Recently gospel, or secular, or whatever you want to classify him as, artist Tonex gave an interesting interview on “The Lexi Show” about his life and a the controversy surrounding his life and the allegations of homosexuality. I feel like the interview left a lot to be desired, but I’ve included the clips below so you can judge for yourself. It’s about 25 minutes of video, but it’s very intriguing to watch. Take a look.
PART ONE
PART TWO
PART THREE
I wanted to give a couple of observances. Keep in mind that these are just my opinions and not at all meant to judge him as a man. My observances are made in order to be able to learn something from his experiences.
First, and this isn’t directly related to Tonex, but why must Christian’s production and spirit of excellence be so lacking sometimes? I just annoys me when the quality of the product we produce to represent the creator of all is something that is laughable if it were to come from a mainstream media source. But for Christians it’s acceptable? Absolutely ridiculous.
There was one point in the interview when Tonex was asked if he struggled with homosexuality, to which he replied, “Not struggled. It wasn’t a struggle.” To which I wanted to ask, “Well, what was it?” but no, the host avoids that all together. She just moves on. Really? Lexi needs to learn to ask the hard questions and stop skirting around the real issues at hand. Ask the man if he is in an actively gay relationship. Ask him if he sees homosexuality as a sin. Ask him about the fruit in his life. Ask him what he would say to those who say he shouldn’t pastor. Ask him where he finds biblical justification for his actions. There were more than a few times that I wanted to see a follow up question to something he said, but to no avail.
It may seem like I’m quick to jump on Lexi for her interview skills, but the reality is, she mirrors our perspectives and responses as a church. We need to stop being scared to bluntly, openly and honestly address the situation, especially when sin is involved. We have to stop dancing around sin because sin isn’t dancing around us; it’s confronting us squarely in the fact every day of our lives! If we play around with sin, sin will play around with us.
There were several statements made throughout the interview that lead me to believe that Tonex doesn’t see homosexuality as a sin. Why do I say that? Because he doesn’t see his issues with homosexuality as a struggle. When you don’t see your sin as a struggle, that’s a clear indication you don’t view it as sin. I can’t struggle with something good. I only struggle against that which is bad. You don’t hear people say, “I’m struggling to do the wrong thing.” That makes no sense.
I have a problem with his thinking that homosexuality isn’t a sin. I’m not even going to quote scriptures right now; let’s us look at the act of gay male sex from a strictly physical perspective. Why are you entering an orifice that was only designed for things to exit? Male and female sex organs were designed to go together; you can tell that by looking at their design. If homosexuality was acceptable, why would good have created Eve? Did he just want some diversity around? God wanted the people he created to procreate and that’s something you can’t do with 2 men or 2 women.
He mentions that God hasn’t given him deliverance from his “situation” and has seemingly resorted to the “this must be God’s will” mentality. But it is never God’s will that we stay entangled in and at the mercy of any sin. God will only give us deliverance when we truly want it. Hear me: you also have to do your part in your deliverance. If I’m addicted to crack and I’m asking God to deliver me from it, yet every day I’m going to the same crack house, is that not counter productive? God’s power can only do what we allow it to.
He also talks about marriage and covenant relationships and fornication in a way that make me question where he got his information or understand from. This is another area where the interviewer, Lexi, could have taken the issue to the next level and asked better follow up questions, but missed the mark. Again, he seems to be making more justification for himself in order to live how he wants to live. Lord knows he’s not the first to do this. If we were honest, we probably do it more often than we even realize. That topic is enough by itself for another post.
At the end of the day, there’s a lot about the interview, and the way he’s chosen to live his life, I don’t agree with. I don’t think he should be pastoring while he’s engaging in homosexual relationships or activities because that’s something that could cause a lot of people to trip or stumble — especially when there’s no desire on his part to repent or change his ways. Really though, it doesn’t matter what I or anyone else thinks. While the issue(s) are between him and God, because of the platform that he’s been given, whether it’s by choice or not, he also has some level of personal responsibility to make sure he’s living a life that others can model their lives after. Not that he, or anyone has to be perfect, but when your life impacts thousands, maybe even millions or other people, you can’t just live any kind of way. That’s just part of the responsibility that comes with the platform. We have to understand that.
What do you think? Do you agree with me? Disagree? Speak your mind…
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