Billy Crystal's admission that he has stopped talking to God has prompted a public response from Franklin Graham, who urged the grieving actor to place his trust in Jesus Christ.
The exchange follows devastating losses for Crystal, including the destruction of his longtime family home and the deaths of close friends Rob and Michele Reiner.
During an interview with Tracy Smith on CBS Sunday Morning, Crystal was asked whether he still spoke to God as he had portrayed doing in his Broadway production 700 Sundays.
"No, 'cause I don't trust him," Crystal replied.
When Smith asked whether he was serious, Crystal explained that repeated tragedy and the frightening state of the world had changed his outlook.
Crystal and his wife, Janice, lost their Pacific Palisades home of 46 years in the January 2025 wildfires. His comments placed the spiritual consequences of those losses alongside the practical devastation of losing a home filled with family memories.
Graham responded by acknowledging that loss and disappointment touch everyone, before affirming his own confidence in God.
"But I trust God," he wrote.
The evangelist, who leads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan's Purse, pointed to Jesus' death and resurrection as the basis for that trust. He urged Crystal and others reading his message to put their faith in Christ, writing: "God is real, He is trustworthy and true. He loves us."
Their statements reveal different responses to suffering. Crystal described the erosion of trust after repeated loss; Graham grounded his appeal in the Christian promise of salvation and eternal life.
That distinction gives the story its pastoral weight. Crystal's remarks express the difficulty of prayer when grief has damaged a person's confidence in God. Graham's response offers the gospel as a reason to trust amid that pain.
The reported exchange consists of Crystal's television comments and Graham's subsequent public appeal. It does not establish that the two have spoken privately or that Crystal has responded to Graham.
