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The Guardian
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘He stole a piece of our souls': Christian music star Michael Tait accused of sexual assault by three men
The Christian music legend Michael Tait, whose hit song God's Not Dead became an anthem for Donald Trump's Maga movement, has been accused of sexually assaulting three men, two who believed they were drugged by the rock star in the early 2000s, according to a months-long Guardian investigation. Four other men have alleged that Tait, a founding member of DC Talk and later a frontman for the Newsboys, engaged in inappropriate behavior such as unwatched touching and sexual advances. The Guardian is publishing these allegations days after Tait posted an extraordinary confession on his Instagram account, admitting that for 20 years he had been 'leading a double life', abusing alcohol and cocaine, 'and, at times, touched men in an unwanted sensual way', according to his statement. The statement appears to be a response to a separate report published earlier this month by the Christian media outlet, The Roys Report, which also investigated Tait and revealed similar allegations of drug use and sexual assault against young, male musicians. In the Instagram statement, Tait wrote: 'I am ashamed of my life choices and actions and make no excuses for them. I will simply call it what God calls it – sin.' He added: 'While I might dispute certain details in the accusations against me, I do not dispute the substance of them.' 'Even before this recent news became public, I had started on a path to health, healing, and wholeness … I accept the consequences of my sin and am committed to continuing the hard work of repentance and healing – work [which] I will do quietly and privately, away from the stage and the spotlight.' The allegations about Tait's behavior revealed today starkly contrast the public image that Tait cultivated for nearly four decades. The 59-year-old native of Washington DC, sold 18m albums, containing songs that often encouraged young Christians to stay sober, abstinent and straight. But sources who spoke to the Guardian claimed Tait's alleged drug use and alleged abusive behavior were the 'biggest open secret in Christian music'. The Guardian has interviewed 25 people in the Christian music industry, most of whom say they had prior knowledge of allegations that Tait had engaged in abusive behavior. The men who have come forward and shared their alleged experiences – two agreeing to go on the record with their names, while the rest spoke on the condition of anonymity – were aged 13 to 29 at the time of their alleged experiences. All grew up in evangelical churches where Tait's music was the premier soundtrack of their youth groups, summer camps and mission trips. Having taken the message of Tait's songs to heart, they were naive about sex and drugs throughout their youth. All were starstruck when meeting their childhood hero, but quickly saw their image of him as a role model of Christian piety dissolve, as they were taken on a bumpy ride of rock and roll debauchery. Shawn Davis, who was a lifelong fan and troubled youth who had immersed himself in Christian music, claims Tait pushed him to consume alcohol and cocaine on multiple occasions. He also says he believes Tait once secretly drugged him and then molested him in 2003, while he was still a minor. 'This man destroyed my life,' Davis now claims. Gabriel (not his real name) also claims Tait pushed him to consume alcohol and cocaine before asking to join him in a hot-tub in 2003, where he claims Tait repeatedly groped his penis while attempting to kiss him. 'To this day I jump whenever someone touches me unexpectedly,' Gabriel says. 'When something like that happens to you, you feel like the worst person, you feel dirty, worthless. It's heartbreaking to think someone you look up to could do something like that.' Adam (not his real name) claims he believes he was drugged by the singer while he was visiting Tait's home in Nashville, and later woke up to find Tait allegedly molesting him. 'This person has stolen a little piece of our souls,' he says. Tait did not respond to the Guardian's questions about the allegations contained in this report. Over the last 38 years, Tait has emerged as one of the most iconic names in Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). The genre and industry often exists in its own commercial and cultural ecosystem – yet mimics popular trends of mainstream music – creating multi-platinum superstars that are marketed to teens (and their parents) as wholesome alternatives to the 'sinful lifestyles' of mainstream rock stars. Tait was one-third of the rap-rock group, DC Talk, which formed in 1987 while its members were attending the evangelical Liberty University, whose founder, Jerry Falwell, launched the Moral Majority, the political organization that first galvanized evangelical voters around the Republican party in 1980, forever changing the American political landscape. Falwell was a mentor to young Tait – who he referred to as 'my white daddy' – and helped boost DC Talk to stardom. Blending MTV aesthetics with Christian right talking points, DC Talk instructed generations of teens to stand against the liberalism of the Clinton era, namely abortion rights and sex education. Songs like I Don't Want It (a rebuttal to George Michael's I Want Your Sex), That Kind Of Girl, and The Children Can Live, shaped the moral landscape of a generation of young evangelicals, mandating sexual purity until marriage. 