Posted on 04/17/2010 11:26:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Award-winning Christian music artist Jennifer Knapp has returned from a seven-year hiatus with a bang.
Aside from touring with provocative singer-songwriter Derek Webb and preparing for the release of a new album, Knapp is confirming what some had for years suspected – she’s gay.
In interviews with The Advocate, Reuters, and Christianity Today – all published Tuesday – Knapp spoke openly about her sexuality while making it clear that she is not a pro-gay activist or even a self-described lesbian despite being in an eight-year relationship with a woman.
“I'm just a normal human being who's dealing with normal everyday life scenarios,” Knapp told Christianity Today.
“As a Christian, I'm doing that as best as I can,” she added. “The heartbreaking thing to me is that we're all hopelessly deceived if we don't think that there are people within our churches, within our communities, who want to hold on to the person they love, whatever sex that may be, and hold on to their faith. It's a hard notion.”
Though not the first Christian music artist to “come out” as gay, Knapp is arguably the most prominent.
Knapp's impressive history includes over one million albums sold with her three releases to date – Kansas (1998), Lay It Down (2000), and The Way I Am (2001). In 1999, Knapp won her first Dove Award for Best New Artist. The Kansas-born musician later scored a Grammy nod in 2002 and another Dove nomination in 2003.
"She's like a fine cabernet. She only gets better with age,” commented John Huie of Creative Artists Agency, Knapp’s booking agent.
In September 2002, however, Knapp decided to leave the music scene over a number of issues – her "crazy" and exhausting schedule, for one – and has for the past seven years been spending time and soul searching in Australia as well as traveling throughout Europe.
It wasn’t until the last year that Knapp picked up a guitar again and came out with a couple of new tracks that led to her return to the United States last July.
After a few sessions in the studio, it became clear to Knapp and her team that it was time to make music again, and so Knapp officially moved back to the states in August together with her partner, whose identity Knapp is adamant about protecting.
Now, the finished product, titled Letting Go, is slated for a May 11 release and will be the first test of her fans’ loyalty given her sexuality confirmation.
While the decision to "come out" one month before her new album’s release is a risky one, The Advocate said Knapp chose to do so partly because she didn’t want people to love her music and then discover that their own values won’t let them sing along full-throated.
“I think it’s going to be shocking and feel like a betrayal to some people who live their spiritual lives through the music they listen to,” Knapp told the LGBT publication.
Furthermore, the move provides Knapp a chance to be “wholly myself."
Currently, Knapp is on tour with former Caedmon's Call member Webb and will be until at least the end of April.
On Monday, Knapp turned 36.
What really saddens me is she is using the term “Christian” as an adjective to describe herself while simultaneously ignoring the Christian injunction against the homosexual lifestyle.
It will be even sadder if Christians buy, patronize and endorse her music if she does not repent.
Ah, no, you're not honey. Sorry to break it to you. Most people are not dealing with the same "scenarios" as you are.
Wrong first time...sweetheart.
She’ll realize what we all know to be a fact when they discover that her record sales among “christians” are in the toilet. At this this point, she should just save the grief and stay with secular music. It will save her a lot of trouble.
We’re all dealing with temptation to sin, so she’s right in that way. But as long as we’re alive and Christian we will be struggling with sin - not embracing it.
We die with Christ so that we can rise with Him. That means that some of the things we really crave have to become dead to us. It’s a small price to pay for being found in Christ.
We all fall and need His grace and forgiveness to pick us back up again. But to refuse to be yoked with Him and let Him carry the heavy burden of our sin and the temptations we face, is to be without Him. His grace is made perfect in our weakness; there is so much lost because she has embraced sin rather than leaning on Jesus to fulfill her every need.
Never heard of her.
Her choice is Christ or this woman and she doesn’t want to make the choice. That’s true for any relationship outside of marriage.
Unfortunately, she’ll have a chorus of voices telling her that she doesn’t have to choose.
Drunks are normal people, too, and they often deny that they have to change.
Hey, when was the last time my anyone hurt drinking?
There. I said it. She's stupid. Now, watch everyone call me a stupidophobe.
“I think it’s going to be shocking and feel like a betrayal to some people who live their spiritual lives through the music they listen to,” Knapp told the LGBT publication.”
Yep, them old eight track tapes are so..so...inspiring...they just bring tears to my eyes!!!!
She's right, of course. There are men in the churches who would like to run off with another woman, yet they don't. There are women who face comparable temptations. There are people who really want to steal, who really want to gossip or who are tempted to lie. I knew a Christian lady who was repeatedly tempted to go worship Krhishna (who she had served years before) yet she resisted the temptation.
Sin is pleasurable. For sexual temptations, scripture advises us to flee.
Wow. She has collaborated with the great Christian band Third Day. It is not clear from the article whether she is actually a practicing homosexual, or has lesbian inclinations. Remember that God is not willing that anyone should perish, and that homosexuality is not inherently worse than adultery, promiscuity, or other sins. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I hope and pray she gets turned around.
I find it funny that she is on tour with a member of Caedmon’s Call. I expect Bebo Norman will be joining them shortly.
Yes, and she has some serious talent. I was a fan of her early stuff.
It is not clear from the article whether she is actually a practicing homosexual, or has lesbian inclinations.
It says she's in an 8-year "relationship" with a "partner." I think that's plenty clear, unfortunately.
Remember that God is not willing that anyone should perish, and that homosexuality is not inherently worse than adultery, promiscuity, or other sins. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I hope and pray she gets turned around.
Me too.
Derek Webb - who is, by the way, an incredibly nice, friendly, funny, genuine guy in person - is definitely on the liberal end of the Christian music world. Not sure about Bebo.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.