Lauren Green

Lauren Susan Green (born June 30, 1958) is the Chief Religion Correspondent for the Fox News Channel.^[2][3] Previous to holding this position she was a headline anchor giving updates weekdays at the top and bottom of the hour during morning television show Fox & Friends. She has also appeared as a guest panelist on Fox's late-night satire show Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld.

Early life and education

Green was born to Robert and Bessie Grissam Green in Minneapolis. She has two sisters named Barbara and Lois and two brothers named Leslie and Kenneth.^[1] She won the Miss Minnesota pageant in 1984, and was third runner-up in the Miss America 1985 pageant.

Green earned her Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the University of Minnesota, then attended graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.^[3][4]

Interview with Reza Aslan

After a 2013 interview with Muslim-American scholar Reza Aslan, Green received heavy criticism for her line of questions. Aslan was promoting his new scholarly book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, on television. Green's questioning focused heavily on the idea of a Muslim writing on the historical figure of Jesus Christ and implied that Aslan had an inherent bias as a Muslim. Aslan defended his credentials, including a doctorate in the subject matter, and argued that his interest was scholarly.

Near the end of the interview, Green accused Aslan of hiding an inherent bias by not disclosing his faith background while discussing Christianity in his new book as well as in other interviews. Aslan immediately countered that the second page of his book mentioned he was Muslim, and cited the countless television and print interviews he has done.^[5][6][7] During the interview, Green, in an attempt to explain why she thought Aslan, a Muslim, shouldn't have been writing a book about Christianity, said, "Why would a Democrat want to promote democracy by writing about a Republican?"^[8]

The interview was widely criticized and has been described as "the single most cringe-worthy, embarrassing interview on Fox News" on Slate.^[7] However, conservative commentator Brent Bozell defended the interview saying "I’ll be the first one to stand up and applaud Lauren Green for the question she asked. It was the exact, correct question that needed to be asked." He went on to say Aslan should have admitted to being biased and that denying it was "arrogant", apparently based on the mistaken claim that "the Muslim faith believes that Jesus Christ did not have a divine nature". ^[9][10] Further defense of Green came from pundits who attacked Aslan's claim of a degree in the history of religions, as he teaches creative writing and holds a PhD in Sociology. However, Aslan's academic adviser at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Mark Juergensmeyer (himself a scholar of religious studies), defended his academic credentials, calling him a "historian of religion" within the field of comparative religions.^[11]

As a result of the interview, Aslan's book sales skyrocketed, beating J.K. Rowling's book for the top spot on Amazon the next day.^[12]

Music

In 2004, Green released an album called Classic Beauty consisting of classical piano music.^[13]

Green also plays keyboards for the Mike Huckabee's band "The Little Rockers" on the Fox News Channel program Huckabee.

In January 2014 Green preformed in the 90th birthday concert for Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who was also in attendance. She described this in an opinion piece written for Fox News as "the honor of a lifetime." ^[14]

Notes