I hear a dissonance in what I call “the Amy Grant situation.” I open my copy of TODAY’S CHRISTIAN WOMAN and there she is on the inside back cover, captured in a moment of hilarity sitting cozily in front of a fireplace, selling us her latest Christmas CD. I open MARRIAGE PARTNERSHIP magazine (“marriage”/”partnership”—get it?) and there she is on the inside front cover promoting her Christmas tour. I open a catalog from a Christian retail chain, and there she is again—ever smiling, ever promoted.
Circle of Protection LogoAt a White House meeting with Christian leaders, President Obama endorsed the goal of reducing the federal deficit without harming those most in need. The leaders represented the Circle of Protection, a diverse, non-partisan coalition that represents evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Catholics, and other Christian groups.“The President embraced the principle that as we work on deficit reduction the poor should be protected,” said National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) vice president Galen Carey, who attended the meeting.The meeting with Obama came after several meetings between the Circle and high level White House staff. Those meetings included discussions of specific policies, but the Circle wanted to meet with the President because they wanted him to better articulate the need to protect programs for those in poverty. The 40 minute meeting Wednesday afternoon included only a dozen of the members of the Circle. Evangelicals in attendance included the NAE’s Carey, Salvation Army national commander William Roberts, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference president Samuel Rodriguez, and Sojourners president Jim Wallis (see full list at the end of this post).For Rodriguez, the timing of the meeting was “divinely ordained.” The meeting was announced on Monday. On Tuesday, the so-called “Gang of Six” in the Senate announced that there had been a breakthrough in bipartisan negotiations over the debt limit and the deficit. Their proposal would reduce the deficit by .7 trillion over the next ten years. The plan includes both spending cuts and increases in tax revenue. The President met with the Circle on Wednesday. After a discussion and a prayer, Obama left the meeting to attend meetings with congressional leaders on the budget. According to Rodriguez, the Circle expects to hold a public event with the President in the future.During the meeting, Obama mentioned that congressional leaders are supportive of protecting the poor in the abstract. The devil is in the details, so to speak. The NAE’s Carey said one example is the Food for Peace Act (previously known as P.L. 480) programs administered by the Department of Agriculture and USAID. A reduction in these programs, said Carey, means that there would be less food for the poorest in the world.“It is important to magnify our message to the President with thousands of citizens across the country” Wallis said. “Our political leaders need to hear from those who will be affected by these proposed spending cuts—real people who are struggling, some of whom are poor; families, children, and the elderly.”The Circle of Protection includes Christian leaders on the left, the right, and the middle. Many disagree with the President on other issues, such as abortion or social issues. The cause that unites those in the Circle of Protection is the protection of those most vulnerable to government cuts. Those who belong to the group issued a joint statement, saying, “As Christian leaders, we are committed to fiscal responsibility and shared sacrifice. We are also committed to resist budget cuts that undermine the lives, dignity, and rights of poor and vulnerable people. Therefore, we join with others to form a circle of protection around programs that meet the essential needs of hungry and poor people at home and abroad.” In addition to the official signatories, over 4,000 pastors have agreed with the goals of the Circle of Protection. Sojourners and Faith in Public Life placed an ad in Politico. The ad was an open letter to Congress and the President to “listen to your pastors.”Representatives from the group say that they want to meet with all congressional leaders. The group has asked to meet with House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R–Ky.), but to date, they have not been able to discuss their message with these leaders. List of Circle of Protection representatives attending the White House meeting:David BeckmannPresident, Bread for the WorldGalen CareyVice President, Government Relations, National Association of EvangelicalsJohn CarrExecutive Director, Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development, U. S. Conference of Catholic BishopsAmbassador Tony HallExecutive Director, Alliance to End HungerBishop Mark S. HansonPresiding Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in AmericaMichael LivingstonDirector, Poverty Initiative, National Council of Churches of ChristBishop Ricardo RamirezBishop of Las Cruces, U.S. Conference of Catholic BishopsCommissioner William A. RobertsNational Commander, The Salvation ArmySamuel RodriguezPresident, National Hispanic Christian Leadership ConferenceStephen J. ThurstonPresident, National Baptist Convention of AmericaJim WallisPresident and CEO, SojournersBarbara Williams-SkinnerCo-facilitator, National African American Clergy Network
The Chicago Tribune (Dec. 11) described the “Amy Grant Christmas” tour as “a wonderland of religious carols … and a heaping portion of vintage schmaltz.”
