Tragedy: When it strikes close to home

What do you do when a local tragedy affects those you know? How do you respond? Who do you interview? How do you write about it objectively? Unless you know them well, don't go straight to a victim's immediate family for an interview. Always start at the outskirts of a victim's acquaintances, and work your way inward toward the "inner circle."

Remember when you are dealing with a local tragedy, that the people you are interviewing are most likely grieving. Be respectful of their privacy, but let them know that you would like to let your readers know what kind of a person their loved one was. One way to share your faith is to let them know you will be praying for them. This could open up a conversation about God, or at the very least, it will be a comfort to the person.

I was the editor of a rural, weekly newspaper when a horrible tragedy shook our county. A 10-year-old girl  was killed by six Rottweilers while playing at a friend's house. This girl had come to the children's club my husband and I ran at our church, and was a friend of my two daughters. I remember that morning when I sat on the couch with my two girls and had to tell them their friend had died.

In addition to the front-page story about the incident, I did a side story of interviews with her school teacher and the leader of her group at our church's children's club.

And I knew my readership well enough to know that sharing my faith would be well-accepted at this point. In my column, I told about how, "with the simple faith of a child," she accepted the Lord as her Savior, and because of that, she went straight into the loving arms of Jesus. It was the hardest column I had ever written.

The responses I received were overwhelming. One burly school board member, whom I didn't even know was a Christian, came to me so choked up he could hardly speak, and said, "It made all the difference in the world knowing she was saved."

When tragedy strikes, people try to make sense of it in their own minds. They often turn to God, or at least begin to think about eternal things. This is the time when a Christian journalist can make a huge impact on the community by sharing his or her faith with love and compassion.

Columns: Your soapbox

We've already established that every journalist should strive for objectivity, to keep his or her own thoughts out of the story. But there is someplace where your opinion is not only allowed, but encouraged -- the column, if you are lucky enough to get one.

While you can use this medium to share your faith, I would advise you not to turn it into the "sermon of the week." Almost no one will read it. You need to create a following by writing a column that people will actually look for when they open the newspaper or log on.

Here's where the old adage "write what you know" comes in handy -- fashion, politics, humor, whatever. Then write interesting things about your topic each week, not necessarily spiritual things, just interesting things. People will begin to follow your column, and when the opportunity is right, you can bring up your faith.

In my case, I wrote a humor column. I worked for a rural weekly, and my editor told me I needed to write a column each week. I asked what it should be about, and she said, "Anything you want."

Since I had been raised in the Chicago area and then married a local dairy farmer, I started writing a humor column about the adventures of a city girl learning how to be a farmer's wife. In the rural community where I lived and worked, the column caught on.

After about six months, I started to insert my faith wherever I could -- a Father's Day column about my father passing his faith to me, a Christmas column about the real meaning of Christmas, etc. Soon everyone knew that I was a born again Christian. They seemed to be O.K. with it, probably because they felt like they knew me, and I wasn't a "stuffed shirt" Christian.

Then one day a horrible tragedy involving a local 10-year-old girl shook the entire county, and I was able to share my faith, and hers, in a huge way. I'll share the details in my next post.