Josh Ritter, a prominent singer-songwriter and guitarist, has landed himself into a huge controversy after speaking for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and at the same criticizing Messiah College's anti-gay policy during a performance, May 3, at the private Christian college.
After his performance at the college, Ritter continued to lambaste the policy by posting the following message on his Facebook page, May 4.
An excerpt of the message:
"Messiah College requires all students to sign a "Community Covenant" promising to, among other things, "avoid such sinful practices as...homosexual behavior...."
"This policy, which I see as exclusionary and bigoted, could not run more counter to my personal beliefs. If I had done my homework, and read about Messiah's policies ahead of time, I would never have agreed to play there."
Further supporting his decision, he said that he would be donating his earnings from the performance to The Trevor Project, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth advocacy organization.
Ritter has decided never to perform at the College again until and unless it makes amendments to its policy and welcomes all members of the community, regardless of faith and sexuality.
Beth Lorow, the college's spokeswoman, said that Ritter could have discussed the issue with the administrators before or after the concert but instead chose to deal with the issue on a social community like Facebook, damaging the college's name and reputation.
"We are a Christian college, we would think it wouldn't be surprising that we hold a traditional Scriptural interpretation of sexuality," Lorow said. "We feel disappointed that he opted to publicly express his disagreement with name-calling and labeling and passed on doing it in a more productive way."
This is not the first time; Ritter has performed at Messiah. His last concert at the college was in 2009.
Ritter, who performs and records with The Royal City Band, is known for his distinctive Americana folk music and narrative lyrics. In 2006, he was named one of the '100 Greatest Living Songwriters' by Paste magazine.
Not only the college officials and students are surprised by Ritter's unusual behaviour, his loyal fans were also taken aback by his outburst.
One of his fans, Rebecca Erin, said that "the hard truth of the matter is that we ARE discriminated against just for disagreeing with the behavior of gay people. Why is it that they can discriminate against us and our beliefs but we're expected to be 100% tolerant of theirs?"
