RELIGION
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WINTLEY PHIPPS PHOTOS
Oprah Winfrey, who reached out to Phipps long before she became famous, calls him her spiritual compass.
The Phippses traveled to South Africa to visit Nelson Mandela.
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rendition of Amazing Grace has amassed more than 25
million views on YouTube.
After a performance in Baltimore, a discouraged young
woman who had just lost her job approached Phipps
for advice.
“I told her God was going to bless her and that she would
have the opportunity to speak to millions,” Phipps said.
He was right, for the young woman was Oprah Winfrey,
who became a staunch friend.
“We’ve had conversations, prayers, tears, joyous moments,”
said Oprah, who called Phipps her spiritual compass.
OPRAH IS A FAN
Phipps has been a guest on Oprah’s show, as well as on
Saturday Night Live. Sporting bell bottoms and a nifty Afro,
he was also the first gospel singer to star on Soul Train.
Traveling on Amtrak, Phipps once spotted a despondent
looking man on the train and asked if he could help.
The fellow was Chuck Colson, once known as President
Richard Nixon’s hatchet man and the first in the Nixon
administration to be incarcerated for the Watergate scandal.
The two became friends. Through Colson, Phipps learned
of Prison Fellowship Ministries. Soon, Phipps was visiting
prisons across the country, singing and dispensing hope.
“I have been honored to sing for six presidents of the
United States, I have been blessed to sing for Billy Graham,
Oprah Winfrey and Mother Teresa, but there is a feeling
I get singing to men and women in prisons that is like no
other,” he said.
His prison ministry is a subject dear to his heart and one
that touches him viscerally, since during a prison visit he
came face-to-face with his wife’s young pregnant niece at a
Florida prison. Linda’s seven siblings have been behind bars
and, in turn, some of their children have also done time.
“Seventy percent of children who end up in prison come from
families where parents had gone to prison,” Phipps said. “It is
the normalization of incarceration.”
Phipps was one of the first to mentor children whose families
were incarcerated or had a history of incarceration.