Peter Jennings on faith and the media

Peter Jennings on faith and the media

We must stop treating religion as if it were like building model airplanes, a hobby, not really fit for intelligent adults. I am always asked why I wanted religion to be a beat at ABC. The answer is not very complicated. Reporters like to report on what they find interesting, and while the subtleties of faith and the political power of religion have not been very high on many reporters' lists of "want-to-do" subjects, I was fascinated. From the time I first joined ABC and went off to the South to cover the civil rights movement, and thereafter in so many parts of the world, I have seen people motivated, and often driven, by faith. In almost every corner of the world I have seen, as any foreign correspondent who was paying attention would, how people's faith has sustained them in times of great worldly stress . . . I began to realize the most obvious fact—that people's faith and religious beliefs were connected in so many ways to everything that was going on around me.

I have only recently come to understand how complicated and inadequate, and occasionally horrifying, media coverage of religion has been . . . I would venture to say that in the overwhelming majority of newsrooms in America there is an appalling ignorance of religion and faith.

Incidentally, though I do think it proper for journalists to keep their distance, I discovered there was a new spark to my own faith. I had been raised in a fairly predictable Anglican communion, where the practice of religion was, I am sorry to say, often as much social behaviour as it was spiritual. But today I find there is both comfort and challenge in practicing my faith, and though I am a dismal failure on many fronts, in trying to live it . . . my own faith has helped me to develop eyes that see the spiritual dimension in many stories.

You can find a religious angle on every beat . . . politics . . . medical reporting . . . education . . . family and social issues . . . When it is done right, the added dimension of spirituality resonates with the audience to a surprising degree.

We must stop treating religion as if it were like building model airplanes, a hobby, not really fit for intelligent adults. The sooner we do, the sooner we will have greater grasp of our nation. And what journalist could ask for a bigger story?

Peter Jennings is anchor of ABC World News Tonight. These comments excerpted from a speech he gave to Harvard Divinity School.

Return to top