'They used the sounds often associated with teen sexuality – like hip-hop, rock and pop music – to combat teen sexuality and adolescent desire,' says Leah Payne, author of the book God Gave Rock and Roll To You, an academic critique of CCM history. 'In 1994 the True Love Waits organization asked DC Talk to perform at their concert on the National Mall promoting virginity among young evangelicals, which resulted in the signing of 200,000 chastity pledges by the teenage fans.' In 1995, their Nirvana-flavored smash hit, Jesus Freak, championed being a social outcast for the Lord's sake; a book companion to the album celebrated the violent histories of Christian martyrs around the world, encouraging young people to follow in their footsteps. The fight for Christian nationalism was also a premier theme of DC Talk's music – as well as the book Under God, co-authored by Tait – claiming the US is suffering a collapse of moral values because of the secularization of government and public schools. This was underscored with frightening urgency by their songs warning of the coming rapture. As recently as 2021, Tait warned: 'I believe we are living in the last days [before the rapture].' The CCM industry has been primarily headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, where Tait and most of his colleagues work and live. While it is not affiliated with the country music scene of Nashville, it typically shares the same conservative politics. While DC Talk addressed racism in several songs – with Tait as the sole Black man performing with two white guys (one of whom rapped) – their narrative typically placed racism as an unfortunate touchstone of the past that the US must repent for, but never as a contemporary, systemic problem. DC Talk went on a hiatus in 2000 and for nearly a decade Tait performed as a solo artist until he became the frontman of the legendary CCM supergroup, Newsboys. In 2011, their rock song, God's Not Dead, became a rallying cry for disaffected evangelicals in the Obama-era. In 2014, Tait and Newsboys appeared in God's Not Dead, a movie centered around the fictional story of an atheist college professor who threatens to fail his students if they refuse to sign a form declaring 'God Is Dead.' Tait would make an appearance in four subsequent sequels, becoming a recognizable face in the fight against perceived anti-Christian discrimination, a central theme of Donald Trump's presidential campaigns. Tait endorsed Ted Cruz in 2016, but shifted his allegiance to Trump after the Florida pastor Paula White – chair of the evangelical advisory board for Trump's 2016 campaign and leader of the White House Faith office in 2024 – invited him to pray over Trump before a Florida campaign stop. Tait soon became a key bridge between the candidate and white evangelical voters. Newsboys performed for Trump at the White House in 2019, and the following year Tait sang at evangelical 'Let Us Worship' events, which were centered around the false claim that President Joe Biden was using Covid lockdowns to repress church attendance in America. 'I love you, I support you, and I'm one of the growing number of African Americans who love you,' Tait said in a 2019 video praising Trump's efforts at prison reform, before adding 'I'm looking forward to hanging out, and eating some Big Macs!' On 5 January 2021, Newsboys' God's Not Dead was sung in unison by the 'Jericho March' at the US Capitol, the event that preceded the violent insurrection on the US Capitol the following day. The Guardian's investigation has revealed an alleged pattern of manipulative behavior by Tait. Most of the alleged incidents described in this article are alleged to have occurred between 2001 and 2009. Young and sometimes naive male musicians say they believe they were targeted by the star, with Tait allegedly dangling the possibility of career or artistic opportunities before them and then cutting off all contact once it became clear that sex was off the table. According to four people who were interviewed, some of them on the condition of anonymity, Tait would allegedly invite them to parties at his house in Nashville, encouraging them to drink alcohol and use drugs before making sexual advances. Two of the men who spoke to the Guardian claim they believe they were secretly drugged, which left them floating in and out of consciousness, unable to consent to sexual acts. They claim Tait assaulted them by touching them sexually without their permission. Three others claim they awkwardly rebuffed his advances and left. 