Bryant Gumbel Interview with Billy Graham’s Daughter–Truth! & Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Supposedly an account of an Interview between television’s Bryant Gumbel and a daughter of the Rev. Billy Graham. On an evening program, Gumbel is said to have asked why didn’t God stop the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001? She said we’ve told God to get out of a lot of things in America, and he did, and that we need to make up our minds whether we want him or not, not just when disaster strikes.
The Truth:
The interview took place on CBS’s “The Early Show” on the Thursday morning after the terrorist attacks.
Jane Clayson, not Bryant Gumbel, conducted the interview with Anne Graham Lotz.
According to the transcript of the broadcast, Clayson asked, “I’ve heard people say, those who are religious, those who are not, if God is good, how could God let this happen? To that, you say?”
Lotz replied, “I say God is also angry when he sees something like this. I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense have shaken their fist at God and said, God, we want you out of our schools, our government, our business, we want you out of our marketplace. And God, who is a gentleman, has just quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public life. Removing his hand of blessing and protection. We need to turn to God first of all and say, God, we’re sorry we have treated you this way and we invite you now to come into our national life. We put our trust in you. We have our trust in God on our coins, we need to practice it.”
Clayson was not silent afterwards. She proceeded to ask other questions in the interview.