Saturday, July 30, 2011

Talk about 'peddling paranoia'

As the darkness created by social upheaval and worldwide changes grip the world, there are a few lights across the globe that offer hope, stability and a view into the marvelous grace of the living God. Bill and Gloria Gaither along with the Gaither Trio and all the participants of the “Homecoming Series,” seen by millions all across the globe, are an unparalleled gospel music beacon of hope and encouragement in a world of sinking sands.

Indiana born, Bill Gaither has become an unmistakable gospel music icon with numerous awards but in 2000 he and his wife Gloria, were named the Gospel Songwriters of the Century by the American Society of Composers and Performers. Bill’s real success has little to do with awards. His success can be estimated only by those he has inspired, encouraged and pointed or re-pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ through his music.

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We are in a dire situation in this country today, and small publications like this one do not have the huge resources of George Soros pouring in like our liberal friends.

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SPLC made a name for itself by suing the Ku Klux Klan. After taking out this repulsive organization, and making millions in the process, it seems SPLC had to find new bogeymen to keep its crusading leadership in caviar.

The group is still playing the race card – linking anyone to the right of Arlen Specter with racism, extremism, militarism, hate, anti-immigrant vigilantism and, perhaps worst of all on the Morris Dees scale, "so-called patriot groups."

Enemies of SPLC include the tea-party movement, Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Michele Bachmann, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Rep. Ron Paul, Rep. Paul Broun and me. I seem to make it into every one of the group's screeds, I'm honored to say.

Who is the SPLC? I think Reason writer Jesse Walker may have said it best last month when he wrote: "The Southern Poverty Law Center … would paint a box of Wheaties as an extremist threat if it thought that would help it raise funds."

The SPLC's stock-in-trade is raising hundreds of millions of dollars through fanning the flames of phantom threats posed almost exclusively by those who love America and its Constitution. He also files lots of lawsuits, sometimes even on behalf of real victims of racism, and pockets most of the money raised through heart-wrenching direct-mail pitches.

The most famous example was a judgment he won for a black woman whose son was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. While Dees and company raised $9 million sending out solicitation letters featuring a gruesome picture of the victim, the mom received a total of $51,875 in the settlement. Dees pays himself more than $280,000 a year from the "charity."

Do you get the picture?

Nevertheless, sadly, Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center get plenty of ink and face time in the Old Media. Their reports are peddled like cheap wine at a frat-house party in venues like PMSNBC and the Old York Times.

But it's not like these people don't have wealthy, influential and powerful friends listening to them. More than a few noted the striking similarities between the over-the-top rhetoric of SPLC and that infamous Department of Homeland Security report that warned about how pro-lifers and returning veterans represented threats to the republic.

It's not surprising the group seized on the tea-party movement, the most potent grass-roots political uprising in my lifetime. Fear-mongering is what the SPLC is all about – and turning it into a profit center.

So where's the big payoff for all the name-calling?

After all, even many on the left side of the political spectrum have criticized SPLC for a bark much worse than its bite. Only a tiny percentage of its huge bank account ever goes to filing litigation. More goes to fundraising.

Yet, that hasn't deterred some pretty big names in the world of left-leaning foundations from opening up their coffers with generous grants. They include:

the Arcus Foundation,

the Baltimore Community Foundation,

the Cisco Systems Foundation,

the Cleveland Foundation,

the Naomi and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation,

the Columbus Foundation and Affiliated Organizations,

the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan,

the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region,

Community Foundation (Silicon Valley),

the Cushman Family Foundation,

the Dibner Fund,

the Joseph and Bessie Feinberg Foundation,

the Ford Foundation,

the Edward and Verna Gerbic Family Foundation,

the Jackson and Irene Golden 1989 Charitable Trust,

the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund,

the Grove Foundation,

the J.M. Kaplan Fund,

the J.P Morgan Chase Foundation,

the Kaplen Foundation,

George Soros' Open Society Institute,

the Albert Parvin Foundation,

the Picower Foundation,

the Jay Pritzker Foundation,

the Louis and Harold Price Foundation,

the Public Welfare Foundation,

the Raine and Stanley Silverstein Family Foundation,

the Spiegel Foundation,

the State Street Foundation,

the Steinberg Charitable Trust,

the Vanguard Public Foundation.

