Jars of Gay? Frontman Dan Haseltine is Pro-LGBTQ, Pro-Trans, Pro-Choice

A few months ago, we broke the story that ‘Christian’ band Relient K came out as pro-LGBTQ after inviting open and unrepentantly gay musician Semler to join them on their upcoming tour and selling LGBTQ merch. This came on the heels of Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman Releasing a pro-LGBTQ TikTok video. We followed this up with an investigation into music group Five-Iron Frenzy, showing the band had come out as pro-LBGTQ and that frontman Reece Roper was pro-choice and lost. More standouts include:

Exclusive. CCM Artist Sara Groves Comes Out as Gay-Affirming
Amy Grant Defends Hosting Same Sex Marriage “I Love Those Brides”
Christian Band ‘Plumb’ Comes Out as LGBTQ-Affirming

Now it’s Jars of Clay’s turn.

The multi-platinum, three-time Grammy-winning CCM staple was known for such albums as their 1995 self-titled Jars of Clay (with classic songs like Liquid, Flood, Love Song for a Savior, and World’s Apart) along with albums Much Afraid, If I Left the Zoo, and the Eleventh Hour. Active for over 20 years, the band still plays shows occasionally but has yet to put out a studio album since 2013’s Inland.

In 2014, the band drew widespread criticism after frontman Dan Haseltine, who deconstructed his faith as early as 2012, posited on Twitter that he couldn’t see any reason why gay marriage shouldn’t be legalized and supported, offering that nothing terrible could possibly come from it.

He would also write, “It is perhaps less important to know what is “right and wrong” morally speaking than to know how to act toward those we consider “wrong” and “I don’t particularly care about Scriptures stance on what is “wrong.” I care more about how it says we should treat people.”

The backlash was so intense that two days later, he wrote a follow-up clarification on his now-defunct and deleted website explaining: “In the heat of discussion, I communicated poorly and thus unintentionally wrote that I did not care about what scripture said… I should’ve chosen my words more wisely. I care about what scripture says. It matters.”

Not anymore.

Though Haseltine has kept a low profile since the public battering, he has resurfaced on occasion with a distinctly progressive worldview. He appeared in a video with queer artist Semler lamenting the negative response of Christian media to his 2014 tweets, explaining that after he said those words, he was viewed by the industry as “unsafe.” Haseltine reiterates that despite the bad publicity, he doesn’t regret “pushing the conversation forward.”

And he has, making his theological aberrations public and clear.

He has also taken up the cause for trans issues, supporting trans propaganda in library books, trans ‘men’ having access to the women’s washroom, and trans kids being able to compete in sports,

While insisting that neither he nor anyone else is “pro-abortion, Haseltine has a tendency to “ask questions” while obfuscating his beliefs and pushing back against the orthodox position. This lends the impression that he’s either pro-choice (a term he hates but which fits) or at the very least pro-life with exceptions, which is another way of saying he’s pro-choice. He seems to believe that Roe v. Wade shouldn’t have been overturned, as doing so would only have a negligible impact on abortion rates, and insists that if people want to lower abortion rates, they should vote for the Democrats.