'I wore out my Jesus Freak CD as a kid, and so when I met him I was starstruck,' recalls Gabriel, who was 19 when he was introduced to 38-year-old Tait in 2004. 'And then he started calling me to hang out, it was just crazy.' Gabriel was ambitious to become a CCM musician, and now his childhood hero was inviting him out to bars, buying him drinks even though he was underage and taking him to parties at his home in Nashville. Tait often mentioned the possibility of them jamming together, but that never materialized. Gabriel felt a little uncomfortable at first when Tait would rub a hand on his shoulder and constantly hug him, but attributed the feeling to the fact that he had been abused a few years earlier by a serial child molester. In fact, Gabriel was testifying in a court case about that incident during this same time, an emotionally taxing experience that he confided in Tait about. 'He was very sympathetic,' Gabriel says, 'and then he betrayed that trust'. Tait started inviting Gabriel over alone, when the house was empty. When Tait introduced him to cocaine, 'it was a huge shock,' Gabriel says, partially because he had no experience with drugs, and because it was being served by the man whose music informed his moral universe. 'But I was too excited to be there, and didn't want to screw up this opportunity.' The two used cocaine together a number of times over the next few weeks. One night, while they both were high on the drug, along with a couple of Vodka and Red Bulls, Tait proposed they jump in the hot tub. It was there that Tait unexpectedly 'grabbed my crotch and tried to kiss me at the same time,' Gabriel claims. 'It wasn't subtle, and it was out of nowhere. I asked him 'what the hell is going on?' He said he was just joking, but then he did it again. I jumped out of the pool and drove home, which I shouldn't have done because I was more intoxicated than I've ever been, but that's how scared I was.' Gabriel didn't tell anyone for 15 years, when he confided about it to the same friend who had introduced him to Tait, Shawn Davis. Shocked, Davis told him he had his own bad experience. Davis says he was 16 when he met 37-year-old Tait in 2003 at a Nashville party that was loaded with mainstream celebrities. But Davis's attention remained only on his childhood idol, Michael Tait. A mutual friend introduced them, and Tait took down his number, calling Davis to hang out a few days later. 'DC Talk were my heroes in a lot of ways,' Davis recalls. 'They were Christians, but they rocked out, and I thought that was so cool.' Looking back, both Davis and Gabriel realized that while they spent time together with Tait at bars and parties, at some point they were only invited to his house separately and alone, which began when he allegedly introduced them to cocaine. According to Davis's claims, months passed with Davis and Tait hitting the Nashville bars (Tait was able to get Davis, a teenager, drinks), before going back to Tait's house to smoke weed and cigarettes, snort coke along with the opioid Lortab, which Tait would crush into a powder. Like Gabriel, Davis confided to Tait that he had been molested when he was eight years old. 'Tait made me feel like, and seem like, he was my only friend.' Davis says that Tait always mixed their drinks, and claims he often felt pressured to drink heavily. One night he recalls the drink tasting strange, and Tait insisting he finish it. 'Suddenly, I felt super sick, dizzy, nauseous, going in and out of consciousness,' he says. 'I woke up in the closet, and he had my pants down, and was giving me a blowjob. I pushed him off as best as I was able in that state, but he pushed me down, and then I punched him twice and left.' Davis said he believed he was drugged by Tait. He was 17 at the time. In the months that followed, Davis claims, Tait aggressively pursued a reconciliation. 'He was relentlessly love bombing me, trying to talk his way back in the door,' alleges Davis. 'He apologized to me for what happened, but never got into specifics, it was more of a broad statement.' Davis was attempting to get a CCM label off the ground, and forgave Tait's behavior with the hope that he would help him get a foothold in the industry. He claims that 'Tait had convinced me that what happened that night was my fault, he was very manipulative. And I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.' All of this came to a head one night in 2012, when Davis was in Tait's kitchen, and Tait texted him from his bedroom, sending him a picture of what Tait described as $5,000 in cash. 