{"id":20377,"date":"2022-08-18T12:27:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T16:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=20377"},"modified":"2023-05-03T11:10:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T15:10:08","slug":"kathie-lee-giffords-coming-to-christ-and-her-plans-to-dedicate-her-life-to-biblical-storytelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2022\/08\/kathie-lee-giffords-coming-to-christ-and-her-plans-to-dedicate-her-life-to-biblical-storytelling.html","title":{"rendered":"Kathie Lee Gifford’s Coming to Christ and Her Plans to Dedicate Her Life to Biblical Storytelling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Kathy Hutchins \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kathie Lee Gifford sat down with Billy Hallowell and Tr\u00e9 Goins-Phillips on their podcast, \u201cProdigal Stories\u201d to discuss her Christian faith and her new Christian film, \u201cThe Way.\u201d Gifford started the interview discussing how she came to Christ as a 12-year-old girl. She credited film with her conversion to Christ sharing that, \u201c\u2026Jesus spoke to my heart through a movie that the Billy Graham organization put out, and I\u2019ve never been the same since.\u201d She also discussed how her faith helped her through very difficult and public controversies in her life, such as being called out for having clothing lines made in \u201csweatshops\u201d<\/a> and the very public infidelity<\/a> of her husband, Frank Gifford. \u201cIt\u2019s all I had,\u201d she said regarding how her faith held her up through those experiences. She and Frank received counseling and remained married until Frank\u2019s sudden death in 2015. \u201cThere are no crumbs on God\u2019s table. You can use every calamity,\u201d she said. She also discussed how her love of Jesus helped her to end a 30-year feud with radio personality, Howard Stern<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Having come to Christ through a movie experience, she stressed the importance of using media to reach others with the Gospel. \u201cThe devil doesn\u2019t own the airwaves\u2026 Everything belongs to God, and we need to reclaim them for His Kingdom.\u201d She detailed her work on making \u201cThe Way\u201d which has been a project of love, involving many of her friends in the production. The movie is a series of oratorios, narrations set to music, that will tell Biblical stories through a one-night only event in theaters September 1st<\/sup>. She spoke of her excitement to focus on telling stories about God. \u201cI realized, \u2018Oh my Gosh, this is what I\u2019m supposed to do for the rest of my life.\u2019 I\u2019m supposed to take these unbelievably powerful, epic stories of people in the Bible and bring them to life in a brand new way that no one\u2019s ever seen before.\u201d She also encouraged Christian content makers to make top-notch material, avoiding \u201cdreck\u201d and striving for \u201cexcellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many years past, Christian content was looked at as a somewhat cheesy, low budget affair. However, in the past couple of decades, particularly with the 2004 release of Mel Gibson\u2019s \u201cThe Passion of the Christ,\u201d Christian movies and media have become more and more mainstream and of better quality. The Kendrick brothers<\/a> have released a number of popular Christian films with commercial success, including \u201cFireproof,\u201d \u201cCourageous,\u201d and \u201cFacing the Giants.\u201d PureFlix.com came onto the scene in 2015 after the success of the film, \u201cGod\u2019s Not Dead,\u201d as a family-friendly alternative to streaming services like Netflix. Angel Studios released the very popular show, \u201cThe Chosen,\u201d which depicts the life of Jesus. With content concerns and cultural messaging leading Christian parents to look for alternatives to pastime favorites like Disney<\/a>, the time for Christian media alternatives is more ripe than ever. The advent of crowdfunding resources is also broadening who can enter that gateway, with popular Christian content like \u201cThe Wingfeather Saga\u201d being produced by the funding of fans. Based off the popular children\u2019s series written by Christian Andrew Peterson, \u201cThe Wingfeather Saga\u201d was able to raise $5 million dollars in 20 days and released its first season in 2022. It is currently seeking funding<\/a> for the second season, with seven seasons planned in total. With so many options, it seems Gifford is not the only one who should be optimistic about the future of media and telling God\u2019s stories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathie Lee Gifford sat down with Billy Hallowell and Tr\u00e9 Goins-Phillips on their podcast, \u201cProdigal Stories\u201d to discuss her Christian faith and her new Christian film, \u201cThe Way.\u201d Gifford started the interview discussing how she came to Christ as a 12-year-old girl. She credited film with her conversion to Christ sharing that, \u201c\u2026Jesus spoke to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":20380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nKathie Lee Gifford's Coming to Christ and Her Plans to Dedicate Her Life to Biblical Storytelling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kathie Lee Gifford discusses her faith and upcoming plans which include her new Christian film, "The Way."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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