FACING A MASSIVE TOUR HE WAS ILL-PREPARED FOR, A DESPERATE MICHAEL JACKSON REACHED OUT TO GOSPEL SUPERSTAR ANDRAE CROUCH AND HIS MINISTER SISTER SANDRA FOR SOLACE IN HIS LAST DAYS
Los Angeles, California, (Bully! Pulpit News)---Facing a grueling concert schedule, Michael Jackson, the self-proclaimed King of Pop reached out to two old friends-legendary Gospel singer Andrae Crouch and his twin sister, singer and minister, Sandra, desperately seeking inspiration for a tour he was ill-prepared for, a few weeks before his tragic death.
But news of the meeting spiraled out of control as a series of blogs and emails raced around the world proclaiming that Jackson had converted to Christianity at the end of one of their meetings, raising hopes, especially among Jackson’s African-American fans that Jackson, a onetime member of the Jehovah’s Witness sect, who had reportedly converted to Islam in 2008, had become a Christian.
The news was first widely circulated on her website by Erica Campbell, a member of the Grammy-award winning duo Mary-Mary who, under the banner headline “Good News-RIP Michael Jackson,” wrote: “Last night we received some good news from Terri McFaddin-Solomon who is good friends with Sandra Crouch. Three weeks ago Sandra and Andrae spent some time with their close friend, Michael Jackson. Michael asked Andrae to play, "It Won't Be Long And We'll Be Leaving Here." Michael then prayed with Sandra and Andre and accepted Christ into his heart. Now he's singing in the heavenly choir! Our hearts rejoice!”
But according to Sandra Crouch, that may not quite be the full story. On a posting on her Facebook page Crouch wrote: “Not sure where that came from. We loved and respected Michael and will continue to pray for his family. All the extra is not from us.”
For his part, through a spokesman, Andrae Crouch attempted to further clarify the story:
“Andrae and Sandra did in fact visit with Michael Jackson two times, once at the recording studio, and once at his home in the last two months, as recently as three weeks ago, asking for prayer concerning the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and how he could make his music more ‘spiritual,’" noted Crouch’s Facebook administrator. “So Andrae and Sandra explained to him about the anointing and about Jesus. He wanted to know what makes your hands go up, and makes you ‘come out of yourself,’ and what gives a ‘spirituality’ to the music? He then requested to hear his favorite song that he loves and wanted then to sing to him, so they...joined hands and sang together, and he said, ‘it was beautiful.’ He first heard it in New York, and loved it and wanted it on tape. He had the engineer tape the song sang to him by Andrae and Sandra. He definitely had an encounter with them.”
As to whether or not the legendary singer had prayed to receive Christ, through his spokesman Crouch responded: “He did NOT reject Jesus or the prayer when (we) prayed, and gladly joined in prayer.”
“He usually doesn’t touch anybody, but he touched them, and held their hands in a circle as they sang and prayed,” continued Andrae Crouch’s spokesman. “There was NO actual ‘sinners prayer’ however, but they did talk and pray about Jesus and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They also told him, ‘Michael, we consider you as our son,’ and he said, “yes, yes, yes” and gave him his latest music on a CD, and he told him, ‘Andrae I trust you with this,’ and gave him CD’s of 2 songs......unpublished, beautiful music.”
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,” noted Crouch’s spokesman.
He told Moran that before he was elected, he used to pray each night. Obama reportedly receives a devotional and prayer sent to his BlackBerry every morning from Pastor Joshua DuBois, the director of the president's Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Initiative. (Photo: LATimes)
