Twenty years ago today I did something I swore I’d never do.
I shared the deepest, seemingly darkest, dirtiest secret of my life. I shared a part of myself that up until that point in time I had sworn to keep secret to my grave. And yet I couldn’t keep quiet any longer.
So on March 26, 2003, I stood up in Moody Coliseum on the campus of Abilene Christian University and came out to the combined chapel audience of 5,000 faculty and students.
It occurred to me driving on the ice that it would be so easy to just veer off the road, go through the guard rails and down into the ravine, hoping the car would just roll over and over and that I wouldn’t survive that tumble. Then I would never have to acknowledge that I was attracted to women. Never have to hurt and embarrass my family. Never have to experience the deep shame – deeper than I had already felt for years – of coming out to friends.
“…we found common ground to bind us together. Not our sexuality, because our stories are all different. What united us is Jesus.”
When I was growing up we listened to Paul Harvey’s radio show while riding in the car. He was famous for telling stories about people and events that were fairly well known, only he would add a portion of the story that wasn’t as well known. It was always something that made the story even…
We’re getting closer to putting a book together….. A couple of weeks ago I met with Dr. Leonard Allen, director of Leafwood Press, who’s publishing the book I’ve been working on for the last several months. I’ll never forget the day Leonard asked me if I’d thought about a title for the book. It was…
a 'peace' of my mind.... 