On June 13, 2008 newsman Tim Russert died.  A month later, this is old news.  Yet, this is the news I have been meditating on for the last several weeks.  I did not have any close connection with this man, and only rarely did I see his face on the television screen.  When I first read the news, it seemed surprising, due to his age.  He was, after all, basically a household name and I was familiar with it.  But it wasn’t something that struck me.  Hearing the news did not change my day.

Why, then, the third sentence of the above paragraph?

I had not really thought of his death, until about a week later our Newsweek issue arrived (they arrive really late at our house, just in case the delivery date did not make sense—I am sure you were keeping track).  On the cover, in the corner, was a picture of Russert, right there with a bigger picture of Winston Churchill.  I remember thinking how I was not sure Russert deserved a front page spot.  He also got a several page obituary, which is long by Newsweek standards.  The news industry loves their own, I guess.

I almost didn’t read the article.  But, the title caught my eye: “God, Politics, and the Making of a Joyful Warrior.”  Titles usually do not ‘grab’ me, but this one did, for some reason.

Jon Meacham, the editor of Newsweek, wrote the story. It began:

“Hello, Brother.” The baritone rumbled on the other end of the phone. “I’ve got a great deal for you.”  It was Tim Russer, and there was a twinkle in his tone—the kind of twinkle that suggested what was in the offing was anything but a good deal.  “Have you read Hitch yet?”  My stomach tightened: Christopher Hitchens, the terrific provocateur, had just published a sulfurous attack on religious faith, and I feared what was coming.  “You gotta come down and defend the faith, Brother,” Russert said.  Hitchens was slated to come on Russert’s weekend cable show, and Russert wanted a countervailing voice on the program.  A devout Catholic, Russert knew I was an Episcopalian, but I had an old rule that I would never debate Hitchens about anything—he is one of the great intellects and wits of the age—since there was no chance I would ever win.  I tried to demur, but Russel closed in as though he were corning a politician on a Sunday morning.  “It’s the faith, Brother,” he said.  “I can’t do it—I’m the moderator.  But it’ll be great.”

It’s the faith, Brother: there, in a phrase from the early summer of 2006, was, in a way, the essence of Timothy John Russert, Jr. who died of a heart attack last Friday afternoon.

The remainder of the article goes on to discuss Russert’s faith.  Not his involvement in politics.  Not his news career.  His faith.  His commitment to the Catholic Church.  The way in which he managed to take communion every week despite a Sunday morning news show.  Charity work done because of his faith.  The way in which his faith developed from a child until the day he died.

Russert certainly is not the first Christian to die.  He is not the only high-profile Christian to die.  So, in some ways, it seems silly to meditate on such an article. 

The article got me thinking about two things though.  First of all, here is a man that everyone in the ‘real world’ knew as a newsman.  That is all we knew, really.  But, for everyone that personally knew him, they knew him as a Christian.  The multi-page article could have been about his career.  That would have been worthy of such an article.  Instead, the article was about his faith.  He was remembered first and foremost for his faith.  I wonder how many of us could say that about ourselves?  I hope as Christians that would be true, but I am afraid it is to easy to have other first loves.

Secondly, and perhaps just as important, the article made me think of how we view those in powerful positions.  Both the author of the article and Russert have/had a huge impact on how we view the world and interpret news.  Yes, we are so familiar with people that use their Christianity so that people have a positive view of them.  They parade their faith and they make sure it is well known.  Often these people’s lives do not back this up.  It’s easy to get discouraged about Christianity.  There are few Christians out there in powerful places and the ones that say they are, it’s questionable, we often think.  Yet, we are wrong.  It is easy as a Christian to think: woe is us.  We act like the underdogs.  We act like Satan has won already.  But, not only has Christ declared victory two thousand years ago, but there really are people in high places whose faith is so central to their lives that they don’t feel the need to proclaim it and abuse it as a pulpit, but rather just live as Christians.  And that spirit of Christ works in their life like a bit of yeast in the dough.  In the end they are simply remembered as Christians by those who knew them.  Genuine Christians, with no apologetics or stomping around, simply being Christ to the world.  We doubt this so often, the world often makes us cynical, but the truth is, God is over all, even when we do not see it.  Thanks be to God. 

(Newsweek quotation taken from the June 23, 2008 issue, page 31)