Two Christian TV networks can no longer be seen on the nation’s second largest satellite TV provider.

Daystar and FamilyNet were removed from DISH Network Sept. 17 after an arbitration panel unanimously ruled that DISH’s parent company, EchoStar Communications Corp., must comply with a 1996 contract it made with Dominion Sky Angel, the nation’s only Christian direct-to satellite TV service.

The agreement forbids EchoStar from broadcasting any Christian channels on DISH Network besides Dominion’s Angel One network, and Trinity Broadcasting Network and Eternal Word Television Network, which were airing on DISH before the contract was made. Dominion also was awarded more than $3 million for past economic damages and legal fees, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The dispute stems from an April 2003 breach-of-contract lawsuit that Dominion filed against EchoStar after it began airing Daystar and FamilyNet. The networks fought to remain on DISH, which is said to reach 25 million homes, leading to a heated dispute between Daystar and Dominion in particular.

Roughly a month before the arbitration panel’s ruling, Dominion founder Robert W. Johnson Sr. died of heart failure Aug. 5 at the age 66. His son, Robert Johnson Jr., is serving as Dominion’s interim CEO.

“It is our desire to put this issue behind us and move forward in obedience to the vision that the Lord has given for this important work of ministry,” the younger Johnson said.

Before Daystar and FamilyNet were removed from DISH, Daystar founder Marcus Lamb said he hoped Dominion would “do not necessarily what is legally right, but what is spiritually and Scripturally right and allow Daystar and FamilyNet to stay on the DISH Network so we can continue to win souls on that secular platform.”

Though he said FamilyNet was disappointed with the ruling, Chip Turner, vice president of marketing and distribution, noted that his network had increased the number of cable outlets on which it is carried by 100 percent.

EchoStar spokesman Steve Caulk said the company believed the ruling was unjustified and planned to appeal.
Adrienne S. Gaines

Declaring that gay rights are not civil rights, some 160 black ministers urged Congress to support a marriage amendment

More than 160 African American pastors convened on Capitol Hill Sept. 8 to register their opposition to gay marriage and in the process publicly chided the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) for failing to meet with them to discuss the issue.

The Sept. 8 press conference was the culmination of a 24-hour summit sponsored by the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), a conservative lobbying group based in Washington, D.C., and Strang Communications, which publishes Charisma magazine. The event was aimed at educating black ministers about the homosexual agenda and allowing them to voice their opposition to legislative attempts to legalize gay marriage.

Among the attendees were Bishop Paul S. Morton of the New Orleans-based Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, California pastor Frederick K.C. Price, National Religious Broadcasters Chairman Glenn Plummer, Detroit pastor Marvin Winans and Church of God in Christ Bishop Samuel L. Green.

The pastors said their intent was not to bash homosexuals, but to oppose the assertion that the gay rights movement is a continuation of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. They also expressed concern that gay marriage would threaten the stability of black families.

Recent statistics show that more than two-thirds of black babies are born to single parents, which pastors say only adds to the challenges of divorce, teen pregnancy, fatherlessness and the disproportionate number of HIV/AIDS cases in the black community.

“These trends should not be overlooked,” said a statement signed by most of the summit participants and presented to the CBC. “Further destabilization of traditional marriage must be prevented at all costs.”

The ministers’ effort to preserve traditional marriage, which translates into support for a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples only, put them at odds with the CBC, many of whom have expressed their opposition to a marriage amendment.

When none of the CBC members showed up for a meeting scheduled before the press conference, the pastors took note. “Apparently, [the CBC] doesn’t respect God’s people enough to meet with us,” Morton told the media.

Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) and Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.) later addressed the pastors. Jefferson told Morton he would support a marriage amendment. But Kilpatrick said that though she opposed gay marriage, she did not want to open up the Constitution “under this current administration.”

Winans, who is from Michigan, was not deterred. “Anything short of an amendment … will be circumvented to allow gay marriage,” he said.

Despite their unity on gay marriage, the pastors were not all supporters of President Bush, though he opposes gay marriage. Some argued that the fight for a marriage amendment would take years and wouldn’t be won from the top down.

