In August, Anderson Cooper sat down with Stephen Colbert about God and grief, and I just now had the chance to see it. I know some time has passed, but this was such a beautiful and honest grappling with God and problem of pain I wanted to share it.
Relevant Magazine described the pain that both of the men had suffered. “Colbert was 11 years old when he lost his father and brothers in a plane crash. Cooper was the same age when his own father died. His brother committed suicide a few years later, and his mother Gloria Vanderbilt passed away earlier this summer.”
That’s a lot of tragedy. In this exchange, they ask the big questions. Is God everywhere? Is He in everything? Have our tragedies hurt us? Or have they made us the people we should be? How can you be the “most human” you can be? Is it possible to be thankful for the thing that you most wish didn’t happen to you?
These are the types of questions they dealt with on CNN, and – believe it or not – it’s one of the most beautiful exchanges about faith and God you’ll see.
Colbert had once quoted J.R.R. Tolkien saying, “What punishments of God are not gifts?”
“Do you really believe that?” Cooper asked Colbert.
Relevant described the exchange:
“If you’re grateful for your life …not everybody is and I’m not always, but it’s the most positive thing to do, then you have to be grateful for all of it. You can’t pick and choose what you’re grateful for,” Colbert says.
Cooper relates by with some wisdom he received from his mother about how you can’t understand happiness without also having some sadness.
“That’s the great gift of the sacrifice of Christ, is that God does it too,” Colbert says. “That you’re really not alone.”
That’ll preach…. Watch that segment of the interview here:
You said “what punishment of gods are not gifts. Do you really believe that?” @andersoncooper, choking back tears, asks Stephen Colbert, as they discuss grief.
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) August 16, 2019
“Yes,” replies the comedian. “It’s a gift to exist and with existence comes suffering. There’s no escaping that.” pic.twitter.com/p5rUUhZKxq
Believe it or not, people with whom we disagree politically sometimes say amazing, God-inspired things. I am generally not a fan of Anderson Cooper or Stephen Colbert, but this is a wonderful interview which reminds me that we’re all struggling to make sense of this sometimes tragic world.
I still don’t like their politics, but I love the humanity. We need more of these types of conversations.
Image Credit: Screen shot of CNN interview