A lawsuit in Nashville raises uncomfortable questions about faith, commerce, and market concentration
The Newsboys, one of Christian music’s biggest acts, are at the center of a sprawling federal lawsuit that is equal parts antitrust case, sex scandal, and cautionary tale about what happens when private equity discovers a market built on faith. Wesley Campbell, who owns the Newsboys enterprise, alleges that a Netherlands-based private equity firm called Waterland quietly bought up the major Christian concert promoters until it controlled most of the market, then cut his company out of the child-sponsorship fundraising business that had been a primary revenue stream for CCM artists for years. When Campbell’s $50 million sale of that business to Waterland fell through, he alleges the firm used confidential data it had obtained in due diligence to build a competing platform, pressured artists including MercyMe to break their contracts with him, and orchestrated investigative reporting about sexual misconduct by former Newsboys frontman Michael Tait to accelerate his commercial destruction.
But the case has already exposed the uncomfortable machinery underneath Christian music’s most emotionally resonant moments. The child-sponsorship appeal that moved you at that concert, the one where the lights went low and someone talked about a child in East Africa, turns out to have been the most contested real estate in a corporate war you knew nothing about. If you have ever bought a ticket to a Christian concert, sung along to a Newsboys song, or sponsored a child through one of these events, this case is about you.
A Note Before You Read
This story is about an organization that allegedly used a journalism outlet as a corporate weapon. The journalism you are reading right now has no corporate backer, no private equity firm, and no exit strategy. Just a writer and a reader. And the unvarnished truth.
Won’t you help us keep the lights on? I’m not talking to the creep reading this over your shoulder. I’m talking to you. For less than the price of a Grande Non-Fat Decaf Soy Chai Tea Latte a month, and less than a quarter of the streaming service you’re playing in the background as you read this, you too can make a real difference
Otherwise we’ll have to pay a band to promote this …
(I’ll never make it as a fundraiser.)