“The House must have two-thirds of the representatives in place,” Winans said. “It aids when you have a man at the top [who is sympathetic to a marriage amendment] … but again, the House of Representatives are from the ‘hood to represent people and vote in accordance to what the majority of people want.”

Others said supporting Kerry this month would send a conflicting message. “I could not vote for someone who was opposed to [traditional marriage],” Price said. “To me, you’re saying … that homosexuality is all right–especially when you say I have to bow my knee to it.”

In the coming year, additional summits are to be held across the country, culminating with a large meeting in Washington, D.C. More than once, the pastors were told they held the key to turning the tide on gay marriage.

“This is our Esther moment,” said Atlanta pastor Darryl L. Foster, who leads the ex-gay outreach Witness Ministries. “God has anointed African American preachers who believe the Bible to ‘save our people’–white, black, everybody. Homosexual activists know they need the credibility of black people” to cast gay rights as a civil rights issue.

The pastors hope to present themselves as a nonpartisan group, but plan to work with the TVC as they develop a lobbying plan. “We want to create a tipping point,” said TVC founder Lou Sheldon, “where every Christian knows they must call their … representatives about this issue.”
­Adrienne S. Gaines in Washington, D.C.

Tommie Harris Jr. is a Pentecostal preacher’s kid who wants God to get ‘all the glory’ during his football career

Tommie Harris Jr. is a rookie defensive tackle with the Chicago Bears, but he is not a neophyte when it comes to recognizing the spiritual challenges of playing in the NFL, with its barrage of temptations.

“The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” Harris told Charisma a few weeks before the season started in September. “It’s all about the spirit man. A man who can’t control his spirit is like a city without walls. That man has no protection. I plan on looking to God to help me control my spirit in the NFL.”

If he needs any reminders, Harris can look at a cross tattoo on his left arm and another tattoo on his shoulder that says: “For God I live and for God I die.” Harris, who got his tattoos when he was 17, can also look at his No. 91 jersey number, which will remind him of Psalm 91.

“I want to dwell in the shelter of the most high and keep my eyes always on God,” said Harris, who credits his parents for their Christian influence.

Harris’ father, Tommie Sr., is a retired career Army man and Pentecostal minister. His mother, Janie, is a former missionary and special education teacher.

Tommie Sr. said his son calls himself MAGOH–“Man After God’s Own Heart.”

“My wife and I are not concerned with the trappings and pitfalls of life in the NFL because he’s well versed about the issues of life, and he tries to apply God’s Word,” he told Charisma. Tommie Sr., 51, is a former Church of God in Christ pastor who is currently a music minister at a Spirit-filled Methodist church in Texas.

Harris has also made an impression on former Green Bay Packer and ordained minister Reggie White. The NFL’s all-time sack leader when he retired in 2000, White believes Harris has the right priorities.

“Most of the time, I just talk to Tommie on how to get stronger,” White told a Chicago newspaper. “He didn’t want me to show him anything about football. He just said I just want to know the truth and life and get closer to the Father. I haven’t heard a lot of young men as concerned with that as he was.”

Harris, who turned 21 five days after being picked 14th overall during the NFL draft in April, left Oklahoma University after his junior season when he won the prestigious Lombardi Award as the nation’s top interior lineman.

A three-year starter who was a two-time Associated Press All-American first-team selection, Harris made news off the field at Oklahoma because of his convictions.He twice rejected Playboy’s offer to be photographed as part of its preseason All-America team out of respect for his four sisters and his dislike for the magazine’s portrayal of women.

In addition, before Oklahoma’s game against Louisiana State University in last season’s Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Harris passed on the party atmosphere of Bourbon Street.

Oklahoma Sooners coach Bob Stoops called Harris “one of the spiritual leaders on our team.”

“He participated in a number of Christian activities and often spoke publicly about his faith,” Stoops, who expects Harris to be “an exceptional professional player,” told Charisma. “His faith provides him a great base.”

