The Christian blogosphere has been set abuzz since CCM veteran Ray Boltz made public his struggle with and eventual acceptance of his homosexual desires.
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(Photo: RayBoltz.com)Ray Boltz is pictured here in a Potter's Field video shoot.
News of Boltz’s gay lifestyle has been spreading far and wide after the pro-gay Washington Blade published an exclusive feature last Friday on the Gospel singer, who only four years ago revealed to his family “the darkness and struggle” he was going through.
In the recent interview, Boltz said he denied his sexuality ever since he was a kid, and when he became a Christian in the early 1970s, he “thought that was the way to deal with this.”
“I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years,” he recalled, “and then at the end, I was just going, ‘I’m still gay. I know I am.’ And I just got to the place where I couldn’t take it anymore … when I was going through all this darkness, I thought, ‘Just end this.’”
Boltz, now 55, is best known for the song “Thank You,” which has become a staple of Christian funerals. During his nearly 20-year recording career, Boltz garnered a handful of RIAA Gold-certified albums, three Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association (GMA) and a string of 12 No. 1 hits on Christian radio. He is regarded as one of the better-known singer/songwriters in Contemporary Christian Music and is a household name among some Christian circles.
Despite his fruitful career and largely happy marriage, which ended recently after 33 years, Boltz said he was in a serious depression. The father of four had been in therapy for years, was on Prozac and other anti-depressants and had been, for a time, suicidal.
Then, on Dec. 26, 2004 – the same day that a massive tsunami rocked South Asia – Boltz finally unleashed to his family what had been bothering him for so many years.
“I just admitted what I was struggling with and what I was feeling,” he told the Blade, noting that it was hard to say that was the moment he “came out.”
“It’s hard to go, ‘This is the point where I accepted my sexuality and who I was,’ but I came out to them and shared with them what I’d been going through,” he said.
Since then, Boltz has divorced his wife, moved to Florida, and started dating. Today, he says he lives “a normal gay life.”
In response to the Washington Blade feature, Christians from across the denominational spectrum have been adding their two cents.
“Boltz' addiction apparently is men,” wrote Matt Friedeman, a professor at Wesley Biblical Seminary, Jackson, Miss., in a column published Tuesday on OneNewsNow.
“So, God made him that way...why deny himself,” Friedeman posed, arguing against Boltz’s claim that God made him gay.
“Another man's addiction is alcohol (or in Boltz's terms — God made me this way ... this is how I will drink); but who among us would say, ‘Good...drink then for His glory!’ Or how about the addictions to pornography, to child molestation, to crack cocaine, to arson? ‘Good...this is the way I'm going to live...God made me this way...when I get drunk I feel his pleasure?’”
J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma magazine, meanwhile, admitted to ”immediately … composing a biblical lecture in my head” after news of Boltz’s confession broke out.
“I was upset that Boltz chose to stop fighting same-sex temptation after all those years of marriage. I was sorry to learn that he feels ‘closer to God’ since he embraced his suppressed gayness,” Grady wrote Wednesday in a column.
“Most of all I was annoyed that his decision sends a distorted message to our culture that Christianity doesn’t offer the power to overcome sin,” he added.
“But as I asked the Lord to share His heart with me about Boltz’s situation, I realized that our corporate response to this is as much about a right attitude as it is about right doctrines,” Grady continued, followed by a call to believers to weep, love homosexuals, and contend for the faith.
“We don’t have the right to compromise God’s Word, no matter how many people decide to come out of the closet. But let’s remember that the message we are called to proclaim to the world is not ‘Homosexuality is wrong.’ That’s a true statement, but it has no power to change anybody,” he wrote in his conclusion.
“The gospel we must shout from the housetops is that Jesus loves all of us, no matter our condition, and that His forgiveness can heal our brokenness. I pray Ray Boltz will soon discover that truth in a fresh way – and I hope he’ll write many more songs about it.”
According to Boltz, the songs “I Will Choose to Love” and “God Knows I Tried,” two of the most recent he’s written, capture where he is now.
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Christian Music Artist's Confession Shocks Believers
Actually, nothing shocks me anymore.
I feel particularly sad for the people who, like Ray, struggle with same-sex attraction. There is no sin in the same-sex attraction, but there is sin in giving yourself over to it and acting on it. I commend the many Christians who have fought the good fight, have found accountability, and have truly taken the Word of God seriously when it tells us to "flee the sinful desires of youth" and have not acted on them. I just pray for those who have grown wearing in the fight and are seeing the choice Ray has made. Make no mistake, this is not a case of a man finding himself. It is the case of a man giving up on God.
