conversion. i've written about it in a few places. my web site, let me say eric metaxas.com, but my story is right there, and there's a video. but i know immediately somebody recommended to me the book of chuck coulson, and i had this dim memory from watergate being a kid, and i started reading "loving god," the most extraordinary example of all his books, i thought. and i thought, who is this guy? ivy league graduate, office next door to the president of the united states, has a profound faith conversion. clearly not phony, clearly the real deal, clearly intellectually honest, extremely bright. so i read his book, i finally had the opportunity -- i graduatedded yale in '84 -- graduated yale in '84, and he was speaking at the yale law school. so i drove back to new haven to hear him speak. i handed him a children's book with a letter just telling him what i thought of him. within days i got a letter back from him, i couldn't believe it.

my hero, this guy, wrote me a letter. and he said something about keeping in touch. and i thought, oh, sure. and about a year later they were looking for writers and editors for break point, you can still go to it, breakpoint.org, it's sort of a commentary of world issues, cultural issues from a biblical world view. and i ended up writing and working for break point, and today all these years later i am one of the voices of break point. when chuck passed away, they asked me at prison fellowship would i take over. so i've been doing that for about a year and a half now. >> host: what's the short version of your conversion? >> guest: of what? >> host: of your conversion. >> guest: well, the short version is that i was raised with some faith. i was raised as a greek orthodox christian, altar boy, church every sunday. believed in god but didn't really know the details. didn't know why i believed it, didn't know is this something that intellectually is sound? i wasn't convinced that it was. i thought it was just some sort of, you know, if you're greek,

you go to the greek church, and you don't ask too many questions. be a good boy, get good grades, you'll go to a good school and make a good living. well, at yale my faith, such as it was, was strongly challenged. the academia and yale in particular is extremely aggressively secular. so by the time i graduated, i was utterly lost. i had no idea what i believed because i never had really drilled down to know do i believe what i claim to believe, and, you know, when push comes to shove, i thought i guess i don't. i don't know what i believe, let me be open minded, and, of course, that's an excuse for saying i just don't think there are answers that any rational person can have. so i held the whole thing lightly. wanted to be a writer. of course, that's really tough. so i floundered, i drifted, i floated, it was not a good time in my life. ended up moving back in with my parents, which i don't recommend. during a really lost time i took a menial job in danbury, connecticut.

very up pleasant. and -- unpleasant. and i met a guy who was a pretty serious christian, very generous soul, very kind soul who began having conversations with me. and i kept thinking don't get too close, i don't want to become one of those born-again christians, but i kept asking questions. and one night literally like a year later, i had a dream. i relate that on my web site where god revealed himself to me, and i did not ask for it, it just happened. it was life changing. what can i tell you? i mean, either i'm lying or i'm crazy or it happened, but i think it happened. and it's given me a deep peace which i actually did not think was possible to have. so, again, that's -- forgive me for making that longer than it ought to be, but it's hard to tell that story. >> host: we're here at the conservative political action conference talking with, talking with you. are the seven men you profile

here, are they conservatives? would you consider them politically conservative? >> guest: would i consider them conservative? not really. i think that, you know, what one calls conservative today is different from what one would have called conservative 50 or 100 or 200 years ago. i think, you know, i'm less interested in conservativism than i am in truth, and if conservativism is speaking truth, i'm interested in conservativism. on the issue of life, when i spoke at the national prayer breakfast two years ago, i talked a little bit about my values, the value of unborn life, the value of loving our political enemies, of being gracious to those with whom we disagree. i fail at that, but i believe that that's what i ought to try to do. those things are important. and so these men in "seven men" evince those qualities, kind of a nobility and intellectual honesty. wilbur force was in some ways conservative, and in some ways

he was not. he put his faith and truth before party. not always an easy thing to do. but he felt it was the right thing to do. he stood against william pitt's government a couple times, spoke out against his friend, william pitt. i would say that if you look at the life of jackie robinson, jackie robinson was a profound christian. very few people know that, very few people know that his ability to -- well, his strength in breaking the racial barrier came from his faith, from prayers on his knees that god would give him the strength to do something which he could not humanly do. his recruiter was a very serious christian and did what he did in large part because of his faith. now, you know, jackie robinson was not a william f. buckley conservative, but he certainly was a republican, there's no doubt about that. who cares? to me, his faith was just beautiful. so --

>> host: well, you talked about speaking at the national prayer breakfast. you have a mini book here, "no pressure, mr. president." what is that? >> guest: yeah. well, two years ago i had the high honor of being chosen to speak in front of the president, the first lady, the vice president, the assembled members of congress, every big shot you can think of at the national prayer breakfast. and it was the honor of my life. and i didn't take it lightly. i knew as soon as i was invited that this is absolutely not about me, that god has something he wants to share with everyone there, with people who agree with me politically, people who disagree with me politically. i was not to use the occasion to try to embarrass the president, but to reach out to him in love with some thoughts and ideas, and that's what i attempted to do. i think i was successful only by god's grace, because that's not easy to do. but it's online, again, my web site.

i put it up because it was a crazy morning. and that book, my speech is in there, but the background story -- which i won't tell now -- but it is a crazy story of talking to joe biden and nancy pelosi, of having conversations with all kinds of people and the encounter with the president. something very funny happened, i won't go into that, but it was hilarious, crazy with the president. and finally, i led the president and a number of others in singing "amazing grace" a cappella at the end of the it. i was inspired by garrison keillor. i just said i've got to write this up. it's a long essay. it's pretty funny, actually. i mean, a lot of what happened was just hilarious and unplanned. >> host: your whole life you're not necessarily just an author, you've got some other -- >> guest: yeah. actually now i'm a tv host. i'm hosting a show that airs every sunday morning. it's called "100 huntley," across the country, most markets on sunday mornings, half hour show. it's just a tv morning show.

it deals mainly with faith issues. not exclusively. i mean, it's just a morning show for sunday mornings, but as i said, it's called "$100 -- 100 huntley." we're making a movie of my bonn how deny bonhoeffer look right now. what -- book right now. what a great life. it needs to be celebrated, it needs to be known. people are so inspired by his story, and that's the success of my book. it's not my writing, it's -- he lived this life, and it's touching people. and so if we could make a movie out of it, we're in the process of doing that, and it's happening actually. should be out next year. pretty exciting. >> host: and parents of young children may know you from a different genre. what is the? >> guest: yeah. strangely enough, i've had the joy of working for veggy tales as a writer. i wrote half of the hamlet omelet parody, and i'm the voice

on the radio. it's true. also i've written a lot of children's books, 30 over the years. another genre i was expecting to skip in this lifetime, but god had other plans. i mean, i love writing for children. it's one of the most fun things you can do. some of my heroes have been children's books writers, c.s. lewis wrote children's books. and i really do enjoy it. and my children's books are usually mentales for adults. there's -- i hope there's a sophistication and a wit that some of the best children's writing has. mine certainly aspires to have that. so i've go done a lot of children's book writing, and i run something in manhattan called socrates in the city. i've interviewed malcolm glad welshing chuck coulson, a lot of people that you might have heard from and not heard of. that's a lot of fun. i really enjoy doing that. anyone can come or anyone can see it online. >> host: and we've been talking with eric metaxas.

his most recent book, "seven men and the secret of their greatness." you're watching booktv on c-span2. >> is there a nonfiction author or book you'd like to see on booktv? send us an e-mail to booktv@c-span.org, tweet us @booktv or post on our wall, facebook.com/booktv. >> as 2014 comes to a close, we look ahead to book fairs and festivals around the country that are scheduled for the new year. ..