What Is Truth?

I studied journalism in college and decided the path forward was difficult. I was called into a much less controversial field: religion.

What I learned through working for the college newspaper is that the hours aren’t easy, and the coverage can be tedious, especially when reporting difficult or unpopular news. My journalism professor provided a frank picture of the future of journalism, even 25 years ago.

Last week, the show “Around the Horn” aired its last episode on ESPN. Essentially, it’s a competition between four journalists from around the country who are rewarded for making strong talking points about sports topics.

The winner of each show gets to make a final face time with a platform to say what’s on their mind. The last words of the show came from Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News. He took aim at ESPN’s decision to cancel the program that aired for 20 years.

Cowlishaw thanked the fans and ESPN for the opportunity, but then pivoted towards a criticism of the new era of journalism. “I’d also like to say that while ESPN is currently gearing itself more towards hiring athletes instead of journalists…” and then went on to list his athletic accomplishments in intramural sports and his 5th-grade spelling bee.

His point was clear: if he were a superstar athlete, ESPN would value his opinion and keep him.  We continue to disregard the role of journalists who report the news and cover events with a critical eye and value popular opinions of unqualified voices.

While Cowlishaw represents the sports community, the devaluation of journalists and a willingness to get our news from unqualified and unvetted resources continues a disturbing trend.

Ironically, society says we want “truth,” yet we haven’t valued and appreciated the unbiased and qualified journalism that continues to be cut and worse, in many cases, made out to be the enemy.

Even in the world of religious studies, as a pastor, I continue to wrestle with people about a question that Jesus faced: “What is truth?”

Truth means asking the extra question and seeking the full picture. Truth might mean we change our opinion after gathering new information that helps us become more informed.

In our community, we are blessed by the talented and respectable staff of the Forest Lake Times and the surrounding partnerships through the Adams Publishing Group.

The Forest Lake Times recently moved their offices to Stillwater, yet they remain invested in knowing our community. Last week, Forest Lake High School students walked out in protest of a new policy that would remove a ban on hate group insignia. This caught the attention of the networks in the Twin Cities, yet our local Forest Lake Times was diligent in covering this story by talking to parents, teachers, students, and school board members. The FLT has covered this developing story for the last few months.

The reporting by Hannah Davis, news editor, and Aaron Heckmann, community editor, remains a timely resource with online articles on social media and the paper's website covering events before the paper edition comes out each Thursday. I am grateful for their journalistic integrity to tell the story by presenting the facts and not making their opinions and feelings the story.

When they tell us the facts, they are doing the best they can to help us be an informed community, whether we like the facts or not.

That’s the truth.

Pastor John Klawiter is the senior pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, an ELCA congregation in Forest Lake. For more information, email him at