Mark Burnett says his Life has Been Changed by the Bible (Gospel Light Minute #88)

He is a well-known television producer who currently produces five network television programs: Survivor, Celebrity Apprentice, The Voice, Shark Tank, and The Job. He has worked with Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil, Martha Stewart, and Samuel L. Jackson, among many others. His work in the television industry has earned him four Emmy Awards and four People Choice Awards. Currently, he and his wife are producing "The Bible", a 10 hour History Channel drama based upon stories of the Bible.

As a child, he grew up in a strict Scottish Presbyterian/Catholic home where he always saw a Bible and from a young age, he was aware that the Bible contained certain rules to which strict consequences were applied. As he grew older, he became a Christian and his love and passion for the Bible increased. He said in an interview, "People apply personal meanings to the Bible. Our job is to tell the stories in an emotionally connected way." He further says, his previous view of the Bible as just a rule book, "distorted God's love for all of us, because there's only one perfect character, which is Jesus. Everybody else is flawed to a lesser or a greater degree, especially in the time of kings in the Old Testament. Still, God didn't give up, even when people were making the worst mistakes. And I think that relief has made me feel it's a story of love and less about harsh rules."

He says of "The Bible" project that he is working on: "Even though we came into this as people who love the Bible and people who love the Word and who love the Gospel, we have experienced a deepening of our own faith in the three and a half years that we have been working on [The Bible] together. I don't think you can work on the scripture day after day, after day as deeply and for as many hours as we have been, and not be impacted by it." His name is Mark Burnett.