Harris, who stands 6 feet, 2-1/2 inches tall and weighs 289 pounds, became the first Bears rookie to start an opening game since 2000 after impressing coaches with his speed and athleticism in training camp and the preseason.

Harris, who is involved with a team Bible study made up of several Bears players, said he wants to live a lifestyle in the NFL that aligns with the Bible.

“The way I live may be the only Bible that someone reads,” explained Harris, who has two cousins in the NFL, Detroit Lions guard Stockar McDougle and his brother, Philadelphia Eagles defensive end Jerome McDougle.

Harris said he desires to stay spiritually focused as a professional football player. “During training camp, I heard it said that man doesn’t stumble over mountains; he stumbles over rocks,” recalled Harris, who sees himself preaching someday. “It’s the little things that keep us from Christ. … My prayer is that God may get all the glory for me playing in the NFL and that God would continue to grow me in Christ.”
Eric Tiansay

Author of the best-selling Wild at Heart, Eldredge says he wants to help Christians break free of works-oriented religion
John Eldredge has a simple way of summing up Isaiah 61:1–“God has sent Jesus on a mission. He has great news for us. God has sent Him to restore and release something. That something is you. He came to give [us] back our hearts and set us free.”

That’s the crux of the message he shares in books such as his best-selling Wild at Heart, which has sold more than 1 million copies, and at conferences across the country that attract thousands of participants each year.

“It’s possible that reading my books may create more questions than provide answers,” Eldredge told Charisma. “That’s OK with me. I want my readers to seek God with their whole heart and get the answers for themselves.”

He offers some assistance in his latest book, Epic, which summarizes the gospel and helps readers share the reasons for their faith. But Eldredge’s own journey to faith has been less structured.

He describes himself as a “flaming pagan” who experimented with drugs in the 1970s. The son of an alcoholic parent, Eldredge realized he didn’t like the person he had become and at the age of 19 prayed that God would begin changing him.

After studying drama at California Polytechnic University, he spent more than a decade at Focus on the Family, first in its public policy division then as an instructor in its institute. Writing came later, as a byproduct of his interests in acting and counseling.

But he was also seeking a deeper Christian life. “I realized in order for my words to touch others I could not write about anything that I had not first lived,” he said. “To this day I do not teach beyond my personal experiences and my own walk with God.”

He says his best-known book, Wild at Heart, “is not about things a man can do to be a nicer guy. It is a book about the recovery of a man’s heart, his God-given masculinity, and his need to be real.

“Many churches have taught men to be nice, be passive, be polite. The real life of the average man seems a universe away from the desires of his heart.”

A member of Imago Dei church, which he describes as charismatic, Eldredge said he was deeply influenced by the teachings of Jack Hayford, former senior pastor of The Church on the Way in Van Nuys, Calif. “From pastor Hayford I learned the dynamics of healing, counseling, deliverance and discipleship–to see God’s people truly set free,” Eldredge said.

He brought those characteristics to Ransomed Heart Ministries in Colorado Springs, which he founded in 2000, and to the four-day retreats he hosts in Colorado for approximately 300 people six times a year. He refers to the events as times for “open heart surgery.”

“God shows up and heals the hurting and brokenhearted,” Eldredge said. “Dogma doesn’t do it. Legalism doesn’t do it. If people come with open hearts and a desire to pursue Jesus, they will find Him.

“Jesus is the antidote for our wounds. One of the things I tell men is this: Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and go do that. Because what the world needs are men who have come alive.”

Today Eldredge, who holds a master’s degree in biblical counseling from Colorado Christian University, is perhaps one of the nation’s best-known men’s ministers, with Wild at Heart video Bible studies held at thousands of churches nationwide. Jason Kemp led a Wild at Heart Bible study at the Church at Rocky Peak in Chatsworth, Calif.

“The teaching of John Eldredge was deeply impactful,” Kemp told Charisma. “It helped me become more adventuresome and to view my life from the perspective of a spiritual battle. There are few books that have changed my life like Wild at Heart has.”

“I went because I had read the book and was hoping his video would expand on the book to make it come alive, and it did,” added Greg Hunt, a small-group leader at the Church at Rocky Peak and a participant in the Bible study.

