Lauren Daigle: Critics of 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' Appearance 'Completely Missed the Heart of God'
Grammy-nominated singer Lauren Daigle addressed critics who slammed her for appearing on NBC's "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" because Ellen DeGeneres is a lesbian, arguing they "completely missed the heart of God."
The Christian artist appeared on the mainstream show Oct. 24 and received criticism on social media over her involvement. Most of the critics argued Daigle was wrong to appear on the show because Ellen is a lesbian.
"I think the second we start drawing lines around which people are able to be approached and which aren't, we've already completely missed the heart of God," Daigle told WAY-FM Radio.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"I don't have all the answers in life and I'm definitely not gonna act like I do, but the one thing that I know for sure is I can't choose who I'm supposed to be kind to and who I'm supposed to show love to and who I'm not, because that's the mission right?" she continued. "Be who Christ was to everyone."
Daigle described her experience as easy going, adding that there was joy on set and Ellen does a good job taking care of her crew.
DeGeneres called Daigle "amazing" before the Christian singer took the stage on her show to perform "Rolling Stones" off of her recently released album "Look Up Child."
"Six feet under / I thought it was over / An answer to prayer / The voice of a Savior / Rise up / Rise," Daigle sang.
After the performance, DeGeneres rushed on the stage, hugged Daigle and joked that the former "American Idol" alum was successful today because DeGeneres was a judge while Daigle did a short stint on the popular singing competition.
Daigle began receiving backlash about her performance as soon as she announced her special appearance on "Ellen" in a Facebook post. However, as Daigle said in a recent interview with The Christian Post, she is remaining true to her call of going outside the walls of the church to share the Gospel.
"I think the passage that says, 'Go out into the world and draw people unto Him,' the Great Commission, that's what I think about in regard to the mainstream aspect," Daigle told CP in the interview. "I wasn't looking at [making my music] as in mainstream versus Christian. I was like, 'OK, what is the purest version of me? Or what is the purest thing that God has written into my spirit and how do I express that? How do I communicate that?"
The 27-year-old Louisiana native said she's not afraid to appeal to the world with her message of hope, which some fear might lead her astray and to abandon her worship roots to become a secular artist. Daigle, however, said her faith and mission in life has never been clearer.
"[My music] is having crossover appeal, but it doesn't mean that I'm leaving one for the other or that I'm going to be swept up by one thing or the other. For me, it's like, 'Oh, everything just got even more clear.' Everything just got clearer as to why it is that we go and love people who are outside of the walls of our church, outside of the walls that we're comfortable with," Daigle added.
"Look Up Child" debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart upon its release in September, beating out popular secular musicians such as Drake, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B that week.
