Michael Tait breaks his silence--and proves he doesn't get it

The now-disgraced CCM star hasn't really come to a mature understanding of what he did. He admits he only committed "sins," when he actually committed crimes.

Michael Tait with the Newsboys in 2011 (image courtesy Breezy Baldwin, available under a Creative Commons-BY license)

For the better part of the last year, the object lesson in how far behind the curve the evangelical world has been with addressing sexual assault has been the dumpster fire at Gateway Church. Its founding pastor, Robert Morris, had groomed and molested Cindy Clemishire at her home in Oklahoma four decades earlier, starting when Cindy was 12 years old. for most of that time, had told anyone who would listen that he had merely had “moral failure” with “a young lady.” We now know that numerous staffers and elders at Gateway knew for some time that Cindy was most assuredly not “a young lady”—and yet, did absolutely nothing.

Morris is presently facing criminal charges for his molestation of Cindy, and could potentially spend the rest of his life in prison. But by all rights, those who covered for him should be unindicted co-conspirators—at the very least. Their failure to do they should have done—what they were legally required to do—allowed a child molester to remain at large for 40 years.

Well, add a new scandal to the list. Last week, Christian investigative journalist Julie Roys reported that Michael Tait, one of the longstanding stars of contemporary Christian music and former lead singer of the Newsboys and co-front man of DC Talk, had groomed and sexually assaulted at least three young men in their 20s. According to the report, based on a years-long investigation into Tait, two of the assaults occurred after Tait plied them with alcohol, and they woke up to find Tait fondling them. A third claimed Tait massaged him while skinny dipping, and then massaged his genitals while in Tait’s king-size bed.

At his height, Tait was the CCM counterpart to Justin Bieber or Dave Matthews. It was partly because of Tait’s standing that Tait’s victims, and those close to them, feared speaking up. They feared Tait was powerful enough to have them blackballed from the industry. However, apparently Tait’s ability to deflect had run its course, because in January he abruptly resigned from Newsboys and went into radio silence for several months. In hindsight, Tait must have known Roys was breathing down his neck.

Many of you know that I have serious quibbles about Roys’ ethics. Specifically, she found it acceptable to announce Jen Hatmaker’s divorce before Hatmaker herself could do so, even though no public interest remotely justified it.

Indeed, stories like this make Roys’ ethical lapse more maddening. This story is a textbook example of Roys at her best. When she is at her best, she is doing a public service that is sorely needed in our hyper-polarized environment. Long before Donald Trump came along, whenever the mainstream media or liberal bloggers called out evangelical heroes, we invariably got accused of anti-Christian bias. That excuse didn’t fly when Roys exposed Franklin Graham’s disgraceful bullying of Naghmeh Panahi, the wife of pastor and persecution victim Saeed Abedini. A year before The Washington Post jumped on the story, Roys revealed that Graham had the gall to suggest Panahi was cheating on Abedini even after it been amply established that Abedini was an abusive jerk. Nor did it fly when Roys highlighted the misdeeds of Mark Driscoll, John Piper, and Mike Bickle. It looks like we can add Tait to the list. He undoubtedly knew that Roys had him busted.

Soon after Roys’ story dropped, the four remaining members of Newsboys—new lead singer Adam Agee, guitarist Jody Davis, keyboardist/bassist Jeff Frankenstein, and drummer Duncan Phillips—released a statement saying that they were as shocked as the general public at the allegations. They said that Tait had stood down after telling them he had been “leading a double life,” but they had no hint it was nearly as bad as what Roys had reported. But on Sunday, Roys revealed that the Newsboys had heard rumblings about Tait for several years. Shortly before their official statement dropped, Agee posted a comment in a Facebook group revealing that he had heard “rumors over the years” about Tait’s behavior, but hadn’t been able to corroborate them. However, Agee stepped in it when he said that he and his bandmates had confronted Tait “each time something would come up,” and took him at his word when he denied it.

When put next to what we now know, Agee’s account is, to use the most diplomatic terms I can use, complete and unadulterated bullshit. As someone who has been falsely accused, I can understand being reluctant to jump to conclusions. After all, false accusations keep actual survivors from being believed. But there comes a point where accusations of inappropriate behavior exceed any possible good-faith interpretation. I’m reminded of how Bill Cosby’s sexual misconduct came to light. In 2015, New York magazine revealed that 48 women over almost a quarter century accused Cosby of molesting them. I didn’t want to believe it, in part because like many Black men of my generation, I considered Cosby a role model. But there is no way they could have all been lying.

