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.

Interview: Robert Gutsche, Jr.

Dr. Robert Gutsche, Jr. is a Journalism professor in Miami. He was raised in a Christian home and has been a reporter for various newspapers since 1996. He earned his Ph.D. in Mass Communications from University of Iowa and has written the book "Race, place and the press: Creating Iowa's rural ghetto."

Although he keeps his Christianity "close to the vest" for political reasons, he said he brings his personal values to each story he writes.

"If you have a certain belief or faith, you can't set it aside; it's part of all you do," he said. "It's not about choosing a story or not; it's about how you cover it."

However, the way his faith comes into play in covering the story depends on the story.

"When I see something that's blatantly wrong," he said, "I'm going to overturn some money-changing tables."

In that sense, when he sees someone or some group in authority -- public officials, business owners, educators -- doing wrong, fairness and equity tend to go out the window. He said he has a keen sense of righteous anger that drives him to seek the truth.

On the other hand, when the subject of a story is someone in crisis mode, he tends to be caring and compassionate.

"Compassion has become a very ingrained emotion for me," he said. "It drives how I operate as a journalist."

Speaking from the viewpoint of a journalist with a Christian background, Gutsche likens a journalist to a preacher in the pulpit. He said the history of American journalism is one of pointing out corruption, which is something a preacher or people of faith are supposed to care about.

"I have no problem working with the 'left' to stand up for the rights of working people," he said. "Journalists should be more opinionated and interested in the rights of the people we cover."

As for balance in a story, Gutsche at first said that he doesn't know that any journalist has ever written a story that has been truly, perfectly balanced. But when he writes about a highly controversial topic, he strives to achieve some level of balance by stacking the story with as many sources as he can.

"I try to get as many voices as possible," he said. "You're going to hear a lot more of the voices of other people in my story."

Although Gutsche tends to keep his faith out of his articles, he has let it show on occasion in the opinion pieces he has written. For instance, in one opinion piece he wrote about Christmas being a true holiday and quoted the Bible.

Because he has kept his faith private, Gutsche said he has seldom felt persecuted for it personally.

"But any time you're part of a group," he said, "you have a responsibility to find out what people are saying about that group. When people say things about Christians or whatever group I'm a part of, that affects me as well."

Ultimately, Gutsche has a passion for what is right, and that passion tempers every area of his life.