Mine is a tale of a boy raised in a fundamentalist, Calvinist tradition in the swamp-filled pinelands of central Florida, chafing under its harsh image of an angry God. Yet that’s where desire was first planted in him—a longing for something as alluringly beautiful as it was awesome and demanding. Growing up, he marveled at underwater snakes and white cranes in the lake behind his house, even as the lusty, heartfelt singing of “Amazing Grace” stirred him in Sunday night services.
