Before his father died, ESPN host Stephen A. Smith couldn’t reconcile their complicated relationship. But the “First Take” commentator said reconciliation occurred the day of his father’s funeral—thanks to biblical advice from his pastor.
Smith, 56, sat down with longtime friend Sean Hannity for a two-part interview on the Fox Nation special “Sean.” During their discussion, Smith recapped his childhood struggle with dyslexia, which led his father to describe him as broken and unfixable.
“I know what hell looks like, from a mental and emotional standpoint,” Smith said of his childhood. If it weren’t for “the grace of God” and his mother and siblings, he added, “I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Smith, one of America’s top—and top-paid—sports broadcasters, described how he overcame his learning disability and became mission-minded. Overhearing his father’s disparaging remarks about his intellect served as powerful motivation to succeed, he recalled.
Pastor Advised Steven A. Smith About Father’s Eulogy
On the morning of his father’s funeral in 2018, Steven A. Smith decided he’d give an unplanned eulogy. His family members and friends opposed that, he said, because of the pair’s troubled relationship.
En route to the service, Smith called his pastor, A.R. Bernard, founder of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York. “I’ve gotta let it out,” Smith told Bernard. “I can’t let [the funeral] be about [my father] when it should be about my mother,” who had died 14 months earlier.
That’s when Pastor Bernard shared a passage from the book of Matthew. “It was about making sure that you understand that the power of forgiveness is the ultimate power,” Smith told Hannity. Bernard advised Smith not to address his grievances in the eulogy or to hold on to animosity afterward.
In his remarks at the funeral, Smith said his father “was not the greatest man in the world,” but “there had to be something special about him” for Smith’s mother—the “greatest woman that I’ve ever known”—to have loved him the way she did. Smith then proceeded to focus on his father’s positive qualities.
At the end of his remarks, Smith told funeral attendees, “I know there is a lot to complain about. But he was my dad. And I loved him.”
To Hannity, Smith said, “I thank my pastor every day for talking to me that morning,” because that eulogy would have been very different otherwise.
Stephen A. Smith: I’m Pro-Choice, But ‘I Do Not Support Abortion’
During their conversation, Hannity and Smith discussed topics including wellness, politics, cancel culture, race, and immigration. Describing himself as a “centrist,” Smith said he’s pro-choice, because he’s a man and has “no right to tell women what to do with their bodies.” But he added, “I do not support abortion—at all.”
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