Urban Christian News

Rachel Chan Joins iShine KNect TV Season 4 and iShine Fall Tour

2012-05-16T23:39:15Z

in:ciite media Recording Artist Rachel Chan joins iShine KNECT TV season 4 and the iShine LIVE Fall 2012 Tour. Rachel, the 16-year-old daughter of New York Times Best-Selling Author, Pastor and Speaker Francis Chan, is excited to share her music and ministry with the iShine audience.

]]> "Rachel's music and ministry are a perfect fit for iShine and their mission," said Chris Thomason, president and CEO of in:ciite media. "Rachel is uniquely gifted to speak to this audience and we believe it will be a remarkable experience."

iShine KNECT TV is a Christian series designed for families and preteens to take the time to connect with one another and have fun. Presented from a biblical perspective, iShine KNECT features music videos, live performances, artist interviews, behind-the-scenes segments, question and answer time from viewers and more. To catch Rachel's upcoming episodes on iShine KNECT Season 4, visit www.ishinelive.com/ishine-knect for updates.

The iShine LIVE tour featuring Rachel, along with veteran iShine artists and new faces, is coming to churches this fall. September through October, the 10-city iShine LIVE tour launches the fourth national tour in four years. Cities and dates are forthcoming. Visit www.ishinelive.com/ishine-tour for the latest information.

"I'm excited to share my music with everyone on the iShine tour," said Rachel. "If one of my songs impacts an individual in a positive way and inspires them to spread the name of Jesus Christ, then I've accomplished my goal."

Rachel's debut CD Go released earlier this year by in:ciite media and EMI-CMG Distribution. The songs on Go represent Rachel's first foray into the world of songwriting with her seasoned pop-music producer, Dave Lubben (Kutless) and are a unique take on life's experiences. Rachel co-wrote all 10 songs on the record. The cohesive messages found on Go are simple, yet powerful: to love the Lord, to love people, and to exemplify the Lord's call to disciple.

For more information on Rachel Chan visit www.RachelChanMusic.com or follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/rachelchanmusic.

ABOUT iShine: iShine is the only comprehensive media group that produces moral life-changing content by Christian teens for children between the ages of 7-13 (tweens). iShine equips pre-teens, their families, and people who work with children to illuminate the pre-teens' world and help them find their value, identity, and purpose in Christ. iShine KNECT is the #1 highest rated Christian tween TV program in the world, reaching more than 100 million households.

ABOUT in:ciite media: in:ciite is a growing music and film company where creativity, innovation, impacting technology, and experiences merge. Our mission is helping build God's kingdom by creating remarkable experiences through media products and events that are culturally and spiritually relevant. For more information, please visit: www.inciite.com.

SOURCE: TKO Marketing

Aaron Sorkin Signs On to Write Screenplay for Steve Jobs Movie

2012-05-16T23:36:57Z

Aaron Sorkin, screenwriter, producer and playwright, waives to the crowd after receiving his honorary degree, a Doctor of Fine Arts, 'honoris causa' at the 2012 Syracuse University Commencement at Syracuse University on May 13, 2012 at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York. (Nate Shron/Getty Images North America)

It's official: Aaron Sorkin, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind The Social Network, A Few Good Men and TV's The West Wing, has signed on to adapt Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson's biography on the late Apple co-founder.

]]> Mark Gordon, Scott Rudin and Guymon Casady are producing the project.

Sony reportedly paid $1 million for the rights to the biography, picking it up in October. The book was Amazon's best-selling title of 2011 and, according to Publisher's Weekly, 2.2 million copies were sold last year.

Said Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal in a statement: "Steve Jobs' story is unique: he was one of the most revolutionary and influential men not just of our time but of all time. There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin; in his hands, we're confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining and polarizing."

Sorkin was the studio's choice almost from the very beginning, with Sony approaching the writer as early as November. At the time, he said was "strongly considering" taking on the assignment.

