Introduction
Lauren Susan Green (born June 30, 1958) is the Chief Religion Correspondent for the Fox News Channel. Previously she was a headline anchor giving weekday updates 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
Green was born to Robert and Bessie Grissam Green in Minneapolis. She has two sisters, Barbara and Lois, and two brothers, Leslie and Kenneth. In an interview with Bill O'Reilly she admitted that when she was in the sixth grade, Prince had a crush on her, called her to say "I like you", and she hung up on him. 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.
Green is a practicing Christian and member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Interview with Reza Aslan
In 2011, Green asked whether Islam "makes believers more susceptible to radicalization." After a 2013 interview with Iranian-American scholar Reza Aslan (who was then promoting his new book, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth), she received considerable criticism for her questions. Green questioned why a Muslim would write about Jesus, saying, "You're a Muslim, so why did you write a book about the founder of Christianity?" Aslan defended his credentials (which included a doctorate in the subject matter) several times throughout, and stated that his interest was scholarly.
Erik Wemple of The Washington Post disparaged Green's questions as "dumb, loaded, and prejudicial," calling for the Fox News Channel to apologize to Aslan. Daniel Politi of Slate speculated that the interview was possibly "the single most cringe-worthy, embarrassing interview on Fox News [...] in recent memory." Matthew J. Franck criticized Aslan for his claim of a degree in the history of religions, as he teaches creative writing and holds a PhD in Sociology of Religion rather than a degree in history. In the interview, Aslan stated that "anyone who thinks this book is an attack on Christianity has not read it yet."
Music
In 2004, Green released an album called Classic Beauty consisting of classical piano music.
Green also plays keyboards for Mike Huckabee's band The Little Rockers on the Fox News Channel program Huckabee.
In January 2014 Green performed in the 90th birthday concert for 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."