Whitney Houston Is 'Singing With the Angels,' Tyler Perry Says

Tyler Perry praised Whitney Houston's spiritual side in an emotional tribute at her funeral on Saturday.

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"Say whatever you want, God is for her and and she is singing with the angels," the director said, drawing cheers from the crowd at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, N.J., where Houston sang as a child.

Perry said he met Houston four years ago in Atlanta, and was impressed by how "candid and open" she was about the things that saddened her. But everytime he attempted to encourage the singer, he recalled, she would say: "But my lord and savior Jesus Christ and his amazing grace."

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"If there was a grace that carried her through," Perry said, "it was the same grace that carried her home."

Perry loaned his private jet to the Houston family to transport Houston's casket from Los Angeles, where she died Saturday, to her hometown of Newark.