Christian music business supports Grant, Chapman after separation

The Christian music industry demonstrated support for singers Amy Grant and Gary Chapman yesterday, following the announcement that the couple is separating after 16 years of marriage.

"She was originally a Myrrh artist, she's still a Myrrh artist, and she will remain a Myrrh artist," Word Entertainment president Roland Lundy said of Grant, who has recorded for Word's Myrrh label for more than 20 years. "Other than that, we haven't made any decisions (about how to proceed). We haven't even gotten the management team together. Most of them are on holiday. My position, we're gonna support her and Gary, help 'em any way we can."

Grant became one of Christian music's biggest performers in the early 1980s, and then expanded into pop music. Chapman, who achieved prominence as a Christian songwriter and performer, has been host of TNN's Prime Time Country since 1996.

A separation in other musical genres would hardly be considered grounds to reassess an artist. But Christian music is founded on its spiritual message, and its audience ranges from liberal Christians, who are apt to sympathize with a couple on the rocks, to extremely conservative Christians, who may not. Christian retailers have been known to pull product from the shelves when a recording artist's personal life becomes controversial.

"I think Christian retailers bear a responsibility to the Christian community, and when a consumer enters the doors of a Christian retail establishment, they automatically subject that retailer to a higher set of standards than the record store down the street, right or wrong," observed Gospel Music Association board member Bill Simmons, operations manager for three Cedar Springs Christian Stores in the Knoxville area. "We have a responsibility placed on us to make sure the products we carry maintain integrity in accordance with biblical values and principles."

Within the first 24 hours following the Grant/Chapman announcement, retailers indicated they would continue to sell their product, but added that they would periodically re-evaluate the situation.

"In a case like with Amy Grant and Gary Chapman, where things haven't all fallen out, we try to withhold judgment until the facts are made clear," said Michael Wall, of Solid Rock Music & Video, a significant Christian store in Billings, Mont. "We're not interested in hammering anybody. We're interested in providing products that point to Jesus Christ."

Bruce Munns, a vice president with Nashville-based LifeWay Christian Stores, expressed "regret" over the separation, and said the company "will pray for them, as they have requested."

"We now have the benefit of history to see how things occur after news like this hits us," GMA president Frank Breeden observed.

Breeden was alluding to scandals in recent years involving Christian artists Michael English and Sandi Patty. English was chastised for his relationship with a backup singer in 1994, although he has since returned to Christian music and his music is once again being carried by most stores. Patty left her husband to marry a man with whom she had had an affair, but the industry was much more forgiving.

Breeden and others are quick to differentiate between the Grant/Chapman separation and those earlier situations, although they hope the industry is better equipped to deal with any degree of personal tribulations in its star performers.

"I would remind our industry and our public, no matter who is getting a headline with their personal difficulties, they are people like we are, and none of us are perfect," Breeden said.

"The messages in the music that Amy and Gary have sung -- and will sing -- their validity is not changed or lessened by their personal human experience. Truth doesn't get more true, or less true. It is not a victim of circumstance, or the stock market, or a weather report or a family event like this."