'He said something to the effect of 'this could be yours if you let me suck you off and cum in your ass,' Davis claims. After that, Davis called his mother and asked her to quickly come pick him up; Davis snuck out quietly without alerting Tait. On the drive home, Davis says he told her everything he had allegedly experienced with Tait. He and Tait never spoke again. Davis's mother, and a friend he had confided in at the time, confirmed the details reported in this story. Davis has had one run-in with the law. When he was a teenager he stole his mother's debit card to rent a limo for prom. He got probation but was then found guilty of violating his probation in connection to drug use, which occurred at a time when he was friends with Tait. He served about five months in prison. He is now married, has a 12-year-old son and owns his own construction company in Nashville. Both Davis and Gabriel express regret today for not speaking up sooner, believing they could have prevented other people from suffering the same experience. At the time, they each thought their experiences were isolated incidents. Another young man who got to know Tait, Abraham (not his real name) claims Tait rubbed his thigh and caressed his ear minutes after meeting for lunch in 2006. Abraham was a 22-year-old musician in an up and coming band. 'He said 'at Liberty University, we weren't allowed to let our hair touch our ears,' and then he brushed my hair back with his hand, which was weird,' Abraham recalled. Zach (not his real name) was a 29-year-old aspiring DJ with little experience when, he claims, Tait invited him to his house after they met in a Nashville dance club in the summer of 2008. 'He was doing a solo tour and said: 'What we need is a DJ who can come on the road with us,'' Zach alleges. 'And I asked: 'That would be so cool! What would I need to do?' And he said: 'You need to hang out, come around [my house] a lot.'' But when Zach arrived at his house, and was brought to Tait's studio, he noticed the only furniture in the room was a bed, and Tait kept encouraging Zach to sit close to him. 'I was a virgin until I was 37,' Zach recalls. 'And I'd always thought to myself 'Michael Tait's been single his whole life, and if he can hold out so can I.'' Feeling uncomfortable, Zach made up an excuse to leave early. Afterward, he sent Tait several messages to follow up on the DJ opportunity, but Tait never replied. Adam (not his real name) was another young and ambitious musician in a Christian rock band that was slowly gaining steam in 2004 when he met Tait in Nashville. The 22-year-old was ecstatic when Tait texted him a few days later, inviting him out for some bar hopping. 'Tait was like the Christian Elvis, the GOAT,' Adam recalls. Adam was dropped off at the bar to meet Tait by some friends, one of whom said 'don't get molested!' as he was exiting the car, a comment he found strange but dismissed. A wild night out concluded at Tait's home, where Adam was awed by 'his trophy room, where he keeps all his Dove Awards, Grammys and other accolades'. At one point they needed to buy more booze, and Tait showed him his collection of cars in the garage, telling him to 'pick one'. Adam selected a white MG convertible. It was nearly dawn when they got back to Tait's house, which was empty but for the two of them. They drank more, and Adam recalls suddenly feeling profoundly sleepy. That's when, Adam says, Tait told him, ''It's ok, just go to sleep,' and then he laid my head on his lap.' Adam's next memory of that night is 'waking up in his bed, my pants unzipped, and [Tait] was jerking me off. I passed out again, then woke up, wondering 'what the fuck is happening?' I went to the bathroom and had a panic attack, asking myself, 'Am I supposed to go there and beat him up? Or am I supposed to play it cool?'' Like Davis and Gabriel, Adam had been abused as a child. 'It made me a lot more insecure, wondering 'Why me? Am I weak? Too innocent? Was this my fault?' I didn't ask for this, I was just hanging out with a superstar.' Adam says he believes Tait drugged him that night. He shared the story with his girlfriend at the time, and a couple of fellow musicians who were close with Tait, and recalls that 'some of them stopped hanging out with me after that, which hurt, and made me afraid.' A close friend of Adam at the time confirmed to the Guardian that Adam told him about what he says happened. Many sources we spoke with also feared reprisal, and would only speak on the condition of anonymity. Several people who were interviewed said they recall Tait stripping down to his underwear or naked at parties and backstage of a concert, often exposing himself to young musicians touring as his opening act. Jacob (not his real name) was a 21-year-old musician when he met 40-year-old Tait in the winter of 2004. The two were both performing at a church concert, and Tait invited Jacob to fly out to Nashville and stay a few nights at the home of his childhood hero. Once there, Jacob was surprised