Twenty-five years after nearly 3,000 lives were lost in a single morning, Rev. Franklin Graham stands at the intersection of grief and memory, asking whether the spiritual hunger that filled American churches in the days after September 11 was a passing reflex or a permanent truth. His call is not merely nostalgic — it is a question about what a nation reaches for when it is broken, and whether that reaching still has meaning. In marking the anniversary, Graham invites Americans to examine not only what was lost on that day, but what was briefly, and perhaps fleetingly, found.
Franklin Graham urges America to 'turn back' to God 25 years after 9/11
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks; survivors describe trauma, grief, and loss of loved ones.
Something happened under that rubble. I found Jesus that day.
Mark
What strikes you most about Graham's message here—is he saying Americans have lost their faith, or that they've lost something else?
Mimi
I think it's both. He's not saying people stopped believing. He's saying the *visibility* of faith changed. After 9/11, faith became public and communal in a way it hadn't been. Churches were packed. People prayed openly. He's asking whether that collective turn inward—that acknowledgment of need—has faded.
Luke
But we should be careful here. Graham is offering an interpretation of what 9/11 meant spiritually. Other people experienced the same attacks and drew different conclusions. The program features survivors who found faith, but we don't know how representative that is of the broader survivor population.
Mark
Fair point. So the program itself is curated—it's selecting stories that fit a particular narrative.
Mimi
Yes, but that doesn't make those stories less true or less powerful. Guzman-McMillan's account of being trapped for 27 hours and the person she calls Paul—that happened to her. Whether Paul was an angel or a rescuer or something else, her experience of being saved is real.
Luke
Absolutely. The individual stories are documented. What's harder to measure is whether Graham's larger claim—that America has drifted from the faith response of 2001—is actually supported by data. We'd need to know about church attendance trends, prayer practices, spiritual seeking over 25 years.
Mark
And we don't have that in this piece.
Luke
We don't. We have Graham's prayer and his memory of what he witnessed. Both are genuine. But they're not the same as evidence of a national spiritual decline.
Mimi
Though the Rapid Response Team is concrete—that's an institution that grew directly from what Graham saw at Ground Zero. Thousands of chaplains, international reach. That's measurable impact.
Mark
So the story has two parts: the spiritual interpretation of 9/11, which is Graham's personal conviction, and the institutional response, which is documented and verifiable.
Mimi
Exactly. One is theological, one is organizational. Both matter, and they're not the same thing.
Luke
And both deserve to be held separately in the reader's mind.
Der Puls
- A quarter-century after the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, the wound remains open enough that survivors still measure their lives in terms of before and after.
- Graham warns that the unity and spiritual urgency Americans felt in the immediate aftermath has eroded, and that the nation risks forgetting the lesson grief taught it.
- A new television special puts survivors — including the last person pulled alive from the World Trade Center rubble — at the center of the story, letting trauma and testimony speak where argument cannot.
- The Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, born from Graham's improvised effort to send pastors to grieving families in New York, now deploys thousands of crisis chaplains internationally, turning a moment of anguish into an enduring institution.
- The anniversary lands as a mirror held up to the country — reflecting not only what happened, but who Americans chose to be in response, and whether that choice is still available to them.
Twenty-five years after nearly 3,000 lives were lost in a single morning, Rev. Franklin Graham stands at the intersection of grief and memory, asking whether the spiritual hunger that filled American churches in the days after September 11 was a passing reflex or a permanent truth. His call is not merely nostalgic — it is a question about what a nation reaches for when it is broken, and whether that reaching still has meaning. In marking the anniversary, Graham invites Americans to examine not only what was lost on that day, but what was briefly, and perhaps fleetingly, found.
Franklin Graham was at Ground Zero in the days after September 11, 2001, and what he saw has never left him — not the scale of destruction, but the sight of a nation instinctively turning toward faith. Churches overflowed. Strangers prayed together in public squares. In the depths of collective trauma, Americans reached for something larger than themselves.
Now, as the country marks 25 years since the attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, Graham is hosting a 30-minute Fox News special called "A Day That Changed Our Lives Forever," built around survivors who describe not only what they endured but what they discovered in the enduring. Among them is Genelle Guzman-McMillan, the last person rescued alive from the World Trade Center rubble, who spent 27 hours buried beneath concrete and steel. In the darkness, she cried out to God. At her lowest moment, a hand reached for hers — a man who said his name was Paul, who held on and told her help was coming. When rescuers finally found her, she emerged believing she had not been alone. "I found Jesus that day," she said.
