{"id":7682,"date":"2017-11-20T17:48:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T22:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=7682"},"modified":"2017-11-20T17:48:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T22:48:00","slug":"tribute-touched-angel-executive-producer-martha-williamson-life-della-reese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/11\/tribute-touched-angel-executive-producer-martha-williamson-life-della-reese.html","title":{"rendered":"Tribute: &#8220;Touched by an Angel&#8221; executive producer Martha Williamson on the life of Della Reese"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and culture:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Touched by an Angel Opening\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gm7DFnOGGvY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>With the passing of Della Reese, <em>Touched by an Angel<\/em> executive producer Martha Williamson had this sent my way to share with Beliefnet readers.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>REMEMBERING DELLA REESE<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cWhen you walk down the road<br \/>\nHeavy burden, heavy load<br \/>\nI will rise and I will walk with you<br \/>\nWalk with you<br \/>\n\u2018Til the sun don\u2019t shine<br \/>\nWalk with you every time<br \/>\nBelieve me<br \/>\nI will walk with you\u2026\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cTouched By An Angel\u201d theme song<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Della Reese was a brilliantly funny and profoundly moving actor, an unforgettably talented, mesmerizing singer, a savvy talk-show host, a dedicated<br \/>\nminister, and the star of a top-ten television hit. But most of all, she was an undeniable one-woman enterprise selling one precious product \u2013 the fierce love of an ever-loving God whom she lived to serve and share. And she shared that unshakeable faith of hers wherever she walked \u2013 onto a film set, into an elevator, down an airport concourse or a grocery store aisle. If you saw Della Reese heading your way, you knew something was going to change.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the way she walked into a room that I will remember most. There was the room before Della entered. And then it was us in Della\u2019s room. If the sheer magnitude of her powerful presence wasn\u2019t enough to announce her arrival, there was always the liberal bestowing of hugs and blessings. \u201cGod bless you today.\u201d \u201cGod bless you today.\u201d \u201cGod bless you today.\u201d And when Della said it, it wasn\u2019t a greeting,<br \/>\nit was a command &#8211; an exhortation to stop and acknowledge that you were, in fact,<br \/>\nblessed, so you\u2019d better shape up and live like it.<\/p>\n<p>Once, on the set of \u201cTouched By An Angel,\u201d a guest star found himself unable to continue shooting an emotionally-charged \u201crevelation\u201d scene in which Della\u2019s character, Tess, reveals herself as an angel with a message of forgiveness from God. When I took the actor aside, he broke into tears and said he\u2019d just spent two years writing a play to promote atheism, and in the space of twenty minutes performing one scene on camera with Della Reese, his entire belief system had been shaken. \u201cI may have just wasted two years of my life. That woman really believes. And I\u2019m<br \/>\nstarting to believe her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Della Reese stepped into the role of Tess with the natural ease that the rest of us step into a favorite pair of slippers. Sharing the good news of God\u2019s love was as comfortable and familiar to her as walking and talking and breathing. And yet, her pitch-perfect portrayal for nine years of a no-nonsense, straight-talking, uncompromising angel was formed over decades of struggle and sacrifice and single-minded determination to beat the odds.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">During a career that spanned seven decades, through wars and civil rights, hardship and success, she survived. She survived the days when a black woman could sing in a luxury hotel but wasn\u2019t allowed to stay there. She survived life threatening injuries and a devastating stroke. She survived heartbreaking personal and professional loss. And through it all, she steadfastly held to her faith that she was born with a purpose to fulfill and that each step she took in this life would never be taken alone.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">What a blessing that for nine years we got to walk along with her as she and her beloved angel daughter Roma Downey reminded the world every Sunday night that excellence isn\u2019t easy, that love is a choice and must be fought for and defended with truth and integrity and faith. And, of course, that God loves you.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u201cGod bless you today\u201d as you remember Della. And know that even now, she is walking where she was always planning to walk forever \u2013 alongside her Creator.<br \/>\nWith love,<br \/>\nMartha Williamson<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and culture: With the passing of Della Reese, Touched by an Angel executive producer Martha Williamson had this sent my way to share with Beliefnet readers. REMEMBERING DELLA REESE \u201cWhen you walk down the road Heavy burden, heavy load I will rise and I will walk&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14,31],"tags":[3389,5620,329],"class_list":["post-7682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-gratitude","category-television","tag-della-reese","tag-martha-williamson","tag-touched-by-an-angel"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tribute: &quot;Touched by an Angel&quot; executive producer Martha Williamson on the life of Della Reese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2017\/11\/tribute-touched-angel-executive-producer-martha-williamson-life-della-reese.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tribute: &quot;Touched by an Angel&quot; executive producer Martha Williamson on the life of Della Reese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest dispatch from the crossroads of faith and culture: With the passing of Della Reese, Touched by an Angel executive producer Martha Williamson had this sent my way to share with Beliefnet readers. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7682"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7684,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7682\/revisions\/7684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}