Did media remove reference to Christ in interview with Navy SEAL widow?

Viral rumours spreading across social media claim that various media outlets cut out a reference to God when replaying an interview between a The Today Show host and the widow of Navy Seal Aaron Vaughn. The rumours claim this was to “not offend other religions”.

On August 6th 2011, NAVY Seal Aaron Vaughn was killed in Afghanistan when his Chinook helicopter was shot down. A few days later, his parents and wife were interviewed by “The Today Show” host Matt Lauer.

Since that interview, various claims have appeared online that accuse the media of editing out one of the responses given by Aaron’s wife – Kimberley Vaughn – after she was asked what she would want their children to know about him as they grew older and she replied “his love for Christ”.

Shortly after the interview, chain emails began to spread claiming that both NBC, MSNBC, MSN and The Today Show excluded the reference to God when showing the interview on their respective websites.

6 years later, in 2017, the rumour surfaced again, only this time the rumour identified the wrong Navy SEAL, claiming him to be “one of the Navy Seals killed along with the US ambassador in Libya”. However Aaron Vaughn was killed a year before the Benghazi attacks where Libya US Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed which happened in 2012. That rumour reads as following –

On the “Today Show”, Matt Lauer interviewed one of the wives of one of the Navy Seals killed along with the US ambassador in Libya. He asked what she would say to her children about their dad and how she would want them to remember him. Her answer, and I quote, “His love for Christ”, and then continued on with a few other things. Throughout the day and on MSN homepage, replaying the story, they have edited the “Love of Christ” part out. Why? Because using the word Christ might offend someone! Well, I am a Christian and I am offended! I’m offended that they would edit it out. Offended that we as Christians are asked to tread lightly so as not to offend someone of another religion. This man loved his country and loved his God and gave his life for both, just as Christ gave His life for him.
This Founding Principle is actually embedded in our Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
I hope every Christian who is offended will copy this and paste it to their status…..

Not only did this latter rumour identify the wrong Navy SEAL, but the warning is also completely unfounded. The interview with Kimberley Vaughn is still available on the websites of many news outlets (see here.) and in none of them has the reference to God made by Kimberley been omitted or edited.

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Of course it is possible that other stations or affiliates may have aired snippets of the interview which would have inevitably been edited for the sake of length, and these snippets may have left out that particular response. But the full interview (which has always been available on a number of websites) does contain the supposedly edited-out response. In fact the interview contains a number of references to God and Christianity.

Of course, as with any typical piece of religious propaganda, this rumour of course includes the now inevitable caveat that all of this is to “not offend other religions” despite – even if the rumours were true (which they’re not) – being entirely baseless and without supporting evidence.

We often encounter online propaganda that purports something is happening (or not happening) because it “may offend other religions” – though these rumours are more often that now without substance.

And that appears to be the case here.