In recent days, news dropped that Newsboys frontman, Michael Tait, has been living a double life, namely with the old cliche: sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Yesterday, Michael released a statement about his double life, apologizing and calling it sin. My feed has exploded with atta-boys and good-jobs from Christian handles. Even popular apologists like Mike Winger‡ are calling his statement a poster child for true repentance.

I want to preface what I’m about to say with a very important clarification: I have no idea if Michael Tait truly repented. He may have, he may not have. I am in no place to judge either way, because I do not know him personally. If he did, that’s wonderful, and I know there is forgiveness for those who do.

But I have some serious reservations with how this has all gone down, and I think it’s worth discussing.

Timing is Everything

As the old adage goes, timing is everything. In January of 2025, Tait dropped out of the Newsboys, and immediately rumors started circulating, speculating about his homosexual lifestyle and drug use. Without going into detail, I can attest that I have heard these rumors for years, long before Tait left the band. It was a well-known fact in the music industry that the man was a closeted homosexual.

The Newsboys released their own statement about their “devastation” at the news, claiming they had no idea how bad it was. Maybe they’re being honest, too. Again, I have no idea. But I will say, as a person who was in a traveling band for more than a decade, it’s hard to hide much from your bandmates. You’re in a kind of marriage, in each other’s lives in a far more up-close-and-personal way than any nine-to-five job could facilitate. That the band is claiming they were blindsided seems far-fetched to me.

Regardless, maybe Tait dropped out of the band because the rumors were catching up with him, or perhaps he dropped out because he was tired of running from himself. We on the outside will probably never know. But the biggest question I have is the timing of his so-called “confession.”

It was only after the Newsboys were getting dropped from the radio, losing followers, and being continually bashed on social media that Tait released his statement. To me, that reeks of a clean-up PR campaign. Why? I’ve witnessed this very pattern before.

Narcs Gonna Narc

Narcissists have a pretty predictable pattern to their behavior. I’ve seen it before when a pastor in a former church where I attended had been living a double life for years, cheating on his wife with other staff members of the church. At some point, he had decided to walk away from his sin, but he wanted to keep it quiet as he did. Once word got out that his victims were going to come forward, he beat them to the punch with a heartfelt, church-wide confession, dropping the news before they could.

He branded himself the hero with that one move.

The women he had exploited were immediately branded as Jezebels and temptresses. He, the “true man of God,” had confessed, after all. In the years that followed, people turned a blind eye to his continued narcissistic patterns and elevated him to even higher levels of honor within his church, all because of his well-timed and highly-scripted “confession.”

I’m seeing such a similar pattern here with Tait that I can’t help but wonder: What is the goal with this public confession? Why now? Why not in January, when he had nothing to gain from it? Why not years ago, for that matter? Why now, when his band’s reputation is getting worse by the day? When the rumors about him are swirling? Why not in January, when he first stepped down?

And more: what about his victims? We’re talking about “unwanted sexual touching” at the minimum, though you and I both know it was probably far worse than that. We’re focusing on his confession and blatantly ignoring those whom he harmed along the way.

Time will tell what Tait’s motivation is here. If in a year or so he steps back into the music industry, as I would put good money he will, we’ll know for sure why he released this confession. Call me cynical, but a pattern is a pattern, and I’ve watched it play out more than I have not.

Christian Celebrity Culture Must Die

The truth is that the celebrity culture within the Christian circle is a toxic, demonic breeding ground for narcissists. Pride runs rampant where people are worshipped. I have seen it more often than not, both from afar and up close. I think back to all those years that I pursued a full-time career as a Christian artist, and thank God I walked away from it. I know I would have fallen for all of the nonsense, too, for many reasons. Chiefly, I’m a fallen woman, God-fearing or not. But even after I walked away from travelling with my band, I spent a solid year self-examining and came to a very sobering conclusion: I was riddled with pride. Riddled. Eaten up with it. It had changed me.

It took many years of hard work to let go of the mentality that had slipped up on me quite without me knowing. And I was never famous. So in a way, I feel sorry for the Taits of the world. I have had a small taste of what he has been living for thirty years. It’s never easy to be honest with yourself. It’s even harder when you’re surrounded by people who tell you what you want to hear so that they can continue to ride your lucrative coattails.

We fickle humans love putting people on a pedestal just as much as we love tearing them down from it. To add insult to injury, in Christian culture, we love a good redemption story, and we’re quick to take confessions at face value from our flavor-of-the-month Christian celebs. Part of that is rooted in grace: we want to believe in restoration because we want it for ourselves, too. But I think it’s so important for us to remember that repentance and restoration are two very different things. Restoration without true repentance is the recipe for the mess in the Church today. But a repentant performance for the sake of restoration or to make yourself the hero is an even more dangerous recipe.

Anointing That’s Faked

The truth is, in our celebrity-worship culture, we confuse charisma and excellent performance with anointing. Taking it even further, we let a well-delivered speech or a well-written confession convince us of altruism. If the pastor is good at delivering the sermon, we assume he’s a good man. If the singer is great at performing the song, we assume he’s anointed by the Holy Spirit. And if the confessor writes a convincing penance, we assume he’s sincere.

Maybe Tait is. Again, I am in no place to judge it one way or the other.

But my sincere prayer is that the Church will learn some discernment. We’re watching one celebrity pastor or worship leader after another fall from grace. In the past year alone, countless names have been revealed to be liars, charlatans, pedophiles, and two-faced degenerates. People we thought we could trust. People we thought had the “anointing.” Funny enough, as often as that word is thrown around, I doubt there are many Christians who could accurately and biblically define it.

Church, we must stop assuming platform and influence are equal to calling and anointing. We need to stop worshipping the men who are supposed to be leading us to worship God. Consequently, that was Satan’s very problem and the very reason he was kicked out of Heaven. We need to put talent in its proper place: a tool for the glory of the Divine. It is nothing more than that.

Household Names We Shouldn’t Know

Why do we even know Tait’s name? Why is Tait a household name in Christian families? Or Brandon Lake? Or Steven Furtick? Or Jenn Johnson? Or Phil Wickham? Why do we even care? What would it look like if the Church got to a place of whatshisname culture? What would it do if we stopped idolizing man and talent and started bowing in reverence to the Holy God who gave us music and scripture?

What if our obsession was with Him and nothing more?

You see, I don’t know if Tait repented. And the truth is, since you and I don’t know him personally, it’s really not our place to know. Or care. Let’s stop putting men on pedestals altogether, shall we?

I truly believe that if we can redirect our focus to the glory of God and God alone, if we can stop worshipping talent, and if we can stop assuming that just because someone calls themselves a man or woman of God that they are sincere, I think we can set ourselves on a much more healthy path. A path that keeps our eyes fixed on Jesus, the ONLY author and ONLY perfector of our faith.

That’s something Tait could never do, no matter how talented he is.

‡Update: before I could finish writing this article, Mike Winger recanted his praise of Tait’s confession. Read more here: https://x.com/MikeWingerii/status/1932855168808411549