I was raised in a devout Evangelical home. Both parents were and are sincere Christians. I “asked the Lord Jesus into my heart” at age six and was baptized at age eight.

My parents were devout and raised us to be. We never skipped church and we read about and talked about the Bible, God, and Jesus as naturally as talking about anything else.

At about age fifteen I started living in ways that were, whether I admitted it or not, incompatible with my Christian confession. About a year later I repented. This led to loads of enthusiasm which really made me endearing to all my more secular friends.

I had a Presbyterian Sunday School teacher in high school who introduce discussions of calvinism into a place that otherwise was under charismatic hegemony. (Military base / all Protestants together)

I had never heard of the concept of election before this happened. I hated the idea when I first heard about it (before backsliding mentioned above).

When I resumed walking like a Christian, I got to see the original Holiness of God films from R C Sproul where he wore a turtleneck, colorful pants, and had straight black hair. I was a monergistic TULIP calvinist (L may have taken longer but I can’t remember) by the end of the series.

I became a calvinist after I had already been accepted to attend a Wesleyan college.

I had perfect grades, won a contest to go on the space shuttle, and was a perfect delight to all my classmates in the gentle and charitable way I explained to them that I was right and they were wrong about the basics of salvation.