Also featured is Sujo John, who worked on the 81st floor of the North Tower while his pregnant wife worked in the South Tower. He escaped and spent hours convinced she was gone — until his phone rang and she was on the other end, having arrived late to work by only minutes. They ran toward each other through the chaos of the city.
Graham's response to 9/11 was not only personal. After seeing families wandering the streets with photographs of the missing, he began calling pastors to come and help. That effort grew into the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, now an international network of thousands of crisis-trained chaplains deployed to disasters and tragedies around the world.
His message on this anniversary is both a remembrance and a challenge — asking Americans whether the hunger for faith and community that surfaced in those terrible days was a permanent truth or a temporary reflex. "My prayer for our nation," he said, "is that we will turn back to the God of Heaven who has brought us to this day and sustained us every step of the way."
Franklin Graham stood at Ground Zero in the days after September 11, 2001, and what he witnessed there has stayed with him for a quarter-century. The devastation was almost incomprehensible—the scale of loss, the shock on people's faces, the sheer weight of grief pressing down on the city. But Graham also saw something else in those early days: a nation turning toward faith. Churches filled beyond capacity. Strangers gathered in public spaces to pray. In a moment of profound fracture, Americans reached for something larger than themselves.
Now, as the nation marks 25 years since the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, Graham is calling Americans to remember that impulse and to reclaim it. "My prayer is that America will recognize our need for God like we did after 9/11," he told Fox News Digital. He recalls his father, the late evangelist Billy Graham, speaking at Washington National Cathedral during the national day of prayer and remembrance. "We've always needed God from the very beginning of this nation," Billy Graham said then. "But today we need Him especially." Franklin Graham believes that message remains urgent. "Just as America needed the help of God then, we still need His help today."
That conviction animates a new 30-minute television program Graham is hosting called "A Day That Changed Our Lives Forever," which airs on Fox News Channel. The special features survivors of the attacks reflecting on the devastation they endured and the spiritual awakening many experienced in its aftermath. Among them is Genelle Guzman-McMillan, the last person pulled alive from the World Trade Center rubble. She spent 27 hours buried beneath tons of concrete and steel, unable to move, unsure if she would ever see daylight again. While trapped in the darkness, she thought of her late mother and cried out to God for forgiveness and another chance at life. At her lowest moment, when she felt she could endure no more, she asked God for a sign. Then, she says, someone grabbed her hand. A man who told her his name was Paul. He held her hand, reassured her that help was coming, and encouraged her to keep calling out to the rescuers above. When she finally heard a voice say, "I see her," she knew she would survive. Guzman-McMillan believes Paul was an angel. "I wasn't hallucinating, I wasn't dreaming," she said. "Something happened under that rubble. I found Jesus that day."
Another survivor featured in the program is Sujo John, a father-to-be who worked on the 81st floor of the North Tower while his pregnant wife worked on the 71st floor of the South Tower. After escaping the building, he spent hours believing his wife had perished. Then his cellphone rang. She was on the other end—she had been late for work by just minutes and had not been in the building when it collapsed. The two arranged to meet and ran toward each other through the chaos of the city. Both had survived.
Graham's own response to the attacks extended beyond witnessing and remembering. After traveling to New York and seeing people holding photographs of missing loved ones, desperately searching for information about those who had vanished, he began calling pastors and asking them to come help comfort grieving families. That grassroots effort eventually grew into something much larger: the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team, which the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says has evolved into an international network of thousands of crisis-trained chaplains who provide emotional and spiritual support to people facing trauma and loss in the wake of disasters and tragedies.
As Americans observe this milestone anniversary, Graham's message is both a remembrance and a call. He is asking the nation to look back at what it discovered about itself in those terrible days—the hunger for faith, the instinct toward community, the recognition of human fragility and the need for something transcendent. And he is asking Americans to ask themselves whether that recognition still holds true. "My prayer for our nation is that we will turn back to the God of Heaven who has brought us to this day and sustained us every step of the way."
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
My prayer is that America will recognize our need for God like we did after 9/11. Churches were full. People gathered to pray in public places.— Franklin Graham
I wasn't hallucinating, I wasn't dreaming. Something happened under that rubble. I found Jesus that day.— Genelle Guzman-McMillan, last survivor pulled from World Trade Center rubble
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