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Gay Singer Jennifer Knapp Details Her Sexuality, Leaving Christian Music Behind & Why She ‘Tried to Undo’ Her Religion

Sep. 4, 2012 9:36am Billy Hallowell

Ex Christian Singer Jennifer Knapp Discusses Her Sexuality & Music Career

Photo Credit: Jennifer Knapp

A decade ago, Christian singer Jennifer Knapp was riding high with a successful music career, a Grammy nomination and numerous Dove Awards under her belt. But, in 2003, she turned her back on her evangelical fame and virtually disappeared. Years later, Knapp is back — but with a few surprises.

She’s now an out lesbian who, in the minds of many, is starkly different from the girl who once performed and toured with her famed Jesus-inspired tunes. TheBlaze recently interviewed Knapp to discuss her career and her shocking transformation.

KNAPP DISCUSSES HER BACKGROUND & CAREER

The singer explained that she had never aspired to be a rock star. In fact, she said that prior to entering the faith-based music industry, she had little, if any, knowledge about it. Her journey, though accidental, did, indeed, lead her to monumental music success. It wasn’t until Knapp went to college that she was exposed to intense religious adherence.

As a child, she recalls growing up in a somewhat non-religious family. When the singer turned 18, she said she “made a concerted effort” to truly begin exploring Christianity. While she remembers being “really inspired to follow this mystery of Christ,” the singer said that it took her quite a bit of time to figure it all out.

“In evangelical terms, I accepted Christ and then it was like six or eight months before I was deciding about how much I was going to engage in the church community,” she recalled.

Photo Credit: Fairlight Hubbard/JenniferKnapp.com

As this transformation was taking place, Knapp also began exploring her musical talents. Little did she know that her journey would be fast-paced and that it would lead her to heights she never intended to reach.

A fact some may not know about Knapp is that she didn’t come to Christianity with a clean slate (then again, many faithful share a similar experience). She described herself as “a woman of the world” prior to becoming a Jesus follower, and explained that she had “a lot of sexual experience, drank [and] smoked” in the time leading up to her conversion.

“I was all the things that were preached against,” she said.

All that changed, of course, when her career commenced.

Considering her level of fame and this startling decision to leave it all behind back in 2002, naturally, there are many questions worth asking Knapp. Among them: What was her reasoning for quitting her music career?

WHY KNAPP LEFT CHRISTIAN MUSIC BEHIND

While some may assume that her sexuality played a role, Knapp is adamant about proclaiming that this simply wasn’t the case. Instead, she said she found herself exhausted and in need of a break. The exit process wasn’t easy.

“I spent a year trying to extricate myself from Christian music — I had a really tough schedule and I was tired,” she explained, going on to say that she also realized that her unconventional views were creating issues for her career. “Any time that I would express my own theological view in public that didn’t fit the evangelical mold, I was finding it was making my job difficult.”

Photo Credit: Fairlight Hubbard/JenniferKnapp.com

So, Knapp divorced herself from Christian music.

“Nobody does that. It just didn’t make sense to anyone,” she said of her decision. “It took me a year to clear my schedule — and to convince people that I was not going to work again.”

TheBlaze did push her a bit on the homosexuality front, asking her to describe if, at all, the decision to leave faith-based music was based on her realization that she was attracted to women. She maintained that it was not and that other issues forced her to take time away.

“It’s really important to me that the timeline is really well respected, “She explained. “I didn’t leave Christian music because of my sexual orientation.”

KNAPP’S SEXUALITY

In fact, it wasn’t until her late 20s that Knapp recalls starting to have an inkling that she might be a lesbian.

Throughout the majority of her music career, she remained celibate “to avoid [an] appearance of evil.” The music industry experience left her somewhat disconnected, she said, claiming that she “didn’t [even] know how to be friends with people.”

“I didn’t want to exercise a rebellion, but I wanted to sit down and ask myself a hard question,” she said of her sexuality when it came time for her to address it, saying that she wanted to explore the question rather than simply ignoring it.

Unlike other performers who have come out vocally to tell the world about their same-sex attraction, Knapp decided not to make a big announcement. Having already exited the Christian music world, she quietly entered into a relationship with a woman and refrained from touring and album-making. Today, she’s in the same relationship — one that has lasted a decade.

THE SINGER’S CHRISTIAN FAITH IS STILL STRONG

Knapp says she’s still very in-tune with her faith. And, in many ways, she says that she’s able to be more genuine than it was a decade ago. In fact, she called it “more heart-driven and spiritual than some of the efforts I had to make 10 years ago.” Knapp says she’s less concerned with engaging in “traditional” actions to express her faith in Christ.

“I’m still very serious about my faith,” she said. “It really becomes a daily component that you have to walk through — your faith is still your faith.”

Photo Credit: JenniferKnapp.com

But the journey wasn’t easy. Knapp admitted to walking away from her faith briefly to explore herself a bit throughout these monumental transformations and realizations. While she’s never questioned her sexual orientation since accepting it 10 years ago, Knapp said she spent a fair amount of time “trying to undo” her religion.

“Most of my struggle was, ‘how do I deal with a faith community that doesn’t understand me,’” the singer explained. “I wasn’t willing to exchange my value of myself.”