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SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter

Borys Kit

Rapper Jay-Z Backs Obama on Gay Marriage, Compares Opposition to Discrimination Against Blacks

2012-05-16T23:29:52Z

While President Obama's recent declaration of support for marriage equality has divided some of his supporters, Jay-Z has his back.

]]> "I've always thought of it as something that was still holding the country back," Jay-Z told CNN after a press conference for his Made in America music festival on Monday. "What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That's their business. It's no different than discriminating against blacks. It's discrimination, plain and simple."

As to whether the decision would impact the president's reelection campaign, the MC said Obama's remarks were "the right thing to do as a human being."

"I think it's the right thing to do, so whether it costs him votes or not - again, it's not about votes. It's about people," he said.

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SOURC: Billboard

David Greenwald

Oregon Church Sues Family Over Online Comments

2012-05-16T23:28:00Z

A church pastor is suing a mother and daughter for $500,000 because they gave the church bad reviews online.

]]> The family being sued left the church a few years ago and Julie Anne Smith says she and her family were shunned and couldn't understand why. So she went online and wrote Google and DEX reviews of the church and then started a blog.

"I thought, I'm just going to post a review," Smith said. "We do it with restaurants and hotels and whatnot, and I thought, why not do it with this church?"

Never did she think Beaverton Grace Bible Church and Pastor Charles O'Neal would slap her with the lawsuit.

"I'm a stay-at-home mom. I teach my kids at home, and this is just not the amount of money that normal moms have."

When the family left the church, Smith says friends were told to end all contact with her.

"If I went to Costco or any place in town, if I ran into somebody, they would turn their heads and walk the other way," she said. "All we did was asked questions. We just raised concerns. There's no sin in that."

Dissatisfied, she went online to write reviews. Other church members counteracted them with church praise. So Smith started a blog called "Beaverton Grace Bible Church Survivors."

But the pastor claims in the lawsuit he filed that her words, "creepy," "cult," "control tactics," and "spiritual abuse," are defamation.

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SOURCE: KATU News

Anita Kissée

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Estranged Wife Found Dead of Apparent Suicide

2012-05-16T23:22:42Z

In this Aug. 29, 2009 file photo, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Mary arrive during funeral services for U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston. (The Associated Press)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s estranged wife, who had fought drug and alcohol problems, was found dead in her home, her attorney said.

]]> Mary Kennedy's body was found on Wednesday, said attorney Kerry Lawrence, who didn't know the cause of her death. Police confirmed a body was found on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s property in Bedford, north of New York City, but wouldn't release the dead person's name.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is a prominent environmental lawyer. He's the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, both assassinated in the 1960s. Mary Kennedy was his second wife. They had four children.

Mary Kennedy had had trouble with drugs and alcohol and had two high-profile arrests around the time her husband filed for divorce in July 2010.

She was charged that August with driving under the influence of drugs, not long after she pleaded guilty to drunken driving when police reported her seeing her car hit a curb outside a school near her home. Police said she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.11 percent; the legal limit is 0.08 percent. Her license was suspended.

Lawrence had represented her.

SOURCE: The Associated Press

Supermodel Tyra Banks Praises Vogue's Pledge to Promote Healthy Body Image Among Models

2012-05-16T23:14:37Z

Tyra Banks attends the TIME 100 Gala celebrating TIME'S 100 Most Influential People In The World at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 24, 2012 in New York City. (Fernando Leon/Getty Images North America)

Tyra Banks has called for a toast over barbecue and burgers to celebrate Vogue's pledge to promote healthy body image among its models, but it was a toast over pizza that started the famously curvy supermodel's own career.

]]> The 38-year-old model mogul was just beginning her modeling days when her body changed from a size four to a size six, prompting hate mail and charges made by designers that she was fat and not hire-able.

"My mom said, 'You know what, we're going to do about this? We're going to go get pizza,'" Banks said today on "Good Morning America." "And over pizza in a Milan pizzeria we crafted a strategy for how to take my curves and make them work for me as opposed to me either starving myself or bowing out of the modeling industry."

