The list of 90’s era Contemporary Christian Music stars rushing to cheer on and celebrate the new “gay anthem” version of Avalon’s ‘Testify to Love’ is growing, including Point of Grace and Nicole Nordeman, with more supporters being added each day.
2026’s Testify to Love was rerecorded earlier this month by two former members of the multi-platinum Contemporary Christian group Avalon, hitting the top of the iTunes Christian charts.
Founding member Michael Passons, who left the group in 2003 and came out publicly as gay in 2020, joined forces with gay country singer Ty Herndon to re-release the hit song. Another former member, Melissa Greene, who was part of the band from 2002–2009 and who officiated Herndon’s gay marriage, is also featured on the track.
The song features an “all-star chorus of emerging LGBTQ artists and advocates,” including Jada Cato, Andrew Mitch, Jessica Rose, and Bryan Rub.
Notably, Passons says he was ousted by other members of the group after being caught in a compromising sexual situation with another man, saying, “they threw me out at the first hint that I violated a scripture in Deuteronomy.”
Current Avalon members Janna and Greg Long are worship leaders at an SBC church in Texas, and there is no indication that they’ve ever intended their song to be a gay-affirming anthem.
According to Gabe Hughes:
We’ve not been able to confirm all those those names as directly cheering on this gay-anthem version, but we did find a few, including former CCM stars Point of Grace, Nicole Nordeman, Rachel Potter and Melinda Doolitle.
And of course Jonathan Merritt, because why not?
The gayification of CCM and Christian music has revealed itself more prominently every year, with bands or musicians from Plumb, Amy Grant, Jennifer Knapp, Jars of Clay, DC Talk’s Kevin Max, Relient K, Switchfoot, The Rend Collective, Five Iron Frenzy, and Sara Groves being gay-affirming or having lead singers
