As stranded Carnival Cruise passengers began finally disembarking in Mobile, Alabama, late Thursday evening, MSNBC had NBC News correspondent Mark Potter on the scene to speak with them.
One young lady during her over three minute interview tried to cite a Bible verse that helped her get through the ordeal, but Potter pulled his microphone away and quickly ended the discussion (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MARK POTTER, MSNBC REPORTER: It sounded like you guys handled it pretty well. Were there some passengers who seemed to have a really rough time on board?
BRITTANY FERGUSON, RETURNING STRANDED CARNIVAL CRUISE PASSENGER: Oh, absolutely.
POTTER: Tell me about that.
FERGUSON: Well there, it was just really frustrating. There’s rumors going around because we’re completely disconnected. We had no idea if like, “Oh my gosh, do people even miss us? Do people even know about this?”
KENDALL JENKINS, RETURNING STRANDED CARNIVAL CRUISE PASSENGER: They'd be running “extended vacation.” I’d be saying, “Absolutely not.”
FERGUSON: Yeah, not an extended vacation.
POTTER: And would you do this again? Would you take another cruise, or is this it?
JENKINS: No. We're thinking about teaming up and sell ours. So if anyone is looking for a discounted cruise, we got one.
POTTER: You're not about to go back?
JENKINS: No, but one thing I do want to say that really made a huge difference in my time versus some other people’s time is we knew where hope was. We knew the Lord was in complete control of the situation. Our verse for the trip was Joshua 1:9 which is…
POTTER: [Takes microphone away] Okay, well thank you both very much. Enjoy your trip home to Houston and enjoy that first warm shower and that warm meal. Thank you very much. Thanks for talking with us.
JENKINS: [Before walking away] Joshua 1:9, look that up.
Here's the verse Potter refused to let Jenkins say on air:
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
I guess that's verboten on MSNBC.
*****Update: At virtually the same time this was happening on MSNBC, Fox News was handling disembarking religious passengers much differently:
UNKNOWN REPORTER: So that must have been pretty scary.
UNKNOWN RETURNING CARNIVAL CRUISE PASSENGER: The first few days, Sunday and Monday we were, really, it was just a bunch of fear in the, you could just feel fear. But we had a good prayer meeting. She quotes verses. She knows 290 verses. Juliana knows 290 verses. And we're in the middle of quoting, she busted out crying, and I said, “Juliana, let's just go ahead and keep quoting." So she read the next verse, and the next verse said, “Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you.” And after that we had a peace. The Lord gave us a peace that was like no other. And I'm thankful that he protected us. […]
REPORTER: While we're on the subject of the Bible verses that you were reciting, which one brought you the most comfort?
JULIANA, DAUGHTER OF UNKNOWN RETURNING CARNIVAL CRUISE PASSENGER: I think the one it was, “When I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” And that was another one too, so I just likes. Actually I'm very happy that I'm doing this because it has taught me a lot.
