Can therapy make gay people straight? Originally published in Salon.com. THE NIGHT JOHN WESTCOTT WALKED into his first meeting of Eleutheros, he had no idea where his life was heading—but he knew that he desperately wanted it to change. “Pray for me,” he had announced to friends several months earlier. “I’m walking out of Egypt.” […]
Steel-Town Lockdown
Corrections Corporation of America is trying to turn Youngstown, Ohio, into the private-prison capital of the world. Originally published in Mother Jones. Reprinted in The Best Business Stories of the Year, edited by Andrew Leckey and Marshall Loeb (Vintage Books, 2001). BOB HAGAN WAS READING HIS E-MAIL one July afternoon when the telephone rang at his home in Youngstown, […]
Shocking Discipline
Originally published in Mother Jones. WHEN JEFFREY LEE WEAVER went on trial last year for killing a police officer, court officials in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, decided to try out their newest piece of electronic gadgetry. Because Weaver was serving as his own lawyer and would have to move around the courtroom, the 37-year-old couldn’t wear shackles. So […]
Walking Home
In the Triangle’s Hispanic heart, a Baptist mission learns the joys and trials of building a community. Photos by M.J. Sharp. Originally published as a two-part series in Indy Week. (Click here for Part 2.) Part 1: Soul and Skin SOMETIME THIS SPRING, when the weather gets warm, the members of Loves Creek Hispanic Baptist […]
Academic Apprentices: Still an Ideal?
With hundreds of Ph.D.s competing for every available faculty position, the apprentice model that sustained generations of silversmiths and printers seems to fall apart at the university level. Originally published in Duke Magazine. THE APPRENTICE IS ONE OF AMERICA’S most enduring icons. Whether it’s Paul Revere silversmithing at his father’s shop or fifteen-year-old Horace Greeley knocking on […]
Holy Spirit
Carrie Bolton preaches a freedom message—and not just inside her church. Originally published in Indy Week. HENRY HUNTER WAS STILL A YOUNG MAN the day he learned Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation. With a presidential penstroke, the world suddenly seemed too big for Hunter to stay on the farm where his family lived. “I’ve […]
Gay No More?
A breakaway group of Christian and secular therapists claims to be able to convert homosexuals into heterosexuals—if they’ll just get with the program. So what exactly is the program? And does it work? Originally published in Psychology Today. IT’S A SUNDAY MORNING in Lecanto, Florida, and Faith Chapel is filled with the Holy Spirit. Tambourines shaking, guitar […]
Burnt Twice
Carolina Solite’s neighbors thought the toxic fumes were bad enough. Then came toxic neglect from the state. Originally published in IndyWeek. THE FARM WHERE JOANN ALMOND grew up looks like a slice of Americana. Children play in a pasture amid goats and horses. Rabbits and doves live in cages, while a handful of chickens run free. The […]
Wrestling With Words
For stutterers, speaking is not just a physical handicap but also crippling psychological problem. Now gaining popularity is a radical—and controversial—notion: that stutterers are better off learning to accept their impediment rather than striving to overcome it. Originally published in Psychology Today. HEAD BOBBING, FACE GRIMACING, Vicki Schutter stood before a microphone in a Cleveland hotel and […]
A Carolina Democratic Dream
Tar Heel archconservative Lauch Faircloth finds himself in a tough race against a personable Democrat who’s got a populist approach and money, too. Originally published in The Nation. JOHN EDWARDS KNOWS HE’S WALKING INTO THE LION’S DEN. It’s the Thursday before Labor Day, and the Democratic US Senate candidate is about to address the Rotary Club of […]
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