Spring 1977: A Nude Conversation with the Preacher's Son

Every four years, the Nazarene Young People's Society held an International Institute, where selected Nazarene teenagers from around the world gathered to "deepen their spiritual witness" and "spread the Word of God."  In 1977, just after my junior year in high school, it was to be held in Fiesch, Switzerland.

Five teens would be chosen from the Northwest Illinois District, where there were over 2,000 Nazarenes. Maybe 200 teens would apply. My chances were 1 in 40.

I was determined to be selected.

1. I became a Johnny Nazarene, going to everything, even activities that most teens avoided: prayer meeting, choir, missionary society.  I sang in front of the church twice.

2. I went down to the altar regularly.

3. I applied for early admission to Olivet, our Bible College on the prairie.  Mostly because Verne, the preacher's son and my sort-of boyfriend (as long as there were girls around), was planning to go next fall.  It offered 30 majors, but everyone assumed that I would be studying to become a preacher, evangelist, minister of music, or missionary.

 The strategy worked: in March 1977, the District announced the names of the delegates, and I was #1.

As the days and weeks of my junior year at Rocky High passed, Verne began to conjure an idyllic future for us.  We would be roommates at Olivet, of course, and take lots of the same classes. He would play football, and I would be an athletic trainer.

Then, when we graduated, we would get called by the same church, maybe as preacher and minister of music.  They often worked as a team.  We would plan church services together.  We would go on retreats, prayer breakfasts, and sabbaticals. Our wives would exchange recipes in parsonage kitchens.  Our children would grow up together, and eventually marry each other.

Sometimes these conversations involved hugging.  Sometimes they involved playfully grabbing at each other while changing clothes.  I had already seen Verne nude in the locker room, and on our camping trip, but there was something especially erotic about nude horseplay, in his bedroom at the parsonage on a Saturday afternoon.

A random guy

One day in May 1977, while we were changing clothes after jogging, I got tired of the "wives and kids" litany.  "Why will we need wives?" I asked.  "Why can't it just be the two of us?"

He looked at me like I was crazy.  Then, after a long pause: "Have you ever seen a Nazarene preacher that didn't have a wife?"

"Um. ...no."

"Every preacher -- every man --  has to get married.  It's  a fact of life.  But friends are just as important.  Maybe more."  He put his hands on my shoulders and drew me into a warm, sweaty, hug "The Bible says that David loved Jonathan 'more than the love of women.'"

I wasn't satisfied.  "Why can't David and Jonathan live together without women?"

Verne laughed and broke away.  "Man, you get the craziest ideas!  Without women, they would be Swishes!"