at the amount of cigarettes and alcohol Tait and his friends consumed, as he had never had a drink in his life. One night, the two of them alone in Tait's kitchen, Jacob claims, 'Tait somehow brought up that he had a huge urethra. And then he just whipped it out and showed it to me.' Jacob had been sleeping on the floor of Tait's house, as he didn't have a spare bed, and when Tait offered to share his king-sized bed with him, Jacob didn't think anything of it, as this wasn't uncommon among touring musicians. He wasn't sure what to think of the massages Tait kept giving him, in the hot tub earlier that night, and then in his bed. When Tait's hands 'moved lower and lower and lower, until he was massaging my butt-cheeks, I didn't know what to do, because I looked up to him, and didn't want to make him mad'. Jacob tried his best to delicately rebuff Tait's advances, saying, ''Hey man, I'm not into that.' Tait said OK and went to sleep.' (Jacob's girlfriend at the time, who is now his wife, corroborated the details of his story, which he shared with her at the time.) Israel Anthem was only 13 when Tait allegedly exposed his penis to him in 2001. Anthem descended from the Rambo family, who were legends in the field of gospel music. His grandmother, Dottie Rambo (whose songs had been recorded by Elvis, Johnny Cash, and many more), was being honored with a lifetime achievement award, and the members of DC Talk were in attendance. Anthem and his family took pictures with the band, and a few weeks later they were eating in a Nashville restaurant when 'Michael walked in, and came by our table to say hi.' Anthem was 'a huge, lifelong DC Talk fan', he recalls. 'Some kids sleep with Teddy Bears, I slept with DC Talk cassettes.' He says he was stoked when the two happened to be in the restaurant bathroom at the same time later that night, sharing side-by-side urinals. 'He was still at the urinal when I was washing my hands, and as we were talking [about a CD that had just come out] I noticed his penis was out, and he was facing me, turned away from the urinal. I thought he was putting his penis away, but then he was rubbing his penis, and making eye contact, while I was talking.' Anthem recalls this lasting anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds, with Tait 'visibly aroused' and 'fondling himself'. Back at the table, a family member recalls, Anthem looked 'white as a ghost, absolutely terrified.' Anthem later described the alleged bathroom incident to that family member, who corroborated his story to the Guardian. Tait's career was on a stable trajectory until January of this year. Last Christmas he made his debut at the Grand Ole Opry, and the previous Christmas he played Carnegie Hall with Amy Grant and others. That all came to a halt on 15 January, when host of the Yass, Jesus podcast, Azariah Southworth, claimed Tait was gay in a viral TikTok video that received over 250,000 views before it was removed for violation of TikTok guidelines. 'I felt he was fair game,' Southworth says. 'Some people disagreed with the ethics of [outing someone against their will], but this deserved to be said out loud. Keeping quiet would allow a false narrative to continue, fueling a movement that is hurting myself, as a gay man, and my trans brothers and sisters.' Southworth – who grew up in a strict evangelical household, and was traumatized by five years of 'conversion therapy' – was the host of a Christian reality TV show in 2004-05 that featured Tait. During that time, he claims to have seen Tait gambling, smoking and cursing, behavior that would've scandalized Christian audiences. Within days of Southworth publishing his video, Tait announced in a social media post that 'it is time [I] step down from Newsboys,' offering fans little explanation as to why. Shortly after this, the remaining members of Newsboys released a statement addressing the allegations, insisting that it was only last January when 'Michael confessed to us and our management that he 'had been living a double-life,'' the band wrote, adding: 'But we never imagined that it could be this bad … Our hearts are with the victims who have bravely shared their stories.' In the closing of Tait's 'confession' on Tuesday, he offers understanding to those who lost 'respect, faith and trust in me', later citing the story of King David's prayer for forgiveness after he had committed adultery and murder. Though he is quick to add that 'it crushes me to think that someone would lose or choose not to pursue faith because I have been such a horrible representative of him.' This was Gabriel's experience, saying he had 'blamed God' for the trauma he allegedly endured that night. 'Tait was presented as the pinnacle of godliness,' he says, trembling with tears in his eyes. 'I get that all people sin, but to use the facade of his righteousness to commit sin, that made me walk away from my faith for a while. He took something from me I'll never get back. In time, though, I found my own may back to God.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Christian singer Michael Tait admits to making 'unwanted sensual' advances towards men