If you're reading this, chances are good the Southern Poverty Law Center sees you as a racist, militant, extremist, gun-toting, hate-mongering, anti-government patriot.

But, don't worry. Look who's doing the name-calling! Wear those insults as a badge of honor.
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Bill Gaither and the Trio: A National Treasure, A Last Days Beacon

As the darkness created by social upheaval and worldwide changes grip the world, there are a few lights across the globe that offer hope, stability and a view into the marvelous grace of the living God. Bill and Gloria Gaither along with the Gaither Trio and all the participants of the “Homecoming Series,” seen by millions all across the globe, are an unparalleled gospel music beacon of hope and encouragement in a world of sinking sands.

Indiana born, Bill Gaither has become an unmistakable gospel music icon with numerous awards but in 2000 he and his wife Gloria, were named the Gospel Songwriters of the Century by the American Society of Composers and Performers. Bill’s real success has little to do with awards. His success can be estimated only by those he has inspired, encouraged and pointed or re-pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ through his music.

(Story continues below...)

We are in a dire situation in this country today, and small publications like this one do not have the huge resources of George Soros pouring in like our liberal friends.

Worth Reading is not funded by the government like NPR.

Worth Reading is not funded by the government like PBS.


Please become a supporting member and help fund this ongoing effort to provide you with news and commentary relevant to our divided nation.

Help us get back our simple conservative values. Remember, the Bigger the Government - the Smaller the citizen!

Member Options
Your Comments

Perhaps the second part of the Gaither’s success is because of the amazing company he keeps. Iconic musicians of every kind and description are part of the famed Homecoming series. There are simply too many to name but among them both past and present are Ben Speer, George Younce, Jake Hess, and Vestal and Howard Goodman. Those who make up the rest of the list are each among the most prodigious gospel singers and musicians this world has ever produced.

Every musician playing in the Homecoming series is above average and we can only wish that a little more of an introduction was offered in the video series to help us to get acquainted with the lives of those great musicians. Impossible to miss is the late Anthony Burger who died of a heart attack in 2006. Burger’s hands, severely burned in childhood were healed, some would say by the miraculous power of God, to allow Burger to become an unmistakable child prodigy.

His piano styling’s and interpretation of gospel music is still the mark that others often use to gauge their success or progress. Words cannot describe the performances of Anthony Burger. Watching him play the piano can exhaust you and the only way such energy and skill could possibly be explained is that it was, the full power of God’s Holy Spirit at work, in one willing musician.

The Gaither Trio developed later in Bill’s career is made up of Bill, Mark Lowry, Guy Penrod and David Phelps. Each has such a distinctly different personality and style that it seems like a miracle that they ever found each other and decided to work together.

Bill normally sings the bass and baritone parts but his personality is soft, he hardly seems like the glue that would hold the Trio together. He is a steady man with only one apparent purpose in life and that is to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ with his music and that is what accounts for the fact that he was able to draw and utilize the talents of others of like mind.

Mark Lowry stumbled into comedy when he was performing because when he tried to fill the “dead air” between songs, people began laugh at his stories and antics. But when he sings the laughing comes to an abrupt halt. Lowry has so much character and style in his voice that even if he were to whisper you would still be spellbound. His rendition of “Mary, Did You Know” is a journey into a part of the gospel that everyone is familiar with, but will never see so clearly, until they have heard Mark Lowry bring it to life in a visionary musical theophany.

