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A fundamentalist Evangelical Christian school in Florida canceled a concert upon learning one of the singers from a visiting choir was gay.
Saturday's cancellation happened two hours prior to the scheduled showtime after the musical group had already arrived at the campus of Pensacola Christian College (PCC)–a private Independent Baptist college.
According to the Friendly Atheist, the "extremely talented" group of singers involved was the British a capella vocal ensemble, The King's Singers, which was founded in 1968 and named after King's College in Cambridge, England.
Pensacola Christian College was one of the first stops on The King's Singers' North American tour preceding appearances in other cities in Florida, Georgia, and in Canada.
The publication pointed out that PCC is notorious for being one of the most fundamentalist religious schools in the US.
Examples of their strict policies include having the "worst" school fire safety protocol. It allegedly enforces appearance guidelines for female students, requiring them to be in "proper" attire before leaving classrooms during fire drills even though the priority should be safety first.
Only Sky also mentioned that a book on classical art from the school's library allegedly had images of human bodies censored by a black marker.
Only Sky provided examples of corrected images in art books that PCC had previously deemed too scandalous for students.
OnlySky
Gone is Mona Lisa's cleavage.
OnlySky
The recent concert cancellation followed a PCC student who did some research after hearing about The King's Singers' scheduled performance.
The student discovered that a group member named Edward Button was gay.
Button is not private about his sexual identity. His Instagram page featured a post in which he and his beau had recently celebrated their third anniversary together.
Chances are, the paying audience members would not have noticed they would be in the presence of a gay performer.
Nevertheless, the PCC student alerted the dean about Button and argued it would be inappropriate for any student to attend a performance where a singer was living an LGBTQ+ lifestyle.
The dean agreed.
The calendar was subsequently updated to indicate the concert was canceled, as seen in the image below.
Friendly Athiest
The King's Singers' Twitter account shared some information about the canceled appearance.
KS cited that the reason for the cancellation according to PCC was due to "concerns" about the "lifestyle" of one of their members and that it "related to the sexuality" of someone in the group.
They continued, in part:
"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."
@kingssingers/Twitter
People were impressed by KS's dignified response and mortified by PCC's homophobic course of action.
PCC responded to the backlash from their controversial decision.
They maintained:
"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."
The statement continued:
"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."
Twitter immediately called PCC's bluff, citing that the school did anything but extend the King's Singers "dignity of kindness."
An opportunity for audiences to share the love and joy of music sadly came at the cost of Christian bigotry.
In 2023.
May the King's Singers be blessed with a successful rest of their tour, where their performances will be better appreciated elsewhere regardless of the private lives of everyone in the room.