.
Mall said the reaction to this has been “really mixed.” Some people in the Christian music world said they were ignorant of his behavior. Others have tried to remain fans and grapple with separating the art from the artist. Some former evangelicals who have since left the church have said they weren’t surprised.
“There’s an idea that this has been known for years (and) that this is going to upend the industry and has potential to end careers far beyond Michael Tait’s, which is why (some people) are distancing themselves because if they did know … that’s a cover-up,” Mall added.
It’s common for sexual misconduct to fester under the surface for years before people feel safe speaking out. But since this is happening in the evangelical Christian entertainment world, it means there are additional factors that might have led to people staying quiet, sources said.
For starters, there is the belief system.
“There is an intense focus on moral purity and perfectionism, which means that evangelicals do not want to be ‘tainted’ by the sin of the world (things like secularism, feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and reproductive justice),” said Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, an assistant professor of religion and philosophy at Northeastern. “This means creating firm social boundaries and community insularity (against) things they disagree with.”
This includes creating purely Christian entertainment, such as the Christian music industry, which Mall said dates to the ’60s and ’70s.
“That’s when the seeds of the Christian entertainment complex were planted,” Mall said. “Evangelical Christianity started returning to the public sphere under Reagan because they saw the potential for a lot of political influence. Part of that was building up this ecosystem where they could really teach people the ethics and the values that were central to the political ideals that they were trying to promote and propose.”
For a while, the Christian music industry was relatively niche. Albums were sold in Christian music stores and tracks were played on Christian stations. But within the last eight to 10 years, it has gained more popularity with the rise of evangelicalism and social media, Mall said.
There are several genres within the Christian music industry, such as gospel music, praise and worship and contemporary Christian music, which mimics secular market musical trends and doesn’t necessarily talk about God or faith, but is usually created by openly Christian artists.
“That’s become a way (for evangelicals) to justify why it’s OK to listen to certain artists and not others, even if neither of them is talking about faith,” Mall said. “It may be OK to listen to this artist because they are Christian and they’re not going to lead us down a path of temptation, whereas other artists are in the secular entertainment industry where there’s a lot of sin. It’s definitely a way to insulate, but with these very specific purposes in mind, to teach young people, and one of the ways they control what they learn and believe is by limiting their media diet.”
The insularity of the community, down to the entertainment many members consume, may be partially why it took so long for the people Tait allegedly assaulted to come forward, Mall said.
“If we read the reporting (on) the victims, a lot of them didn’t realize how harmful it was,” Mall said. “They didn’t have anyone to talk to, they didn’t go to counseling, they didn’t go to law enforcement. It was just not an option or they didn’t think about it. Only once a lot of time passed … they then had some hindsight to be like, ‘Oh wow, this actually was potentially criminal and harmed and traumatized me.’”
Also complicating the case is the fact that the Tait accusations involve a man preying on other men. Homosexuality is frowned upon in the evangelical community, which may have led to a lot of shame for both Tait and his victims.
“I don’t want to absolve Michael Tait of anything, but if he lived and worked in another industry where homosexuality wasn’t something he had to hide, would he have turned into a person who victimized people?” Mall said. “That’s something that we’ll never know. The sin of homosexuality is so great that it may bring people to a place where they see there’s no other way for them to be themselves, or they at least feel that way. And I can’t imagine how difficult that must be.”
Riccardi-Swartz said research shows that cases like this, where a noted figure breaks from a religion’s framework, can “divide believers” and can prompt a group to become more insulated and focused on purity.
“The Tait case will probably recapitulate the same type of anxieties about perfection and concealment for many evangelicals,” she added.
Mall said he hopes the case will at least shine a light and make people more aware that sexual abuse can happen anywhere, even in spaces focused on moral purity.
“There’s a severe hypocrisy there that can have really dramatic implications,” Mall said. “But cracking open a door so people are aware that things could be different, that’s important and at the very least, acknowledging that people get harmed in Christian communities, in Christian business, in the Christian entertainment industry sector, in the same ways that people get harmed outside of the evangelical bubble. That’s an important message for people to hear.”
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