This week, I had the honor of interviewing Lauren Green, Fox News’ chief religion correspondent and host of Spirited Debate. One thing that concerns Lauren about our culture is how secular media is shaping the faith of America’s youth in a deep way. Instead of going to God’s Word, many young people are drinking in the moral propaganda they see on television.
“You can watch any TV show, any late-night TV show, crime drama, comedy—these are evangelizing tools for a secular faith that sometimes agrees with God’s Word, and sometimes it doesn’t,” Lauren tells me. “And I think it’s very, very important to know the difference. I find a lot of young people have the attitudes they have about what’s moral and what’s not moral because of what they’re watching on TV or see in movies. But they don’t read God’s Word. God’s Word is living and active. It’s powerful.”
If what we see of television doesn’t line up with Scripture, Lauren says, we have to recognize it and reject the lies. But to be able to do that, God’s people must read the Bible regularly.
“One of the most important things is to read God’s Word daily,” Lauren says. “Get a one-year Bible. … Get a really good devotional that you can read on top of the Bible.”
Lauren is a woman of deep faith, but she’s also a woman of many talents. She’s a concert pianist; she was Miss Minnesota in 1984 and third runner-up in Miss America; she has been a television anchor for many years; and now she’s the author of a book called Lighthouse Faith.
Lauren has a way with words—to the point that while I was trying to skim her book in order to interview her, I found myself stopping to underline and mark passages and phrases I found interesting. Lauren is a deep thinker, and her book is full of theological insight. But she gives a lot of the credit for that to her pastor, famed theologian Tim Keller.
In fact, it was one of Tim Keller’s sermons that gave Lauren the turning point she needed for her faith. It spurred her on to see God no longer as just another thing in her life but rather as her entire life.
“It occurred to me, at a certain point, that there’s nothing more important in life than knowing God,” Lauren says. “The apostle Paul—his one encounter with Jesus—he spent his entire life working out that relationship.”
That realization led Lauren to ponder: What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus Christ? This is the question Lauren explores in Lighthouse Faith. She says our deepest need as human beings is to be loved unconditionally. But we have a problem.
“We’re afraid that if people really know us, they won’t really love us,” Lauren says. “So we have this dilemma of trying to hide our true selves from other people, but then we’re totally frustrated, and we get depressed and we get agitated because it’s the Garden of Eden all over again. It’s the fig leaf. I’m hiding from God. I don’t want to hide from God, but I’m afraid if God really knows me, He won’t love me.”
The answer, Lauren says, is knowing God—truly knowing who He is. When we understand His nature, we can come to Him as we are without having to do anything to get Him to love us. He meets us in that place of vulnerability and then changes us.
“So many of us live our lives thinking we have to change in order for God to love us, in order to walk into a church,” Lauren says. “And God says, ‘No, walk in where you are. I’ll do the rest. We’ll work together on this.'”
I’d like to thank Lauren for her gracious interviews with me on “Spirited Debate” for both God and Donald Trump and Trump Aftershock. When I was with her recently at Fox News, I asked if I could interview her for my podcast when I learned about her new book. It seemed the least I could do. I assumed I would like the book, but I was unprepared for how much I liked it, which I tell her on the podcast.
If you click on the podcast below, you’ll hear our entire conversation. I was able to get Lauren to open up and tell some heartwarming stories about her Aunt Wreatha and lessons she learned as a girl as well as how a photo of a lighthouse at the summer home of a friend gave her the imagery for Lighthouse Faith. She talks about science and God and how even music helps prove theological concepts. I’ve read a lot of books (and published quite a few) but this is one of the best I’ve read in a long time.
As I share in our Strang Report interview, I think this is a book every Christian should read. I think you’ll find that the podcast is interesting and will make you want to read the book, which is available on amazon.com as well as other outlets. Then share this podcast and newsletter on social media. Let’s create some interest for what I believe is a book that will strengthen your faith.
Stephen Strang