“I was reminded that God designed the husband to love and ‘rescue’ his beautiful wife, and to offer her my strength, which I gain from following the Lord and making right decisions based on the Bible. It has had a tremendous impact on my marriage.”

Eldredge’s message, however, is reaching beyond men. He is collaborating with his wife, Stasi, on a book for women titled Captivating, which is scheduled to release next spring.

And his Waking the Dead is aimed at helping the American church get unstuck from a works-based Christianity. He said many Christians think more knowledge, performance and duty will result in righteousness, and they become exhausted trying to use clever designs of their flesh to handle life and to stay on the straight and narrow path.

“I see a richness in Scripture that beautifully portrays the progressive relationship God desires to have with His people,” Eldredge said. “Many Christians get stranded in the servant-master stage. The full and ultimate height of our relationship is to be a bride to God the bridegroom.”
Judith Hayes

Patricia King’s reality show documents her Extreme Prophetic school’s street outreach in cities in North America and Europe

The camera reveals the eyes of a man hardened by anger, vestiges of prison life still marking his face as he listens to Extreme Prophetic team members on the streets of Las Vegas.

Canadian minister Patricia King and participants in her Extreme Prophetic school are shooting a reality show documenting their evangelism activity on city streets in North America and Europe. The man in this segment had walked out of prison just hours before team members stopped him on the sidewalk outside a casino and told him that God loved him and had a plan for his life.

Tears ran down the man’s face when Stacey Campbell, one of the team members from Kelowna, British Columbia, shared prophetic insights about childhood events that had filled the man with anger. He accepted Christ there on the street, virtually unconscious of the cameras that would spread his testimony around the world.

“We don’t even think of it as religious broadcasting,” King told Charisma. “It’s not at all churchy. It’s just God being God and touching people’s lives with His love. We are so blessed that He shows up every time we shoot, and the people He touches are never the same.”

King, the woman behind Extreme Prophetic, is a hip and extroverted 50-something grandmother who lives with her husband in Kelowna, about a three-hour drive from Vancouver. Saved in the 1970s after practicing the occult, then serving as a missionary with Youth With A Mission, King has become known as a Bible teacher who emphasizes prayer, evangelism and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

She credits a 1994 visit to the Toronto Blessing renewal with spawning both a storm of questions and some “amazing” spiritual experiences that motivated her to dig deeper in prayer and Bible study. The result was a teaching series about biblical encounters with a supernatural God. She later founded a “glory school” and wrote a book, Third Heaven, Angels and Other Stuff.

“The Western church, for the most part, has an academic orientation rather than spiritual,” said King, who says God led her to change her name from Pat Cocking last year after her ministry began receiving obscene messages. “The school offers an invitation to walk in that divine realm and dispels people’s fear of legitimate supernatural encounters.”

But she hasn’t stopped there. King believes supernatural encounters should be taken to the streets. “[People] are not hungry for institutionalized religion; they are hungry for true encounters with God,” King said. “The whole idea behind the Extreme Prophetic school is to take God’s prophetic gift with extreme love into extreme places–anywhere and everywhere the unsaved congregate.”

The four-day schools, held in such cities as Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Chicago, offer hands-on training in prophetic evangelism. King and her team offer what they call “spiritual readings”–a New Age-sounding term they use to describe personal prayer during which they offer any prophetic insights they believe God has given them.

One episode of the Extreme Prophetic show pans in on people lined up outside a Kelowna juice café. They had waited for up to an hour to hear what Extreme Prophetic team members had to say. Many received words of encouragement, others accepted Christ.

The Extreme Prophetic school has spawned similar ministries in other cities. Doug Addison, a Los Angeles pastor and evangelist, attended one of King’s glory schools and now runs InLight Connection, a prophetic street outreach.

“I immediately saw that this type of evangelism is relevant for our spiritually curious culture,” Addison said. “It is a great way to get into deeper spiritual conversations with people, pray with them, and lead them to Jesus.”

