Thoughts from a Musician's Heart

BUT PTL! by Patrick Kavanaugh

A brief introduction from Barbara.

This blog is an entry from Patrick’s 1987 Prayer Journal.

To give a bit of background: The Christian Performing Artists’ Fellowship began in 1983, long before MasterWorks, with four intrepid couples: Jim and Mary Jeane Kraft (trombone, cello), Robin and Bob Sturm (ballet), Steve and Linda Schurman (tenor, soprano), and Patrick and I (composer, cello).

Of course, a journal is not written for other eyes but the journaler’s. I’m taking the liberty of

sharing this as an experience in Patrick’s life as a Christian musician, word for word, punctuation as is. This is not a judgment of anyone, except perhaps of the media. I thought of the title “Be Wise as a Serpent and Harmless as a Dove”, but anyone who knew Patrick will recognize "Praise God!"

The photo is from 1987.

1/16/87 - calling in an ad to Washington Post: the ad read “Christian Singers! CPAF is looking for singers who have dedicated their lives to serving Jesus Christ: (etc.)” - They refused to print it, claiming it was a “discriminatory” ad. (!) I then asked why they advertised for the “Gay Men’s Chorus”. they said that their ads only “implied” what they were looking for (!!), that their name was “descriptive” of what they were. So I asked if we could be “descriptive” of what we were, and then simply ask for singers. She reluctantly said yes. I called Steve and we prayed and composed a new ad: “CPAF, a ministry dedicated to serving Jesus Christ, is looking for singers. (etc.)” - She was “snared by the words of her mouth” and had to put it in! PTL! - Obviously she just didn’t want the words “Jesus Christ” in her column, and that “discriminatory” was nonsense, But PTL!