Does she also think that we ought not judge those who wish to engage in polygamy, polyandry, group marriage, incest etc. or does this tolerance that people should be able to marry who they love only apply to homosexual couples?
Key comments:
Does she ever struggle, I ask, to square her religion with the progressive, gay-friendly mores of the music industry? “Our church is gay-friendly,” she responds, seeming suddenly energised. “Above all, God wanted us to love others. It's not about setting rules, or [saying] ‘everyone has to be like me’. No. We're all different. That's what makes us special. We have to love each other and get on with each other.” Then she offers a totally unexpected, unequivocal endorsement of gay marriage. “As a married person myself, I don't know what it's like to be told I can't marry somebody I love, and want to marry. I can't imagine how that must feel. I definitely think we should all have the right to love, and love publicly, the people that we want to love.”
With that, Carrie Underwood gets up to leave. She's been sweet, and helpful, and far nicer that I had any right to expect, so I maybe shouldn't have been be all that surprised to hear conservative America's favourite pop star stand up, loud and proud, for the rights of homosexuals. At the Albert Hall, they'll no doubt love her for it. But I can't help but wonder how it'll go down back home in her native Oklahoma.
Okay, she apparently attends a homosexual-friendly nondenominational church in Nashville. A quick internet search found that she was previously a member of First Free Will Baptist Church in Checotah, Oklahoma. (Reference here: http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Carrie-Underwood-Biography/56D51E8199BA5EC1482570370029B799 )
It's not clear to me where she attends now but it should not be too hard to track that information down for someone “on the ground” in Nashville. A large Presbyterian congregation in West Virginia has a “Carrie Underwood” as a church member in a leadership role, but that website has been taken down and I'm guessing that's the wrong church.
My guess is to take Underwood at face value and assume that she is attending a liberal church; if so, we need to find that church's details and clearly expose it as as liberal left-wing church to her fans.
If not, and if this is actually a moderate evangelical church, we need to take aggressive action to make sure the pastor and church leaders don't get away with covering up gross public sin of a woman who is probably their most prominent member.
Remember the Rev. Jeremiah Wright situation. Where someone chooses to attend church often tells us much about them.
Someone who is a conservative in the country music media also needs to call First Free Will Baptist Church in Underwood's hometown and get some comments from the pastor and church leaders on what they think about homosexuality and Underwood's new views. Given her denominational background I am quite sure Underwood was raised in a conservative context and she didn't get her views from her home church and her home church pastor will have a lot to say — but I've been surprised before.