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:
We also covered the fall of Jars of Clay, documenting how frontman Dan Haseltine was pro-LGBTQ, pro-trans and pro-choice. Notably, at the time, despite showing a long history of problematic and damning statements, some accused of us extrapolating his words or reading more into it than was said.
Hopefully, this Instagram post from June 1st, 2024 from Haseltine puts that to rest once and for all.
Two years ago, Jon Foreman, the frontman of the legendary Christian band Switchfoot, responded to the coaxing of a queer “Christian” artist questioning his pro-LGBTQ+ creds, telling her that LGBTQ+ people are always welcome at his concerts and that he supports gay rights and freedoms.
Though less prominent than she is now, that person was Semler, the foul-mouthed singer we last saw attending the Dove Awards with Caedmon’s Call’s cross-dressing singer Derek Webb. A pro-choice non-binary lesbian who is currently ‘married’ and expecting a baby with her ‘spouse,’ she expressed her belief that Christians are disproportionately harmful to LGBTQ people, and so her practice was to wear her Pride shirt to concerts and shout out “Gay rights!” in between songs and then tagging the band on TikTok, hoping that they’ll respond to her in an affirming message and not do some bait and switch like “I love you too.”
By “gay rights” she means the right to marry, the right to be free from discrimination, the right to access any bathroom they or transgendered allies choose, and a host of other ones. According to Semler, because Christians have been specific in their hurt, they need to be specific in their affirmation.
Lead singer Jon Foreman did not disappoint, responding to her in a way that left her feeling completely affirmed. After shouting out “gay rights” at one of his shows and tagging him on social media, Foreman responded to her personally in a TikTok video, saying:
“I saw your story and wanted to respond and tell you, ‘Yes, I support your rights and freedoms.’ I want you to feel loved and supported…. May you find peace, truth, and love on your journey. Keep writing songs, keep creating beauty, keep reaching out, and keep being honest, chasing beauty and truth and light and love.”
Semler took his words to heart, explaining that her takeaway is that the band is LGBTQ-affirming, and wanting him to confirm and clarify, which he did in the form of a little “like.”
I don’t know if you know how meaningful that affirmation was. I am interpreting what you said as being affirming. If I’m incorrect in that, then I really hope you would clarify. Because I think for many queer people of faith, the bait and switch of hearing such encouraging words like yours and then finding out it means something else is heartbreaking.
It’s no surprise that Semler, whose songs contain many references to Switchfoot and whose heart he did not break, attended their concert armed with a VIP pass in tow. She posted a picture on social media with their arms around each other and fists raised, captioned: “A lot can happen in two years. I had a great birthday.”
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:
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.
