Washington National Cathedral

The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith

The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host

Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III discusses “The Art of Listening” with Diane Rehm, who has hosted a call-in show on NPR for over 25 years. Her show originates at WAMU-FM in Washington, D.C.

Rehm describes her style of interviewing. “My focus is on listening, and watching, interpreting, being led by how the conversation goes, being led by callers, being led by the spirit in the room, being led by body language of that individual, and learning to listen to each and every aspect of that,” she says. “Someday—someday—I hope to write a book on what it is to listen.”

“Listening is really about hospitality, isn’t it?” Lloyd asks. “It’s creating a space into which someone else steps.” Rehm tells of the emotional hardships of her childhood and youth, and then says:

“One of the ways I learned to listen—I was punished a great deal, and my bedroom was upstairs above the living room. We had constant visitors, because my dad’s family was always here. And when I was by myself, up in my room, I would get down on the floor and put my ear to the floor so I could hear everything. I knew exactly what was going on in that room, and I think that was part of learning to listen.”

Rehm credits her second husband, John Rehm, with helping her deal with lifelong self-doubt. After much inner struggle and outside help, Rehm realized that “I could incorporate self-doubt instead of fearing it…I could make it part of my strength.”

Rehm describes her religious upbringing as a “confused faith life.” Baptised into her parents’ Syrian Orthodox tradition, she attended a Methodist church as well as the Syrian Orthodox church. At age 19, Rehm married an Arab man in an Orthodox ceremony. Her mother was dying at the time. Shortly after the deaths of both her parents, Rehm and her first husband divorced.

At the time of her second marriage, her new husband did not have a religious life. Diane Rehm found a home in the Episcopal Church. She relates that Bishops Jane Holmes Dixon and Ronald Haines helped her with spiritual healing while she was undergoing medical treatment for spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological disorder that makes it difficult for her to speak. “My faith is in my God, who has always been there for me ever since I was a little girl and I found a bracelet that I thought I had lost,” she summarizes.

About Diane Rehm

Diane Rehm is host of the nationally broadcast “The Diane Rehm Show,” heard on National Public Radio and via satellite in Europe, Japan, and on U.S. Armed Forces Radio. She has received numerous distinctions for her work in journalism and as a private citizen. She also has authored or co-authored two popular autobiographical books: Toward Commitment: A Dialogue about Marriage (2002) and Finding My Voice (1999).