Dove Award-winning artist Jennifer Knapp has revealed in a series of interviews that she is a lesbian and in a relationship — a revelation that may shock many in the Christian community but that should serve as a lesson for the evangelical church, a Southern Baptist Convention leader says.
Bob Stith, the Southern Baptist national strategist for gender issues and representative of the denomination’s Task Force on Ministry to Homosexuals, said Knapp’s story is “far too common” in evangelical circles.
“Many of us in redemptive ministry to same sex strugglers have heard the comment ‘we don’t have that problem in our church.’ … Whether or not your church has someone who is known to struggle with this issue, your church does have this problem,” Stith said. “And it may be that you aren’t aware of it because the struggler doesn’t think it is a safe environment to admit such a thing.”
Knapp won a Dove award in 1999 for new artist of the year, the first of four Dove Awards she won over the next five years. She also was nominated for a Grammy in 2003. Her music was played regularly on Christian radio at the time — “Undo Me” and “Whole Again” were two of her more popular songs — but she then went on a lengthy hiatus from the industry and hasn’t released an album since “The Way I Am” in 2001.
She told Christianity Today that she has been in a same-sex relationship with the same person since around 2002, and for much of the past eight years she and her partner have traveled throughout the U.S., Europe and Australia.
Her next album, “Letting Go,” is a mainstream album. She still considers herself a Christian — she says the Bible has “saved my life” — but remains unconvinced at the often-cited Bible verses condemning homosexuality.
Stith said the way to win a homosexual to Christ is not through arguments but through love and compassion. “What I would want to say to Jennifer and others who may be facing her dilemma in the Christian church is that God really does have a sexual standard,” Stith said. “It is based on His creative intent which is made clear in both the Old and New Testament. He did not put forth this standard to enslave us but rather to free us. When God prohibits something He always has something better for us.” (BP)
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