“I’ve never heard a dying soul
Wish that he had taken
More time on his portfolio”
The Mount Rushmore of contemporary Christian music would not be complete without the inclusion of DC Talk. The group was formed in 1987 with all three members students at Liberty University at the time.
DC Talk’s music evolution from a rap group to a pop/rock group and then the outgrowth of members as they left the group and continued to influence Christian music has had a long-lasting impact on modern Christian music.
“Wanna Be Loved” comes from DC Talk’s fifth and final album, “Supernatural,” which was originally released in 1998. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 album charts, something no Christian music album had ever done. The song has a great message about seeking personal connection and love rather than things of this world.
Bringing up DC Talk, unfortunately, now also includes discussing the actions of former member Michael Tait. Tait’s powerful vocals allowed DC Talk to make the transition from a hip hop group to a rock group in the early 1990s, and when the group disbanded at the end of the decade, Tait became the lead singer for the longstanding Christian group Newsboys. In June 2025, one of the worst-kept secrets of Christian music became public when The Roys Report and The Guardian independently released investigative articles about sexual assault that Tait had committed against young men during his time with the Newsboys. None of the reports indicated that these actions took place during Tait’s time with DC Talk, but in a statement on the allegations, Tait acknowledged the veracity of the statements and indicated that he committed the acts while often high on cocaine, an issue that he stated dated back to his days with DC Talk.
You could wonder why someone would allow themselves to be taken advantage of in such a way, but at the very basic level, it has to do with a desire to connect, to attach, and to love.
Psychological studies have called our human desire for attachment and love a “fundamental human desire” and even “the most fundamental human need.” Some of the best teachers on the planet utilize that desire to connect students to material through shown love and care in the classroom, engaging students in a desire to learn. Of course, the flip side is that there are those who use that desire for attachment to satisfy nefarious desires as well.
The new Netflix documentary about the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping includes a harrowing discussion of what happened to Smart at the hands of her captor, Brian David Mitchell. Smart talks about being educated, at 14 years old, about abstinence, but she stated that she had no education on consent.
She later talks about her fear after the whole ordeal, whether she would ever be able to experience real love. Thankfully, she has married and has children now in a healthy, loving relationship.
Educating our children on expressing and accepting love in a healthy manner is a crucial part of the life lessons they should receive as they grow. Obviously, love expressions change as a child ages, but there’s also a point where we seem to go too far in shutting off expressions of love and respect.
I was reminded of this last weekend as my daughter participated in a middle school wrestling match. Despite hard-fought matches, both girls bounced up from the mat after each match and hugged one another. My daughter lost her first match of the season this week in another meet, and I asked her if she hugged her opponent after that match, and she looked at me like I was dumb (a common look a father will get from his teenage daughter, so I’m basically immune…), and she responded that she did.
That had me thinking of the amount of hugs I received from friends as a high school student and a college student versus the physical and even verbal expressions of love and care that I experience as an adult. There’s an obvious difference, and I’m blessed to be in a job where I hear appreciation frequently from community members.
There are many who are not blessed to hear such things on a frequent basis, if at all. As the song says, “we all want to be loved/we all want just a little respect.”
Share the love today and help those around you understand that a healthy expression of love is a normal and positive thing!
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