{"id":888,"date":"2011-02-10T13:17:34","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T13:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html"},"modified":"2011-02-10T13:17:34","modified_gmt":"2011-02-10T13:17:34","slug":"james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html","title":{"rendered":"James Durbin an Inspiring Fatherless Kid on American Idol"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why you should&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/The-Culture\/TV\/2011\/0210\/American-Idol-in-San-Francisco-Why-you-should-watch-James-Durbin-and-Emily-Anne-Reed\" style=\"text-decoration: underline; \">watch James Durbin on American Idol.<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/The-Culture\/TV\/2011\/0210\/American-Idol-in-San-Francisco-Why-you-should-watch-James-Durbin-and-Emily-Anne-Reed\" style=\"text-decoration: underline; \"><\/a>These inspiring stories on&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/2011\/02\/10\/american-idol-recap-j-lo-predicts-winner-idol-auditions-wrap\/\" style=\"text-decoration: underline; \">American Idol<\/a>&nbsp;are bringing me to tears on Wednesday nights.&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mtv.com\/news\/articles\/1657631\/american-idol-san-francisco-auditions-james-durbin.jhtml\" style=\"text-decoration: underline; \">James Durbin<\/a>&nbsp;is a fatherless young man who revealed the pain of growing up without a dad to America. He also suffers from&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Tourette_syndrome\" style=\"text-decoration: underline; \">Tourette&#8217;s Syndrome<\/a>&nbsp;which causes involuntary muscle spasms. He&#8217;s poor with no job, a young father, deeply emotional and can sing like nobody&#8217;s business.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This guy has been broken in life and that brokenness seems to have developed some deep character in him. I love when American Idol contestants have are authentic and have overcome real challenges in their lives. Watch his incredible audition:&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p> <iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K64yxa3lJc8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=TomDavisBlog&amp;loc=en_US\">Click here to <strong>subscribe to Red Letters.<\/strong><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/cthomasdavis\">Click here to <strong>follow Tom Davis on Twitter.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why you should&nbsp;watch James Durbin on American Idol. These inspiring stories on&nbsp;American Idol&nbsp;are bringing me to tears on Wednesday nights.&nbsp;James Durbin&nbsp;is a fatherless young man who revealed the pain of growing up without a dad to America. He also suffers from&nbsp;Tourette&#8217;s Syndrome&nbsp;which causes involuntary muscle spasms. He&#8217;s poor with no job, a young father, deeply&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>James Durbin an Inspiring Fatherless Kid on American Idol - Red Letters<\/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\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"James Durbin an Inspiring Fatherless Kid on American Idol - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why you should&nbsp;watch James Durbin on American Idol. These inspiring stories on&nbsp;American Idol&nbsp;are bringing me to tears on Wednesday nights.&nbsp;James Durbin&nbsp;is a fatherless young man who revealed the pain of growing up without a dad to America. He also suffers from&nbsp;Tourette&#8217;s Syndrome&nbsp;which causes involuntary muscle spasms. He&#8217;s poor with no job, a young father, deeply&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-10T13:17:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"James Durbin an Inspiring Fatherless Kid on American Idol - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"James Durbin an Inspiring Fatherless Kid on American Idol - Red Letters","og_description":"Why you should&nbsp;watch James Durbin on American Idol. These inspiring stories on&nbsp;American Idol&nbsp;are bringing me to tears on Wednesday nights.&nbsp;James Durbin&nbsp;is a fatherless young man who revealed the pain of growing up without a dad to America. He also suffers from&nbsp;Tourette&#8217;s Syndrome&nbsp;which causes involuntary muscle spasms. He&#8217;s poor with no job, a young father, deeply&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2011-02-10T13:17:34+00:00","author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html","name":"James Durbin an Inspiring Fatherless Kid on American Idol - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-10T13:17:34+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-10T13:17:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/02\/james-durbin-an-inspiring-fatherless-kid-on-american-idol.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"James Durbin an Inspiring Fatherless Kid on American Idol"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?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\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}