The Formula
I’ve already written once and then again about Michael Tait in the last five months.
I don't want this to be a Michael Tait Drama Substack.
But as a DC Talk fan from when I was probably five years old, I've been following the story closely and thinking about it pretty consistently.
tl;dr if you haven’t been following: in June it came out that Michael Tait from the Christian bands DC Talk and Newsboys had spent 30 years abusing cocaine and sexually assaulting people. Some stuff is only currently alleged, but he’s admitted to a lot of it.
I'm concerned.
When this story first broke,1 one of my early thoughts was “I hope he doesn't try and continue his music career in the next few years.”
The longer time goes on, the more certain I am that he will.
I'm pretty confident he'll release an album sometime soonish.
If I were to guess, I'd say by this time next year.
It'll be an album themed around repentance and God's grace.
I’m worried that his Christian music listening audience will immediately welcome him back with open arms.
I’m guessing they will.
The album will probably sell like crazy.
My concern is twofold.
1. For his victims, who will have to live with the trauma of what he did to them, while watching the Christian music audience embrace him.
2. I don't think he's taking the time and doing the work he needs to do to heal and make amends.
At least, not based on how he responded to one of his victims recently.
He called a victim recently to ask for forgiveness, and said
“You can hang me at the gallows, or you can say . . . ‘You know, hey, I forgive you,’” said Tait.
It was a rambling 45-minute phone call, during which he admitted having wronged the victim.
Which, good? I think?
As a general rule, confession is good for the soul, and admitting wrongdoing is a good first step.
But the phone call as a whole was kind of unnerving to me. It’s hard to explain why. It felt like the goal wasn’t the confession, but the forgiveness.
I think the thing that disturbed me most about the phone call was this quote:
“There’s no handbook on how to do this, except for the Bible,” Tait confessed on the phone, his voice tinged with sadness. “(You’re) the first of how many people, but (I’m calling ) just to ask forgiveness.”
First of all, there are handbooks besides the Bible for how to make amends.
Loads and loads and loads of books have been written on this topic.
Christian books and non-Christian books.
I like this one, personally, but there’s a ton of good ones.
I’m not against him reading and trying to follow scripture. I love the Bible. I’m a pastor after all.
But I think I'm concerned (a bit alarmed honestly) by his insistence that the Bible is the only handbook for how to make amends.
Many evangelicals’ idea of repentance and forgiveness boils down to:
“You did bad, but God forgives you.”
and/or
“He/she/they did bad, but you should forgive them because God forgives them and wants you to as well.”
It's a simple formula that insists on victims pushing down their hurt and pain and quickly moving on.
I, who was raised evangelical in the 80s and 90s, have spent a lot of my life reading the Bible with that formula in mind.
And I’m worried that Tait is reading the Bible with that formula in mind as well.
“I confess, they forgive, we move on as brothers in Christ.”
That formula disregards a whole lot of trauma that Tait’s victims have experienced, and will continue to experience.
I’m sure that formula will be evident in Tait’s upcoming repentance and forgiveness album.
Release date: 4th quarter 2026.
You heard it here, folks.
I hope you had a good holiday and were able to spend some time with (or talking to) someone you love.
I’m writing this late on Thanksgiving night because my week was too jam-packed to write anything earlier this week.
But I had a great day and good food earlier. Hope you were able to as well.
and after my shock and utterance of every profanity that I know
My discomfort with that comes from what appears like he was only offering two options: you hang me or forgive me. When, in reality, there are a ton of other options available that don't shame or guilt the victim, but allow them time to process and heal.
In my opinion, when you're TRULY repentant, you're more concerned with apologizing than you are with whether or not you receive forgiveness. I mean, I think we all want people to forgive us for our mistakes, but that's not the emphasis when you KNOW what you did was wrong and you need to own it. The weight of the pain you inflicted and knowing you need to apologize FAR exceeds your desire to be forgiven. And, frankly, when that happens, you also realize a whole lot of healing you need, so you're kinda busy putting in the work and realize that forgiveness isn't a right. It's a privilege. And it makes the glorious sacrifice Jesus made so that we can have God's forgiveness for free all the more precious.
One of the big problems I see in Evangelical Christianity is that we take that gift and think forgiveness applies across the board to everyone and that EVERYTHING is free. Salvation. God's forgiveness. Yes, those are indeed free. Everything else has a cost. God does want us to forgive others, but that is rarely a snap of the fingers process like it's been treated.
Good call, David. One thing that's missing from repentance is restitution. I think Tait is worried about that and his career. An abuser is a manipulator, and if his call lasts that long, he's manipulating the heck out of his victim, all over again. He's worried about having to go to court and he wants his victims on his side. It is not up to his fans to forgive him. They aren't the victims. Without restitution, his tears aren't worth a cent.