'It all fit together'

Q&A | Religion, politics, and journalism have been part of a “crazy quilt life” that has made Bill Moyers a liberal icon | Marvin Olasky

Robert Severi/PBS

WORLD is beginning a series of interviews with individuals who have had remarkable careers and are still active and passionate about their callings. Our first is excerpted from a January discussion with Bill Moyers, 74, who during the 1960s served as White House press secretary in the Johnson administration. He hosted the PBS news program Bill Moyers Journal during the 1970s and was a CBS editor and analyst from 1976 through 1986. Over the past two decades the courtly correspondent has produced and hosted several PBS series. He has received over 30 Emmys.

Moyers is known for his liberalism but also his marital traditionalism: Married at age 20, he and his wife Judith celebrated their 54th anniversary last December. They have three children and five grandchildren. Moyers is a graduate of the University of Texas and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. As the last question shows, he believes that an individual's Christianity is based on what he does, rather than what Jesus has done.