Skillet’s John Cooper Calls for ‘Reform in the Christian Music Industry’ Following Michael Tait Scandal

During a recent episode of the “Cooper Stuff” podcast, John Cooper of award-winning Christian rock group Skillet called for “reform in the Christian music industry.”

Cooper’s comments came in reference to the scandal surrounding former DC Talk member and Newsboys frontman Michael Tait.

The “Legendary” rocker titled his Monday episode, “Michael Tait, Christian Music, and The Gospel That Doesn’t Look The Other Way,” and he didn’t shy away from confronting the egregious nature of the recent reports regarding Tait.

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Explaining the situation, Cooper said that he considers DC Talk to be “the Beatles of Christian music.” Cooper expressed that the allegations against Tait are “hard to hear” and said the podcast episode would be “intense.”

He continued:

And we’re going to have to be real…This is not happy times. This is going to be very painful for a lot of you to hear, especially if you love Christian music, if you love the gospel. The way the world sees us as believers, our testimony to the world, is at stake. If you love Christian music and you think that it matters and that it is a wonderful vehicle to share the love of Christ and the fact that God sent his Son Jesus to redeem the world and that Christian music is a vehicle to do that—to tell people about the hope we have in Christ Jesus—if you think that matters, this is going to be tough for you to hear. It’s going to be tough for me to talk about.

Cooper said that his focus is those “who have been victimized, allegedly abused, sexually assaulted by Michael Tait.” Cooper described Tait’s reported actions as “very dark” and said that the survivors who have “spoken up” need to be “prioritized.”

Cooper, who is also a board member at Ascent Church in Nashville, Tennessee, shared that he believes people are “skipping some steps” and that it is “improper to jump straight to [a mentality of] we’ve got to be loving, we’re all sinners, we’ve all fallen short, and we can’t bring judgment.”

“I’m trying to be hard nosed, not by any means,” Cooper continued. “Yes, we’re all sinners. There’s a time for that, and there’s a bucket for that. That is a category that we will get to, but there are categories on the front of this that we cannot skip.”

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After sharing graphic details of Tait’s alleged sexual abuse (which can be read about here, here, and here), Cooper said, “This stuff is so egregious, and it shames the gospel to such a huge level.”

“Now you might say, ‘Yeah, but they’re alleged,’” Cooper said, but he pointed out that Tait confessed to living a “double life” and that he “touched men in an unwanted sensual way.”

“I want to give credit where credit is due. I appreciate that Michael gave the confession with all my heart…it was written very well, and he didn’t make excuses,” Cooper added. “And I champion that. At the same time, to be fair, he gave the confession after it blew up, knowing that it was going to be blowing up.”