I was born in Washington, D.C. in 1956, eventually being smack in the middle of a large family (the 4th of 7 siblings.) My father was covert in the Central Intelligence Agency and my mother a full-time homemaker and avid reader. Both had served in Naval Intelligence in World War II.

Although my father was not a believer or actively religious in any way, my mother was a devout Roman Catholic and, with Dad’s support, saw that we were raised that way, including weekly mass. I attended Catholic schools when we were stateside, Department of Defense schools plus Catholic catechism training when we were overseas.

I was part of the “hippy” movement in my teenage years in early adulthood, but was converted to Christ in 1975 through the Jesus Movement that had been rippling through the country since the late 1960’s. After spending a few years working full-time in a factory and learning to walk as a Christian believer, I returned to college in 1980 to study Psychology and finished, with honors, in 1982, while working as a residential staff member in a youth rehabilitation program. That year I was also married to Kathy Burd.

Following our marriage, I interned full-time at a state hospital. We then moved to the D.C. area where I took a position as a Psychiatric Assistant at a private mental hospital. This continued through my graduate work at American University, where I switched from Psychology to Sociology and graduated, under a full scholarship, in 1985.

During this time, I saw that I was called specifically to focus on social trends and issues, particularly related to the growing "pro-family" and "pro-life" movements during the Reagan years. I still wanted to help hurting people, but now more in understanding, and helping to expose and resist, what I understood as some of the major ways people were being harmed, and hurting one another, in our increasingly hyper-egoistic, hyper-relativistic, post-Christian culture.

While completing a master’s I also served as a Research Associate with the Office of Policy Research at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (H.U.D.). In addition, I did research work to support a book on Ronald Reagan put out as part of his 1984 re-election campaign: Ronald Reagan: In God I Trust (Tyndale House, 1984) by David R. Shepherd. I also completed two national surveys of pro-life pregnancy counseling centers, which received significant attention in the press through such vehicles as Vogue Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Baltimore Sun, and The Sacramento Bee.

My master’s research project was a study of field engineers conducted at a Fortune 500 company that sold, installed, and serviced military computer systems, where Kathy was employed as a project manager for Navy and Coast Guard contracts. Immediately following graduation from American University I did medical cost containment research. Though my real interests were in pro-life, marriage, family and so on, I took advantage of every opportunity I could to improve my research skills and learn how to effectively communicate empirical findings to a variety of audiences in ways that helped folk make constructive use of them.

In 1985, my daughter Leah was born. Then, in 1986 I was invited to join the faculty at The King's College, then in Briarcliff Manor, New York. I started my doctoral work at N.Y.U. in 1987, while teaching full-time. Eventually, this included getting a full scholarship for one semester. I had to turn down a research assistantship as I was committed to King’s and had a family to care for.

I taught my first Family course in 1987 and have been involved in researching and teaching about Marriage and Family now for about forty years, not only in the college classroom or in the policy arena, but in the church and publications, particularly those directed toward educated lay people and Christian leaders. In 1991, my essay critiquing modern feminism appeared as Chapter 18 of the award-winning Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Wayne Grudem and John Piper, Eds., Crossway, 1991, 2006).

My daughter Elizabeth was born in New York in 1989. Shortly after moving to teach at Dallas Baptist University in Dallas, Texas in 1991, Emily came along! From there it was the St. Louis, Missouri area doing private research and consulting work through my own company, and serving as a Research Associate and writer with Practical Homeschooling magazine, where my son Frank was born at home in 1995. Finally, I joined the faculty at Grove City College in 1996. Here we had Joshua (born 1999), and then Rebekah (born 2001), and Kathy and I enjoyed the first truly stable, long-term living situation in our married lives. Except for Emily, who completed her degrees at John Brown University, each of my other children have graduated from Grove City College.

Professionally, despite my focus on research, teaching, and writing, I have remained interested in applying all this in counseling settings to at least some extent. Thus, I received training to do premarital counseling using the PREPARE inventory and counseling system. I have counseled a number of engaged couples over the past sixteen years.

I was asked by my superiors at Grove City College to get involved in academic administration especially from 2003 forward. As one can imagine, this cut into the amount of time I had for my research, writing and teaching, though it also involved a lot of valuable work and learning for me that I was grateful to God for. Despite these responsibilities, during this period I wrote test banks, instructor's manuals, numerous articles, and published two books with the well-known academic publisher Wadsworth (later Cengage): Experiencing Social Research (2001) and Investigating Social Problems (2004). 

A few years ago, I knew it was time to shift away from administration. I wanted to return full circle to what I had started back in 1986. At my request, I returned to full-time faculty work at the beginning of 2020.

Even though teaching is hard work, my publishing output—particularly focusing on the areas of marriage, family, and sexuality—has increased significantly. This has included four books published since 2019.

First was Christian Marriage: A Comprehensive Introduction (Lexham, 2019), the major culmination of decades of teaching and writing on marriage. Second was Why Would Anyone Get Married? (Sola Media/ Core Christianity, 2022). I wrote this very brief (70 page) book at the request of the good people at Modern Reformation, for whom I had written (in their print magazine and online venue) on marriage in the past. Third was After the Revolution: Sex and the Single Evangelical (Lexham, 2022; foreword by Carl Trueman). Here, I laid out God’s plan for sexuality versus the current state of modern evangelical belief and practices in this area, with a detailed exploration of causes and solutions. Fourth was Track—A Student’s Guide to Dating, Marriage, and Sex (Christian Focus, 2023). This is a short book written for teens that is part of a series edited by John Perritt for Reformed Youth Ministries.

(For more information on these books, visit the “My Books” page of this website.)

As of this writing I am preparing to begin my final year at Grove City College. I intend to enjoy my six children, my five children-in-law, my six grandchildren, and whatever new grandchildren Kathy and I are blessed with. I also have long enjoyed playing and writing music, not to mention hunting, fishing, and camping. But I also intend, God willing, to continue writing, speaking, and doing some teaching. (Hence this website!)

I have a couple book projects in the planning and proposal stages, and hope to continue my output of articles, including expanding the outlets I am published in. I am exploring some part-time college teaching opportunities as well. I especially wish to serve churches by teaching at Sunday Schools, seminars, retreats, and similar speaking venues. My goal is to use my many years of experience, teaching, research, and writing to instruct and encourage the saints, particularly in marriage, family, engaging culture, sexual identity and faithfulness, in these difficult days.

Whatever happens, I know that God’s faithfulness will continue to the end of my days here, and into a glorious future worshipping Christ in eternity. He has been so good to me and those I love! Beyond my imagination, certainly beyond anything I could begin to deserve.

Deus semper fidelis.