Banks, of course, went on to become one of the world's top supermodels, earning millions of dollars, posing in countless magazines and turning her modeling fame into a business empire.

She also stood out as a critic of the fashion and media industries' focus on weight, famously appearing in a bathing suit on TV and telling critics to "kiss my fat a**" after Australian tabloids published unflattering photos and said she'd gained 40 pounds.

Now, in an open letter addressed to "models around the world," the model-turned-mogul is applauding Vogue for its boldness in addressing what she calls the fashion industry's "unspoken rule" that skinny is OK.

"Real progress is finally on the horizon," Banks writes in the letter, posted on the Daily Beast website. "Vogue is stepping up, doing the right thing, and protecting that girl. Perhaps that girl is you!"

In the move announced earlier this month by Vogue publisher Conde Nast International, the leading fashion trade's 19 worldwide editors signed a six-point pact to project the image of healthy models by, among other things, "not knowingly work with models under the age of 16 or who appear to have an eating disorder," and asking casting directors to check IDs at photo shoots and fashion shows and for ad campaigns.

"When a girl is looking at a magazine with her mother, there are these subliminal images saying if you're not a size zero, if you don't look exactly like this, you're not good enough,'" Banks said on "GMA." "So the fact that Vogue is making that mandate is the beginning of something huge."

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SOURCE: ABC News

Katie Kindelan

Justin Bieber Admits to Drinking Beer But Never Gets Out of Control

2012-05-16T23:14:18Z

'You know, you can't trust anyone in this business,' pop star tells GQ.

]]> It's not always easy being Justin Bieber. At least that's what the latest profile about the teen superstar in GQ suggests. While Bieber does open up a bit about his personal life, he remains mostly guarded, sharing very little about what goes on when the cameras aren't rolling or he's not in the recording studio.

"I mean, I keep my guard up a lot, because you know, you can't trust anyone in this business," Bieber says in the June issue of the magazine. "That's what's sad. You can't trust anybody. I learned the hard way."

The article notes that Bieber seems to mostly go from his house to his car to the studio, with little time for spontaneity. While he remained tight-lipped in the interview, he confesses that he does on occasion let his guard down. But even then, he tries to never let anything get out of hand. "For me, it's just like, I like to be in control of myself," he said. "I mean, I've had a beer, like, before. ... But I never get out of control."

Bieber seemed most relaxed during the interview when his pricey new car, a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, is sent to him at the studio. With his friends, handlers and associates on hand, he proclaims to everyone that they should head into the studio with him and celebrate by listening to some of his new music. "I'm 18 years old and I'm a swaggy adult!" he says. "Come on, swaggy bros!"

That swagger is noted later on in the article when Bieber says, "I've never made a bad song."

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SOURCE: MTV

Jocelyn Vena

Tony Blair Says His Idea to End Address with "God Bless Britain" Was Met with Criticism

2012-05-16T14:05:04Z

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair lectures during his book launch and press conference of the Chinese Edition of A Journey by Tony Blair at Kempinski Hotel on August 30, 2011 in Beijing, China. (ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images AsiaPac)

Tony Blair has disclosed that he once wanted to end an address to the nation with the words "God bless Britain".

]]> However, the former Prime Minister said his suggestion provoked such strong concern from civil servants that he was forced to drop the idea.

Mr Blair said he had intended to echo the traditional closing remark of Presidents in the United States, who typically sign-off television broadcasts by saying, "God Bless America".

For much of his time in office, Mr Blair was accused of adopting a "presidential" style of leadership, and became close to former American presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush.

However, his former spin doctor Alastair Campbell famously declared "we don't do God", when the then Prime Minister was asked about his beliefs.

Speaking at a conference on leadership, organised by the Holy Trinity Brompton Church, in London, Mr Blair said it was "a shame" that British politicians could not express their faith more openly.

"I had to do some address to the country when I was Prime Minister," he told the audience of about 4,000 people at London's Royal Albert Hall.

