THE WASHINGTON HILTON staff had to bring out extra tables to accommodate the overflow crowd at commentator Cal Thomas’s dinner for the media last Wednesday night. The dinner is an annual event on the eve of the National Prayer Breakfast and it has grown in popularity to the point where the turnout itself is significant. Nearly 200 people showed up, roughly half of them practicing journalists. Thomas, a syndicated columnist and TV talking head, started the dinner more than a decade ago. The first one was held in the Hilton bar, which easily held the 25 people who showed up. The speaker was evangelist Billy Graham. Thomas’s idea, then and now, was to bring Christians in the media together with their non-Christian colleagues for an evening of warm fellowship. The aim is to “reproduce” the conditions under which Thomas himself became a Christian in 1973–by being exposed to “educated, talented professional journalists who have a relationship with God.” Speakers usually talk about their Christian faith in a highly personal way. There is no altar call. So what’s the significance of the burgeoning turnout? It obviously doesn’t amount to a full-blown revival in the Washington press corps, with masses of hard-bitten reporters converting to evangelical Christians. Rather, it suggests something more modest, yet still impressive: a turn to faith among dozens of journalists in the Nation’s Capital. The media, of course, have never been fertile ground for religion. Surveys of journalists over the past 20 years have found them to be an overwhelmingly secular group. More recently, however, a trend seems evident. It has been documented by Robert Lichter of the Center for Media and Public Affairs and Stanley Rothman of Smith College. The media, says Lichter, is “less secular, although still much more secular than the general population.” In Washington, Thomas has had much to do with this. For years, he’s held dinners at his home at which Christianity is discussed by believers and non-believers. His annual dinner has featured leading journalists as speakers and also well-known entertainers. Last year, the speakers were sportscasters Pat Summerall and James Brown and TV producer Martha Williamson of “Touched by an Angel.” This year, Fox News anchor Tony Snow spoke and singer Marilyn McCoo of the Fifth Dimension and harmonica player Buddy Green entertained. There are other signs of growing religious faith among journalists besides the success of the Thomas dinner. Two years ago, two journalists called practically anyone they knew in the media who’d ever said a kind word about religion and asked if they’d like to join a monthly Bible study. Ten did, including me, Morton Kondracke of Roll Call, a TV anchor, and two TV networks news correspondents. When word of the study group spread, several more asked to join. Now the group meets every other week. Meanwhile, David Aikman, a former Time correspondent now with the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, has gathered another journalists’ study group. Aikman has also created a world-wide network of Christian journalists. They met last August outside Washington, more than 200-strong, many from Korea and India. At the Thomas dinner, the two missionaries imprisoned for 105 days in Afghanistan, Heather Mercer and Dana Curry, urged the journalists to focus on the missionary couple held by Islamic radicals in the Philippines. “We’re here today because the media kept our story out in the eyes of the world,” Mercer said. “Please share their story.” The appearance of Snow and other media celebrities buttresses Thomas’s insistence that embracing Christianity is not a “career killer.” Snow’s speech was a self-effacing account of what he’s learned as a Christian. “I’m kind of a dull guy living an exciting life,” he said. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the media is “in a quest for news,” not truth. “You want the truth?” Snow said. “Read this thing.” He held up a Bible, which he jokingly summarized this way: “We had this big fight. God wins.” His final point was that we must pray for our enemies because even in them we “see the face of God.” At this point, he looked at Sam Donaldson of ABC-TV in the audience. “Sam, you’re the face of God.” Donaldson snapped back, “That’s a terrible thing to say about God.” Snow got the last word. “Sam,” he said, “I said God has a sense of humor.” Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.
