A four-time winner of the North Carolina Journalist of the Year award for his coverage of major hurricanes and other breaking stories, it would seem that WRAL news anchor David Crabtree leads a charmed life, but just over two decades ago he was in deep despair. Crabtree spoke at the Campbell University Divinity School on Tuesday, Sept. 11. “Twenty-five years ago, my own behavior caused me to lose my family,” he said. “I went from a six-figure income to picking up bottles out of a ditch, and I lost touch with the most precious people in my life, my two daughters.”Alone and desperate, Crabtree turned to God and has grown stronger in his faith each passing year. In 2004, he was ordained as a vocational deacon in the Episcopal Church focusing on working with death row inmates and hospice patients, but it isn’t always easy to follow God’s direction. “When you dig into a box of nails you can’t help but be scratched or punctured in some way,” he said. “God’s word is like that because it challenges us to choose him above all others. It can pit mother against daughter, husband against wife, country against country.” For many years, Crabtree said he didn’t understand the meaning of America’s symbol the bald eagle, but likened it to God’s challenge to all believers.”I thought it was a dichotomy that the eagle held both the olive branch of peace and an arrow in its talons, but then I began to understand. Just like following God’s commandments to love each other, we must take a stand against those who would keep us from God. If Jesus had never taken a stand, if he had been nicer, they wouldn’t have killed him, and we would not have been redeemed.”A native of Nashville, Tenn., Crabtree balances his time between his job as a reporter and news anchor and his Christian ministry. He graduated from Middle Tennessee State University, attended Vanderbilt University School of Divinity and is currently working on a master’s degree in theology with coursework at Oxford University. He joined WRAL-TV in 1994, and has covered some of the world’s biggest stories, including the funerals of Pope John Paul II and Mother Theresa. Crabtree has also worked on documentaries on the Vatican, migrant workers in North Carolina and husbands of wives with breast cancer. Now a proud grandfather, his relationship with his daughters has been restored.The Campbell Divinity School opened in 1996 with 35 students. The school offers the Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Christian education and the Doctor of Ministry degree. The Divinity School is committed to providing Christ-centered, Bible-based, and ministry-focused theological education for Christian ministry.More information about the School of Divinity is available on the Campbell website, www.campbell.edu, or you may call either (910) 893-1849 or (800) 760-9827.Photo Copy: WRAL-TV news anchor David Crabtree speaks at the Campbell University Divinity School on Tuesday, Sept. 11.
Crabtree has weathered storms of his own