'Real Housewives of Orange County' Star Tamra Judge Denies Faking Baptism for Reality TV

Two weeks after being accused of faking her Christian conversion to secure her spot on the reality TV show "Real Housewives of Orange County," star Tamra Judge has hit back at her critics insisting that her conversion is genuine and that it has completely changed her life.

"What's so funny is there's so many fake stories that go out there in the press," Judge, who accepted Christ as her savior roughly one month ago, told The Christian Post in a recent phone interview. "I think in the past six months I've felt like a new person, but it's just one of those things where I wanted to make it right with the Lord and I knew the journey I was on. I'm not saying like, I'm perfect and I'm not saying I'm at church every single Sunday. I try to go every Sunday, I'm joining a Bible study … as you know, your mindset changes [after being baptized]."

Judge's emotional baptism will air on the hit Bravo TV show that's in its 10th season in coming months as part of the season finale. Her life-changing decision to be born again came during what she said was a very difficult time in her life, after a woman at her Cut Fitness gym invited her to go to church.

"I was never baptized as a kid, and I was never brought up in church and I haven't raised my kids in the church, it was something that was very foreign to me," she shared. "When I was going through everything I was going through, I was at work one day and this woman came up to me at my studio — she goes 'would you like to go to church with me?' and I said 'yes.'"

She continued: "So I took my kids to church and [my husband] Eddie went with me and my life just kind of changed, it was very powerful. And I think that with religion and accepting the Lord into your life and your heart, it's a personal journey."

The series follows six Orange County women, whose pampered lifestyles and endless bickering captivates viewers every year. [2.7 million during its peak last season]

During season nine, the 44-year-old mother of four, who's just days away from celebrating her second wedding anniversary to her husband, Eddie, was cast by viewers as the show's villain due to her frequent clashes with castmates. The Bravo TV star says she's confident that all is set to change this season.

"I think that you will see me think twice about a lot of things that I do and kind of saying 'what would God do?'" said Judge.

During season eight, Judge, made famous the term "Jesus Jugs" after screaming it at her former co-star, Alexis Bellino, a devout Christian and married mom of three, during a heated exchange. The born-again Christian said that she now understands why the term was so offensive and that she has since apologized to Bellino.

"Oh definitely," Judge said in response to whether she regrets hurling the insult. "I think for me, I just didn't know what a Christian was. When you think of someone being a Christian you think they don't do anything wrong. They're not sinners, they don't get boob jobs, whatever … and she was the epitome of Orange County in my mind, and I think I just didn't know. It was pure ignorance."

Carrie Underwood Makes History with Something In the Water

New mother Carrie Underwood won big at Wednesday night's CMT Music Awards, taking home the Video of the Year award for her faith hit "Something in the Water," and she thanked fans while calling it a "blessing." The singer also made history by scoring her 13th CMT award, making her the most decorated CMT winner.

The country music star made her first public appearance since giving birth to her first child, Isaiah Michael Fisher, in February. And she was sure to recognize both him and her hockey player husband, Mike Fisher, when taking home three gongs, including Video of the Year for the fourth year in a row.

"This is my first show since little Isaiah has been in the world," a beaming Underwood told the star-studded crowd at Nashville, Tennessee's Bridgestone Arena. "He's probably napping on the bus right now, but I should definitely say that he has already inspired me so much, as well as my husband, Mike. Thank you guys! … This is such an amazing blessing."

Earlier this year, Underwood's baptism-inspired hit "Something in the Water" scored her a Grammy award for Best Solo Country Performance. She previously spoke about the recording process, sharing that she knew the song would be an instant hit.

"I knew while we were writing 'Something in the Water' that we really had something special," Underwood said. "This was one that, as it was happening, I was recording stuff on my phone. Like, 'Oh my gosh.' Like, 'Let's do it again. I can make that better. We can do this better.'"

The song is Underwood's longest-running Billboard No. 1 hit and the music video has been viewed on YouTube more than 12 million times since it was uploaded in November.

Black Sabbath Bassist Says They're Not an Evil Band and They Had the First Christian Rock Song

In a brand new interview with The Weeklings, Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler was asked if he got any backlash over SABBATH singing a message of repentance and God being the only way to love on the "Master Of Reality" album.

"No," he responded. "People always like to find the 'evil' in the music, so they'd quote the 'pope on a rope' part out of context, as usual. People like to find negative in everything. We weren't interested in writing songs about the 'nice' things in the world; everyone else was writing about that. We wanted to inject some reality into music. I think if we'd been called WHITE SUNDAY we'd have had a totally different reaction.

Butler also talked about his thought process behind writing the lyrics to the SABBATH song "After Forever", which some historians have called the first real Christian rock song.

"A lot of it was because of the situation in Northern Ireland at the time," he explained. "There were a lot of religious troubles between the Protestants against the Catholics.

"I was brought up strictly Catholic and I guess I was naïve in thinking that religion shouldn't be fought over. I always felt that God and Jesus wanted us to love each other."

He continued: "It was just a bad time in Northern Ireland, setting bombs off in England and such. We all believed in Jesus — and yet people were killing each other over it. To me, it was just ridiculous. I thought that if God could see us killing each other in his name, he'd be disgusted."

"13" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart in June 2013, the first SABBATH album to ever top the U.S. chart.

Link to full article below.  Warning: strong language used.


http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/black-sabbaths-geezer-butler-i-always-felt-that-god-and-jesus-wanted-us-to-love-each-other/#IT2sSJaxLpQCgqQV.99

Red's Jasen Rauch Joins Breaking Benjamin

Former lead guitarist and songwriter for Red has joined Breaking Benjamin.

Rauch is also well-known as the producer for Korn guitarist Brian Welch's solo project, Love and Death.  Rauch has also worked with acts such as Fireflight, Pillar, Disciple, Kerrie Roberts, Stars Go Dim, 12 Stones, and Spoken.

Hillsong United's Empires Debuts at #5 on Billboard 200

Empires debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart and remained in the Top 5 peaking at No. 2 on the iTunes overall albums during street week.

United's album was named the Album of the Week from USA Today last week featuring the band and project. The publication stated that "(Empires') message may be paramount to Hillsong United, but the melodies are almost as important. Like Coldplay, the group has mastered the engaging melody, and not just the ones that accompany the lyrics, but the ones in the soothing guitar patterns, the ostinato synthesizer lines, the simple piano motifs." In addition to the USA Today mention, United was recently featured in the May 30 issue of Billboard along with exclusively shot photos of the group in Central Park.

This week United is the featured performance on NBC's Beyond A.D. with the single "Touch the Sky." Click here to watch their performance.

Leading up to the release last week, Hillsong United launched Empires performing to 10,000 people in New York City for a free concert at Central Park's Rumsey Playfield as well as an one-off performance at Los Angeles' Club Nokia. In April, United appeared live on The Today Show performing the hit "Touch The Sky."