Touched by God - Hardcover

Jones, Bobby; Sussman, Lesley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671020021 ISBN 13: 9780671020026

Publisher: Atria, 1998

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Top gospel singers reveal how their relationships with God have changed their lives and shaped their music

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About the Author:

Dr. Bobby Jones, a Grammy� and Dove�- Award-winning performer, is host and executive producer of television's only nationally syndicated gospel program, Bobby Jones Gospel, seen weekly by five million viewers. He has won the Cable Ace Award for excellence in programming on cable television, and two Grammys: "Best Performance by a Black Contemporary Gospel Group" for his Soul Set Free album, and another for a single recorded with Barbara Mandrell. He has also won numerous awards for his contributions to gospel music, including the 1997 Stellar Award and NAACP Image Award.

Rev. James Moore

Although the Rev. James Moore is afflicted with diabetic blindness and life-threatening kidney disease, neither has stopped the widely acclaimed gospel star and ordained minister from proclaiming himself the victor rather than the victim.

"It ain't over 'til God says it's over," exclaims the chart-topping Malaco Records artist. James goes even further, confidently predicting that one day soon the Lord will bless him with a complete healing.

That kind of unswerving faith in the Lord has always marked the life of this Detroit native, who, since beginning his recording career in 1993, has racked up an impressive variety of awards -- including four Stellars, the highest award in gospel music.

Even when the soul-filled vocalist lost three of his younger siblings in a tragic house fire, and later, after his dearest friend and mentor died of cancer, James caught his spiritual balance by turning to heaven, viewing such misfortune as the Lord's way of testing his faith.

The gospel star's moving account of his battle against his debilitating eye and kidney disease is also a testimonial to real living faith.

"I just felt like God was allowing these things to happen to me to see how much I really loved Him," he declares with the patience of Job. "These were all tests -- trials -- and I wasn't about to throw my hands up and lose my faith. I love Him too much for that. I'm a victor, not a victim, in life and I'll trust in the Lord until I die."

Life first began pulling the rug from under James Moore's feet when he was just an infant. His mother, an unwed seventeen-year-old, was unable to raise her first of ten children, so at her aunt's urging, she turned James over to a foster family for his upbringing.

Even today, James refuses to bear a grudge against his mother. "Mama was just seventeen and she was in a very precarious situation," he says in her defense. "I know she didn't want to give me to one of the members of the church, but she was in a very tough situation."

James continues defending his mother by emphasizing that she was a morally upright person. "My mom had always been a church young lady -- she was raised in the church.

"That's where my foster mother met her. She said to my mother, 'Shirley, I'll take James if you want me to take him.' So that's how that came about."

It was from his foster parents that James grew up learning to love and fear the Lord.

"They were religious people who had their own family, and they were steady churchgoers," he recalls. "So I was raised in the church. All I knew was the church. And there was lots of spiritual talk about God at home. My foster mother would always talk about the Lord, what God can do.

"She was the kind of woman that would get happy in a minute by talking about God. And my real mom would visit and I would get spiritual talk from my mom, too. So I had a good training ground for the church and for God, Himself, even though I didn't know God back then the way I know Him now."

Sharing memories of his childhood, the gifted singer remembers growing up on the east side of Detroit, the "hotbed" of gospel music. He doesn't recall the neighborhood as a particularly tough one.

"There were, you know, black and white families," he relates. "But after a while the whites started to move out because more blacks were moving in. Still, it stayed a good neighborhood because it was a family neighborhood. A majority of the homes were two-family flats."

James portrays himself as a well-behaved youngster, a quiet kind of kid who always took a keen interest in religion. "I wasn't a wild kid," he says with a smile. "I was a kid who was very curious about certain things. I was always very fond of the preaching of the gospel in church and also the singing and the music."

The youngster gave an early display of his own talent when, at age seven, he sang for the first time before his church congregation. That memory elicits a chuckle from James.

"I can still remember that they stood me up on a little box, and my first song was 'How Great Art Thee.' And all the people who heard it were elated. The folks really enjoyed it. I had the people dancin' and clappin'. But I don't think I gave any thought to going professional until I was about eighteen years old."

The years passed by rather uneventfully until high school, James recalls, a time when the teenager's relationship with his foster parents began to deteriorate.

"As I got older, living with my foster parents, we started having a few problems," he relates. "And those problems stemmed from the fact that they had their own daughter and grandchildren.

"And I looked at that and, being a teenager, I just felt like I needed to get a chance to know more about my side of the family. I just wanted to be with my mother and my sisters and my brothers. So I was kind of rebellious."

There was something else that contributed to the ill feelings between him and his foster family. Whenever the teenager would bring up the subject of his real mother, his foster parent would launch into a negative tirade about her, something James remembers he didn't want to hear.

"My foster mother was real sweet, but sometimes she would say negative things about my mom. And it got to a point that I got tired of it. And when I said something about that, I got a beating by her husband. He worked at the Ford Motor Company."

There was one particular night that James painfully recalls being "beat buck-naked with switches." He also remembers fleeing his house in terror. "I was running through the streets there on the East Side with no shoes on, just my underwear. And the police saw me, and they took me to the youth detention home."

Although the police did their best to urge the teenager to return home, James refused to do so. "I didn't want to go back because the relationship was no longer a relationship. All I was hearing back there was, 'You'll never be nothing.' 'Your Mama wasn't nothing.' My foster mother would always throw that up in my face."

For the next several months, James called a youth detention center his home. Although it wasn't the best of living situations, he recollects that it was still better than the abuse he'd been receiving at home.

James also recalls finding solace and inspiration in the gospel music he would listen to when he felt down or lonely. "All my life I've loved that kind of music," he submits. "I'd been listening to it and singing gospel music since I was seven years old, when I gave my first solo in church."

One day, while walking around the city, James discovered Detroit's Conservatory of Music, locally known as Elma and Carl's House of Music. He remembers walking in to inquire about music lessons, and meeting a most remarkable woman.

Elma Hendricks, a talented musician who ran the struggling school with her husband, quickly developed a liking for the obviously talented youngster. "She became like my mom and even agreed to let me live with her and her family for a while," James fondly recalls.

"She took me under her wing and she tutored me in music. She was my vocal teacher, and she was my music teacher, and she taught me how to play the organ and piano. She even gave me free lessons."

That living arrangement, however, soon fell apart. "It was really tough because she was living with her father, and she hadn't really talked to her dad about bringing a young man in to live in the house. So I was only able to stay with her for a while."

Elma helped the sixteen-year-old obtain a room in a downtown YMCA, where James supported himself by working weekends at a record store that she and her husband operated as part of their business.

Still, James recalls feeling lonely and depressed. "It was a rough time of my life," he recollects. "And the relationship between me and my foster parents was getting uglier -- it was all

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