MandisaMandisa Hundley, one of the top 16 finalists on television’s No. 1 show, “American Idol,” is not ashamed of her faith in Christ and even publicly expressed forgiveness for one of the show’s judges after he sent a biting insult her way.
Mandisa – who prefers to be known by her first name – is a regular worship leader at Beth Moore’s Living Proof Live conferences throughout the country and one of 8 women and 8 men still competing for a chance to win the contest March 2. She has made it known that a brief bout with fame is nothing compared to her relationship with Jesus Christ.
In fact, she put her faith into action recently when Simon Cowell, one of the show’s infamously cruel judges, flippantly remarked about her weight.
“Do we have a bigger stage this year?” he asked on camera after she walked away.
Mandisa, of Nashville, Tenn., responded to Cowell’s comment the next time she appeared in front of the judges.
“What I want to say to you is that, yes, you hurt me and I cried and it was painful, it really was. But I want you to know that I’ve forgiven you and that you don’t need someone to apologize in order to forgive somebody,” she said. “I figure that if Jesus could die so that all of my wrongs could be forgiven, I can certainly extend that same grace to you.”
Cowell, getting up to hug her, said, “Mandisa, I’m humbled, really. I’m just so appalling, aren’t I?”
Prior to her involvement with the Living Proof conferences, Mandisa worked at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville in the customer service department and then later as a contract worker for the women’s ministry area, making contacts with some of the people who attended their women’s events.
Chris Adams, women’s enrichment ministry and ministers’ wives specialist at LifeWay, told Baptist Press she knows Mandisa and “just loves her to death.”
“I think it’s obvious from what everyone has seen on American Idol that her love for the Lord just oozes out of her, and when she sings, you know she is just praising the Lord as she does it,” Adams said. “You see it on her face. You see it in her demeanor. It’s just really fun to watch somebody who has that much talent to use that for the Lord.”