I’ve never been a fan of either artist, but a lot of people have said over the years that things have gone on behind the scenes that would eventually be exposed, and it looks like now’s the time. In short, he’s been accused of drugging and engaging in nonconsensual sex acts with at least three men (and I bet the number will end up being much, much higher when all is said and done).
(This is not the same Michael Tait who’s better known as Mr. Hands; he died many years ago.)
Al least there were no children involved.
< waits for that shoe to drop >
I definitely hope not.
I’d never hear of him before, but why do I find his politics unsurprising?
Some people will say anything if it fits Their Party Line.
And that brings the total number of professional female impersonators that have been caught sexually abusing people to a staggering…Zero.
I assume everyone in the far right entertainment industry is a sexual predator. Never heard of this guy before, but yeah he did it.
So, not gonna lie, I used to be a Christian evangelist as an adolescent. DC Talk and Newsboys were in HEAVY rotation during my teen years in the 1990s, and I still wake up with their horrible songs in my head on a regular basis (as recently as this week.)
DC Talk was like the New Kids on the Block for Christian girls. Christian rap, and not very good. Then they went full-on alternative grunge for their Jesus Freak album, which was actually quite good from what I recall (Just revisited. Nope. Not good at all. You can see Michael Tate in this video.)
Newsboys was funny as hell, if preachy.
When the toast is burned
And all the milk has turned
And Captain Crunch is waving farewell
When the big one finds you
May this song remind you
That they don’t serve breakfast in Hell
I didn’t realize Michael Tate was a part of their band, though. He wasn’t like the rapper in DC Talk, he was the vocals guy.
This one from the newsboys has been low-key haunting me for a while. It’s about grief and suicide.
I’m an atheist now but I’m always drawn to the music featuring artists wrestling with their faith. I think in that song they come by it honestly.
Anyway this news is probably going to end up being triggering somehow but right now it can wait in line.
I honestly wonder if the Newsboys would have responded the same way if the victims were women. Does their renunciation of him have some "no homo’’ vibes?
Maybe that’s unkind.
But accurate.
DC Talk and Newsboys were pretty much the headliners of the early 90’s.
I saw Michael Tait in 1998 or 1999 when he was just solo. It was a musical festival; I wasn’t there specifically to see him, but as a Christian of the 80’s and 90’s, DC Talk had been huge.
Sad to learn about all this business. I haven’t heard anything about these groups in 20 years or more, though.
He’s not the original singer. They have been through so many iterations, I believe they are a wholly new band now.
I have a close friend who is very plugged into the Christian music industry, he’s a conservative evangelical (anti-Trump) and I’m not sure how that conversation’s gonna go. I mean, he’s not blind to the evils of the world or anything but I don’t know how to explain, this is like, this music is how I coped with my childhood.
Was it Cornerstone? I know I’ve seen Newsboys in concert. I can’t remember if I’ve seen DC Talk in concert. I did go to Cornerstone twice. I remember Jars of Clay.
Yes. He was there alone, not with DC Talk or Newsboys.
Not main stage, either.
I did see Newsboys there, but they had the original singer still. I actually saw MC Hammer there as well one time.
Rewatching “Jesus Freak” it really hammers home how deeply embedded the persecution complex is in Christianity. They truly want to believe that they are special and freakish despite the fact that they are the dominant majority religion in the United States.
I was watching Chris Fleming’s comedy on St. Vincent claiming she’s a freak, he said, “Those aren’t freaks, St. Vincent. Those are attractive people with heavily vetted idiosyncrasies.”
If you went in 1998 it’s entirely possible I was there when you were there. I would have been a freshman or sophomore in high school. Weird.
The best friend I made there was a much older gentleman named Buff whose van was COVERED in conservative Christian bumper stickers, including one that said, “I’m the Christian the LIBERAL MEDIA warned you about” and he was very kind to me, and if he’s still alive is probably all about Christo-fascism right now. Back then, he wrote me a letter to make me feel better about my terrible mother and signed it “Jesus.”
At Cornerstone, looking through the stacks, I ended up finding some lesser-known Christian music I still think about. There was one I had in heavy rotation called Black-Eyed Sceva and another by a band called Dryve. The best comparison I can make is Death Cab. So I still get these weird little earworms, but when you get into the deeper cut stuff, it’s barely recognizeable as Christian, it’s just what you get when someone who happens to be Christian makes music.
I’ve talked to my music friend about this, he widely acknowledges “Christian art” is pretty terrible, but “art made by Christians” something else. And I agree.
I also had Hammer in heavy rotation. On cassette. 
But that’s when I was like, seven.
I have, but only because I have college aged nieces, and so either one of them or my brother had a recent Newsboys shirt a year or so ago. I was surprised they were still around.
DC Talk was never my thing, although it was close enough to things I enjoyed that I heard a fair amount of it (or I had friends who enjoyed it). I loved Newsboys first or maybe second album, and then I graduated college and my investment in Christian Music fell off.
I guess I fell like I should be sad/angry about the news, but . . . there’s too much else going on. And my investment in Christian Music was a long time ago.
If you have to brand yourself as “Christian” to sell your work, that’s because you’re not selling it any other way. Good Christian artists just brand themselves as artists.
I attended a conference once called “Why Christian Music Sucks”.
The gist was:
There are a good amount of talented artists that would have had success in the “secular” world and some do label themselves as a “Christian” band/artist.
It is worth pointing out that DC Talk, one of Tait’s bands, was more or less put together by a studio or producer. We did not know this at the time, but the band-mates were friendly acquaintances at best, not real life friends who formed a group. It was not a naturally created band, like Metallica or Pearl Jam.
Newsboys probably was, but by the time Tait was in the group, it was more like when one famous singer joined another pre-existing famous band. Natural, but “supergroup” style.