A chaplain in the right place

Wednesday, July 1, 2009
A chaplain in the right place
Posted by tmatt
I was stunned the other day by the total lack of interest in the religion elements of the big story here in Washington, D.C., as in the tragedy on our Metro subway system. The coverage has been major league, as you would expect, and the story on which I focused was one out of many worthy of discussion.

(Sound of crickets on a still night)

OK, I don’t care.

I’m going to write about this subject again, because the Washington Post had a follow-up story the other day that was simply baptized in religious themes and images, for a totally valid, journalistic reason. You see, one of the survivors from that first Metro car, the one that was crushed to one third its size, was — wait for it — was a military chaplain with two tours worth of experience in Iraq. He was in the wrong place at the right time.

In the end, the Post turned Car 1079 into a kind of urban version of “The Bridge of San Luis Rey.” Who was in that car at the crucial moment, when it was “Three Minutes to Fort Totten”?

I do have a few questions, however.

With this kind of anecdotal story, any feature writer has to ask two questions right up front: (1) What’s the symbolic story that gives me a lede? And (2) What’s the over-arching principle that provides the structure (and how does the lede fit into that)?

Now, it’s clear to me that Dave Bottoms, the chaplain who has just arrived at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, provides most of the information and insights that provide the structure of the story. Yet, the lede starts somewhere else, with Tom Baker, a doctor, and the last man to step onto the train before the doors closed and it began its short, final trip. I understand that choice. Yet I also wonder if leading with the chaplain was, oh, too religious? Did the editorial team conclude that this would be too focused on the faith element of the story?

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