News

By Hilary White

August 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) -Larry King, in a show aired last night on CNN, interviewed the Christian music recording star Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth who told the story of the death of Maria Sue Chapman, their youngest daughter.

King was visibly moved by the story of the family coping, by means of their religious faith and close-knit family, with the loss of their youngest who was killed on May 21. Maria, who was adopted from China, was accidentally struck by an SUV that was driven by her teenage brother. King later said that although he himself has not been able to make the “leap into blind faith”, he was amazed by the strength of the tightly knit Christian family and wished he could have such belief.

Steven Chapman is well known in US Christian circles as one of the most prolific and popular Christian musicians, having released more than 20 albums to date. He and his wife are also advocates for adoption and together they have adopted three children from China. They have founded a charity called Shaohannah’s Hope, which offers grants to qualifying families to help defray the cost of adopting, at home and abroad.

King said of the interview, “The subject of the hour was faith, and faith renewed and faith restored, and I’m always amazed at that. I’ve never been able to make that leap into blind faith, which they have and trust. They believe that their daughter is in heaven watching down. I wish I had that belief.”

“But it was incredible to spend time with all of them,” he continued. “And the strength of all of them. And even though that strength may be looked…at by some as leaning on a fence that is God or religion I looked at it as stronger than that. They were an incredible group; I’ll never forget it.”

The statement is extraordinary given the well-known left-liberal bias of CNN. Former Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and MRC founder Brent Bozell, among others, have referred to CNN as the “Clinton News Network.” Delay has also called it the “Communist News Network.”

The Chapmans recounted an extraordinary story, telling how Maria had, the morning of the accident, drawn a picture of a flower with six petals, only one of which was coloured in. The parents said that after the accident they had wished for a last sign, to “just see” that their daughter was in safe in heaven.

Her father told Larry King that next to the drawing of the flower she “had written a word that she’d never written before.” The word was “See.”

The family told Larry King they believe this last message was meant for them, to assure them that one of their six children – the six petals on their daughter’s flower – was in heaven. “We have six children, only one of them is whole now, as we believe, in the arms of Jesus.”