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Peggy Wehmeyer Pioneers Religion on ABC's World News Tonight.

(Despite the fact that significant numbers of Americans attend church or read the Bible, a recent study reveals that only 1 percent of news programming reflects religion's importance in Americans' lives.

ABC News has taken steps to correct the bias. Early this year, at the prompting of anchor Peter Jennings, ABC hired Peggy Wehmeyer to become the first religion correspondent on any major network news team.

The opportunity came without warning, but Wehmeyer is a woman accustomed to surprises. She is a Christian by faith, who discovered in her late teens that she is also Jewish by heritage. Wehmeyer took time to talk with CT executive editor David Neff about her spiritual journey—and her new role in the world of television journalism.)

CHRISTIANITY TODAY:

Your spiritual development makes a unique story. How did you become a Christian, and when did you discover your Jewish heritage?

PEGGY WEHMEYER:

When I was 12, I had a salvation experience at a Youth for Christ summer camp. But I had nowhere to follow up on it; I never went to church. I remember praying and trying to find God after that, but not knowing how.

Then, in college, I began going to Bible studies sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ. The more I learned and studied, the more I realized Christianity was true. Also, I discovered that it required a radical commitment—so I was pretty radical. I decided to do a missionary beach project with Campus Crusade one summer, and happened to be talking to my German grandmother about it. When I told her I was going to be a missionary, she said, "How can you be a missionary? You're a Jew!"

I thought she was joking. But then it all dawned on me: "My mother is from Germany, but she and her relatives all left Germany." So I asked my mother about it. She said, "Well, you knew we were Jewish," to which I replied, "How could I have known? No one's ever told me!" It was shocking, but I saw it as an incredible adventure. I thought, "There's another whole part of me that I need to find out about."

CHRISTIANITY TODAY:

How did you do that?

PEGGY WEHMEYER:

I got on a plane and went to Europe to meet my mother's family members. But my aunt told me, "Nobody talks about the past now. You can come over and meet the relatives, but don't bring it up." Then I met my mother's cousin Ludwig. We were out driving when he suddenly pulled over to the side of the road and said, "So you've found God and I've lost him." He had heard I'd become a Christian and decided that he probably ought to tell me his story of his time in a concentration camp. It changed me forever.

But Jewish history didn't feel like my history until, for my first story for ABC, I talked to a very hateful skinhead about what he'd like to do to Jews. And I realized he'd do that to me. I felt both bad and good, because I finally felt connected to that history. I was sitting there talking with somebody who wanted to kill me, when I've done nothing but have a mother who's a Jew.

CHRISTIANITY TODAY:

What is it like balancing your faith with your Jewish identity?

PEGGY WEHMEYER:

It's been difficult as an adult. I don't tell other Christians much about being Jewish, because many get excited about fitting me into their prophecy. This makes me uncomfortable, because I feel like I'm the token Messianic Jew. It trivializes what it meant to my family, who went through the Holocaust. And I'm also reluctant to tell Jews about my Christianity, because some are concerned that I have not fully embraced Judaism.

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August 15 1994, Vol. 38, No. 9