The Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Message That Stopped the World
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 817 Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2025
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, before Neil Armstrong ever stepped on the Moon, the Apollo 8 crew made history. More than one billion people listened as Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders took turns reciting the story of creation from the Bible. It was the first time human beings had traveled that far from home—and the first time they had seen the whole planet suspended in darkness. Robert J. Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America, shares the story of one of the most powerful broadcasts in history.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | What I told people, I was making a podcast about Benghazi. |
| 0:08.5 | Nine times out of ten, they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why? |
| 0:15.1 | Benghazi, the truth became a web of lies. |
| 0:18.5 | From prologue projects and Pushkin Industries, this is Fiasco, Benghazi. |
| 0:23.6 | What difference at this point does it make? |
| 0:26.6 | Listen to Fiasco, Benghazi, in the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:33.6 | ...or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. |
| 0:52.6 | And we love to hear from you and your stories. Send them to |
| 0:56.0 | our American Stories.com. They're some of our favorites. If you want to know about the history of |
| 1:02.0 | America, it's imperative that you know the role that the Bible played in the shaping of our country. |
| 1:08.3 | Our founding fathers, both Christian and non-Christian, were heavily influenced |
| 1:12.6 | by the Bible. Here to share another story is Robert Morgan, who is the author of 100 Bible verses |
| 1:18.6 | that made America, the finding moments that shaped our enduring foundation of faith. |
| 1:24.6 | Take it away, Robert. I vividly remember Christmas Eve of 1968. |
| 1:36.0 | I was a high school student preparing for college in troubled times. |
| 1:40.3 | The Vietnam War was ripping America to pieces. |
| 1:43.3 | Campuses were battle zones, cities burned from race riots, and the land was violent. |
| 1:49.6 | I registered with the local draft board and worried about my future. |
| 1:54.8 | Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy had been slain. |
| 1:58.9 | Lending Johnson, abandoned hopes for re-election, the Democratic |
| 2:02.9 | National Convention in Chicago was engulfed in tear gas, and in November Richard Nixon |
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