By Bradly Taylor:

Every other Friday Jonathan answers questions from me and you. This week we felt we needed to go a different route and respond to some of those who messaged us through the website and Facebook over Jonathan’s Comments on Trey Pearson “Coming Out” in a letter to his fans.  God’s Heart for Those does hold to a reformed view of Theology and accepts Homosexuality as one of many sins the bible speaks plainly about.

From the Desk of Jonathan David Faulkner

On Thursday, June 2^nd I posted the following post on Facebook regarding Trey Pearson of Everyday Sunday who recently “Came out” to a letter to his fans. I got a lot of mixed responses to I want to clarify my position so that you are aware of where I stand. The post was as follows:

Christian Rocker Trey Pearson of Everyday Sunday came out as gay to his fans this week. This saddens me, I love Everyday Sunday and own all their albums and covered them a few times while working for the media. That being said I will still listen to them and forgive Trey and pray for him. I do not know or pretend to know anything about this struggle and as one who believes in the council of Scripture on this matter I have to walk the line between not wanting a person to live in what scripture irrefutably calls a sin and loving that person right where they are at. I will pray for Trey, he is still my brother in Christ and I want to see him restored in every way. I will still love and treat him as such.

In this day and age it can be hard to get across a point in a post on the internet, it is much easier to get our point across when we have face to face communication. However, in the world of the internet, people want to see a reaction so they can react. Honestly, I did not post this so people could react or so I could start disagreements. That was farthest from my point. I wanted to convey an attitude of prayer towards Trey and of love in the hopes of seeing him restored to Christ.

One commenter asked me how I could “Love him where he is at” if where he is at is in sin? It is a great question, and I am glad he asked it, and this tended to be the most contentious point so I will make it the focus of this reply.

First of all, as believers I do believe that Jesus does love us wherever we are at. Sure, we do grieve him by either rejecting him (unbelievers) or a believer living in habitual sin. I honestly believe Trey would fall under the second category if he has acted upon and continued to act upon what scripture tells us is a sin. I have no reason to doubt that he is not a believer, but in a culture where even the church has abandoned teachings on true Christian Identity, should we be surprised? I have never met Trey, but in his music I can see no evidence that suggests he was never a believer. On the contrary, I have seen his ministry yield good fruit. Both in my own life and in the lives of others. I do believe he has fallen into sin (if he is practicing) and needs to deal with that sin. He needs loving council, he needs grace, he needs to know where his identity lies and know the truth of the gospel.

He needs correction, and it must be done right. However, I am not the person to do that.

As I said before, I do not know Trey, I have never met him, I have seen Everyday Sunday once in my lifetime, reviewed “The Best Night of Our Lives” for Altrocklive.com and talked to their manager about doing a benefit concert once a long time ago. If there was anyone less qualified to correct Trey it is the Christian who has never listened to the band, knows nothing about them, knows nothing about Trey and who probably wrote a blog post about how Trey is now going to hell. (I have not checked; I was on vacation).

Now, that being said, regardless of whether or not he is a believer or a non-believer I am called to love him as Christ. If he is an unbeliever I have to love him by praying that someone would bring the Gospel to him and that by that the Spirit would correct his chosen life course that is contrary to scripture. If he is a believer to love him means to pray that someone would come alongside him and correct his behavior in love and by the Holy Spirit. I cannot correct Trey by boycotting his music, condemning him in a blog post or standing up at an Everyday Sunday show and shouting at him. In fact, as a believer, as one who has had that charge leveled at me for doing “Folk Rock” and who has got to witness the brutality of Westboro Baptist first hand I refuse to do any of those things. It is not my place, I will not be a voice that could potentially drive Trey further from the true and perfect Gospel of Christ. I will pray that there is someone in Trey’s life that can minister to him in this time and do so lovingly.

As for the comment about continuing to listen to his music, I cannot truly say how I will respond to hearing an Everyday Sunday Song until I actually hear one. Since I have been out of town since the story broke I have not had a chance to. But I hope that the good, life-giving memories that I associate with those songs will be untainted by what the artist does.

Folks, I do not claim to be perfect, far from it in fact, but I serve a perfect God. A God who does love Trey and who desires to see him restored to Himself. Therefore I must trust that God to do the work that is necessary in Trey’s life. A work that I, as someone who does not know Trey, cannot be a part of in any other way then loving and praying for my brother in Christ.

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Bradly Taylor is the Content editor for God’s Heart for Those.