I live at the intersection of two callings.

On Sunday mornings, I am in a Cincinnati church, helping people worship, pray and wrestle with faith. During the week, I sit behind a keyboard as a journalist, trying to make sense of a chaotic world and tell the truth about it.

So when I watched the controversy unfold around former CNN anchor and now independent journalist Don Lemon, a disrupted church service in Minnesota and Lemon’s subsequent federal arrest, it hit close to home − personally, professionally and spiritually.

The First Amendment is not just an idea to me. It is the foundation of my life in this country. Free worship. Free speech. Free press. These are not competing values. They are inseparable ones. Seeing them collide so publicly has forced me into some deep introspection − something we could all use more of right now.

Scripture says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." I believe that. I have built my life around that belief. It is why I preach. It is why I practice journalism.

The pursuit of truth is the common thread that ties both vocations together.

That may be hard to accept in an era when journalism has been fragmented, politicized and routinely dismissed as biased or illegitimate. It’s even........

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