Thou Shalt Not Mix Religion and Politics: My Sunday Sermon at the 'Church of the Presidents'

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For just a brief moment, I felt like the president of the United States giving a press conference. After all, as I looked out at the crowd I was preparing to address, there in the first row sat Helen Thomas! Helen is the pioneering woman journalist who worked for several decades for United Press International, including many as its chief White House correspondent. She was an institution at presidential press conferences, often being the first reporter to lob a question at chief executives ranging from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush.

But this was no White House event. In reality, I was taking part in a presentation at St. John's Episcopal Church, a Washington, D.C., house of worship close to Lafayette Square that has been dubbed "the Church of the …