LGBTQ+ Community Embraces Rerelease of Avalon’s ‘Testify to Love’ From Founding Member Who Says He Was Ousted for Being Gay

Almost 30 years after it topped contemporary Christian music (CCM) charts, “Testify to Love” is back with a fresh sound and a new fanbase. Michael Passons, a founding member of the Christian pop group Avalon, has rereleased the hit song with Ty Herndon, featuring former Avalon member Melissa Greene.

Passons, 60, revealed in 2020 that he is gay. Ty Herndon, a country singer, also is gay. At Herndon’s 2023 marriage to a man, Passons served as a groomsman; Greene officiated Herndon’s wedding.

Last December, Passons described being forced out of Avalon in 2003 because he “didn’t fit into the [group’s] conservative narrative.” After giving his “whole life” to the Christian church and faith, the singer told interviewer Patrick Custer, they “threw me out at the first hint that I violated a Scripture in Deuteronomy.”

Gay Community Embraces ‘Testify to Love’ Rerelease ​

“Testify to Love,” the hit single from Avalon’s 1997 album “A Maze of Grace,” opens with the words, “All the colors of the rainbow.” Now, according to fans, the song is becoming an anthem that affirms queer love.

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On Monday, May 18, author and podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey dedicated the first segment of her “Relatable” podcast to discussing the rerelease of Avalon’s hit “Testify to Love,” recorded by Michael Passons, Melissa Greene, and outspoken gay country singer Ty Herndon.

Passons, a founding and former member of the 1990s Christian vocal group Avalon, has claimed that he was removed from the group in 2003 for being gay. Greene joined the group in 2002 and left in 2009 after accepting a position as an associate pastor at GracePointe Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where she served until 2017. According to Passons, Greene believed at the time the group was making the right call about compelling Passons to leave, although she has since become LGBTQ+ affirming and one of Passons’ close friends.

In 2015, GracePointe Church publicly affirmed the LGBTQ+ community. The church states on its website that it “has assumed an explicitly progressive Christianity, centering the inherent goodness and beloved-ness of every person, rejecting theological constructs of shame, and stepping out into a faith evidenced in action.”

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Why ZOEgirl’s Alisa Childers Says the ‘Testify to Love’ Controversy Is a ‘Wake-Up Call’ for Christian Artists

Alisa Childers addressed the rerelease of the popular contemporary Christian music (CCM) song “Testify to Love,” which was formerly recorded by Avalon and is now being embraced as a queer anthem. Childers, a podcaster and member of the CCM group ZOEgirl, said she toured with Avalon while the song was “the biggest thing ever.”

“That is something I actually do know quite a bit about and I’ve been going back and forth in my own mind, like, should I address this because it’s actually very close to me?” Childers said in the May 24 episode of her podcast, featuring guest Anne Kennedy. “But since you [Kennedy] brought it up, I’ll take that as a signal from the Lord that we’re supposed to talk about it.”

Childers said that for a while, “Testify to Love” was “the biggest song in contemporary Christian music. I was actually on tour with Avalon while that song was, like, the biggest thing ever.”

As part of ZOEgirl, Childers “was on the bus with [the Avalon band members] every day,” she said, “know and love all of them, including Michael and Melissa, who are two members of the band who are now saying ‘Testify to Love’ is an LGBTQ queer anthem.”

Alisa Childers Reflects on ‘Testify to Love,’ Touring History With Avalon​

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Why ZOEgirl's Alisa Childers Says the 'Testify to Love' Controversy Is a 'Wake-Up Call' for Christian Artists

Alisa Childers says the rerelease of “Testify to Love,” which is being embraced as a queer anthem, is a wake-up call for Christian artists.

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