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AT LAST: American gospel singer Robin Blue with husband Herbert
n “I can fight another woman over my man, but I couldn’t compete with another man”
Her mother was a lesbian. Her two husbands were homosexuals. She was into drugs and gang robbery. She even attempted suicide at one time. But now, American evangelist and gospel artist, Robin Blue is traversing the world, testifying about how God pulled her out of the gutter and transformed her from a criminal into a Christ-centred person.
Many people would rather sweep their dark past under the carpet, but not this daughter of a Baptist minister. She says, “If I can help someone. If I can put someone out of Satan’s grip; if my testimony can give someone some hope, I will tell it again and again. I have to proclaim that God set me free; from shame, rejection, abuse and everything that I could be delivered from,” she says. “He transformed me from shooting with an AK-47 to shooting with book 66 – that is the bible. I really shoot hard at the devil,” says Blue who started taking drugs at nine years. “By the time I was 16, I was pushing drugs in high school. I had everything a teenage girl would dream of. I drove a brand new racecar with a 340-engine. I had lots of money. I never attended class but graduated a semester ahead of my class with 3As, 2Bs and a C.” She paid fellow students to do her course work.
“But as an adult, I suffered. I could not understand basic math. I could not differentiate a noun form a verb,” she narrates. “In the gang, we committed every crime. We robbed, shot at people and terrorized the whole (neighbour)hood in the 70’s.” Blue, a preacher’s daughter grew up hating God. “I carried a gun, the gang gave me the identity and attention I did not get from home. When you are a pastor’s kid, every parishioner has access to your father, except you. Sister so and so calls for counseling and Rev. so and so invites the pastor for conference. The wife and children don’t feature anywhere,” Blue says.
Her parents’ divorce when she was only 13 years of age, drove her further into the hands of the gang for comfort. When she was 19, her mother confessed she was a lesbian and started living with her lover. This pierced Blue’s soul. “My mum was everything to me. We went to bars together. My world crushed,” narrates Robin, who almost committed suicide to revenge. |But around that time, unexpectedly, Blue decided to turn back to God after watching a film, A thief in the night. However, things were far better. She had two failed marriages to Christian men. One was to a youth leader at their church. “It was a Cinderella wedding. I had an entourage of 38 people. It was glamorous and a good show off. My mother was there with her lover. But I made her put on a dress at least,” says Blue, a mother of five and grandmother of eight.
Six years down the road, She discovered that her Christian husband was a homosexual.
“He used to tell me about his best friend. But I realized they were a little too close. His lover started buying him expensive presents. He would disappear from home for days. She says that whenever this happened, he would come back home with a bouquet of flowers and a card. But she later learnt her husband was getting the flowers off dead people’s graves. “One day, I found a napkin with the name of a known gay club and I confronted him. I told him this was the right time for us to go for counseling. He refused and instead moved in with his lover,” she says. Her husband later committed suicide at his lover’s house by taking a drug overdose. Her second husband was a pastor but also turned out to be a homosexual and pedophile. Robin describes this second marriage as a living hell. “He threw my head out of the window, choked me in the night and even raped me. But on Sundays, I was the happy pastor’s wife. I put on my lipstick and hallelujah shoes and never mentioned a thing for I was a pastor’s wife,” she narrates. “He wanted his shirts ironed in a certain way and if I did not, it was a crime. I could not speak until I was spoken to. I never saw his paycheck but he always asked for mine. He was so mean that when we went out with kids for dinner, he only bought two plates of food and I had to share my plate with my kids.” He told me I was too fat and could not make love to me. I had to lose weight to please him. I dropped from size 22 1/2 to size seven. I went from being anorexic to being bulimic because when he was not looking, I stuffed myself with all the food I could,” narrates Blue. She says her husband once came home with an STD infection in his rectum. “Surely he did not get that infection from a woman. I was angry. I can fight with another woman over my man, but I could not compete with another man for my man. We divorced but I came out of that relationship with a black eye and concussion.” Blue says when this relationship ended she sang freedom songs. “I went to the supermarket, bought me some pork chops and hot dogs. You see, I am a big girl but someone had made me look like a celebrity who was dying,” she said.
Single once again, Robin threw men out of the window – forever, (at least she thought) and decided to concentrate on her relationship with God. Her mother was now a Christian and had separated from her woman lover. “When mum became a Christian, she went and told the woman, ‘Woman, pack your things and get out of my house because I have met a man. His name is Jesus." Blue says her mother is her best friend. Through her, she met Herbert Blue, to whom she has been married for 15 years. “I frankly asked him: ‘brother, tell me. Are you homosexual or not? The answer is yes or no, not anything between.’”
Herbert was shocked by Robin’s question but answered her straight that he was not. What brought them together was their interest in music. “As young people we had sung in the choir together after I had become born again. But after that, he disappeared and I had not seen him for ages. After meeting him again, we spoke on the phone from 11:30pm to 5:30am, filling each other in on our friends. “I now have a real man. We love each other, minister together and I know he will not walk out on me,” says the gospel artist who has sang with renowned gospel stars like the Winans, Helen Baylor, and Andrew Crouch. Last year, she recorded her own gospel album.
“God has given me beauty from ashes,” she says. I am a free girl again.
Blue is here on a visit to Pastor David Mukasa of Kyegera victory church. She has been doing counseling. Many people called in to thank her for opening up when she gave her testimony on Impact radio. A widow wept as she asked for her number. For contact in counseling please call 077-407117.
n This Story was featured in Uganda’s National Newspaper
n “New Vision” June 10, 2002
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Michael M. Smith, CFP
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