A modern Lot

Brit Hume is stepping down from his job as Fox News Washington managing editor and anchor. He cites the "poisonous atmosphere" within the Beltway. It brought to mind "righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)" (2 Peter 2:7,8).

Hume was chief White House correspondent for ABC News before casting his lot with fledgling Fox News in 1996, attracted by Roger Ailes' commitment to the ideal of "fair and balanced news," and by the prospect of working for an organization that covers stories from a different angle than the ubiquitous liberal one.

"None of us is objective," Hume told Brian Lamb in an interview this July. "But what you can try to be is fair. … I believe that fairness begins with an awareness that no, you're not objective. And it is your professional duty and responsibility to be aware of that. And to carry that with you into the work that you do. … You think, I got to be careful here, because I don't particularly cotton to this person. I need to make sure that I play this straight. … And it's not that hard to do.

The tragic death of his son Sandy 10 years ago drew Hume closer to Christ. "At a moment like that you find out what you really believe. And the one thing I recognized almost instantly was that I believed in God and I believed that God would come to my rescue. … Somewhere in the middle of that, I felt closer to God and to Christ than I had ever felt in my life, which is in a sense paradoxical. But there it was."

Future plans: spend time with family and study the Bible.