The idea that a television news anchor would collect stories about miraculous answers to prayer and publish a book with theological references might seem far-fetched — until you talk to the author.
Harris Faulkner, Fox News Channel veteran and host of the daily programs “The Faulkner Focus” and “Outnumbered,” isn’t your everyday newscaster. And her new book, “Faith Still Moves Mountains: Miraculous Stories of the Healing Power of Prayer,” to be released by the Fox News Books imprint on Nov. 15, isn’t a pedestrian prayer guide. (She said a special about the book will air on the Fox Nation streaming service two days earlier.)
In a video call, Ms. Faulkner explained that compared with the 1950s, when the Gallup survey said more than 90% of Americans believed in God, “we’ve not only slid there, but … we don’t believe that God intervenes anymore” in daily life.
“I’m not saying we all have to believe the same and be the same, but what I am saying is we have to be the best version of ourselves,” she said. “And to treat each other with love and respect. I just don’t think we can do that on our own. I think we need guidance and a higher calling.”
The book includes stories of miraculous answers to prayer, such as the 2019 at-sea rescue of Florida teens Tyler Smith and Heather Brown, each 17 years old, by sailors in a ship named “Amen.” Mr. Smith and Ms. Brown were pulled into the Atlantic while swimming near St. Augustine; the sailors miraculously sailed into the area during a storm and caught sight of the two treading water. The teens said they’d prayed throughout the multi-hour ordeal.
Another tale involves the prayer a chaplain assigned to Gen. George S. Patton wrote for calm skies and a break in the rain just as World War II’s Battle of the Bulge got underway. That prayer, she writes, helped turn the tide of the battle — and the war.
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There’s also the story of Earnestine Reese, age 72 when a 2019 tornado demolished her Lee County, Alabama home, except for the “prayer closet” in which she regularly conversed with God, Ms. Faulkner recounted.
The news anchor wrote, “Earnestine’s gratitude and faith are astonishing in their purity. How many of us could lose everything and still praise God?”
Ms. Faulkner said in the video call that being in an interfaith marriage — she attends a community Baptist church while her husband of 19 years, Tony Berlin, is Jewish — means prayer can be a bridge between religious cultures.
“We share every meal,” Ms. Faulkner said of her family, which now includes two teenage daughters. “We share a prayer. There are things that are commonalities between us with our faith that extend far beyond any sort of divisions.”
Ms. Faulkner, 57, maintains a calm demeanor on camera, the product of years of reporting and anchoring in Greenville, North Carolina; Kansas City, and Minneapolis. But she also can show a personal side, as she discussed the aftermath of the 2012 mass shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School. The anchor was on the air during the aftermath and informed viewers that 26 people had died, including 20 children.
“I have broken down [on air], and Sandy Hook was hard,” Ms. Faulkner said. “I think because I’m used to that feeling of kind of all eyes on me as I tell a story, I’m okay with people seeing the truth about me. As long as they know I’m going to tell them the truth.”
Ms. Faulkner said, “I don’t think that anybody expects us to be so rigid that we’re not even human anymore.”
