November (Web-only) 1999

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Amy Grant makes the cover of CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) magazine this month for the jillionth time. Yes, she's hawking an album ("A Christmas to Remember" "after a year to forget?" CCM's cover adds to the title), but she's also on a damage control mission after her divorce earlier this year. (The mission seems to be working: a later CCM Update article notes her album is the top CCM title in the country.) The article, cutely titled "Judging Amy," is not as soft as the October 9 (Nashville) Tennessean article where she announced she is now dating country singer Vince Gill. CCM Managing Editor Gregory Rumberg actually asks her to address widespread rumors that the two were dating long before she and Gary Chapman (who will be interviewed in an upcoming issue of CCM) were divorced, and that Grant and Gill may be secretly married already (she denies both). It also makes very clear that she, not Gary, pressed for the separation. But ultimately, the article boils down to Grant saying, "Yep. I'm divorced. It happens."

CCM ignores its own question November's CCM also takes a look at "The Latest Craze": praise and worship music. (The article is not available online.) The deck of the article asks, "Is it a trend that's resulting from record labels' clever marketing, or from a genuine movement from God?" The fifth paragraph of the three-page article answers it: "Make no mistake: The recent praise & worship boom isn't just marketing hype." Unfortunately, the article never truly examines the question. Instead, it trots out some standard criticisms of the genre: "There's too much use of the words 'I, I, I," rather than 'You' as it refers to God," says one source. Others note the trend to overemotionalize. ...