"You know the American president finishes an address to the American people by saying 'God bless America'. "I had the idea of finishing my address by saying 'God bless Britain'.

"This caused consternation in the whole system. A committee was convened, and we had to discuss it.

"I remember we had this debate on and off but finally one of the civil servants said in a very po-faced way 'I just remind you Prime Minister, this is not America' in this very disapproving tone, so I gave up the idea. I think it is a shame that you can't since it is obviously part of what you are."

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SOURCE: The Telegraph

Tim Ross

Muslim Director Says BBC's "Songs of Praise" Will Remain Christian

2012-05-16T13:59:37Z

Aaqil Ahmed said that although the average age of Songs of Praise viewers was now 65 it was still drawing in huge audiences

Songs of Praise is to remain Christian despite calls for it to be turned it into a multifaith programme, the BBC's first Muslim head of religion has pledged.

]]> Aaqil Ahmed said that it was vital that religious programming promoted "diversity" but insisted that Songs of Praise would always remain Christian.

Mr Ahmed's appointment three years ago attracted controversy in some quarters and even complaints to the corporation.

In an interview in 2010 he accused the Church of England of "living in the past" by complaining about a fall in the number of hours given to religious broadcasting.

But speaking to an audience invited by the Catholic Communications Network in London he said it was "childish" to think that religion was being cut back on the BBC.

Religious output on the BBC had risen under his tenure to 600 hours of radio a year and 170 hours on television, he said.

He said that diversity was "the future" but added that traditional offerings such as Songs of Praise were still "loved" in the corporation.

"So no multifaith Songs of Praise," he said.

"It will, whilst I am in the job, remain a Christian programme.

"And it can remain so because on Sunday mornings be it on TV and radio we have real religious, cultural and intellectual diversity available through Sunday on Radio 4 and The Big Questions on BBC 1."

His remarks follow an outcry over suggestions that by a Sikh executive producer, that there was "no reason" it could not explore other faiths.

Mr Ahmed said that although the average age of Songs of Praise viewers was now 65 it was still drawing in huge audiences.

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SOURCE: The Telegraph

John Bingham

Lawsuit Against Trinity Broadcasting Network Suddenly Dropped

2012-05-16T13:57:31Z

Christian television giant Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) got some good--although not unexpected--news May 7 when a lawsuit that has been fuel for a flurry of potentially libelous news articles against the network was suddenly dropped by attorneys for the plaintiff.

]]> The suit filed by Joseph McVeigh, the uncle of a former TBN manager who admitted to misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars in network funds, alleged that high-level TBN officials had misused millions of dollars from the network to fund a lavish lifestyle of multiple mansions, private jets, luxury automobiles and expensive meals.

TBN attorney and spokesman Colby May explained that the entire suit was nothing more than a ploy to divert attention from the actions of McVeigh, his nephew Michael Koper, and Koper's wife Brittany, who was TBN's former finance director as well as the granddaughter of TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch.

"The truth of the matter is that this lawsuit was never anything more than a smokescreen to obscure the Kopers' own misappropriation of ministry funds, as well as their illegal loan of over $65,000 to Mr. McVeigh," said May. "There was never any lavish or reckless spending of ministry money by the Crouches or any other TBN officials: no hundred thousand dollar motor homes for pets, private jets for personal use or any other unaccountable expenditures."

May explained that McVeigh's attorneys quickly moved to have the lawsuit dismissed after TBN's attorneys filed a motion charging that the suit violated California's SLAPP law prohibiting meritless lawsuits filed to intimidate or silence a defendant. "Courts take a dim view of this kind of legal maneuvering, and McVeigh and his attorneys got caught, plain and simple," May said.

TBN, he predicted, will ultimately be vindicated in a similar lawsuit filed by Brittany Koper. While TBN is not a defendant in that action, May said that Koper's attorneys (who also represented McVeigh in his suit) used the suit to try to attack TBN's reputation and integrity.

