I've never been much of a fan of Lauren Daigle's music, but to be fair, I fastidiously avoid almost all "Christian Music."
Though Daigle is undeniably talented vocally, her unmistakable singing similarities to Adele always struck me as a bit derivative.
That being said, I was intrigued by her recent comments on no longer being able or willing to say that homosexuality is a sin - due to the fact that there are people she loves who are homosexuals and she is not God. (I read about it on CBN's website, but there's NO WAY I'm linking to them from my blog, sorry.)
At first blush, I was disappointed. I wished she had been able to be fully affirming of LGBTQ people. As a straight white person, I share her privileged position of not having my humanity questioned by moralizers, and to me it felt like her not being affirming was a missed opportunity by someone in that kind of privileged position.
However, I then thought back to the fear and cognitive dissonance I felt when my beliefs and convictions on this subject matter began to grow and evolve while I was still inside the cloistered Fundagelical world.
Though I was in a position of leadership, I didn't have anything even remotely resembling the public persona that Lauren Daigle does - and I knew all too well how truly terribly the Fundagelical boundary police often conduct themselves.
I won't be surprised at all if major corporate interests in Contemporary Christian Music Industry seek to severely punish Lauren financially. CD and record burning parties and vitriolic character assassination wouldn't surprise me in the least.
As a veteran of the CCM industry, Daigle knew full well that she was risking a backlash, and yet she had enough courage and integrity to be forthright about where she currently finds herself in her pursuit of truth as regards LGBTQ.
Sure, Lauren Daigle's recent statement might not be as fully fledged of a statement of support of LGBTQ people as I'd have preferred. However, it is evidence of someone willing to wrestle with their faith out of a desire to have intellectual integrity; someone who isn't content to settle for what Fundagelicalism takes as a given and often demands rigid adherence to. Doing so runs counter to the Fundagelical rip current, and anyone willing to go against that powerful of flow should be commended.