There are countless examples of men and women, both heterosexual and those who struggled with same sex attraction, who maintained a celibate life, or have repented and stopped acting on their lusts. Why is it so unreasonable for God to require us to stop using our bodies in a destructive and degrading way? Why is it completely out of the question for Ray or anyone who struggles with same-sex attraction to chose abstinence? Lust always promises more than it can provide. Righteousness and patience always pays off.
"Mr. Boltz does not know what to believe of himself."
Some guys buy a sports car...some get a mistress...mid-life crisis is a strange, STRANGE thing....
I have read over this article many times and I just don't know what to believe of Mr. Boltz.
And perhaps this is the focus of the problem.
Mr. Boltz does not know what to believe of himself.
Tough thing to confront at 55. Or perhaps this is not the first time.
" was only 12 when he died."
I'M AN OLD FART...!
Go to youtube and search for "keith green". You'll find some good vid of Keith expecially of him doing "The Sheep and the Goats" live in concert.
Keith really disliked having his picture taken (that's an understatement). One of the brothers went down to take his picture when he was practicing before a concert and Keith was not pleased to say the least. That night the brother put his camera (a REALLY nice Nikon) in the offering with the film in it. Keith found out about it and all be fell apart. He sent his crew out in the town to find the guy! It wasn't hard because most of us knew this gentle giant of a brother. Keith returned his camera with the film and as I recall, even though it pained Keith I'm sure, he had his staff finish up the roll of film with pictures of him and the crew.
I understand Keith lightened up a bit after that. He was quite a serious dude! Just FYI, you may find his first TV appearance which was on "I've Got a Secret" on youtube.
"Seems to me there are many Christians, that have no problems with divorce, when heterosexuals sin."
Actually, I have quite a problem with it and I'm divorced. I ended up raising 4 children by myself with an ex that even just dropped off the planet for a year and a half. The kids didn't even know if she was dead or alive.
Sin in any form is a problem and should be addressed by the church. By the same token, Christians should also accept that not all people who call themselves Christians actually are. You shall know them by their fruits. In the case of McCain, he got his life straight with God and knows he messed up his first marriage. The problem is you can't just go back and 'undo' the damage. All you can do is learn and admit what you did was wrong. He has done this.
2Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
Matthew 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
Matthew 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Matthew 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
pvlman,
God does not "wire a person" to sin. Man is born into sin. And I've said it a million times, and I'll say it a million more. They way you (or anyone) was born, and the way God wants you to be are two very different things. The problem is that too many people use that excuse as a crutch to justify their sin..."Well, God made me that way..." Garbage.
I was born a sex addict. I could have said the same thing. But I know the truth. The truth that God is bigger than anything I have or will come against. He can bring the dead to life, make the blind see, and even change the heart of a homosexual.
If you don't believe that God can do anything, then you do not serve the One true God, Y'weh. Who's Son, Jesus Christ, gave his life so that you wouldn't have to remain in sin.
shock?????? no way. more and more are going to start revealing what their true lifestyle is. there shouldn't be any shock about this filth at all.
pvlman, I know of no Conservative Evangelical who takes divorce lightly. But I don't see any of these men you mentioned out bragging about their divorces as Ray Boltz is out bragging about his "coming out". And even though all these men have sinned to include Boltz, forgiveness is available to each of them if they will acknowledge and repent of their sin before God.
Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, John, McCain, all divorced. Newt Gingrich twice divorced. Seems to me there are many Christians, that have no problems with divorce, when heterosexuals sin. The world could be a better place if people wouldn't use their faith to make the lives of others miserable. God evidently wired some people a little differently than other's. I have wondered who it was he was actually testing. Those who are different, or those who would do God's job, by judging others?
If you know you should not do something in your conscience, then for you it is sin.
I guess I'm missing the joke here. I'm not sure what he meant by "the it's sin".
O wow! I would have loved to meet him. I was only 12 when he died. Even at my young age, his music had such an impact on my life that I cried when I heard of his death. Years later, I read his biography that his wife wrote, and was amazed at his life. I considered him a prophet of my generation.
The really funny thing, is that my hair used to be long and curly. And I played piano and sang. I had so many people say that I reminded them of Keith. I could never fill his shoes. Although I'd love to play and sing with the fervor that he did.