Andrew McChesney knew what he wanted—to be a famous journalist. He thought Moscow would be a good place to learn his craft and make a name for himself, which he did. But his years in Russia shaped his life in a much deeper way—it was there that he discovered God and found new meaning in life.[1]
How would you summarise your childhood and adolescence given what you experienced later?
Although I grew up in a missionary family, I wasn’t really interested in knowing God personally until I was 33.
Was it an outright refusal? Or were you just not interested in spirituality?
I have wondered about this for a long time myself. I think that even though I lived in a Christian environment, I didn’t feel the need to be told about Jesus. I believed in Jesus, I believed that what was written in the Bible was true, but I didn’t see Him as my personal Saviour.
So when someone looked at you, they saw that you acted like a Christian and went to church. But deep down you were separated from God…
Eventually I also separated myself from the church… At university I decided to become a journalist. I loved to express myself in writing, to write news articles, so I decided to become a journalist. But after graduating, I realised that I would have to work at an obscure, low-paid newspaper, writing articles about local, mundane topics. I wanted to write about things that were important and interesting.
In my final year at university, I went to Russia to teach English. I was there for ten months and I really liked the country. During that time, I came across a newspaper called The Moscow Times—the only English-language newspaper in Russia—and I noticed that the journalists who wrote for it also published in major newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. They were writing about hot topics like Boris Yeltsin’s hospitalisation or the war in Chechnya, so I said to myself, “When I graduate from university, I want to work here.”
Very bold!
When I got back to the United States, I emailed the editor-in-chief a letter of intent. He wrote back and asked me if I knew Russian, but after I said “not at all”, he didn’t reply. Nevertheless, I was determined to go to Russia, so in my last term at university I worked in four different places, and with the money I earned I managed to pay for my one-year visa to Russia and a one-way plane ticket. I was determined not to leave without getting the job.
You had an adventurous spirit.
Yes. I went to Russia with great ambitions, but without God. I thought I was better than most Christians I knew anyway, more generous than those in the church, and that I could succeed in life without relying on God. Finally, a month after I arrived in Russia, I heard that the Moscow Times had advertised a job as a proofreader, the lowest position in the paper. I applied for the job and got it. It was an entry-level position, with the lowest possible salary, but I had one foot in the door.
There was still no opportunity to write articles on important issues.
In theory, I didn’t have to write at all, just proofread articles written by others. But after two weeks I had already asked the editors, “Could I write an article for this paper?” They asked me if I spoke Russian, and when I said “not at all”, they told me to come up with some topics anyway. So I said to myself: “I am a vegetarian. It’s very hard to find vegetarians and vegetarian food in Russia, so I could write an article about how to live as a vegetarian in this country.” The editor-in-chief liked the idea, so I made a few phone calls, found some people who could help me and wrote my first article. The boss liked my article and asked me to write another one, so I started publishing when I was a proofreader.
Over time, with the help of a flatmate, I learned Russian, and that’s how I ended up in increasingly senior positions at The Moscow Times. My plan was to work there for four years, long enough to show that I was a stable employee. But after four years I had already become Executive Editor. So I started hoping and waiting to become editor-in-chief. For the next five years, the editor-in-chief remained the same. As the situation was unprecedented, I began to think that I would probably never become editor.
Then, in 2005, I had an ‘epiphany’. I had gone to Russia with the idea that I was a very good person, always ready to help the needy, to feed the hungry, and shelter the homeless. I thought I was a good Christian, just like that, without Jesus. But in 2005 I drew a line in the sand and after nine years without God I realised that this “very good” man had become more and more interested in himself and less and less interested in those around him.
Do you think your attitude had really changed? Or did you just see yourself differently?
I don’t know. I just know that my conscious thoughts were always about myself. I was only interested in myself, not in how I could help others. Yes, I was still helping people around me, but deep down I knew I was only interested in myself. I despised the person I had become. And so I realised that I had become a worse person than I had been when I was with God. I thought my life would be better without God, but I found it was worse.
And how did you get rid of the things that were destroying your life?
For nine years I hadn’t been interested in God’s will, I hadn’t prayed, and I had neglected my health.
OK, but you were a vegetarian!
I was when I came to Russia, but after a few years… Eventually I reached a point where I wasn’t sure if God would accept me anymore. But the only thing that interested me then was that if the Lord had a plan for me, I had to find out what it was and do His will. I realised that the way I was living was not bringing me lasting happiness. I mean, I was happy in the moment, but I didn’t feel any lasting satisfaction, so I began to long to discover God’s plan for me.
The first thing I did was to call my mother. I asked her, “Do you think God has a plan for me?” She said, “Andy, read Jeremiah 29:11. It says, ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord… plans to give you hope and a future'”. I thought: “I had gone to Russia because I wanted to, not because someone made me go, but suddenly I began to feel like an exile, because I was not close to God”.