When she first met her partner, Knapp’s Christian friends told her to exit the relationship — something she wasn’t willing to do. This, of course, was challenging for the musician, who described feeling as though she was being asked to “sell” her partner “down the river” simply because she was a lesbian.

KNAPP WEIGHS IN ON THEOLOGY AND HOMOSEXUALITY

Throughout the interview, the singer maintained that her sexuality was part of her very person and that she is doing the right thing — at least by her own standards — in embracing it.

“I’ve never heard an audible voice from the heavens — and you go ahead with as much as you can with your head and your heart,” she said when asked to weigh in on where she believes God stands on same-sex attraction. “There’s a point where I just accepted who I am and that may be right — that may be wrong.”

When asked to explain why so many Christians reject homosexuality, she was candid.

“There are over 34,000 denominations [and] there’s a wide variety in the way people navigate experience and scripture,” she claimed, remaining respectful of the divergent views that people have on the subject.

Below, see a portion of an interview between former CNN host Larry King and Knapp back in 2010:

“The reality is this is the choice,” Knapp maintained, although she said that she “hate[s] using that word. “I am who I am. If God is a God who judges and strikes people of same sex attraction — then he’s going to strike me down. This is the way that I am and now I know what it means to fear God.”

Knapp remains hopeful for Christianity on the whole, as she said she’s looking forward to a day when the church is interested in truly delving into peoples’ unique stories.

“I’m dying to see the church get back to stop throwing people out and start listening to the stories that people are having on a day-to-day basis,” Knapp concluded in her interview with TheBlaze.

Knapp came back on the music scene in 2010 with a non-Christian album called “Letting Go.”

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

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Comments (433)

brandonjawesome
Posted on February 11, 2013 at 3:53am
I’ve been to this site a few times to view an article I find on Google, and every single time I reach the Comments area, I feel pure evil – and not just like teenagers needing to bully people to validate themselves kind of evil. It leaves a pit in my stomach and a sense of fear.

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Johnnywards
Posted on January 19, 2013 at 1:53am
[Hi Blaze. Spied this on the web.]

Control Hollywood, Not Guns!

Instead of gun control, why not Hollywood control?
Gun triggers are touched by fingers. But Hollywood, guided more by profits than OT prophets, poisons the minds that pull the triggers.
Hollywood likes hiding behind the First Amendment more than abiding by the Ten Commandments, one of which says “Thou shalt not kill.”
Even more insidiously, some of the most powerful Hollywood moguls quietly embrace the most unspeakably evil forms of child abuse. Google or Yahoo “The Talmud” which says that Jewish adults are allowed to have sex with children as young as three years old!
Also Google or Yahoo “Pedophilia: The Talmud’s Dirty Secret.” (There are those who even want to normalize and legalize pedophilia! – Google “jewishfaces.com/porn.html.”)
Why do some of us focus only on “mopping up” the aftereffects of Hollywood’s overflowing sex-and-violence “faucet” instead of trying to shut it off? Let’s control the big “guns” of Hollywood – and NOT guns!

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Eastinfection
Posted on September 13, 2012 at 1:04am
Gay christian = oxymoron
Judgmental christian = moron

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dlongatwork
Posted on September 7, 2012 at 9:04am
The term “gay Christian” is an oxymoron. You cannot continue in habitual sin be a Christian.
http://longfortruth.blogspot.com/2012/09/there-is-no-such-thing-as-gay.html

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valleystina
Posted on September 7, 2012 at 7:11am
This is sad news & only broadens my disillusionment. When I 1st started going to Church, I thought that the people there were going to be teaching me what Christianity was all about, only to find out that the people I was looking up to were more lost then me. The 1st church I went to split up. The 2nd Church I went to almost, but managed to keep it together. Seeing this I realized that just because you call yourself a Christian, doesn’t make you a Christian. This news goes to show you that just because you look successful being a Christian, doesn’t mean you are a Christian. I heard of Jennifer, but never cared for her music, maybe this explains why. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a FEW find it. Matthew 7:13-14 I wondered about this scripture for a long time, it seemed everybody was a Christian, but I am finding this scripture to be more true everyday. I will not judge this young lady, but press in, stay close and fix my eyes on Jesus, knowing that I am not immune to the things of this world.

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Metalstr8jckt
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 1:48am
The future: The last surviving male and female on Earth. Both are gay. Human life ends. Birds and bees fly around their corpses.

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Metalstr8jckt
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 1:32am
Her music made no impact on my life. None. in 20 years, she will be alive? In rehab? Still deceived?

Why does she need to tell people she is abnormal? Tell her to tell her family. Just shut up about your personal life. You are more important in your own mind [ grandeur issues? ]

Self promotion to establish an identity with confused girls. That is all this and [ most musicians careers ]

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- Metalstr8jckt
  Posted on September 6, 2012 at 1:36am
  She knows what it means to “fear God?” God help you, if he condemns you lady. You have not got a clue.
  
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Tigerblood24
Posted on September 6, 2012 at 1:22am
As with many confused and frustrated souls—those trying to convince themselves and anyone listening to them that homosexual behavior is moral and licit—they spend their lives in a lie. Pray for them and their families.

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