Marsha Stevens

Marsha Stevens
Born (1952-08-20) August 20, 1952
Origin Pomona, California United States
Genres Gospel music, Inspirational
Occupation(s) Christian music singer, songwriter
Instruments Piano
Years active 1969–present
Labels BALM Ministries

Marsha Stevens-Pino (born 20 August 1952[1] in Pomona, California) is a singer, musician, songwriter and recording artist of Christian songs.[2]

For Those Tears I Died and "Children of the Day"

Shortly after professing to become a Christian in 1969, Stevens-Pino wrote "For Those Tears I Died (Come to the Water)", a song that was to become widely known and sung in charismatic Christian churches and youth-groups across the United States. Utilizing her songwriting and singing talents with sister Wendy Carter and friends Peter Jacobs and Russ Stevens, the Contemporary Christian Music group known as "Children of the Day" was formed. An entry in The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music states:

If Larry Norman is to be called the father of Christian Rock, then Marsha Stevens certainly deserves to be known as the mother of contemporary Christian music...She was the leader of what is considered to be the world's first contemporary Christian music group, Children of the Day, and she has continued as a solo artist to produce albums of worship-oriented and edifying adult contemporary pop. As such, she remains the progenitor of what, by 2002, would become the single most popular genre in the contemporary Christian music market.[3]

After the release of the Children of the Day's first album, Come to the Water, Marsha and Russ Stevens married.

Scandal and controversy

Russ and Marsha Stevens' marriage produced two children, but the couple divorced in 1979. After the break-up of their marriage, Stevens-Pino publicly announced she was a lesbian. In The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, editor Mark Powell referred to the incident as "Contemporary Christian Music's first official scandal". Christian Century Magazine's Mark Allan Powell in a Mar 17, 1999 Christian Century article, titled "Marsha's Tears: an orphan of the church" stated that after coming out of the closet, Stevens-Pino became "conservative Christianity's worst nightmare - a Jesus-loving, Bible-believing, God-fearing lesbian Christian."

After her divorce and subsequent vilification by the Christian music industry, Stevens-Pino formed her own music ministry, BALM (Born Again Lesbian Music) in the mid-1980s. It was at that time that Stevens-Pino began ministering within the predominantly gay and lesbian Metropolitan Community Church as well as other, independent Christian-Gay congregations not affiliated with MCC. The transition from being a celebrity within evangelical Christianity to being an open lesbian was not easy for Stevens-Pino. Along with losing custody of her young children after her divorce, Stevens-Pino reports that more than once she has received by mail ripped out and torn up hymnal and songbook pages upon which was printed, For Those Tears I Died.

During a Gaither Homecoming Concert in Phoenix, Arizona in 2002, singer/musician/songwriter Bill Gaither acknowledged Marsha's presence in the audience along with her significant contribution to early Contemporary Christian music. When a backstage photo showing Stevens, Pino, Gaither, and Mark Lowry arm-on-arm circulated on the internet following the concert, a large backlash from conservative, fundamentalist, and evangelical Christians ensued. The controversy caused Gaither to issue a press release which included the statement, "someone snapped a photograph of the four of us, a picture Marsha has exploited on her Web site ever since." In response to Gaither's press statement regarding the incident, MCC moderator, Reverend Nancy L. Wilson, released a rebuttal statement in defense of Stevens-Pino.

Current life

Stevens-Pino is in a domestic partnership with Cindy Stevens-Pino. Based out of St. Petersburg, Florida, Marsha Stevens-Pino continues to write and record her own music through BALM as well as continuing to tour the United States giving concerts in predominantly gay and lesbian as well as gay-affirming churches and fellowships. Stevens-Pino also works to help develop the talents of up and coming LGBT Christian musicians through BALM's "upBeat!" program. Through this program, Stevens-Pino produces a Praise and Worship album with 14 singers and 10 songwriters annually from the new students accepted into the program's training seminars.

Albums

References

  1. ↑ "BALM Ministries Website". BALM Ministries. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  2. ↑ Beaujon, Andrew (2006), Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock, Da Capo Press, p. 23, ISBN 0-306-81457-9
  3. ↑ Stevens, Marsha. "The Mother of Contemporary Christian Music". Canyourhearmenow. Encyclopedia Of Contemporary Christian Music. Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  4. ↑ GLBT Christians Compilation CD
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