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SOURCE: Charisma News

Syrian Christians Live In Uneasy Alliance with Bashar Assad's Regime

2012-05-16T13:53:08Z

A Syrian Christian man stands at the entrance to a monastery in Mishtaya, Syria on Dec. 25, 2011. (AFP/Getty Images)

Hani Sarhan is a Christian who says none of his relatives works with Bashar Assad's regime or has anything to do with it.

]]> "But what we heard from (the protesters) at the beginning of this revolution saying,'Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the coffin,' started us thinking about the real aim of this revolution," he said. "So from this point of view, fearing for my life, I declared my support for President Assad."

Muslims dominate this nation of 22 million people, but Christians can be found at all levels of Syrian government, business and military. The 2 million Christians here trace their roots to ancient communities and have survived under many rulers as Christian enclaves in other Arab nations, such as Saudi Arabia, have withered.

The rebellion of hundreds of thousands of Muslims against Assad that began in March 2011 has not seen Christians abandon their support for the Alawites, the Muslim sect to which Assad belongs and that has controlled Syria for decades. Christians have largely remained quiet as Assad's forces pummeled rebel cities and towns with artillery, killing close to 10,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Many of Syria's Christians continue to stand by the regime not out of support for Assad but out of fear of civil war if rebels gain strength, or worse, if they win and install an Islamist government that's hostile to religious minorities.

Qatana, a town 20 miles southwest of Damascus, is home to a Christian community of several hundred families. Protests here against the Assad regime have prompted military incursions and clashes between renegade soldiers and the regular army. At checkpoints surrounding the town, some Christians chat to Alawite security officers. Others offer water and whiskey.

Christians firmly believe that the Alawite regime will keep them safe. With the town's two churches located in Sunni Muslim neighborhoods, for months many families were too fearful to attend service, Christians here said. But a teacher at a Christian school said life is better now than before.

"The crisis is almost over," she said, asking her name be withheld because she feared retribution. "Our church was full on Easter Sunday; last year, it was practically empty. We were allowed to parade around the town, when last year we could only go in the street outside the church."

Yet Christian communities elsewhere have seen trouble.

A church in Homs, Um al-Zunnar, was badly damaged during the military's monthlong shelling of the city in February. Christians in Homs said the church was attacked by "foreign-backed armed gangs." Syrian state TV aired interviews with civilians who said the rockets were fired from the mountains dividing Syria from Lebanon, where rebels have arms-smuggling routes.

The uprising has also hurt Christians' standard of living.

Foreign visitors are nowhere to be seen in the Christian neighborhood of Bab Touma in central Damascus, a once-popular tourist attraction characterized by winding alleyways, traditional Arab-style hotels and ancient churches.

In 2010, tourists from the Persian Gulf, Europe and North America added $8 billion to the Syrian economy. Since the revolt began, Syria's tourism sector has dropped off by 60 percent, according to the Tourism Ministry, and Christian businesses are among those suffering.

These days, many conversations in the close-knit communities turn to "the crisis," as it is called. Families watch Arab television broadcasts by the extremist Salafist sheik Adnan Arour, who from exile in Saudi Arabia calls for jihad against the Assad regime and death to those who actively support it.

Pro-regime commentators on state-run Syrian TV pounce on figures such as Arour and say Assad is all that stands between extreme Islam and stability. Christians here talk of letters sent to churches saying they are the next to go after Assad, and a mortar that struck a monastery in the Christian town of Saidnaya, north of Damascus, was blamed on rebels.

There is little evidence that the rebels are responsible for such acts, and Christians here say Arour does not appear to have a lot of support. But recent suicide bombings in Syria have the look of al-Qaida, which seeks Islamic law over all.

Many Christians simply do not want to upset their way of living in a country where their fate will always be decided by Muslims, according to Syria experts.

Christian doctors, lawyers and dentists have established successful and stable careers. Others occupy leading positions in the Syrian army, though a new constitution mandates the head of state must be Muslim.