Others stepped out more hesitantly. Former Chicago ad executive Rob Hotchkin said he’d been conditioned to ignore people on the street. “During the Extreme Prophetic school God gave me a heart for these people,” he said. “I remembered that these people are human beings. They are lost and broken but God loves them.” Today he works for Extreme Prophetic ministries.

The show airs on Monday nights and Sundays on The Miracle Channel, which streams a simulcast of the show on its site, www.miraclechannel.ca. King’s Web site, www.extremeprophetic.com, also carries the program. Sky Angel has recently agreed to air an Extreme Prophetic TV special, and King anticipates that the show will be picked up in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Julia Loren

Canon Andrew White is a quintessential English clergyman who plays a central role in the Middle East peace process

He’s either the antichrist or the “vicar of Baghdad,” depending on your point of view. But one thing is for sure: Canon Andrew White is a husband and father who’s been charged with quelling the biggest family feud in history.

White spearheads the religious track of the Middle East peace process, aiming to bridge the age-old chasm between Abraham’s warring “children” in the Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities.

He has negotiated in many areas of conflict, including the 2002 siege at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. He is now working with other religious leaders to rebuild Iraq since the capture of Saddam Hussein–“the biggest weapon of mass destruction,” as he calls him.

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s Special Representative to the Alexandria Process, the official name for the religious track of the peace process, White assisted in the recent launch of the Iraqi Centre for Reconciliation, Dialogue and Peace in Baghdad.

It was a most bizarre opening for a peace center–as tanks and troops oversaw the proceedings. “There again, this is Baghdad,” White said, “where making peace is dangerous business.”

Just after his interview with Charisma, his security guards intercepted armed intruders at his Baghdad base. A few days later he was worshiping near the churches that were bombed Aug. 1.

So far his ministry has been through the International Centre for Reconciliation at Coventry Cathedral in England. But he is about to set up his own foundation to support his work in the Middle East.

Brought up in the Assemblies of God, White became an Anglican while training as an operating department practitioner at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London.

“I got involved with St. Mark’s Church [in] Kennington, which was the great charismatic hothouse of the Church of England in those days,” he explained.

His pursuit of theology and Jewish and Islamic studies prepared him well for his present role. “In the early days of visiting Iraq I was really frowned upon,” he said. But that changed as war loomed–and governments realized that White had knowledge and experience of the country.

Despite being tall and quintessentially English, White has the ability to blend into the regional culture–thanks to his Anglo-Indian looks. His family has roots in India that go back to the 19th century.

Locals in Iraq and Israel will often refer to him as “Father Andrew.” They include a homeless Iraqi teenager named David who has been fostered by this Anglican priest since the Iraq war.

Back home in England, White has two sons of his own–Josiah, 7, and Jacob, 5. His wife, Caroline, is a lawyer. “It’s not easy being away so much of the time,” he said. “They make sacrifices, too.”

He said it’s most challenging for the boys, who will say things such as, “Why aren’t you like other daddies?” But they still join in. Jacob chats with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on the phone. “My other son sees himself more identified with the Jews–he will talk to the rabbis.”

Another religious leader who has shown an interest in White’s work is Benny Hinn. The healing evangelist interviewed him recently on his TV program–and was clearly impressed with the gently spoken Anglican clergyman.

He also prayed for his guest, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. But their meeting resulted in a strong backlash. “I was called the antichrist,” White said. “All sorts of people started saying I was a Mason and other untrue things. I was accused of being part of a one-world movement trying to take over the world.”

How did he feel about that? “I haven’t thought about taking over the world yet,” he joked. “I haven’t had time.” However, the TV appearance also produced “hundreds of positive e-mails.”

A Canadian viewer wrote to say he became a Christian as a result of watching the interview. “He thought the church was totally irrelevant–then suddenly realized it was relevant.”

So much of White’s ministry sounds like an Old Testament prophet’s life–stories of angelic protection, meetings with kings and princes, working on the edge of danger–the list goes on.

