In the pantheon of superstars at Fox News, Shannon Bream stands out, not for her advocacy of any brand of politics, but for her determination to not take sides.
“My job is not to give an opinion,” Bream told a writer for The Charlotte Observer while promoting her latest inspirational book, “Nothing is Impossible With God.”
Host of “Fox News Sunday” since 2022, Bream became the first woman to host the talk show when she took over after longtime host Chris Wallace left. She had been with Fox as a legal correspondent in 2007.
Bream has won fans in the slot, including Princeton professor Robert P. George, who has appeared on the show with his colleague Cornel West and has called Bream “a journalist of the old — and best — school.”
George later elaborated, telling the Deseret News, “Shannon, for me, is the very best example of someone who really does focus on the story ... who reports in a genuinely objective way. It’s hard to think of anyone these days who does as principled a job on that as she does.”
To understand Bream, George said, you have to understand “what makes her tick, which is fundamentally her Christian faith. But that doesn’t mean she is using her platform to evangelize. Rather, (her faith) has given her a sense of vocation, which is a calling to serve. How does she serve? By helping to inform the public about important issues of public policy so that people in a republic can make good decisions. I think that’s what drives Shannon.”
This is not to say that Bream, 55, isn’t also passionate about talking about her faith, but she has found an outlet for that conversation on her podcast, “Livin’ the Bream,” and in inspirational books.
“The Women of the Bible Speak: The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today” spent 15 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list (five of those weeks at No. 1). Two follow-ups, “Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak” and “The Love Stories of the Bible Speak,” also made the Times’ list.
Bream, who lives in northern Virginia and works from Washington, D.C., recently spoke with the Deseret News about her latest book, subtitled “Eleven Heroes. One God. Endless Lessons in Overcoming,” in which she connects the struggles of biblical heroes (to include Moses, Daniel, Noah, Elijah and Joshua) and related them to problems of modern life, and their solutions.
The Tennessee native also talked about what it was like to be fired from her first TV job, why she wants her personal views on issues to be a “mystery” to her audience, and why (and how) she’s reading the Bible the whole way through for the first time this year.
The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Deseret News: You started out your career as a lawyer, and then decided you wanted to become a journalist, even taking an internship as you began to make the change. How scary was that for you, and was there a moment that you doubted this change, or conversely, knew that this was the right thing for you to do?
Shannon Bream: Law is a very honorable, very rewarding profession, but I just didn’t feel like it was my passion. I always thought I was trying to put a square peg into a round hole. I’m super curious, I love to dig deep on stories, even when I wasn’t a journalist. I just always had an addiction to current events.
That internship I did, I think I was 29 — I referred to myself as “Grandma intern,” everyone else was 18 — I fell in love with the newsroom in such a way that it was scarier for me to stay at my law firm than it was to miss that opportunity.
When I questioned what I was doing was when I got fired from my first TV job. It was really painful, it was very humbling, but it was the check I needed to confront the questions about whether I was going to be serious about how much work I had to do, and what I needed to do to be committed to gaining the skills, and getting better and serious about changing my career.
DN: Were you told why you were fired?
SB: The boss was a new guy, and he said I was the worst person he’d ever seen on TV. And it may have been true. I had no training and no skill. I was definitely learning on the job. I don’t fault him. He was a seasoned professional and I’m sure there was tons of work I had to do. It was painful at the time, but in retrospect, it was probably the best thing for me. As a person of faith, I believe everything happens for a reason.
DN: You gave an interview to a writer at your alma mater, Florida State University, in which you talked about how law school helped prepare you for your career at Fox — not just the legal knowledge, but understanding and looking for the nuances of events. We don’t have a lot of nuance in our public discourse today. What can be done?
SB: Law school taught me you have to dig, and people are going to have their opinions and come to the reading of a statute with a particular viewpoint. One of my favorite quotes comes from Princeton professor Robbie George, who is known for having great conversations with Cornel West. They couldn’t see things more differently when it comes to ideology, but they’re really great friends.
And Professor George always says, you’ve got to walk into a conversation with the mindset that you could be wrong about something, there’s something you can learn. And I love that. I think we should enter all of our conversations that way, hear each other out, have a basic level of respect. Everyone is made in God’s image. And I think if we can approach every conversation that way, we might be able to make some progress.
DN: Along those same lines, you told a reporter for The Charlotte Observer “my job is not to give an opinion.” How difficult is that, and how important is that in building an audience’s trust?
