Fans know him as Tonéx. His eccentric style and vertiginous high notes helped make him one of the most acclaimed praise singers of the past decade, and, for a time, one of the most successful. ... This past September, the television host known as Lexi broadcast an interview [Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3] with Tonéx on the Word Network, a gospel channel, in which he made his clearest public statements about his sexual orientation. He is, within the church world, the first high-profile gospel singer in history to come out of the closet. Within hours, he started to realize what he had done. His relationship with the mainstream gospel industry was effectively over.From a fascinating article in the most recent New Yorker [abstract only]. This podcast [freely accessible] with the author of the article, Kelefah Sanneh, delves into the rarely discussed "secret" in the black church that many gospel musicians have been and are gay. Sanneh touches on the stories of both James Cleveland, the creator of the modern gospel sound who died of AIDS in 1991, and one of his backup singers, Carl Bean, who became famous for the 70s disco hit "I Was Born This Way." One contemporary preacher and gospel singer that Sanneh discusses in relation to Tonéx is Donnie McClurkin, a man made infamous during the Obama campaign for railing against homosexuals in Southern Black churches. McClurkin has admitted to engaging in homosexual acts for 20 years but does not identify as gay and believes a strong Christian faith can deliver a person from the "sin" of homosexuality. He recently delivered a sermon directed at young black homosexuals in the church, specifically calling out Tonéx. [McClurkin sermon Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3]
From the article: Earlier, Boltz had alluded to the issue on his official website, saying that if people "knew who I really was, I would never be accepted."Not to put too fine a point on it, but that is the default state of fundamentalism, evangelicalism, and any strain of belief that puts that much emphasis on the transformative power of faith to change human beings.
Jesus hates figs? Really?Yes.
Not to quibble, but evangelicalism is not the same thing as fundamentalism.I agree wholeheartedly: that's why I listed them separately. The dynamic I described is present in both of those strains, and while some have tried to come up with new buzzwords (Slacktivist's "RTC" nomenclature works sometimes), it can be tricky.
To be evangelical is to be of the belief that you must share the good news of Christ. It doesn't by necessity define the good news to be what conservative Christians think it is.To be "evangelical" is to believe that you must share the good news. To be "Evangelical" is another ball of wax entirely, like the difference between small-c and big-C "catholic." But that, I'm guessing, is another derail.
Perhaps furthering the derail, perhaps bringing it back around? I would say that there's a theological definition of "evangelical" and a cultural definition, and that they're very different. One of the pastors at my church, an openly gay man, is a theological evangelical; he literally cannot but help to tell people that God is a God of love, that God made you the way you are on purpose and for a reason, and that regardless of what anyone else thinks of you, you are good enough for God. It spills out of his every pore. He's one of the most sincerely joyful people I've ever met in my life.A good point. I mean, you could argue that "Fundamentalists" aren't actually about the fundamentals of Christianity either: they are about a very specific school of theology and they have simply been successful at branding themselves.
But if you tried to lump him in with the cultural evangelicals, I. . . don't think it would necessarily be an easy mix, to say the least.
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posted by Jimmy Havok at 8:26 AM on February 2, 2010 [1 favorite]