These images trouble me. The recent news stories about the breakup of Grant’s 16-year marriage to Gary Chapman coupled with the stories about her new (but long-suspected) boyfriend, Vince Gill, whose 17-year marriage ended in 1997, should give us all pause. But neither Grant nor the Christian marketing industry, in promoting her concerts and albums, has missed a beat.
There was no adultery that caused the breakup of the marriages, she assures us. By adultery she means sexual contact. There were, it seems, other intimate exchanges between Grant and Gill sufficient to bring down the Gills’ marriage. According to People (Nov. 29, 1999), Gill’s wife Janis found a note—”I love you, Amy”—in her husband’s golf bag. (Through an assistant, Grant declined my two requests for an interview that could provide any missing context.) “That was the beginning of the end,” says Janis Gill’s sister, Kristine Arnold. The Gills divorced two years before the Grant/Chapman separation and divorce.
The problem with this situation is that no biblical category tells us how CCM artists function in the kingdom. Are they “ministers”? “Prophets”? “Teachers”? “Evangelists”?
If nothing else, they are public communicators who knowingly and willingly bear Christ’s name in their very public ministries. They wield influence over their followers and have accepted and benefited from this visible mantle. They lead. They inspire. They “pump up.” Sometimes they stumble.
We cannot begrudge them their humanness. Grant says in CCM magazine: “Go look in a mirror and everything that’s black and ugly about you, it’s the same about me. That’s what Jesus died for.”
Amen. Apparently she has worked through the faith issues, but it seems that neither she nor the evangelical community has reckoned with the issue of public ministry. “If I were a business executive and had an affair, my job would be safe,” my husband (a pastor) once said. “As a pastor, I’d lose my job.” A higher moral standard applies to those who lead and influence in Christ’s name, regardless of their office.
Grant says in CCM that a counselor told her, “[God] didn’t create this institution [of marriage] so He could just plug people into it. He provided this so that people could enjoy each other to the fullest.” Grant herself adds: “[I]f you have two people that are not thriving healthily in a situation, I say remove the marriage. Let them heal.”
If that is what Grant’s counselor told her, then she got bad advice. Anyone who has persevered in marriage will attest that in deed there are moments of “enjoying to the fullest,” but that often attends many tedious, sometimes painful, stretches. The best premarital advice I received came from our pastor’s wife: “There are going to be times when you’ll hate each other’s guts.” Those moments have been few and far between, but when they have occurred, my husband and I recognized this was normal and would pass.
The apostle Paul says that marriage represents, in earthly relationships, the mystical bond between Christ and his church. It is “a profound mystery” (Ephesians 5:32). And the Lord knows the bond between Christ and his church, played out in real lives, can get messy. Should we “remove the marriage”?Divorce happens—too often and not always for the right reasons. It is grievous and frequently carries ongoing destructive repercussions. It is something the Christian community should hesitate to gloss over. Rather than Amy Grant telling her (mostly Christian) audience, including youth groups, that she is looking for a date for New Year’s Eve as her way of acknowledging her new circumstances, it would be appropriate if she, and we, took a time out. Those smiles, the pictures in glossy Christian magazines, and the shimmering gowns can fool us into forgetting the wreckage. Two families have been torn apart against their wills.
Whether Amy Grant and Vince Gill have found happiness amid the pain of others is a matter between them and their families, their church communities, and the Lord. But her dressing up and our propelling her public ministry, without taking time for serious reflection, violates what should be the Christian conviction about the sanctity of marriage.
Wendy Murray Zoba is Associate Editor for Christianity Today.Related ElsewhereCCM‘s post-divorce interviews with Amy Grant (in its December issue) and Gary Chapman (in its January issue) are insightful both for what the singers say—and for what they don’t.
The People magazine article referenced above, titled “Finally a Duet | After painful divorces, and years of speculation, Vince Gill and Amy Grant confess they are in love,” is available here, but only to AOL members.
See also Amy Grant’s “coming out” article in The Tennessean, “Grant picks up pieces after divorce, with the help of soaring career—and Vince.”
About a year ago, World magazine commented on the impending Grant-Chapman divorce in an article titled, “Ministry or vocation? | Public reaction to the possible divorce of Amy Grant and Gary Chapman shows confusion.”
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