"They do support (Assad) and are feeling quite anxious," said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and a Syria expert. "Even so, there are plenty of Christians (in Syria) who believe that democracy in the long run is the best protection for Christians."

SOURCE: Religion News Service

(Stephen Starr and S. Akminas write for USA Today.)

Most Popular Baby Names Come from the Old Testament

2012-05-16T13:46:11Z

The list of the country's most popular baby names for 2011, released Tuesday by the Social Security Administration, revealed that for new parents, God is in.

]]> Among the top 10 names for baby boys, four are biblical. For girls, variations on biblical names were also popular, with Isabella (the Spanish version of Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother) Ava (a variation on Eve) and Abigail (an Old Testament character) making the top 10.

What is it that compels 21st century parents to name their kids after an Old Testament patriarch (in the case of Jacob) or the man credited with saving creation (thanks, Noah!) during the Great Flood?

Laura Wattenberg, creator of the Web site babynamewizard.com, told the Associated Press that it was the retro vibe of Hebrew Bible that appeals to parents today:

"The traditional biblical names were New Testament names -- John, James and Mary and Elizabeth. . . . Today, the hot names are all names from the Old testament precisely because they were neglected for so many generations."

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SOURCE: The Washington Post

Elizabeth Tenety

Tim Tebow Learned Good Character from His Father's Example

2012-05-16T13:31:32Z

Children at an orphanage founded in the Philippines by Bob Tebow. (Jes Aznar for The New York Times)

The last time Tim Tebow visited his father's orphanage here in the remote hills of Mindanao island, he stood at the edge of a grassy yard and told the children to make a loop with their arms. Then, to their amazement, he threw a football right through them.

]]> "He's really good at throwing!" said the Rev. Roberto P. Gauran, 67, who runs the orphanage with his wife, Raymunda, 65. "At 30 meters he could hit dead center, or even farther."

That was three years ago, before Tebow's professional stardom cut down on his time for travel to the Philippines. But the boys and girls here still toss around a football he left behind for them -- among the very few youngsters in the country who know how.

"Kuya Timmy taught us how to throw it," said Jessa Berbo, 16, using a local term for big brother. The word here at the orphanage is that Tebow himself singled her out as the child with the best arm.

Tebow's father, Bob, founded the orphanage in 1992 as part of his missionary work in the Philippines with the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association, headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla. He visits several times a year, sometimes bringing with him a group of American volunteers to preach in distant towns and villages.

On a recent visit, Bob Tebow showed the children a video of his son on the field and the orphans watched with a mixture of excitement and puzzlement, said Roberto Gauran Jr., 28, the oldest of the pastor's seven children, who also works here.

"The children here know he is famous, but we don't play football in the Philippines and sometimes we don't know what is going on," he said. "We watch Fox News sometimes, so we know what is happening in the States with Tim and we know that people are mocking him for his faith."

But most Filipinos, obsessed with basketball rather than football, have not heard of Tim Tebow, or of his father's foundation. His name rang a bell with one academic here who said, "Oh, is he the one who puts biblical verses under his eyes?"

Although the children at the orphanage do know about him, none of them seemed to have heard about Tebowing.

(In the Philippines, the rage is for "Noynoying," an apparent copycat sendup of President Bengino S. Aquino III, whose nickname is Noynoy, in which people lean their heads on a hand in a gesture of indecisiveness.)

The orphanage, called Uncle Dick's Home, now shelters about 40 children who attend nearby rural elementary and high schools, and includes a dormitory for about 10 who have enrolled in a small nearby college, Mrs. Gauran said.

"When we take in the children we intend to raise them until they graduate from college and go out into the world," Bob Tebow said in a telephone interview from the United States. "We like to treat them as closely as we can like our own kids. Our plan is to keep doing the same thing, to get more children and keep raising them up."

Uncle Dick's Home, named for a close family friend, is clean but spare in this very poor part of the Philippines. Its grounds are lush with foliage and filled with birdsong and the sometimes earsplitting buzz of tropical cicadas.