Even when he relaxes, the biblical trappings are there. “I had my 40th birthday in Baghdad the other day,” he said. “We killed a sheep and ate it in a tent in Saddam’s garden.”
Clive Price in London

Three years after the prayer meeting, the Wiyot Tribe was given 40 acres of land on the site of a 144-year-old Indian massacre
A leader of California’s Wiyot Tribe credits a 2001 prayer and reconciliation meeting with paving the way for the historic transfer of a sacred land site where scores of Native Americans were massacred nearly 150 years ago.

On May 18, the Eureka, Calif., city council voted unanimously to return to the Wiyot Tribe 40 acres of Indian Island, located off the coast of northern California. Nearly 500 people attended the official deed-signing ceremony June 25.

Amid cheers, Eureka Mayor Peter La Vallee signed over the deed to the Indian Island property to Cheryl A. Seidner, chairwoman of the Wiyot Tribe. Then they exchanged gifts in a gesture of goodwill.

“I think what we are doing is reinventing history,” La Vallee said, the Associated Press (AP) reported. “You can’t say you’re sorry, but 144 years later, we can say it wasn’t right and honor the culture of the tribe and its roots.”

Historical documents show that on Feb. 22, 1860, a band of white men invaded the Wiyot village at night, killing scores of elders, women and children as they slept. Seidner said more Indians were killed in two other massacres on nearby South Spit and at the mouth of the Eel River.

“We lost our regalia, our elders, our weavers and our dreamers–all the things that make a community,” Seidner said, the AP reported. “We have not danced since that day. We have to relearn. I can’t wait for that first dance.”

The tribal leader credits a reconciliation conference in 2001 with creating an atmosphere that made the deed-signing ceremony possible. In May of that year, a group of pastors with the Humboldt Evangelical Alliance (HEAL) invited the Native American ministry Wiconi International, based in Vancouver, Wash., to facilitate a time of healing and reconciliation between evangelical churches in Humboldt County, the Wiyot and other First Nations people in the region. Wiconi led a three-day event at Arcata First Baptist Church.

During this event more than 75 people came together to pray over the Indian Island site. Fern Noble, a Cree and Native Representative for the International Reconciliation Coalition in Los Angeles, told participants: “We must allow the Holy Spirit to heal the wound so we can all come together as one, as God the Creator intended.”

During the 2001 conference, members of HEAL honored the Wiyot Tribal Council of Table Bluff Reservation with gifts and a commitment in writing to work with the tribe to get back this sacred site.

First Baptist’s pastor, Clay Ford, said that when he first heard about the massacre, he and some colleagues wanted to apologize to the tribal leaders.

“It’s dawning on more and more Christians to see the need … for us to repent for the sins of the past,” Ford said, the AP reported. “I wrote a proclamation of repentance acknowledging that though we personally weren’t there when the massacre happened, we represented Christian people and churches who did nothing, as far as we could tell, to make things right. And we apologized and asked for forgiveness.”

When Ford’s proclamation was presented to the Wiyot during the reconciliation meeting, the tribe also was given $1,000. Many churches and individuals continued to pray for the Wiyot and to raise funds to help them purchase the land on Indian Island, a goal they had been working toward since the 1970s. They had purchased 1-1/2 acres before the city voted to give them 40 acres.

“As I have been told, this has not happened in any city in the state of California, and I’m hearing that this might be something really new across the nation,” Seidner said. “I don’t know … for sure.”

Richard Twiss, president of Wiconi International and keynote speaker at the 2001 conference, said the land restitution is “the fruit of following traditional indigenous protocol in presenting the redemptive message of faith and hope in Jesus Christ as Healer, Great Spirit and Chief Shepherd of all tribes and nations.”
Jim Uttley Jr.

Judge Orders Bible Moved From Courthouse

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ruled Aug. 10 that a Bible displayed in a monument outside a county courthouse in Houston must be removed, United Press International (UPI) reported. Real estate broker and lawyer Kay Staley filed a lawsuit against the county, arguing that the display violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment. The 4-foot monument, which contains the King James Bible under glass, was constructed with private funds during the 1950s as a memorial to Houston philanthropist William Mosher, the Washington Times reported. Harris County argued the display primarily honored Mosher, the Times reported, but the plaintiffs said it promotes a specific religion at a government building. County Judge Robert Eckels planned to appeal the decision.

