Carman's video alleged to contain anti-Semitic overtones

US GOSPEL singer Carman was recently involved in a controversy surrounding his video "A Witches Invitation". An Albuquerque movie house owner initiated the controversy by transferring Carman's video to film and showing it before the main features in her Movie One theatres. Some patrons complained about "heavy handed propaganda". The situation escalated with accusations concerning the video's supposed anti-Semitic overtones. New Mexico's Anti-Defamation League Susan Seligman was reported as saying 'the antagonist is given an obviously Jewish name... and it is obviously the good Christian God versus the evil god portrayed by (Isaac) Horowitz.

Carman went on national television to defend the video. He said in a press release "if the usage of that particular name offended anyone because the name sounds Jewish or is a Jewish name, then I certainly do apologise. That was never the intent. After all, as a Christian and a minister, I spend my life telling people that knowing Jesus Christ, a Jewish man, is the best thing that ever happened to me. The only reason I used Horowitz is because the story was actually true, but I changed a few letters to protect the person's identity. I can tell you as the man who wrote it and put the thing together that the subject matter has nothing to do with being Jewish or not. It has everything to do with the spirit of evil and what takes place when Christ is rejected on the day of judgement."

The theatre chain owner Garner, who is half Jewish herself, originally declined to withdraw the video. But under pressure from several major movie corporations she subsequently stopped showing "A Witches Invitation" at her cinemas.