School is out now, and on a long quiet afternoon recently some of the children clustered on two hammocks and a broken couch under the trees, swinging and listening to a small transistor radio. A water buffalo with long curved horns grazed just beyond the gate.

Not far away, in a reminder of America's dominant historical presence in the Philippines, vast Dole pineapple plantations stretch across the plains toward the Roxas mountains.

"I truly believe that the God who loves me also looks at orphans as extremely special," Tim Tebow writes in his autobiography, "Through My Eyes," written with Nathan Whitaker. "Over and over, my parents showed us how the Bible talks about taking care of widows and orphans."

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SOURCE: The New York Times

Seth Mydans

"The Man with the Golden Voice" Celebrates Being Sober a Year, Book Release

2012-05-16T13:31:12Z

'Man with the golden voice' walked daughter down the aisle: 'I never lost hope'

]]> Even after a viral YouTube video helped turn him from a homeless crack addict to a media sensation, golden-voiced former radio announcer Ted Williams admitted Monday his struggles were far from over.

Amid emotional moments of his remarkable journey last year, such as his tearful reunion with his mother in a segment on TODAY, he admitted he relapsed on alcohol and drugs twice, including leaving a treatment facility after less than two weeks.

Now claiming to be clean and sober for more than a year and surrounded by good people, Williams, 54, has cowritten a book with Brett Witter called "A Golden Voice." The book details how he went from being a popular Ohio DJ to a homeless crack addict to a YouTube sensation after 17 hard years on the streets. He related the ups and downs of his life to Matt Lauer, in the mellifluous tones of the memorable voice that gained millions of fans when it was heard via YouTube in January 2011.

'I Never Stopped Praying'

"All through that journey, I never stopped praying,'' Williams said. "I never lost hope. I would ask God, 'Please, let my mother and myself stay alive one more year. Lord, please, let a life-changing turnaround happen in my life so that my mother would not close her eyes saying, 'I did a bad job raising this child.'''

Williams was forthcoming about his struggles since first appearing on TODAY in January 2011, when he was awestruck by his overnight rise to popularity after years of living on the streets. He voluntarily entered rehab that month after taping television segments with Dr. Phil, only to leave less than two weeks later amid allegations by his family members that he was drinking daily while living in California.

"I figured since it wasn't my drug of choice, alcohol could be my new drug,'' Williams said. "I could go and start drinking, and nobody would know. Everybody would know (if) Ted was on crack, but they wouldn't know that Ted was drinking.''

After emerging from his second stint in rehab, Williams celebrated his one-year anniversary of sobriety this month by walking his daughter down the aisle at her wedding on May 4.

"I was able to be a part of that, something that a year and a half ago I wouldn't have even thought about, let alone become a part of,'' he said.

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SOURCE: Today Show

Scott Stump

Mitt Romney Gains Support of George W. Bush

2012-05-15T18:33:14Z

George W. Bush addresses a one million USD Republican fundraiser for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Mitt Romney at the Seaport Hotel in October, 2002 in Boston, Massachusetts. (TIM SLOAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Mitt Romney has the support of George W. Bush.

]]> "I'm for Mitt Romney," Bush told ABC News this morning as the doors of an elevator closed on him, after he gave a speech on human rights a block from his old home - the White House.

Bush's endorsement isn't a surprise, given that Romney is virtually the Republican Party's nominee. But the 43rd president has been absent from the 2012 campaign and hasn't made any public comments showing his support for Romney.

Romney did get the formal backing of Bush's parents, President George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, in March.

People who worked in the Bush administration say they doubt the former president will be campaigning for Romney this year. Even in his post-presidential life, Bush still gets a lot of the blame for the poor economy, according to polls, though he has become more popular since leaving office.

Bush was speaking today at an event to promote the George W. Bush Presidential Center's campaign for human rights activists around the world.

SOURCE: ABC News

Matt Negrin