My point here is not to rail against Semler, Botz, or Turner et al. but to note how they illustrate the personality-driven, churchless nature of contemporary evangelical (to the degree that evangelicals are funding Semler’s mission to mainstream the Q of LGBTQ into the evangelical bloodstream) theology, piety, and practice. It is rootless relative to the Great Christian Tradition, i.e., catholic (universal) Christianity. It is divorced from Scripture. It is church-less.

The evangelical world is gravely ill. The disease is not Covid-19. It is not even what you might suppose it to be. After all, we should not be surprised to find out about sin within the highest precincts of Big Eva. The real disease is EDS: Ecclesiology Deficiency Syndrome. The confirmation yesterday of the ugly details of the Ravi Zacharias scandal and the announcement that consumers (via iTunes) have pushed a “Queer” Christian to the top of the Contemporary Christian Music chart are symptoms of EDS. We have been seeing symptoms for decades. When I taught briefly (and happily) at Wheaton College in the mid-90s I used to ask my students, “what is Billy Graham’s ecclesiastical affiliation?” No one knew because it did not matter. As far as Graham was concerned, and as far as the post-World War II evangelical establishment was concerned, the function of visible institutional church was to serve the big parachurch organizations. The visible church was for young Christians, but the parachurch organizations were said to be where the action was. Fuller Seminary, founded by the movers and shakers of the neo-Evangelical movement, Carl F. H. Henry (1913–2003), Harold J. Ockenga (1905–85), and, later, E. J. Carnell (1919–67)—not to mention the school’s namesake, Charles E. Fuller (1887–1968), the radio evangelist—is symptomatic of the desire of the post-war neo-evangelicals to try to have the theology of the better fundamentalists (e.g., Machen) of the pre-war ear but without the nasty church fights. The neo-evangelical movement was intentionally a church-less movement. Coincidently, EDS stands for a real medical syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which weakens the connective tissue of the body. Perhaps that makes EDS as used here, Ecclesiology Deficiency Syndrome, ironic too?

Coming Out In CCM

There has been a spate of stories for than a decade about leading CCM performers and figures “coming out” as homosexual. Ray Boltz started the movement in 2008, when he “came out” in The Washington Blade. He says he is now living a “normal gay life.” The reader may be certain that the Apostle Paul would call that an oxymoron. This past July, Matthew Paul Turner, the former editor of Contemporary Christian Music Magazine, also announced his homosexuality and his divorce.

Of the stories I read about Semler (her professional name), the HuffPo article was the most illuminating. A lot of the headlines are misleading. When most of us think about CCM, we think about theologically conservative people trying to communicate (more or less) traditional (modern) evangelical theology in some genre of rock. Think of Larry Norman or Chuck Girard or any of the performers who set the trajectory of CCM, whose records I was playing at “New Life 95” KBHL in Lincoln, one of the USA’s pioneering CCM radio stations. Theologically, Larry Norman was rather conservative. Semler is not Larry Norman, i.e., Billy Graham with long hair and some hot blues licks. As the HuffPo article explains, she is the

daughter of an Episcopal priest, Semler said she grew up going to church multiple times a week. The Christian community she was raised in was generally welcoming to LGBTQ Christians, allowing queer parishioners to serve in leadership roles. But even with such a progressive religious upbringing and parents who wholeheartedly embrace her, Semler said she wasn’t shielded from toxic Christian theology. She was still exposed to it when she went on mission trips or attended church camps, she said.

The only time she came into contact with any semblance of traditional Christianity was when she visited it at camp and she judged it “toxic.” Why is her music Christian? The article explains, “Preacher’s Kid is a Christian album, she insisted, because she is a Christian, and many of the songs she wrote for it deal with her faith.” This is sheer Narcissism but it is a great indicator of what is wrong.

1. Semler identifies as a Christian
2. Semler thinks x
3. Therefore x is a Christian truth

That Semler thinks of herself as a Christian is granted. That she thinks x (e.g., her opinions regarding LGBTQ sexualities) is granted but it does not follow that her views qualify as Christian. There are more objective measures. It is not as if Holy Scripture does not speak to LGBTQ sexualities. It does. Growing up Episcopalian she might not be aware of what Paul says in Romans 1:18–32; and in 1 Corinthians 6:9–20 but they are painfully clear. Paul’s language in both places is rather pointed, especially in 1 Corinthians 6, even if that pointedness is obscured somewhat by our English translations (see the resources below for more).

My point here is not to rail against Semler, Botz, or Turner et al. but to note how they illustrate the personality-driven, churchless nature of contemporary evangelical (to the degree that evangelicals are funding Semler’s mission to mainstream the Q of LGBTQ into the evangelical bloodstream) theology, piety, and practice. It is rootless relative to the Great Christian Tradition, i.e., catholic (universal) Christianity. It is divorced from Scripture. It is church-less.

Back in the very early 80s I learned that CCM was no “ministry.” It was a business. It still is. Big companies are selling a product, an experience, an illusion to Christians. This is not to say that there are not wonderful, godly people producing contemporary Christian music but it is to indict the CCM business. Who elevated these people to Christian leaders? The New Testament has a process for identifying and vetting Christian leaders (see 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus). Nowhere in the Pastoral Epistles do we find agents, record label executives, or concert promotors. Paul speaks of pastors, elders, and deacons. This is not to say that CCM artists have to pass the tests of 1 and 2 Timothy or Titus in order to get up on stage or sing or to post a song on the internet but it is to say that Christians must stop looking to them for leadership. A singer does not a leader make. Many of them are thoroughly confused theologically. Clearly the folks giving up the struggle against their homosexual desires are not accountable, in any real way, to orthodox, biblically-grounded churches.

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