Print Issue: March 14, 2002

Search For The Truth Leads Popular TV Anchor Back To Catholicism

FOX-5 news anchor Russ Spencer

By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

ATLANTA-With cases of pedophilia among priests in the national news, FOX-5 news anchor Russ Spencer was asked on a talk show recently whether he would hesitate to report negative news about the Catholic Church.

"I wouldn't (hesitate) because I think that if we're about anything then we have to be about the truth," Spencer told Catholic young adults Feb. 19.

A search for the truth once separated the 41-year-old from the church and led him back last year. A member of St. Brigid Church, Alpharetta, he spoke about "coming home" to his faith as the first speaker in the "Holy Grounds" Lenten coffeehouse series sponsored by the Office of Young Adult Ministry and held at Marist School. He will also emcee the Eucharistic Congress June 1.

A calm presence whether in front of an audience or the camera, Spencer said he's more comfortable trying to live his faith quietly than speaking publicly about it.

Answering an audience question, he said he didn't go on the air Ash Wednesday with ashes on his forehead.

"I try to let (my faith) inform decisions that I make in my personal life, but I can't proselytize on television," he said. "I think (my faith) affects the relationships of people I work with . . . I don't think you can see it on the news; it's more of an interior thing.''

He also spoke of a risk being on television poses to one's relationship with God.

"There are people who give you extra consideration because you're on TV and you start thinking about that in your own head," he said. "But pride is definitely one of the biggest obstacles there can be between anyone and God. That's something we all have to deal with in our own way."

A graduate of Princeton University where he majored in English, Spencer, whose mother is Catholic and father is Presbyterian, was a churchgoing child. But eventually, wanting more intellectual arguments for and tangible proof of God, he quit regular worshipping but still kept searching. A powerful present from his mother and a potent Lenten penance pointed him to the path of peace.

At 25 his mother sent him Thomas Merton's autobiography "The Seven Storey Mountain." While Merton's dramatic conversion story brought her a life-changing experience, he thought, "What on earth am I going to get from a Trappist monk?" She sent it to him again for his 40th birthday, when he found Merton's arguments for God convincing.

"I think I was a little more humble the second go-round, after having had a little more experience, and I just swallowed it up and that book led to other books," he recalled.

It inspired him in Lent 2001 to attend daily Mass, which "was more enriching than I ever thought it would be." That led him to receive the Eucharist daily year round before reporting to work. "I have an opportunity to go to Mass every day, and I do, and I can't believe it."

He encouraged his audience to "read, read, read" books by great theologians and saints. Their "leap of faith" encourages readers to jump, too. He recommended "A Summa of the Summa," passages from St. Thomas Aquinas' "Summa Theologica" edited by Peter Kreeft, which offers five proofs for the existence of God.

"There are a lot of really smart people, a lot smarter than I am, and they still come to the conclusion it's worth taking a leap of faith, while you're figuring it out all the while," he observed, describing how faith precedes understanding. "Actually, you will never be able to figure it out. There's too much mystery."

Having worked in television for nearly 20 years, he's covered plenty of mystery, "murder and mayhem." After college he started as a reporter and weekend anchor in Scranton, Pa., earning about $12,000 a year. "My salary my first year out of Princeton was less, I think, than Princeton's tuition." Hoping to become an international correspondent, he took two years off to teach sixth-graders in Guatemala, which was then a news hot spot. In 1990 he went to Nicaragua to report on the presidential election that ended Sandinista rule.

"I was struck by the determination of the people to vote, their willingness to stand outside in a long line for hours and hours to do what we kind of take for granted-people who on average made about $1,000 a year."

It broadened his outlook, he learned Spanish, and, in the classroom next door, met his future wife, Isa, from Bolivia, with whom he now has five children.

The anchor recalled a previous job in Denver where he started experiencing on-air anxiety and thought he was having heart problems.

"I honestly think, in retrospect, that it's one of the more fortunate struggles in my life. It was very humbling, but I believe that, in part, it was God's way of saying to me, 'Look, you're going down the wrong road, pal. You're trying to take care of your family and you're pursuing your career, but you're missing an important piece of the puzzle.'"

"I think if you don't put God in the equation, actually at the very top of the equation as your top priority, and think you can go it alone, I think that you are fooling yourself. At least I think that in my case that I was fooling myself."

He also recalled the intense sadness he experienced following the terrorist attacks, as stories of personal tragedy continually surfaced.

"It was hard to separate your own emotions from the job you've got to do," he said. "We're not out to shed tears on TV. It was obviously pretty overwhelming for the whole country and for people who do the news as well . . . I think everybody is a little afraid of what will happen next."

Spencer spoke of his continual struggle to believe in the divinity of Christ and the hard church teaching of Christ's real presence in the Eucharist. While faith is a gift, he encouraged young adults to make a decision of the will to make themselves available to receive God's grace, noting the "cleansing aspect" of Mass. Referring to Merton's book, he called them not to settle for living sinfully in daily life, but to be who God intended for them to be, striving to become saints.

"If you approach Mass with right intentions and humility it can help you in spite of yourself," he said. "If you have questions, okay, but for me I let the questions keep me from going to church . . . I figured I either had to swallow it whole or just reject it. I have found . . . that by participating, by receiving the Eucharist, by praying, by reading the saints . . . that I'm able to grow in my faith more than I thought I'd ever be able to grow and I don't have as much of a dirty mind as I used to."

He noted the challenges science can present to faith. "The age of the universe is 12 billion years old, the earth 4.6 billion years old. You think, 'Okay, how long has man been on the planet and I'm supposed to believe that we as human beings are the ultimate of God's creation? And beyond, that we're alone in the universe?'" He recalled an interview with the director of the Vatican Observatory where he said he was unsure about the possible existence of Christ on other planets, but that "science does not destroy the believer's faith but stimulates it."

Finally, Spencer read a passage from "The Bhagavad Gita," Hindu scripture written 700 years before Christ similar to the Sermon on the Mount, affirming the church teaching that God speaks through all great world religions.

"I suggest that rather than having a pride in our religion, in our approach to God, simply be grateful that it is ours and try to nurture it in every way possible, including, but not limited to, going to Mass as often as possible."

In an interview afterward, he said he volunteers with SvdP and eucharistic ministry and finds "little bits and pieces" of time for private prayer throughout the day, whether in the car or his office, where he prays for greater faith in his struggles.

As he and others started out with more idealism, "as it's evolved, news is at least as much now a business as a public service," he said.

Yet with his faith to anchor him, Spencer seems happy to keep serving the Atlanta public with nightly news, with its variety, short-term deadlines and interesting interviews. "It's a creative process with a photographer and editor. It's a little bit like putting a small movie together," he said. "It's kind of an exciting process doing live TV. You're sort of out there on the edge, anything can happen, and it kind of gets the adrenaline going every day."