APPLETON, Wisc. — A Christian radio station in Wisconsin has pulled out of any support or involvement in an upcoming Gungor concert after learning that the lead singer no longer accepts the Genesis account as literal.
As previously reported, Michael Gungor and his wife Lisa, who in 2006 formed a congregation called “Bloom” in Denver, are known for their the Dove Award-winning and Grammy nominated worship music, such as Beautiful Things, Say So and Dry Bones. In 2013, they won an award from the Independent Music Awards for their live performance album A Creation Liturgy.
But in 2012, Michael Gungor, the son of pastor and author Ed Gungor, revealed in a blog post entitled A Worshiping Evolutionist? that he had concluded that the Genesis account is only figurative.
“I guess I’ll have to come out of the closet and admit… I don’t believe in a literal six-day creation,” he wrote. “Genesis is a poem if I’ve ever seen one.”
Earlier this year, Gungor revealed his thoughts even further, explaining in a blog post entitled What Do We Believe? that he “has no more ability to believe” in Genesis as being literal.
“I have no more ability to believe, for example, that the first people on earth were a couple named Adam and Eve that lived 6,000 years ago,” he wrote. “I have no ability to believe that there was a flood that covered all the highest mountains of the world only 4,000 years ago and that all of the animal species that exist today are here because they were carried on an ark and then somehow walked or flew all around the world from a mountain in the middle east after the water dried up.”
After recent headlines highlighted concerns over Gungor’s revelations, the singer/songwriter decided to create another blog post about the matter in light of the ongoing discussion about his beliefs.
“Despite our best efforts, people have assumed because we sing a lot about ‘creation,’ for example, that we must be young-earth creationists,” he wrote. “[But] Gungor is not, and has never been a fundamentalist band seeking to spread young earth, biblical literalism across the planet.”
“[Y]ou can still love God and love people and read those early Genesis stories as myth with some important things to teach us,” Gungor contended.
But some have decided that they cannot in good conscience support or promote the singer following his revelations. Gungor noted in his blog post that a Baptist church—which remained nameless—had canceled an upcoming concert because of his statements.
Now, a Christian radio station has also decided to pull out of any support or involvement with an upcoming Gungor concert in Wisconsin. Gungor is scheduled to perform at the Power of One event on October 11th, a one day youth gathering that also features the music of Switchfoot and speaker Bob Lenz.
“We cannot be a party to introducing more doubt into the hearts and minds of young Christians already being fed doubt and lies by the world. They receive enough of that in public schools, from the government and through television, music and movies. To now hear it from a professing believer in a position of influence is not acceptable,” wrote the board of directors of Lakeshore Communications in a recent open letter to their listeners.
The radio station outlined that their greatest concern is not Gungor’s refutation of a six-day creation, but his rejection of other aspects of Genesis that it finds tantamount to denying the validity of Scripture.
“The issue that causes us the deepest concern is Mr. Gungor’s statement that he cannot believe in a literal Adam and Eve as the earth’s first two people, nor does he believe that the Flood in Genesis really happened,” the board stated. “There is a huge difference in Christians debating interpretation of Scriptures vs. refuting the Bible as the eternal, inerrant truth of God.”
“The first temptation recorded in the Bible is Satan asking Eve ‘Did God really say…?’ The beliefs expressed by Mr. Gungor are, in our opinion, an extension of this temptation,” they said. “When we begin to doubt the eternal truth of God in His Word, we begin a slide into apostasy.”
Lakeshore Communications said that although some may see its rejection of the concert as being divisive to the Body of Christ, it pointed to Jude 1:17, “But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.”
“Music is a powerful tool appealing to the emotions of people. We are concerned that approving of Mr. Gungor’s music and appearance will lead to young people—whose heads are already being filled with doubts about God and His Word—to further doubt and question,” the board stated.
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