A more relevant parallel is with Trump. As most of us know, at least 25 women have accused Trump of assaulting them over the years. He has denied it, but if you believe all of those women are lying, there’s a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you. It’s no different with Tait. If allegations against Tait surfaced over the years and his bandmates took him at his word, then Agee has admitted to gross dereliction of duty.

Any thoughts that this was too harsh evaporated when I looked back at the Newsboys’ lineup over the years. It turns out that Frankenstein, Davis, and Phillips have been together for all but five years since Frankenstein signed on in 1994, and without interruption since Davis returned in 2009. Tait joined two months after Davis’ return. Add it up, and the Newsboys are asking us to believe that in almost 16 years together, they didn’t see any signs that something was off with Tait despite his denials.

Sorry, I’m not buying it. Willful ignorance is no excuse, and certainly not in situations like this. I spent my high school years with many of the same people in my IB classes, and another four years with many of them at Carolina. I also attended the same church for 15 years; leaving them when I moved to Michigan felt like leaving family. When you’re with the same people for that long, they can and should see if something is wrong, no matter what you say.

Put succinctly, the Newsboys are unindicted co-conspirators—and now they’re paying the price. They have all but disappeared from airplay on Christian radio. While their Website still carries information on their upcoming summer tour, they’re either delusional, in denial, or both if they think they can stay on the road. While the Newsboys have existed in one form or another since 1985, it’s hard to see how they survive this.

Tait finally broke his silence on Tuesday afternoon, when he released a statement on Instagram confessing to his misdeeds.

michaeltait

A post shared by @michaeltait

Tait admitted that the allegations of sexual misconduct were “largely true,” and also admitted to drug and alcohol abuse dating back at least two decades. He added that he had spent most of 2025 in rehab, and expressed remorse for his actions.

On the surface, it’s good and well. But one thing that bugs me is how he refers to his actions as “sin.” While that may fly for drug and alcohol abuse, sexual assault isn’t just a sin to be forgiven. It’s a crime. While it’s good that he admitted responsibility for his actions, it doesn’t look like he has come to a mature understanding of how serious they were. He doesn’t seem to know or understand—yet—that he crossed a line into criminal conduct that scarred his victims for life.

I’m reminded of how so many people characterized Josh Duggar’s molestation of his sisters and others merely as sins. I have long believed that mentality kept Jim Bob and Michelle from getting Josh to a mature understanding of his actions. They didn’t know or understand that improper touching isn’t just a sin to be forgiven. It’s serious behavior that needs to be nipped in the bud, and promptly.

I’m reminded that Jim Bob and Michelle dragged their feet in turning Josh in because they feared he would have a record. They didn’t know or understand that Josh needed professional help, not just forgiveness. That failure put Josh on a path that now has him in federal prison for possession of child sex abuse material. When he finishes his 12.5-year sentence, he will be on supervised release for 20 years, during which he can’t have unsupervised contact with minors—even his own children. To my mind, Jim Bob and Michelle’s fear of saddling their son with a record, combined with merely dismissing his actions as sins, kept Josh from getting the help he needed without putting him in the system.

I wondered if Tait made the same mistake. But then I saw that he is of the same generation as Jim Bob and Michelle; he is the same age as Michelle and a year younger than Jim Bob. In all likelihood, he was steeped in a slightly diluted version of the mentality of the one in which Jim Bob was raised. I suspect that he didn’t know or understand that he didn’t just need forgiveness, but professional help. Moreover, characterizing his behavior merely as a sin puts the onus back on his survivors to forgive him. We could be seeing another example of how forgiveness is weaponized in the evangelical world. At risk of sounding like a broken record, forgiveness is meaningless without accountability. And in this case, said accountability includes concrete steps to make restitution, as well as to accept any civil or criminal responsibility, if it gets that far.

Tait deserves credit for owning what he did. But he still has a long way to go before showing that he really understands the seriousness of what he did. And a lot of people bear responsibility for allowing it to get this far. By all rights, his career isn’t the only one that should be over. The Newsboys’ willful ignorance—at best—of his conduct is untenable. They need to go away, and go away now while they can at least appear to be doing so decently.