In 2011, we recognized Captain Scott Smiley (seen here with his wife Tiffany) with a Christopher Leadership Award. Why? On April 6, 2005, while Captain Smiley was on patrol with his platoon in Iraq, a suicide bomber exploded a car bomb that sent shrapnel and debris into Smiley’s eyes and brain, permanently destroying his vision. Initially, he was consumed by hatred for the suicide bomber and even doubted God’s existence. When he was finally able to forgive the bomber in... Read more
“Being a gentleman doesn’t make you a wuss.” That’s one of the truths that former “Touched By an Angel” writer and executive producer Martha Williamson hopes to pass on to viewers in her new and refreshingly retro Hallmark Channel series, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” which airs Sunday nights at 8:00pm. The show’s got a unique concept, and also that special Williamson touch, which allows it to be entertaining and funny while sharing stories that touch the heart and inspire you to... Read more
Now that “Star Wars Day” is over (May the 4th be with you), it’s time to celebrate another special occasion: namely, Patheos.com’s 5th anniversary! It was a mere three-and-a-half years ago that I started hounding Elizabeth Scalia (a.k.a. The Anchoress) every couple of weeks to see if she wanted to post articles based on my “Christopher Closeup” interviews. After several months, I must have worn her down because she offered me a blog where I could post everything myself. Since... Read more
NEW YORK, May 1, 2014 — At the 65th annual Christopher Awards ceremony on Thursday, May 15th, The Christophers will honor a chaplain, who works at six Indiana state prisons, with this year’s James Keller Award, and a veteran comedy writer for hits including “Cheers” and “Seinfeld” with the 2014 Christopher Spirit Award. Father David T. Link, a lawyer-turned-priest, is recipient of the James Keller Award and Tom Leopold, a Catholic convert who shares the story of his daughter’s life-threatening... Read more
When Christine Davies was deployed in Kuwait as a member of the U.S. National Guard, her young daughter Lylia understandably missed her absent mom and talked about her a lot. One thing that lessened the loneliness, however, was an abandoned dog named Nigel that they found online through the Rescue Road Trips website, run by Greg Mahle. As profiled by Christopher Award-winning author Bob Dotson on his “American Story” segment for the Today Show, Greg rescues thousands of dogs every... Read more
Writer/producer Brian Bird (Touched By an Angel, Step by Step, When Calls the Heart) shared the video below on his Twitter feed, saying “Absolutely love this from students of John Paul the Great University — Letter to Artists.” As stated on the school’s Youtube page, “On Easter Sunday, April 4, 1999, Pope John Paul II wrote an open letter to all artists — both Christian and secular — reminding them of their vocation to Beauty. He urged them not to... Read more
If you’re a fan of sports movies and “Person of Interest” star Jim Caviezel, then you’ll be a happy camper this summer when his new feature film “When the Game Stands Tall” is released on August 22. Inspired by a true story, the film tells the story of Concord, California’s De La Salle High School football team who went on an unprecedented 12-year winning streak under the guidance of coach Bob Ladouceur, played by Caviezel. Ironically, the heart of the... Read more
Lord, Instill us with the hope we celebrate this Easter, the hope we’re supposed to experience because of Jesus’s resurrection, the hope that’s difficult to believe in when we live in a world with much pain and suffering. Every day, we’re surrounded by signs that life isn’t fair. Good people suffer hardship and we wonder why a loving God would allow these things to happen. Maybe we even wonder if a loving God exists at all. But then we remember... Read more
James Maslow has attracted a lot of fans as a singer with the band Big Time Rush. One of those fans, 23-year-old Hannah Wackernagle who was born with Down Syndrome, likes him so much that she made a video asking Maslow to go to her prom with her. The video went viral and came to Maslow’s attention. Since he’s a contestant on “Dancing with the Stars” this season, he wasn’t able to oblige Hannah’s request, but he did the next... Read more
Pregnancy is supposed to be a joyful time for a couple, but for Amy Kuebelbeck and her husband it was tinged with tragedy as well. In 1999, halfway through their third pregnancy, they learned that their unborn son, who they named Gabriel, had an incurable heart condition and would not live long if he was carried to term. Committed to their son’s life from conception to natural death, they didn’t find much support except from one nurse who told them... Read more
Christopher Closeup
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