Marsha Stevens-Pino was born Marsha Carter in Pomona, California, in 1952.
She grew up in a troubled household that was impacted by alcoholism. At age 16,
she found solace and new life at a beachside evangelistic Christian church in
southern California that marked the beginnings of the "Jesus Movement" of the
1960s. Energized and joyful at her personal encounter with Jesus, she wrote the
song "For Those Tears I Died" for her sister Wendy to "lead her to the Lord."
Along with her sister, friends Peter Jacobs and Russ Stevens, Marsha formed the
musical group Children of the Day. The group's first recorded album, Come to
the Water, was released in 1970. They held release of their album to
put two cuts on The Everlastin' Living Jesus Music Concert which was
the first big hit of the new Maranatha Music company and "put the Jesus Movement
into high gear, spreading its influence from Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa
throughout the country and beyond" (Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian
Music, 2002). Marsha's song "For Those Tears I Died" was one of the most
well-known Christian folk songs of the 1970s and was published in numerous
evangelical hymnals and songbooks.
Marsha married Russ Stevens and together with Children of the Day recorded
six albums and toured continually over the next few years. Marsha and Russ
divorced after seven years of marriage and Marsha took the bold step of coming
out as a lesbian. Marsha was immediately ostracized and routinely condemned by
the contemporary Christian music subculture. The magazine Christian
Century wrote in 1999 that Stevens became "conservative Christianity's
worst nightmare--a Jesus-loving, Bible-believing, God-fearing lesbian
Christian."
After a period of searching for a new church home, Marsha affiliated with the
Metropolitan Community Churches and formed Born Again Lesbian Music (BALM
Ministries) to begin a new ministry--to use her music to proclaim the love of
Jesus to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. In 1987, she
recorded her first album since leaving Children of the Day entitled Free to
Be. Since that time she has produced several more recordings, including
The Best Is Yet To Come, I Still Have A Dream, I Will Not
Behave Like Prey, No Matter What Way, The Waiting's Over,
Inclusive Hymns for the Church, The Gift Is On the Inside,
Is This the Real You? and Songs of Praise from a Strange Land.
Reminiscent of the 1970s when Jesus bands toured the country in vans and
buses to perform wherever they could, Marsha began touring the country in the
early 1990s in a Winnebago performing 200 or more concerts a year. Her son John
Stevens later joined her in some recordings and concerts.
In spite of the success of her new ministry, Marsha has continued to be
totally shunned by the Christian contemporary music community. As the
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music notes: "No Christian music
publication has ever interviewed her or reviewed any of her products (positively
or negatively). No song by Stevens has every been played on any Christian radio
station, no album carried by any Christian music store, no article about her or
even reference to her work has ever been made in any media supposedly devoted to
covering the contemporary music scene." In 1999, the other three members of
Children of the Day were invited to perform without Marsha at a Calvary Chapel
Jesus People Reunion Concert with over 20,000 fans. They refused to do it
without her and were cut from the program.
Theologically, Marsha
identifies herself as "a conservative evangelical, strongly committed to the
authority of Scripture, passionate about having a personal relationship with
Jesus." She is certified as a lay evangelist by the Metropolitan Community
Churches. Her music and message have largely focused on proclaiming the grace of
God and love of Jesus to the LGBT community rather than defending or justifying
herself to homophobic Christians. The Gay Music Guide, a non-religious
publication, has twice placed her albums on the Twenty Best of the Year list.
While she still continues to tour and perform, Marsha and her spouse, Cindy
Stevens-Pino, have begun a music ministry training school for LGBT Christians
that is based at their home church, the King of Peace MCC in St. Petersburg,
Florida.
[This biographical statement taken from the
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian Music, 2002, and information
provided by Marsha Stevens-Pino]