Lessons in Evangelizing from CNN

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There are two things in life, in addition to my family, I’m devoted to – the Church and journalism. They have one key quality in common – both search for truth. Journalism pursues temporal truth to benefit society. The Church seeks Eternal Truth to benefit our souls. These two institutions are composed of and run by humans, so they never have been nor ever will be perfect.

I have both feet solidly in both camps. That’s not always comfortable. There’s a lot of mistrust between the two, and no real willingness to understand each other. But, like it or not, their similar goals often leave them with more in common than they’d like to admit. That’s why it’s easy to recall three former CNN journalists who would probably never consider themselves evangelists but nonetheless reflect how our faith commands us to live.

Marcia Ladendorff, an original CNN news anchor,
is now teaching media and communication courses
at the University of North Florida.

It was a Saturday afternoon in 1986. For no particular reason, I was in a foul mood. I didn’t want to go to WTLV-TV staff cook-out. My then-wife was a news photographer for the station (I worked at a competing station), so I had no choice. Even though I had never met her, I focused my inner vinegar on the station’s new anchor. Marcia Ladendorff, an original CNN anchor, had been hired to be the face of Channel 12’s news operation. The last thing I wanted to do that Saturday afternoon was put up with the outsized ego of a big-time network anchor diva.

Within minutes of making her grand entrance – actually, she quietly slid in sideways through a sliding glass door – it became obvious that Marcia was the kindest, most down-to-earth person at the party. I would have felt pretty foolish if it wasn’t for her warm, inviting personality. I was a nasty, judgmental curmudgeon, she was open and inclusive. Quick – Which one of us was acting the way Jesus commanded?

Marcia has since become a dear, close friend and trusted colleague. One day a few years ago, I popped into her office to ask about one of her former CNN colleagues. Nick Charles, the network’s first sports anchor, had just died after a grueling, battle with bladder cancer. I used to watch Charles every night on CNN’s Sports Tonight, which aired immediately after Marcia’s evening newscast, also a nightly viewing habit. His story touched me deeply, and I wanted to know what he was really like.

Nick Charles, the first sports anchor hired at CNN,
also covered boxing extensively.

Marcia said Charles was always a kind, genuine man who exuded goodness. He was so engaging and so good at his job, Marcia recalled, that she often sat in the studio during Sports Tonight just to watch him work. She confirmed the man I saw on the television screen – the man embracing life as he was dying of cancer – was not a deathbed convert. Charles was a Christian who had simply lived his faith without calling attention to it.  

“What is life?” he asked rhetorically in the CNN special that chronicled his final, inspiring battle. “It’s 20 percent what happens to you, and 80 percent how you react to it.”

The soundbite was unexpected. To someone with a reactive personality, it hit a nerve. It was from a sports journalist who could have easily been embittered at having his life cut short, his wife left without a husband, and his five-year-old daughter left without a father. Charles faced death the same way he lived his life, as an example faith.  

One of Charles’ Sports Tonight successors is the latest ex-CNNer to remind me of God’s gifts. Craig Sager is a sideline reporter for NBA games on TNT and TBS. He’s best known for his outlandishly colorful suits and ties. He just returned to work after battling leukemia for nearly a year. At a time when my plate is so full I have a tough time even scheduling time with Helen, Sager’s new perspective on life and leisure was a wake-up call.

Craig Sager is back on the NBA sidelines after battling leukemia
for nearly a year.

“What I do appreciate more is the time I spend with my family,” he told an interviewer. “Now I don’t pay as much attention to how far it is to the green as much as the smell of the grass and the sound of the birds around me.”

How many of us are always too busy to appreciate the people and the world around us? Heck, I haven’t even sniffed a golf course since Thanksgiving weekend… 2013!

These three CNN alumni would probably never consider themselves “evangelists.” Yet, they reflect the type of lives we are asked – commanded – to live. It’s not necessary to be overtly “religious” to recognize, respect, and take joy in God’s gifts, especially the gift of each other. In Evangelii Gaudium (Joy of the Gospel), Pope Francis writes, “Every person is immensely holy and deserves our love (274). Jesus wants evangelizers who proclaim the good news not only with words, but above all by a life transfigured by God’s presence” (259).

We are all at different points on our own journeys. We all show others who and what we are by the way we live our lives. And we can find examples of our responsibility to “don’t judge, just love” in the lives of most people if we just pay attention. Yes, even people in the news business.

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