A Christian school canceled a concert after learning one of the singers is gay

Pensacola Christian College told The King's Singers to leave two hours before they went onstage

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On Saturday night, Pensacola Christian College (a fundamentalist Christian school) canceled a concert after learning one of the members of a visiting musical group was gay. To make matters worse, they did it just two hours before the performance was set to begin—when the group was already on campus.

The kneejerk reaction has led to a social media outcry from even current students who seem shocked by the school’s callous actions.

The whole situation involves The King’s Singers, an a cappella group from Britain with a long history—they formed in 1968—and a rotating cast of performers. (The name refers to the group’s origins at King's College in Cambridge.)

They’re extremely talented and perform a variety of music during their events. They recently began a brief tour in North America, with stops in Georgia, Florida, and various cities in Canada. Saturday night’s gig, one of the first of the tour, was the one at Pensacola Christian College.

PCC, if you’re not familiar, is one of the most fundamentalist religious schools in the country. It’s a place where the fire safety protocol requires female students to make sure they’re appropriately covered up before running out of the building. (Because their lives aren’t nearly as important as making sure men don’t get tempted by their scandalous pajamas during an emergency.) It’s also a place where a book about classical art in the school library was marked up with a Sharpie in order to censor scandalous things… like the cleavage of Mona Lisa.

Importantly, students at PCC are required to attend a certain number of Fine Arts programs each year.

So when a student found out The King’s Singers were coming to PCC, he looked them up… and realized one of the singers, Edward Button, was gay.

edwardbutton1

A post shared by Edward Button (@edwardbutton1)

This isn’t a secret of any kind. Button (top left) doesn’t hide it, nor should he have to. It’s not like it comes up during the concerts since they’re just singing.

But when that PCC student learned about Button, he immediately alerted a dean, saying he felt it would be inappropriate to require students to attend a show with a gay performer because… I have no clue. Gay cooties?

The dean apparently agreed.

Ryan Cook @ryan_cook2021

So Pensacola Christian College planned on having a British Acapella group perform tonight. However some idiot student found out that one of the singers is gay and so the school ended up canceling the event. I personally find this to be extremely dumb.

Ryan Cook @ryan_cook2021

My dean commented on it.

Indeed, a calendar on the school’s website soon listed the event as canceled.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve requested more details from The King’s Singers, PCC, and the people behind the social media accounts. None of them responded to me.

Yesterday afternoon, however, The King’s Singers posted this message on social media:

The King's Singers @kingssingers

Sharing information here about the short-notice cancellation of our recent concert in Florida:

We were deeply saddened that our concert at Pensacola Christian College was cancelled at two hours' notice on Saturday February 11th. The school gave its reasons for cancellation as "concerns" expressed about the "lifestyle" of members of our group.

It has become clear to us, from a flood of correspondence from students and members of the public, that these concerns related to the sexuality of members of our group.

We have performed at Pensacola Christian College before and we entered into the engagement in the knowledge that this is a fundamentalist Christian institution. Our belief is that music can build a common language that allows people with different views and perspectives to come together.

This is the first time that anything other than bad weather, the pandemic or war has caused a concert cancellation in our 55-year history. We are disappointed not to have been able to share our music and our mission of finding harmony with over 4000 students of the college and the wider Pensacola community. We hope that any conversations that follow might encourage a greater sense of love, acceptance and inclusion.

Our tour of North America continues this week with four concerts in Canada. We look forward to seeing our friends in northern Florida again soon, in a context where we're celebrated for who we are, as well as for the music we make.

For what it’s worth, I haven’t seen evidence that the controversy involved anyone other than Buttons. But the group’s statement reveals just how petty and bigoted PCC is. Rather than let students listen to talented singers—people who were already paid since there must have been a contract involved—the PCC administration chose to cancel the whole thing so students wouldn’t have to be in the presence of at least one gay man.

(Good luck hosting all those Fine Arts events without coming across a gay person...)

Forget the damn “He Gets Us” commercials during the Super Bowl. This may be the clearest distillation of modern-day Christians in America: unnecessary cruel over an issue that doesn’t affect their lives at all. Even if they claim they just don’t want to celebrate “sin,” how many other outsiders who say or do “un-Christian” things are regularly invited to campus? How does the school vet everyone for their private actions?

Even the Christianity subreddit was appalled by PCC’s actions. So were some of the students at PCC, based on comments they left on Instagram:

Late last night, PCC finally issued its own statement on the situation:

Pensacola Christian College @ConnectPCC

Pensacola Christian College is a religious liberal arts institution founded upon and guided by the Bible, as reflected in our Articles of Faith. The college cannot knowingly give an implied or direct endorsement of anything that violates the Holy Scripture, the foundation for our sincerely held beliefs. At the same time, the college also recognizes everyone is created in the image of God and should be afforded the dignity of kindness.

PCC canceled a concert with The King's Singers upon learning that one of the artists openly maintained a lifestyle that contradicts Scripture. The highly talented musicians were treated with dignity and respect when informed of the cancellation. The artists stated their understanding and acceptance of the change and were given full remuneration.

That’s a lie. The singers weren’t treated with dignity and respect. I know that because I read the first goddamn paragraph of the statement.

And notice how PCC doesn’t explain what “endorsement” they would have been offering by allowing a gay man to sing traditional and popular songs on campus. How much of a bubble do students live in that even choral music must be heard through a prism of sexuality?

Maybe if PCC’s leaders could stop thinking about gay men in the bedroom, this wouldn’t be a problem. Instead, what would have been an otherwise pleasant evening became the latest example of conservative Christian hate. It’s the theological version of the Streisand Effect.

This is what PCC wants to be known for.

The administrators don’t trust their own adult students to attend a G-rated concert because they think superficial knowledge of the private life of one of the singers makes the Baby Jesus cry… even though almost none of the attendees would’ve had any clue who the singers are dating had one student not whined about it.