Tenth Avenue North founder Mike Donehey posted a video on social media speaking out against those who are claiming the Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) industry should be burnt to the ground following the news of Michael Tait’s double life.
On Jan. 16, Tait abruptly announced that he was leaving the popular Christian band Newsboys, where he was the lead singer. Since then, he has been accused of grooming, sexually assaulting, and drugging young men—including minors—as well as of watching a young woman be raped in 2014.
Tait was also a member of DC Talk, a band that has been on hiatus since 2000.
Donehey shared that he created his video after being inspired by what Sanctus Real’s former lead singer Matt Hammitt said on Monday, June 23.
Tenth Avenue North was awarded the Gospel Music Association’s (GMA) New Artist of the Year in 2009 and toured with Newsboys on Winter Jam in 2010 and 2014 when Tait was the lead singer.
“I’ve been in the CCM industry since 2007 when my band got signed, and I’ve seen a lot of good and some not so good,” Donehey said. “And when blow ups happen, there seems to be two radical responses.”
One response, Donehey explained, is people claiming that those in the CCM industry are “all a bunch of lying snakes [who are] in it for the money, [so] let’s burn this thing to the ground.”
The other response, Donehey pointed out, is when people display “defiant defensiveness” and say, “Hey, who are we to judge? God uses broken people.”
“Consequence and condemnation are two different things,” Donehey continued. “We can hold people liable for their actions, but they would experience the consequence of those actions, while [we are] not condemning them.”
“That’s why we have to forgive everyone, not so that we look over what they’ve done, but so that we can see it rightly,” he said.
“When we forgive, we’re no longer looking for vengeance; we’re looking for proper justice,” Donehey added.
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