Tuesday 30 June, 2009

Arts
World

Andrae and Sandra Crouch

By Charles Gardner

Rumours that Michael Jackson converted to Christianity shortly before his death have been quashed. But he was apparently seeking for more spiritual depth to his songs through encounters with old friends – gospel singer Andrae Crouch and his twin sister Sandra.

Desperately seeking inspiration for a UK tour for which he was ill-prepared, Jackson spent time with the Christian singers – both in a recording studio and in his home.

But then news of the meetings spiralled out of control as a series of blogs and e-mails raced around the world proclaiming that the one-time Jehovah’s Witness, who had reportedly converted to Islam last year, had become a Christian.

California-based former Fleet Street journalist Dan Wooding said pastors even proclaimed the ‘news’ from their pulpits across America and that he was inundated with messages that Michael had “accepted Christ into his heart”. One said: “Now he’s singing in the heavenly choir! Our hearts rejoice!”

The founder of the international ASSIST News Service, Dan decided that after 40 years in journalism this might be yet another case of ‘never letting the truth interfere with a good story’ – an old joke in Fleet Street newsrooms. So he contacted a colleague who is close to the Crouch’s. And after checking with the source, his friend wrote up the real story.

According to his friend, who runs www.bullypulpit.com, the ‘news’ was first widely circulated on a website of Erica Campbell, of the Grammy award-winning duo Mary-Mary, who had been told by an evangelist friend of Sandra Crouch that Michael had accepted Christ after asking Andrae to play It won’t be long and we’ll be leaving here.

But it wasn’t quite like that, according to a Facebook posting from Sandra Crouch.

Andrae Crouch, for his part, attempted to further clarify the story through a spokesman who said they had in fact twice visited Michael – once at their recording studio, and once at his home, and that he had asked for prayer concerning the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and how he could make his music more ‘spiritual’.

“So Andrae and Sandra explained to him about the anointing, and about Jesus,” said the spokesman. “He wanted to know what makes your hands go up, and makes you ‘come out of yourself’, and what gives ‘spirituality’ to the music.”

And at his request, they sang his favourite song to him – “he definitely had an encounter with them.”

But as to whether the legendary singer prayed to receive Christ, the spokesman responded: “He did not reject Jesus or the prayer when (we) prayed, and gladly joined in prayer.”

He added: “He usually doesn’t touch anybody, but he touched them, and held their hands in a circle as they sang and prayed. There was no actual ‘sinner’s prayer’ however, but they did talk and pray about Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.”

Interestingly, the Crouch’s reported one peculiarity about Jackson’s rented home: forbidden as a child from celebrating Christmas because of his Jehovah’s Witness faith which precludes such celebration, Jackson was still celebrating Christmas in June: “He still had his Christmas decorations up at home,” the spokesman noted.

Meanwhile Dan Wooding notes that the constant rush to circulate stories before they have been thoroughly checked out makes Christians look silly and naïve, adding that we are in danger of following the examples of some tabloids who just rush into print for the sake of sensation. Christians should have higher standards than that, he said.

Photo: Used with Permission