Guy Penrod, a Tennessean and the Trio’s leader until 2008, is the father of eight children, all of them homeschooled. Although he is now singing solo he was the tallest ground stake the Trio ever knew until his departure from the Gaither’s homecomings. It is arguable which of his songs are the best, but one of the all time favorites is a soft piece called “Knowing you’ll Be There” that seems to stir the hearts of many believers.

Then along comes David Phelps. The tenor of the group, Phelps has perfect intonation, impeccable annunciation and a vocal range and power that exceed the Irish and Italian tenors of the day. He has what might be called, a world class voice, but with the power of the Holy Spirit behind him his voice passes out of mere world-class to, spiritually transcendent. Two Grammy awards and Dove awards are not the high point of his music. His music alone can define the high point of his career; hearing Phelps sing is the only way to fully understand what he has accomplished and contributed to the field of gospel music.

Phelps sings with such virtuosity that trying to pick his best is very hard. One song that brings audiences to tears in full reverence to God is “No More Night” written by Walt Harrah. Those who know the promises of Christ’s return and who have ever pondered the vision of the promised Holy City that God himself is preparing for the redeemed, are never closer to seeing this great portent than when David sings this song. The chorus says it all.

No more night. No more pain
No more tears. Never crying again.
And praises to the great “I Am.”
We will live in the light of the Risen Lamb

Many have noticed that the contemporary Christian music of today often does not point directly to Jesus Christ and in some songs his name is never mentioned. Also there is the tendency to repeat single lines instead of using a story line or a biblical example in contemporary music. Finally where gospel music uses resounding chorus lines and final crescendos to bring a song to its heights, contemporary music tends to use drums or loud instrumentals to fill and end a song. This is not only one of the chief differences of gospel music but it is what makes it, for many people, a much richer musical experience.

One of the other distinctions of American gospel music is that it deals with leaving earth for a far better home. It reminds believers that the walk is not just an endless strain of trials and tribulations but it has a wonderful final destination. The pictures of heaven, the millennial kingdom, and the reunions are a way to focus on the final destination instead of the arduousness of the present task at hand. The Homecomings have plenty of this and a few entire programs are dedicated to this purpose, which accounts for the uplifting nature of them all.

Other styles and genres of music are always included in the homecomings, some incorporated into the larger group and at other times they are guests. Black Gospel singer Jesse Dixon, a regular at homecomings, can get an audience up out of their seats clapping and swaying to the music like no one else. The hard driving bluegrass syncopations of Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver blend into special shows easily as do others who represent the best of contemporary, blues, classical and operatic.

Gaither has gone beyond the commonly held idea that many genres of music came out of the church. Not many argue that the church has helped to generate many emerging genres across the years. What Bill Gaither has done is to draw our attention away from what came out from the church, back to the great stuff that is still in the church.

Another notable achievement of the Homecoming series has nothing to do with Bill but can only be credited to the collective body of singers and performers that have joined with Bill across the years. To watch these artists perform, it doesn’t take long to see that it is far more than a mere performance. Soaring far above just performance craft, the emotional investment, the strong bond of fellowship among them and the obvious experiential involvement of the singers with their Savior is what makes it a true experience for their audiences, and not just a performance.

The entire gospel music experience has been granted a sort of, grand master, in the life and ministry of Bill Gaither. His total contribution to the inspiration of America through his music is inestimable. He is perhaps living out the words penned in the third verse of “He Touched Me” which is the most popular song he has ever written. He has literally fulfilled these words so far, and we can only hope that he will continue to do so until the Lord returns.

Since I met this blessed Savior
Since he cleansed and made me whole
I will never cease to praise him
I’ll shout it while eternity rolls

Until time meets up with Revelation 10: 6, “And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer;” we can pray that the entire Gaither experience will be here with us, to bring hope and to be a beacon of light in a very dark world.

http://www.americanprophet.org has since 2005 featured the articles of columnist Rev Michael Bresciani along with news and reviews that have earned this site the title of The Website for Insight. Millions have read his timely reports and articles in online journals and print publications across the nation and the globe.

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