Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Rev. Franklin Graham is calling on America to remember how the tragedy drove millions toward faith — and to recognize that the nation still desperately needs God.
“September 11 is a day I’ll never forget,” Graham told Fox News Digital. “It’s impossible to describe the tremendous amount of pain that I witnessed at Ground Zero in the aftermath. There were so many who were in shock and grieving.”
Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, recalled how Americans responded to the evil and devastation by seeking God together.
“As we observe the 25th anniversary of this day when our world changed forever, my prayer is that America will recognize our need for God like we did after 9/11,” Graham said. “Churches were full. People gathered to pray in public places.”
His father, the late evangelist Billy Graham, delivered a similar message during a national service at Washington National Cathedral following the attacks.
“We’ve always needed God from the very beginning of this nation. But today we need Him especially,” Billy Graham said at the time. “We’re involved in a new kind of warfare. And we need the help of the Spirit of God.”
Franklin Graham said that dependence upon God remains just as important today.
“Just as America needed the help of God then, we still need His help today,” he said.
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Graham’s message is featured in a new Billy Graham Evangelistic Association program, “A Day That Changed Our Lives Forever.” The special includes testimony from 9/11 survivors, including Genelle Guzman-McMillan, the final person pulled alive from the World Trade Center rubble.
Guzman-McMillan spent 27 hours trapped beneath the ruins before rescuers found her. She said the experience changed her life forever.
“Something happened under that rubble,” she said. “I found Jesus that day.”
Graham’s prayer for America remains unmistakable: “My prayer for our nation is that we will turn back to the God of Heaven who has brought us to this day and sustained us every step of the way.”
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
