Video: Giuliani Says 'I Pray to Jesus'
September 28, 2007
Here at The Brody File I am part reporter, part blogger and yes, part psychologist. To that end, I decided to morph into the role of Dr. Phil when I asked Rudy Giuliani to expand on his views about God and how He works in people's lives.
Watch the clip from my one on one interview above in Santa Barbara. The transcription is below:
David Brody: Let me play Dr. Phil for a moment. There are very true and honest people in iowa and other places, conservative Christians who want to know your views about God and how you feel about that. Can you open up a little and give me a Dr. Phil moment about how you view God and how He works -
Rudy Giuliani: In my life? I believe in God. I pray to God, and I pray to Jesus for guidance, help. I have very, very strong views on religion that come about from having wanted to be a priest when I was younger, having studied theology for four years in college. It's an area I know really, really well academically. I understand the history of religion and I think it's beautiful. I think man and woman's relationship to God is one of the strongest, if not the strongest motivating thing in human history.
And I grew up in an era, in which, and I honor this very much, where we respect differences, where we respect the fact that people relate to God and perceive God's message in different ways, different languages and different ways.
When I was mayor of New York City, I used to say that it comforted me greatly that we had so many churches and so many synagogues and we even had mosques. So some days, some weekends, I would start off on Fridays and go to a mosque - sometimes the Malcolm X Mosque in Harlem (with) Imam Pasha, who turns out to be one of the more conservative political figures I've ever met. And then I would go to a Jewish service on a Saturday. And then on a Sunday I might go to two different Christian services.
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And then I would end all that and say I know we're getting through to God because we're getting through in all the different ways and all the different ways in which God has revealed himself. And that kind of describes my sort of overview of religion and my personal view of religion. And my personal view of it is I need God's help for everything and I probably feel that the most when I'm in crisis and under pressure like Sept. 11, when I was dealing with prostate cancer, or I'm trying to explain death to people, which unfortunately I've had to do so often.
So it's a very, very important part of my life. But I think in a democracy and in a government like ours, my religion is my way of looking at God and other people have other ways of doing it, and some people don't believe in God. I think that's unfortunate. I think their life would be a lot fuller if they did, but they have that right.
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