I had waited five and a half years to become editor-in-chief of The Moscow Times, but from that moment on I said to myself: I don’t want this job anymore, I just want to do what God wants. I’ll quit, I’ll go back to the United States and I’ll train to be a pastor. But God had another plan for me. So I prayed for a month. After that month, the editor of the paper said to me, “Andy, your boss is quitting and we want you to be the new editor-in-chief of the paper”. I was totally shocked. For five and a half years I’d wanted the job but hadn’t gotten it, and as soon as I gave up my plan to do God’s will I was offered the job!
I think you were already beginning to be more confident that God loved you, that He was ready to take you back.
I was very confident, but also very cautious, because during my nine years away from God I had picked up a lot of bad habits and my way of thinking had been ruined, so I didn’t know how to live. I only knew how to live for myself, but I didn’t know how to be a Christian, and that’s why I say I haven’t been a Christian for a very long time. I’ve been a practising Christian for ten years, which may seem like a long time, but it’s not.
When you started reading the Bible, were you able to understand its message? Or did you find that you didn’t have the tools to understand it?
I began to pray before I read, and if I didn’t understand a passage, I would mark it and pray to God to help me, and I always came to understand later. I didn’t need any help or advice on how to study the Bible, I think I managed to understand its message with the help of the Holy Spirit, who helps those who put their hope in Him…
Then came a difficult period, right, when you had to adapt to your new job? Was it difficult to give up bad habits?
Yes and no. Some things that I thought were the biggest problems turned out to be easy to overcome, and some things that I thought were small problems turned out to be very difficult. One of the situations I faced when I started going to church again was that smoking was not allowed and I was addicted. I would listen to the sermon, but I would be craving a cigarette, and it would get worse and worse because I couldn’t concentrate on the sermon because I wanted to smoke. That’s when I realised that tobacco had more power over me than my own mind, and that made me pray that God would help me to stop smoking. That same evening I came down with the flu, and like when you’re sick and coughing, I stopped smoking. So all the withdrawal symptoms I would have felt most acutely in the first week of abstinence I mistook for the flu and got over them more easily than I expected. To be honest, it took a couple of months before I was able to stop thinking about smoking for a whole day. But since that Saturday, I haven’t smoked at all.
When the time came for my baptism a few months later, I found out that I was to be appointed editor-in-chief the day after my baptism. God had arranged everything perfectly!
As editor-in-chief, you had a key role in determining the newspaper’s editorial policy, is that right? But stories about a country like Russia and a capital like Moscow can be seen from different perspectives, and it’s not easy to find out how things really happened and which angle to choose.
The Moscow Times was an independent newspaper, outside the influence of the Kremlin. Journalists would try very hard to present the real facts, and then, to interpret the facts, they would turn to an analyst or someone involved in the event.
Was this the policy of the paper before you became editor-in-chief?
Yes. The paper had five editions a week and we didn’t work on Saturdays and Sundays, which was very convenient for me because I always had the Sabbath off. But one change I made as editor-in-chief was to stop publishing swear words and vulgarities. Journalists used to do that when they quoted someone, but I decided to put an end to it. I got into an argument with a colleague who asked me: “Why do you want to censor the material we write? If a person has used a vulgar term, we have to include it”. I said I didn’t think that was necessary. The Washington Post, for example, didn’t publish vulgar language, but signalled it in text. I said to my colleague: “Some newspapers publish the vulgar words, some don’t. I have decided that we will not”. A few years later, the Russian authorities passed a law forbidding the use of offensive words, or else you had to write “This newspaper is only for people over 18”.
According to the newspaper’s policy and your approach, you had to present the facts and a fair analysis of what had happened, but not everyone was happy with this approach. A lot has happened in Russia over the years, and I think you were there when several journalists were killed. Also, some very rich and influential people have been ruined and huge financial empires have collapsed. Did you sometimes feel a certain pressure? And if so, how did you react?
I have felt pressure. I think every journalist feels pressure, because people like to have good things said about them, even if the facts are different. I didn’t feel any direct pressure from the Kremlin. I know there was pressure on some newspapers in Russia, but the newspaper I worked for was published in English, it had a small readership, most of them foreigners, and I think the Kremlin was concerned about newspapers that were read mainly by Russians.
At the same time, I felt some pressure from certain circles, especially businessmen. There are many rich people in Russia who have very strong opinions about what can be published about them in the media, so the biggest pressure came from businessmen, from billionaires, who didn’t like what was written about them in the newspaper and thought they could threaten us and ask us to change or retract what we had published.
And did you withstand that?
I’m still alive. I have prayed a lot about these things. I work very carefully and believe that God has given us minds to use to become as wise as possible.
So you are confident that a devout Christian can work as a journalist, become a respected voice in the field, and live up to his commitment to truth and honour?
I believe I have only become a respected journalist with God’s help. When I look back and think about working in a secular environment, I realise that God has always helped me. I believe that all my successes, even getting the job of editor-in-chief, were only possible because of God’s goodness and grace.
Note: This is an interview by Adrian Bocaneanu. The transcript of the interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.