Pastors Asked to Make Invocations Generic

Pastors who give the invocation at Tampa, Fla., city council meetings can no longer use the name “Jesus,” the St. Petersburg Times reported. Saying she was following the “nonsectarian rule that we must follow as a governing agency,” council chairwoman Gwen Miller issued a memo telling council members that all invocations must be nonsectarian, the Times said. She also asked that council members send guest ministers a brochure from the National Conference on Community and Justice that explains how to prepare interfaith invocations.

Florida Court Refuses to Recognize Gay Marriage

In July, Florida’s Second District Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion that voided the marriage between Linda Kantaras and “Michael” Kantaras, who was born a woman. The appeals court said it “must adhere to the common meaning of the statutory terms and invalidate any marriage that is not between persons of the opposite sex determined by their biological sex at birth.” Represented by Liberty Counsel (LC), a Christian law firm that seeks to advance religious freedom, Linda said she knew of Michael’s sex-change operation when they married, but after becoming a Christian believed their relationship was improper. LC chief counsel Mathew Staver called the decision “a victory for traditional marriage and common sense.”

French Christians and French-Canadian Christians met in Quebec City in hopes of healing long-held resentment
Ministry leaders and intercessors from across Canada gathered in Quebec City in July to witness a dramatic, teary reconciliation between French-Canadian Christians and Christians from France after 245 years of estrangement.

Dubbed The Homecoming by its organizers, the reconciliation quickly became a love-in between the two French groups following a visit to France by leader David Demian just one month earlier.

“I had to visit France for other ministry work, but the Lord told me then to invite French church leaders over here for our reconciliation meetings,” said Demian, director of Watchmen for the Nations, a group of 500 Canadian church leaders committed to prayer and reconciliation in Canada and around the globe.

“They readily agreed, having forgotten all about France’s history of abandoning the French-Canadians. The French-Canadian church leaders who were with me thought it was a wonderful idea and agreed to welcome them with open arms,”

Quebec is one of the largest of 10 Canadian provinces and three territories, and French-Canadians make up 22.9 percent of the country’s population. Quebec has held several votes to separate from the rest of Canada and was the site of much civil unrest and some violence during the 1960s and 1970s.

French-Canadians in Quebec have the lowest church attendance of any group in the country, despite a rich history of Catholicism and a wealth of Christian place names. Although the second ethnic group to populate Canada, following the First Nations people, the French were eventually defeated by the British during the 1700s, and the country became a British colony.

After winning a battle with the French in 1759, the British occupied Quebec City, the capital of the province. The following year, the French sent six frigates filled with soldiers and supplies to bolster the French-Canadians, but the British heard of the plan and blocked their entrance to Quebec City’s harbor. The French sunk some of their own boats and returned to France, never to be heard from again.

The reconciliation included a reconstruction of historical events; French church leaders arrived on a ferry boat to symbolically represent a return to Quebec City’s harbor, where French-Canadians welcomed them with open arms. After a teary reunion, they traveled to the Plains of Abraham, site of the 1759 French-British battle. There the French repented for abandoning the French-Canadians and made a commitment to stand with the French-Canadian church.

The French-Canadians then expressed their forgiveness toward France. Church leaders from English Canada also committed to stand with France to see the growth of the church in French Canada. Seed was planted in the ground to symbolize healing and growth in relationships, and communion was later held.

The Homecoming was part of an ongoing series of reconciliation gatherings that Watchmen for the Nations has held since 1995. Demian said the goal is to mend Canada’s spiritual rifts and regional strife so the nation can reflect the glory of God and help other nations find healing.

“When God called me to this ministry, I believed the reconciliation was to happen first between the white man and the First Nations, but He said no, it was to happen between French and English first,” Demian said. “So we started off two years ago at Charlottetown, the birthplace of Canadian confederation, where we read what Canada’s first prime minister declared when he wrote that there would be holy matrimony between French and English. Using that as our theme, we moved across the land … gathering history and praying.”