Just days after a bombshell report claimed Christian singer Michael Tait had engaged in sexual assault, substance abuse and grooming for the past 20 years, he admitted the allegations were true. Tait, 59, started his musical career as a founding member of the group DC Talk with Toby McKeehan and Kevin Max in the 1980s and 1990s, before becoming the lead singer of The Newsboys in 2009. He announced in mid-January his departure from the group, which he cryptically said was a decision he, 'did not make likely and has been a shock to even myself.' Last week, The Roys Report released a shocking report - the culmination of a two and a half year investigation - accusing him of sexual assault, grooming and substance abuse with alcohol and cocaine going back more than 20 years. Tait had not addressed the allegations - nor had he even posted to his 139K followers on Instagram since his January announcement of leaving The Newsboys - until Tuesday. He released a lengthy statement on Instagram Tuesday, entitled My Confession, where he all but confirmed the report. 'Recent reports of my reckless and destructive behavior, including drug and alcohol abuse and sexual activity, are sadly, largely, true,' Tait began. 'For some two decades I used and abused cocaine, consumed far too much alcohol, and, at times, touched men in an unwanted sensual way,' Tait added. 'I am ashamed of my life choices and actions, and make no excuses for them. I will simply call it what God calls it — sin. I don't blame anyone or anything but myself,' Tait said. Tait added that he, 'might dispute certain details in the allegations against me, I do not dispute the substance of them.' He admitted that his abrupt departure from The Newsboys in January was done so he could, 'get help,' adding he was not healthy, 'physically or spiritually,' adding he was, 'tired of living a double life.' 'I spent six weeks at a treatment center in Utah, receiving help that may have saved my life from ultimate destruction,' he said, adding he has been 'sober ever since,' though he acknowledged, 'I still have lots of hard work left ahead of me.' 'I'm ashamed to admit that for years I have lied and deceived my family, friends, fans and even misled my bandmates about aspects of my life,' he admitted. 'I was, for the most part, living two distinctly different lives. I was not the same person on stage Sunday night that I was at home on Monday,' Tait continued. 'I was violating everything I was raised to believe by my God-fearing Dad and Mom, about walking with Jesus and was grieving the very God I loved and sang about for most of my life,' the singer added. 'By his grace, I can say that for the past six months, I have lived a singular life - one of utter brokenness and total dependance on a loving and merciful God,' he said. 'I have hurt so many people in so many ways, and I will live with that shameful reality the rest of my life. I can only dream and pray for human forgiveness, because I certainly don't deserve it,' Tait said. 'I have even accepted the thought that God may be the only One who ultimately and completely forgives me. Still, I want to say I'm sorry to everyone I have hurt. I am truly sorry,' Tait admitted. 'It is my hope and prayer that all those I have hurt will receive healing, mercy and hope from the Merciful Healer and Hope-Giver,' Tate continued. He added that even before the reports of his behavior become public, he had, 'started on a path to health, healing, and wholeness,' 'with the help of a 'small circle' of friends, family and health professionals who, 'saw my brokenness and surrounded me with love, grace, and prayer.' 'Sin is a terrible thing, taking us where we don't want to go, keeping us longer than we wanted to stay, and costing us more than we want to pay,' he said. The singer added, 'I accept the consequences of my sin and am committed to continuing the hard work of repentance and healing-work I will do quietly and privately, away from the stage and the spotlight.' 'To the extent my sinful behavior has caused anyone to lose respect or faith or trust in me, I understand, deserve, and accept that,' Tait admitted. 'But it crushes me to think that someone would lose or choose not to pursue faith and trust in Jesus because I have been a horrible representative of Him-for He alone is ultimately the only hope for any of us,' he said. He concluded the post with, 'King David's prayer of repentance in Psalm 51,' which he said has been his prayer this year, which reads, 'Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness... blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and sin is always before me... Create me in a new heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.'
