On Monday, June 23, Matt Hammitt, former lead singer of the award-winning band Sanctus Real, defended the Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) industry despite the recent sexual abuse allegations against Michael Tait.
“In light of recent news, I felt compelled to share a few thoughts about my experience in the Christian music industry,” Hammitt wrote on Instagram.
On Jan. 16, Michael Tait abruptly announced that he was leaving the popular Christian band Newsboys. 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.
“I just can’t escape this pull, this feeling, that I should say something about what’s happened in the Christian music industry over the past couple of weeks,” Hammitt told his social media followers.
Hammitt explained, “Some of the news that’s come out about moral failure and people who’ve been hurt, and my initial reaction is probably really similar to many people out there, which is heartbreak and sadness over what I’ve seen.”
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“But on the heels of that, I’ve also seen some people trickling through my feed who are kind of trashing Christian music as a whole, people who are saying there’s tons of artists living double lives,” said Hammitt. “I even saw a headline from someone saying they hope the entire Christian music industry crumbles,” which “is just totally ridiculous.”
“Every genre, every business, every industry, every church, every organization that has humans will have people fail,” Hammitt continued. “That’s not an excuse for what happened.”
“But what I want to say is that I’ve been in this industry for 25 years,” he added. “I have close community with a lot of people in this industry, and along the way, I’ve seen a handful of people fail.”
“I’ve seen people go through dark seasons where God has restored them,” he continued, “but the majority of people I have known all along the way love God, love people, got into this for the right reasons, and continue to pursue, to live what they preach.”
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