{"id":899,"date":"2009-09-16T13:22:33","date_gmt":"2009-09-16T13:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/09\/gospelrb-artist-tonex-opens-up.html"},"modified":"2009-09-16T13:22:33","modified_gmt":"2009-09-16T13:22:33","slug":"gospelrb-artist-tonex-opens-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gospelsoundcheck\/2009\/09\/gospelrb-artist-tonex-opens-up.html","title":{"rendered":"Gospel\/R&amp;B artist Tonex opens up about his sexuality in a revealing and personal video interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Word Network&#8217;s Lexi did a great interview with Gospel\/R&#038;B star Tonex, in which he talks about being molested as a child, his anger at the church and hypocrisy, a string of tragic family events in 2006 that led to a breakdown, and even his attraction to other men and marriage.I remember seeing Tonex one year at the Dove Awards, when he showed up with a purple fur coat. He was funny, outlandish, and stepping more than a little out of the Christian music box. So this is a really, really interesting interview, worth watching in its entirety (three parts):<!--more--><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/970nMJ_nhIg&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/970nMJ_nhIg&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Yg5EhnbZqkA&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Yg5EhnbZqkA&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object><object width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/jMbc1pl92Sk&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/jMbc1pl92Sk&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><\/embed><\/object>I found Tonex&#8217;s thoughts on homosexuality, on marriage, on the church&#8217;s treatment of gay members completely fascinating. Since I&#8217;m not gay, I think it&#8217;s important to take time to listen to people who are, to understand how they feel and what church and faith looks and feels like on that side of the fence. I think he makes a lot of sense.<strong>Of course, I&#8217;d love to hear your thoughts &#8211;<\/strong> please do me a favor though. Before you comment, watch all three videos so you can hear what Tonex has to say.<em><a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=GospelSoundcheck&amp;loc=en_US\">Click here to subscribe to Gospel Soundcheck by email <\/a>and have the Gospel Soundcheck headlines delivered daily to your email inbox. And don&#8217;t forget to <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/joannebrokaw\" target=\"_blank\">follow me on Twitter!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Word Network&#8217;s Lexi did a great interview with Gospel\/R&#038;B star Tonex, in which he talks about being molested as a child, his anger at the church and hypocrisy, a string of tragic family events in 2006 that led to a breakdown, and even his attraction to other men and marriage.I remember seeing Tonex one&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-music-interview"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gospel\/R&amp;B artist Tonex opens up about his sexuality in a revealing and personal video interview - 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