Peter Jennings R.I.P.

Peter Jennings died of lung cancer yesterday. Obviously, Mr. Jennings was a giant of television journalism in our country. As a communications major with a journalism emphasis (and an English literature minor) in college, I became a voracious consumer of news in my early '20s,and regularly channel surfed between the "Big 3" evening news broadcasts (i.e. Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather). While I sometimes disagreed with the context in which Mr. Jennings presented a story, I always believed that he was a man of honesty and integrity. Furthermore, in today's world of combative journalism, there are few journalists capable of delivering the news in a thoughtful and concise way, like Mr. Jennings could.

I actually met him once at my church, the Anaheim Vineyard, in 1994 when he was doing an expose on the renewal movement in the church that was occuring at that time. He seemed a genuinely friendly person, greeting me with a handshake and a smile that exuded a warmth of personality. I also remember during his visit to our church that he allowed several old ladies to pray for him, presumably to see if the Holy Spirit would touch him as it appeared He was touching others on that Sunday. He appeared stoic as they prayed. I hope he made peace with God. He will be greatly missed.