SB: There are plenty of fantastic opinion hosts, advocates and commentators out there. My job is to simply present the facts and ask questions that lead all of us closer to the truth. My goal is always that my personal view on any particular issue remains a mystery to my viewers. They are astute enough to draw their own conclusions, and they’re just looking for people to give them facts.
DN: You dedicated your new book to your mother and call her “my first Bible teacher.” Is there any memory that stands out from your childhood about why your mom was significant in this way?
SB: She was a teacher, and she was a young Christian in her own faith when I was a young girl, and it’s almost like we were growing in that together. She was really big on scripture memory, and it’s funny that some of the first verses she helped me memorize as a little kid are still the ones that are implanted in my brain and still very easily come to memory. She was big on the memorization, knowing that if I learned it as a young person, it would stick with me for life.
I remember Philippians 2:3 — “Do nothing through selfish ambition or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, esteem others better than yourself.” That one is one that has stuck with me. She thought of (memorizing scripture) as a treasure that would come to me when I needed it, and would be comforting to me when I needed it.
DN: That seems especially useful right now, since so many young people are saying that they don’t need to memorize anything because they can find it online.
SB: Right, and in times of crisis, you may not have that access. I know at times when I’ve had insomnia, had problems sleeping at night, I will go through and recite Bible verses, or I’ll pray and remember the words of an old hymn. So rather than getting up and firing up my phone, for me, that’s a moment when I treasure having that memory verse at hand.
DN: Your career has largely been about law, politics and current events. Why are your books about faith?
SB: Fox actually had this idea; they came to me and said they were thinking about getting into the book space and they knew faith was a priority for me and so would I want to do a book? And I said, “This is such an amazing opportunity.” So I credit them with the idea, and I don’t think any of us involved with that first book had any idea whether it would really connect with people, and that has led to every book since then.
DN: In the new book, you talk about 11 heroes of faith and connect them to modern life; for example, you talk about Moses and his social anxiety. Who was your favorite of the 11 and why?
SB: That could change on any given day. But I’m always drawn back to Joseph’s story. He was betrayed by just about every institution that you would think would protect you in life, starting with his own family. So many things happened to him that were unfair and unjustified. Again and again, we see him thrown the worst curveballs in life, and I just find his story so encouraging, because we never see him give up on God’s goodness or God’s plan. And at the end of his story, when his brothers, who had sold him into slavery, come to him asking for help, they don’t even recognize him. And what he said was, what you meant for evil, God meant for good, and that is such a guiding light. The Joseph story tells us that you can trust that God’s hand is guiding us and he is working through even the terrible things in our life.
DN: Your knowledge of the Bible seems vast. I know you went to Liberty University and have been a Christian since a young age, so how many times have you read the Bible all the way through?
SB: I’ve read a lot of it many, many times, but this is the first year that I’m going to get through it in one year, to make sure I’ve read every verse. My husband and I are doing it together. I think it’s easy to go back to stories that you know and are familiar with, but we decided to commit to this. We’re going to read through all of the genealogies and the rules and the tough stuff that as a kid you might find boring or not know why it’s in there. We’re getting to the end of Numbers now. And it’s really eye-opening to do it from start to finish. We read in the evening, and even if we’re in different cities, we will hop on a call and talk about it as part of our nighttime conversation.
DN: You have been married for 30 years now, right? What’s the secret to staying married for 30-plus years?
SB: I think it’s to recognize that you are both inherently selfish people and marriage is about trying to be selfless. That’s where faith comes in. We always say, we are not perfect, but we are perfect for each other. And just remembering, when difficult times come, that we’re not adversaries, we’re on the same team. And we try to be each other’s biggest cheerleaders and biggest defenders.
DN: You have both had health challenges that you’ve written and talked about. (Bream has a chronic condition known as map-dot-fingerprint dystrophy, or Cogan’s dystrophy; her husband was discovered to have a brain tumor when they were engaged.) How are you both doing?
SB: We are both doing well, by the grace of God. I struggled for years with chronic pain until I got a diagnosis for this corneal problem that I have and there’s no cure for it, but my treatment has been really successful and I’m super grateful for that. And my husband had surgery for a brain tumor at 24. We both have lingering things, but they are so small in the grand scheme of the things, and on a day-to-day basis, we’re both doing terrific.