Demian said Watchmen for the Nations also is acting as a spiritual mentor and supporting several other nations that are repenting for former conflicts in hopes of finding spiritual wholeness. Among them are Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Denmark.
Josie Newman in Quebec City

First on the list of upcoming projects is Gifted, a talent show patterned after Fox’s popular program American Idol Inspirational Speaker

A music-industry veteran and the son of Christian TV pioneers are teaming up to produce Christian-themed entertainment that will reach secular audiences.

The partnership will fuse Johnny Wright’s experience in the music industry as president and CEO of Wright Entertainment Group (WEG) with Matt Crouch’s background in the Christian entertainment industry as the founder of Gener8Xion Entertainment. Together they plan to create entertainment that will enjoy large crossover appeal.

“It is our goal to wrap God’s message–His love–in acceptance, and in a way that blends seamlessly into ‘pop’ culture while still upholding the values we, as Christians, value most,” says the mission statement of the partnership, tentatively called Wright Generation.

As a first step, Wright, a Christian who heads the management group for Britney Spears and ‘N Sync, and Crouch, son of Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) founders Paul and Jan Crouch, are creating a TV show titled Gifted, a Christian talent show similar to American Idol.

Scheduled to air Thanksgiving evening on TBN, Gifted will feature 12 solo artists, aged 18-24, who will compete by singing gospel and contemporary Christian songs in front of a live studio audience and an experienced panel of judges.

A cross-country audition tour was to begin in September. Finalists were to be chosen from such cities as Denver, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Mobile, Ala., and Nashville, Tenn.

The TV audience will select the winner, who will receive a record deal and future management in both the secular and Christian markets under Johnny Wright. This fall the show will be a two-hour special, but Wright Generation is planning a full 10-episode second season.

The similarities between Gifted and American Idol are obvious, and Freemantle Media, the producer of Fox’s hit show, has noticed. Freemantle recently sent Wright Generation a letter stating that it is infringing on American Idol’s copyright trademark and requesting that it stop production of Gifted.

“We’re not going to be bullied,” Wright told Charisma. “Our show is completely different than theirs.”

In addition to being a two-hour special, Wright said, Gifted will have a number of features different from American Idol. He also noted that in his time working on Fame, an NBC talent show of similar mold, there was never any talk about accusations of copyright infringement from American Idol.

“Is this just a veiled attempt to shut us down so they can move forward with the same kind of idea?” Wright said. “The Christian community, as well as the secular community, deserves to have a show delivered to them like this, and it deserves to come to them from people that are in the Christian community.”

The statement is interesting coming from Wright, who until this point has not worked in Christian entertainment but now says that it is what he is going to move into in the future.

“I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve had people come up to me and say: ‘I have a great daughter that can sing, but I really don’t want them to be in that pop world because I don’t want them singing about those subjects. I would really like them to be singing about church and faith,'” Wright said. “How many times are people going to say that to me before it clicks?”

When Wright’s assistant, Philip McIntyre, met Crouch, he saw an opportunity for the two to work together. He said the chemistry between Wright and Crouch was apparent from the start.

Now a producer for Gifted, McIntyre said the whole project came together in less than six months–which is rare in the entertainment industry. “It absolutely happened fast, like it was definitely meant to be,” McIntyre said. “In our industry, it normally takes a lot longer.”

Crouch said that in their first conversation, Wright told him he wanted to “reshape pop culture that [he] was in part responsible for creating.” At that point Crouch says he knew God had orchestrated Wright’s career through the mainstream communications world and his career through Christian media so they could each bring a unique perspective to this venture.

“What burns inside of me … is to really put a new face on what the world thinks Christians are and what they think a life of faith in Christ is and does, and what it accomplishes,” Crouch said.

Wright Entertainment is currently making plans past Gifted for future TV and music projects, which they hope will help reinvent the cultures that each of them have come out of.

Crouch said they want to help people understand that “we, as people of faith, can blend seamlessly into the world because that was really what Christ said for us to do.”

Chris Glazier