Testing one, two three, one two three this is radio free Mormon on the air

broadcasting behind enemy lines tonight's episode from childhood's hour I have

mentioned a number of times

that I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day Saints in the month of June

in the year of 1978, right after I had graduated from high school.

I've talked about a number of stories associated with my being baptized,

especially in my interview with John Delin at Mormon's stories from last November.

You may remember that seven-hour marathon interview. and about the circumstances immediately surrounding my getting baptized into the

LDS church. What I have not talked about and what I hope to go into tonight are

events from my childhood prior to being 18 years old and events that shaped me in such a way as to make me ready to accept

the gospel in 1978.

I was born in 1960.

My parents were both old enough to be my grandparents. My dad was 40 years old, the year I was born, and my mother was 37.

I was the third of three boys.

My oldest brother was five years older than I and the middle brother was two years older.

Yes, I am the baby of the family and perhaps that alone explains a lot about my personality.

I was raised with almost an absolute dearth of religious upbringing by my parents.

My dad was a rock-ribbed atheist. My mother, on the other hand, had been raised in a small town

outside of Abilene, Texas, and so of course she had a good Baptist

upbringing. But she became disaffected from the Baptist church and from religion in general

at a relatively early age. And the reason was because the Baptist minister of the church he attended

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