Sunday Best Auditions!

Updated Jan. 5, 2008 — Live auditions for season two of “Sunday Best” begin in January ‘09. They’re open for one and all. So, if you have the chops to sing with the angels, prove it!

Find your way to one of the locations below to audition for the show.

Jan 10, Atlanta
Georgia World Congress Cntr.
285 Andrew Young International Blvd., NW
Atlanta, Georgia 30313-1591
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Jan 25, Chicago
Hyatt Regency McCormick Place
2233 South Martin L. King Drive,
Chicago, Illinois, USA 60616-9985
7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Jan 31, Washington, D.C.
BET Studio 2
1235 W. St. NE
Washington, D.C. 20018-1211
9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more info, call the “Sunday Best” hotline at: 1-866-405-BEST (2378).

You could be the Sunday Best. Good luck!

Suit Filed To Take Prayer Out Of Inauguration

Atheists try to have the words ‘under God’ removed from swearing in of the next president.

The Washington Post reports that a group of atheists, led by a California man known for challenging the use of the words “under God” in recitals of the Pledge of Allegiance at public schools, filed a lawsuit to bar prayer and references to God at the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama.

Michael A. Newdow along with 17 other individuals and 10 groups representing atheists sued Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., several officials in charge of inaugural festivities, the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery and mega-church pastor Rick Warren. They filed the complaint in U.S. District Court.

Newdow failed in similar lawsuits to remove prayer from President Bush’s swearing-in ceremonies in 2001 and 2005. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts will administer the oath of office to Obama at the Jan. 20, 2009 ceremony. Pastor Warren and Rev. Lowery are scheduled to deliver the invocation and benediction, respectively.

Newdow and others also argue that the phrase “so help me God,” used consistently in inaugural oaths since the swearing-in of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, should be stricken, saying it is not part of the oath as specified in the Constitution.

Bob Ritter, staff attorney for the American Humanist Association and counsel for the suit, said in an interview that the group could win “as long as the judges uphold the Constitution.”

Ritter, who believes the law is on their side, said the lawsuit targets the oath, the invocation and the benediction.

According to the lawsuit, the opening and ending prayers “are completely exclusionary, showing absolute disrespect to Plaintiffs and others of similar religious views, who explicitly reject the purely religious claims that will be endorsed, i.e., (a) there exists a God, and (b) the United States government should pay homage to that God.”

In an article by David Townsend (www.TheGospelNewsWire.com) the legal move is said to be the latest controversy surrounding the swearing-in. Gay-rights advocates and liberal groups were outraged by Obama’s selection of Pastor Warren, who endorsed Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in California. Conservatives, meanwhile, have criticized Warren for agreeing to appear at the inauguration.

Scott Walter, executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, called the lawsuit a “publicity stunt” in a recent statement. The Becket Fund promotes free expression of religion and has opposed Newdow’s Pledge of Allegiance efforts.

“Newdow’s lawsuit over the inauguration is a lot like the streaker at the Super Bowl: a pale, self-absorbed distraction. And anybody who looks at it carefully can see there’s not much there,” Walter said.

Sources: Washington Post/www.TheGospelNewsWire.com/EURWEB.com

Gospel Music Channel Best Soul Video Of The Year

Music videos by Flyleaf, Rascal Flatts, Marvin Sapp and Switchfoot were among the recently announced winners of the Gospel Music Channel Video Awards.

Revealed during a special one-hour show over the weekend, the winners were voted for by viewers and fans in seven different categories including “Best Contemporary Video of the Year,” which went to Switchfoot for “This is Home;” “Best Rock Video of the Year,” which went to Flyleaf for “All Around Me;” and “Best Soul Video of the Year,” which went to Marvin Sapp for “Never Would Have Made It.”

The overall “Video of the Year” went to Flyleaf for “All Around Me.”

One is the fastest-growing network in television today, Gospel Music Channel is accessible in more than 40 million homes on various cable systems around the country and on DIRECTV.

Gospel Music Channel Video Award Winners:
Best Contemporary Video of the Year - Switchfoot “This Is Home”
Best Country Video of the Year - Rascal Flatts “Every Day”
Best Hip Hop Video of the Year - Lecrae “Prayin For You”
Best Latin Video of the Year - Funky & Alex Campos “No Vuelvo Pa’tras”
Best Pop Video of the Year - SONSOFDAY “This Place”
Best Rock Video of the Year - Flyleaf “All Around Me”
Best Soul Video of the Year - Marvin Sapp “Never Would Have Made It”
Gospel Music Channel Video of the Year - Flyleaf “All Around Me”

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