Promise Keepers? Yup! I not only went with the men in my church, my dad sought to make it a yearly ritual.
(When I handed out “purity keys,” as part of the ceremony, one of my kids gleefully told me that he was calling this gift that I gave him “the key to my crotch.” #YouthPastorWin!) Focus on the Family? Yup! James Dobson was a standard voice in my home. I signed the card, held the promise, and taught it to my youth group when I became a youth pastor. Each page I turned I saw my spiritual history. In all honesty, it was terrifyingly disconcerting. I wish I could tell you that reading this book was a wonderful experience. After I professed an evangelical faith in the “spiritual leadership” of the man of the home, as well as the “place of women” in the church, a perspective which was “clearly biblical,” she looked at me and simply said, “Oh, I can’t marry someone who believes that.” We were both pursuing vocational ministry at the time, and as you do, we discussed various beliefs, perspectives, and dreams. In 1997 I began dating a woman which quickly led to the discussion of marriage.
WWNorton’s book page book page NPR Author interview Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.
