Monica | studiotj

This is uncanny to say the least, but real. Exactly one year ago today , I wrote a post called “The Gospel Of Domestic Violence” (copy and paste this link if you want to read it) https://studiotj.wordpress.com/?s=The+++++gospel+of+domestic+violence+

At any rate, the post dealt with gospel singer/radio personality James Fortune and his legal issues as it relates to domestic violence. When I wrote the initial post I was really, really angry with the things that were in the news concerning this artist. I had enjoyed his music and after some of the things that I read, I didn’t even want to hear anything from him (that was difficult because he has some great music). Fast forward to one day last week. I was in my car listening to Darlene McCoy on the “Nightly Spirit” (a gospel radio show) and she interviewed James Fortune. He came in and wanted to talk about his issues. I didn’t hear all of the interview but I heard enough to at least change my position. Fortune, who is responsible for such gospel hits as “Hold On”, “I Believe”, and “Live Through It”, spoke candidly to McCoy about his issues with anger management.

“A lot of times you’ll always say what you’ll never do but when you can’t control your anger anything can trigger and make you do something that maybe you felt like you would never do. For me I ask God, of course I thank God for forgiveness but for me it was more than just forgiving,” Fortune said. “I wanted to be better. I wanted to be changed. I wanted God to do something on the inside of me so that my story, my testimony could help someone else.” Fortune said he went through professional counseling to work on those issues.

I was ecstatic to hear that he in fact acknowledged his problems, asked for forgiveness, and sought help. WE ALL HAVE ISSUES and they manifest themselves in different ways. I’m just glad that he sought help for his and perhaps that can help many others.

Above is the video of James Fortune & Fiya’s “Hold On” featuring Monica and Fred Hammond.