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Remembering David Bloom
Townhall.com ^ | 04/17/03 | Chuck Colson

Posted on 04/24/2003 10:04:18 AM PDT by SquirrelKing

It was early morning, Iraqi time. Crouched in a modified tank, NBC News correspondent David Bloom picked up his phone and played back his messages. One was from Jim Lane, a New York financier and Wilberforce Forum advisory board member. The two were sharing a daily, long-distance devotional time using Oswald Chambers's classic, My Utmost for His Highest. Lane read the message for April 5, based on Matthew 25: "Because of what the Son of Man went through, every human being can now get through into the very presence of God." Moments later, Bloom climbed out of the tank, took a few steps, and collapsed. Soon after, he was ushered into the presence of God.

David's death from a pulmonary embolism devastated his family, friends, colleagues, and millions of TV viewers. At age thirty-nine, David was a rising star at NBC. Viewers looked forward to watching Bloom file his reports while bouncing across the desert on his "Bloom-mobile," his face streaked with dirt, his hair snapping in the wind. He loved his job, and everyone knew it.

But what most viewers did not know was that David was a committed Christian. David had grown up in a Methodist home. And while he had a strong understanding of the Gospel growing up, it wasn't until two years ago, according to Lane, that Bloom "effectively came to a saving knowledge of Jesus and started a real faith journey."

Bloom joined the New Canaan Society, a weekly men's fellowship group founded by Lane and my former colleague Eric Metaxas. I met Bloom several times as a guest of that fellowship, and we became friends. I was struck by the sincerity of his Christian faith. He was hungry for knowledge of God and how his faith ought to play out in his life.

On the day he died, Lane says, "David was in a very good place, at peace with himself, his faith, and his family." That peace was reflected in the last message he would ever send to his wife, Melanie—one that reveals that, in the middle of a desert battlefield, his own mortality was very much on his mind. Bloom wrote: "When the moment comes in my life when you are talking about my last day, I am determined that you and others will say, 'He was devoted to his wife and children; he was admired; he gave every ounce of his being for those whom he cared most about—not himself, but God and his family.'"

Yesterday Lane spoke at a memorial service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Speaking before America's most powerful media figures, Lane told a simple story about a man who loved and served Jesus Christ. It was a side of their colleague that many of them had never really known—a side scarcely mentioned in the voluminous media coverage of his death.

At the end of his April 5 devotional reading, Oswald Chambers writes: "The cross of Christ was a . . . sign that our Lord had triumphed . . . to save the human race." I thank God for that triumph in the short life of this ebullient, gifted man, and I pray that his posthumous witness will inspire others to seek out the God he served.

C. S. Lewis once said that Christians never have to say good-bye. So, to my dear brother David, I say simply, au revoir.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: charlescolson; davidbloom; faith
I always liked David Bloom, now I think I know why. Seems Something shone through.
1 posted on 04/24/2003 10:04:18 AM PDT by SquirrelKing
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To: SquirrelKing
Oh, my, I had no idea that Bloom was a Believer. I watched MSNBC because my cable didn't carry FOX News. I cried my eyes out when Bloom died.I thought that his war coverage was fantastic and that he had changed considerably from the smirking commentator that I had remembered from the 2000 election fiasco. (I guess it was more than being embedded with soldiers that changed his outlook on life...and death.)

This article gives me peace of mind about Bloom and others like him. I pray that his wife and children believe as he did and find peace in the knowledge that he is not dead, but living in heaven.
2 posted on 04/24/2003 10:18:33 AM PDT by demnomo
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To: SquirrelKing
Oh, my, I had no idea that Bloom was a Believer. I watched MSNBC because my cable didn't carry FOX News. I cried my eyes out when Bloom died.I thought that his war coverage was fantastic and that he had changed considerably from the smirking commentator that I had remembered from the 2000 election fiasco. (I guess it was more than being embedded with soldiers that changed his outlook on life...and death.)

This article gives me peace of mind about Bloom and others like him. I pray that his wife and children believe as he did and find peace in the knowledge that he is not dead, but living in heaven.
3 posted on 04/24/2003 10:18:34 AM PDT by demnomo
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To: SquirrelKing
Bloom was Roman Catholic and what took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral was a funeral Mass not a memorial service. Two facts which Colson conveniently omits and as of yet has failed to respond as to why he did.
4 posted on 04/24/2003 10:37:39 AM PDT by SMEDLEYBUTLER
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To: SMEDLEYBUTLER
What does it matter?

Respond to whom? Please enlighten.

5 posted on 04/24/2003 10:39:16 AM PDT by SquirrelKing ("Beware the barrenness of a busy life." - Socrates)
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To: SMEDLEYBUTLER
I would add my voice to Chuck's noble memorial, if there were a way to do so, other than say, AMEN. Selah.
6 posted on 04/24/2003 10:42:30 AM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote Life Support for others.)
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To: demnomo
I agree. Until the war I had little use for him. He really did a great job in Iraq though and it is nice to find out these tidbits about his faith life.
7 posted on 04/24/2003 10:43:43 AM PDT by Myrnick (beyoo'eefuhl ploomij)
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To: SMEDLEYBUTLER
---Bloom was Roman Catholic and what took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral was a funeral Mass not a memorial service.---

Thanks for the info. I was perplexed as to the use of St. Pat's for a non-Catholic's memorial service!

8 posted on 04/24/2003 10:50:02 AM PDT by onyx
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To: SMEDLEYBUTLER
Exactly, Bloom WAS, (which means past tense) Roman Catholic. He became a born again Christian from all personal accounts that knew him and reported this, after his death.
9 posted on 04/24/2003 11:44:27 AM PDT by travelnurse
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To: SquirrelKing
Oh, my, I had no idea that Bloom was a Believer. I watched MSNBC because my cable didn't carry FOX News. I cried my eyes out when Bloom died.I thought that his war coverage was fantastic and that he had changed considerably from the smirking commentator that I had remembered from the 2000 election fiasco. (I guess it was more than being embedded with soldiers that changed his outlook on life...and death.)

This article gives me peace of mind about Bloom and others like him. I pray that his wife and children believe as he did and find peace in the knowledge that he is not dead, but living in heaven.
10 posted on 04/24/2003 3:46:51 PM PDT by demnomo
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To: travelnurse
Bloom WAS, (which means past tense) Roman Catholic.

Incorrect. David Bloom at the time of his death was and still is a Roman Catholic, nothing past tense about it.

11 posted on 06/11/2003 12:52:51 AM PDT by SMEDLEYBUTLER
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