Deb Richardson-Moore
Longtime Reporter Now Full-Time Erskine Seminary Student
Deb Richardson-Moore has been writing for the the Greenville News since she stepped out of college in 1976, and she's good at it. This summer, she was honored by the American Academy of Religion for her in-depth reporting on religion, receiving special recognition for several of her stories, which judges said "made the connection between religion as experienced on the personal level and the related public policy issues." This fall, the veteran journalist begins a new chapter of her own story as she becomes a full-time student at Erskine Theological Seminary.
Richardson-Moore is no stranger to the campus, having been a part-time student at Erskine Seminary for several years. She said she was drawn to Erskine by its reputation, its proximity to Greenville, its classes offered in Greenville, and its class scheduling geared toward working students. But she kept a certain distance.
"As a part-time student, I never felt truly immersed in ministry," she said. "Had I continued, I would have ended up after nine years as a journalist with an M. Div. And at first, that’s exactly what I wanted to be."
But for Richardson-Moore, a member of First Baptist Church in Greenville, the question of following a call became a persistent one. "Increasingly, I had this uneasy feeling that I wasn't where God wanted me," she said.
As a young college graduate in 1976, Richardson-Moore had embraced journalism at a time when the Watergate scandal had been brought to light by relentless investigative reporting. "I think all of us in those days thought of journalism as a noble endeavor, if not a calling," she said. The young reporter's stories were not always of world-shaking importance, she recalls, but there were some significant ones.
"In the early years, I did features on everything from the aftereffects of sexual abuse to post-traumatic stress disorder, from ironing to enrolling my insane dog in obedience school," she said. "Some stories were fun and silly — and some had repercussions for people's lives, and they let me know it."
Richardson-Moore had made a success of her career in journalism. But the experience of seminary, even part-time, tripped a switch inside her. "I struggled with the idea of 'call' from the minute I set foot in an Introduction to New Testament class, back in the fall of 2000," she said. "I was so intrigued and touched by what I was learning, but I kept wondering if writing about religion for a secular newspaper weren't a perfectly appropriate outlet."
So she tackled the problem in her own journalistic way.
"As I often did when I was struggling with an idea, I researched a story on God's call — and how we hear it," she said. "I talked to many wise men and women, but the one who resonated most personally was a Baptist pastor who told me how he had subtly started enjoying his business less and less and his church work more and more.
"That was precisely what was happening in my life," Richardson-Moore said. She continued to pray and to engage people around her in conversation, and finally arrived at the decision to quit her job and enroll full-time in seminary.
"I determined that one way God talks to us is through other people, and He had put an army of godly people in my path — including my husband, who now has three of us in college on one salary," she said.
Richardson-Moore said she will miss the camaraderie with other reporters and interaction with her readers that she enjoyed at the Greenville News, but she does not look back. "I've made a clean break, primarily because of time. I'm in a six-month Clinical Pastoral Education class that will require 20 hours a week on top of three other classes," she said.
As for the joys and woes of life as a full-time seminary student, she seems to love it all. "I am just drinking it in," she said. "I cannot tell you what an incredible gift every class is to me."
Richardson-Moore believes she has found her calling for now, as she pursues the Master of Divinity degree at Erskine Seminary. As to what lies ahead, and what form her ministry will take, she said, "The big decision was to come to seminary full-time — I'm trusting God with the specifics. But if peace of heart is any indication, I'm there."
