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There's a fast-breaking story afoot: A high-school athletics coach has been the target of student allegations of sexual misconduct. And Cynthia Williams is hot on his trail. Cynthia, a weekend news anchor/on-air reporter for NBC-affiliate WSMV-TV, Nashville's Channel 4, has an exclusive interview with the coach—and only three hours to get it taped and edited for a 30-second promotional teaser to air on that night's six o'clock news.
I'm whisked away in the car that carries Cynthia and her cameraman to scoop the story. As we weave in and out of rush-hour traffic, Cynthia becomes invigorated by the challenge of getting an exclusive report for her station under a tight deadline.
It's Cynthia's faith in Christ that helps her handle the pressures of this fast-paced career with grace and calm. It's that same faith that also takes Cynthia, 42, to an entirely different location the next day—her day off. She's reading Enid and the Dangerous Discovery (Broadman & Holman), one of her Our Neighborhood series of children's books, at a local elementary school. The kids, excited a "celebrity" has come to visit, sit in rapt attention as Cynthia recounts how her title character, Enid, a young African-American girl, deals with situations such as church burnings and guns in her inner-city neighborhood. Then the children open up about their own tough circumstances as Cynthia gently draws them into conversation.
"When kids don't have hope, I hurt for them," Cynthia tells me. "Maybe that's because I didn't have much of a childhood." Raised in Mobile, Alabama, Cynthia was one of eight siblings born to a father who drank heavily and a mother who found solace in the church. At age 10, Cynthia lost her 14-year-old brother, Frank Aaron, in a car accident in which her father, who was intoxicated, was driving. Learning to bottle up her grief and anger through her teen years, Cynthia worked her way through college, then quickly climbed the ladder of success in the field of television and radio—while embarking on her own descent into alcoholism and substance abuse.
Today Cynthia's been sober for 10 years ("My 'birthday'—the day I entered treatment—is January 3," she says softly). Cynthia credits this to a transforming relationship with Jesus Christ. In this exclusive TCW interview, Cynthia not only takes a look at her past, but talks about living out her faith daily both on the beat and off.
How do you handle tragic news stories, such as this one about sexual misconduct?I've had to realize I don't control this world, that things just happen. Just recently, I covered stories on four kids killed in a car accident, a baby addicted to crack, and children who died in a fire.
Can you stay detached?No, it hurts. It was the hardest thing when those babies died in that fire. If I look at the outside of a situation, I'm confused and sad. I try to remember that God looks at the situation the same way he did when his Son died on the cross—with a broken heart. That's what helps me function.
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