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.
However, I'm pretty sure it's the wrong church. Since it is a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation, the “gay friendly” label may fit, though obviously the “nondenominational” label does not — the church is on the roll of members of the PCUSA’s Presbytery of West Virginia. There are exceptions, of course; not everybody in the PCUSA is liberal and I know nothing about this local church beyond what I'm reading that's public on the internet.
“5. Fellowship Ministry Team: Provides for regular and special fellowship times for the congregation through: coffee fellowship on Sunday mornings, social activities such as senior members trips, receptions for new members and special guests; monthly covered-dish dinners, Lenten Breakfast, receptions following special services and childcare for various church activities. Carrie Underwood and Linda Brewster are this year’s Co-Chairs.”
I'm posting this here mostly because the PC(USA) church website shows signs of possibly being “scrubbed” recently and in the remote possibility that this really is Carrie Underwood's church, I want to get the information out on Free Republic so it can't be taken down and made inaccessible.
The pastor, Rev. Chris Perkins, is a former lawyer, former Congressman, and former member of the Kentucky state legislature. Some people will recognize him as a Democratic Congressman who went to jail for 21 months in connection with his role in the House bad check banking scandal from several decades ago:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/jan/08/fallen_kentucky_congressman/
Here's his church profile on his background:
Rev. Chris Perkins
Pastor
Bachelor of Arts – Davidson College; Juris Doctor – Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville; Master of Divinity – Louisville Presbyterian Seminary;
Master of Theology – Louisville Presbyterian Seminary.
Chris has had a number of high points in his life. He has owned and managed a thoroughbred farm, hosted a regional TV talk show for 12 years, served as a member of the Kentucky General Assembly (where he was voted “Orator of the House” by the Capitol press corp”), served as a member of the United States Congress for 5 terms (where he served on the Education and Labor, Public Works and Science Space and Technology committees), been a trial attorney, played in a bluegrass band, served on the Permanent Judicial Commission for the Synod of Lincoln Trails, been a member of the Committee on Preparation for Ministry for the Presbytery of Southeast Illinois, moderated the sessions of 3 small rural churches in Illinois and served as a pastor to 3 Presbyterian congregations. He has been at Enslow Park since May of 2009. Chris is married to Dr. Carol (Bunny) Perkins. Between them they have been blessed with 5 children, 8 grandchildren and 3 dogs who (most times) bring the Perkins great joy. There’s a line in Psalm 32 which says that “steadfast love surrounds those who trust in the Lord.” The Perkins family contends that it certainly has surrounded them beyond any and all expectation.