Day after day of Terry Anderson's six and a half years of captivity at the hands of Islamic radicals in Lebanon, he talked about spiritual issues with fellow captives Anglican envoy Terry Waite and Presbyterian pastor Ben Weir.
One day Weir posed a question to the former Associated Press Bureau Chief. "I don't understand how you can be both a Christian and a journalist," he said.
"It's sometimes difficult but not impossible," Anderson told the men and women who gathered the first official meeting of Gegrapha, the international fellowship of Christian journalists. "You cannot be a Christian and a bad journalist," he added.
In his talk entitled "Forgive us our Trespasses." Anderson acknowledged that even small truths can sometimes do large damage. Decrying the hit and run tactics used by some reporters, Anderson said journalists should be willing to take responsibility for their work.
At gatherings like this, among more than 150 journalists from over 30 countries, and at many other meetings since his 1991 release, Anderson has been astounded to be told time and time again how people were praying for him while he was a hostage.
Bringing together such a large group for the first time under the banner of a ground-breaking organization to link Christian journalists was the work of former TIME magazine diplomatic correspondent David Aikman and his assistants.
It took place on the compact campus of University College in Chichester England, August 19-21. It appeared to come off well, adhering to the track record of several past national U.S. conferences coordinated by Aikman and crew.
"The purpose of this conference is not (for) an agenda," Aikman told the journalists. "Our only function is to encourage, to let God do in our midst what he wants to do in our profession. I think he wants to turn it upside down, not as a propaganda agency but as a collection of people whose light shines out in what they write, in what they say, and above all in who they are."
With sessions such as: "How to be a journalist when everyone knows you're a Christian," and "How to be Christlike when everyone knows you're a journalist" on the conference agenda, Anderson said simply, "I'm a witness, I'm not an evangelist." Anderson is now a visiting professor at Ohio University's Scripps School of Journalism.
Craig Bartholomew, a research fellow at Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education, said it's possible to be a Christian journalist without practicing Christian journalism. "Journalism lives at the vortex of the zeitgeist, the spirits of our age," he said. "And if it's not careful it takes on those spirits and articulates them uncritically."
He said journalists need to develop an integrated Christian worldview, and write while imagining "Gabriel looking over your shoulder." The perspectives we bring to the world influences our view of truth, he said.
Bartholomew said journalism is one route to Christian service. It's heresy to think that the pastorate is the only route to such service. "We are all God's fulltime Christian servants," he said.
Some Christian journalists talked about how their faith lead them to tackle some of the spirits of the age. Jennifer Arul, South India Bureau Chief for New Delhi Television, seizes a chance to report on women who are killed or battered for failing to bring large dowries to their new family. The media coverage then leads to a public outcry which forces the authorities to act when they would rather not.
Often the Fourth Estate, the watchdog of democracy, can hardly bark much less bite. "You have the power, are you using it?" she asked. "I will tell the truth, without fail. (But) I don't think God wants us to preach."
Arul echoed the assertion that journalism is a vocation akin to traditional fulltime Christian service, as did others. "I'm convinced journalism is a calling," said USA TODAY foreign correspondent Jack Kelly. "I take as my role models Matthew, Mark, Luke and John."
Kelly, late of Kosovo and anticipating an assignment to earthquake ravaged Turkey, brought along the bullet proof vest that's necessary in many of the venues he covers. He shared several examples of sacrificial love that had convicted him as a Christian from battlefield assignments in Kuwait and Somalia (see QV 5.2, 1998 for further details), along with several close calls. "I'm convinced there's Somebody who's watching over me," he said.
"We as Christians should always go the extra mile," he added, to work as hard as, if not harder than, secular colleagues and competitors. "Stand up for Him and give your life away," said Kelly, standing behind a table filled with some of the military souvenirs retrieved from the battlefields of Kuwait, Kosovo and Somalia.
Oliver was a journalist who came to Chichester from war ravaged southern Sudan. He had gone to Sudan from Kenya to fill the void of journalism there. "Journalism without faith is worthless," he said. "Journalists can play a role, or even stop the war."
Not everyone who attended the Chichester conference was a war correspondent, but for some the stakes were almost as high. Some working in the top levels of network broadcasting in the U.S. and government controlled media in other countries, could not officially let it be known that they were attending such a conference.
One, Linda Rios Brook, had already paid a price for her allegiance to God over a secular employer. Brook, the former President and General Manager of KARE-TV in Minneapolis Minnesota, found herself at the center of a small media storm when word got out that she was conducting Christian Bible studies.
Ordered by station owners to stop teaching the Bible classes, she instead resigned. "I fear God more than Gannett," she explained. Relating the experience to the Gegrapha conference she cautioned, "you'd better be careful about who you have pray for you."
Perhaps the most challenging and confrontational of the speakers at the gathering, Brook said, "There have never been times like these. You came (here) because you know something is wrong in this world. You want to understand the times and know what we should do, like the men of Issachar."
"In one generation we have abandoned our moral culture," she continued. "I'm ashamed and scared to death about it (because) the media and the church were complicit."
Noting that some people felt she should have stood up for her rights and resisted resignation, Brook said, "it's not about anti-Christian bias, or freedom of speech or life's unfairness. There are always choices, often between something bad and something worse."
To those who have called her a fool for what she did, Brook said she's willing to accept that and be a fool for God. "Whose fool are you?" she concluded.
While being a Christian can sometimes cost a journalist a job, it has given others an alternative vocation. Arne Fjeldstad, managing editor for the Norwegian daily Aftenposten, is also a priest in the Norwegian Lutheran church. His faith is on display on a daily basis in the newsroom. "Before they read the Bible they're reading our lives to see what Christendom is," he said.
Dominic Steele used to be a radio reporter chasing ambulances into the long hours of the night. When a fellow journalist noticed a fish symbol on the bumper of a used car he'd just bought and invited him to church, he put it off for three weeks.
Finally he arrived at church 15 minutes late on Sunday morning and found his colleague at the door, waiting for him. Afterwards, he invited him home to a beautiful Sunday dinner.
Later he reasoned, "If he waited for me 15 minutes that Sunday, he must have waited at least 15 minutes the previous two Sundays. And had those meals waiting as well." Steele now leads a church specifically for journalists in Sydney, Australia. His goal is "to see journalists come to know Jesus better."
There was no shortage of inspirational examples at the Chichester conference but the highlight for most of the journalists who attended was unquestionably the rare opportunity to renew or develop friendships with colleagues who share their convictions and their profession.
It was encouraging to learn, for instance, that journalists are getting together elsewhere. The monthly newsletter of Nigerian Journalists for Christ, AGENDA, was distributed to those who attended.
Gegrapha is not a membership organization. Through its website and periodic meetings, it aspires to serve Christians in journalism through fellowship, mentoring and networking. "We're going to try and have contact points all over the world for people who are willing to be contacted and are willing to provide encouragement for others in the profession," Aikman said.
After the closing communion service, and after the doors to the chapel were locked by the custodians, many lingered in the dark in the Chichester quadrangle, reluctant to say good-by.