This is not me. This is a baby.

On September 13th, sixteen years ago, my little youth group attended an event at Compass Point Church in Burlington, Ontario. I was seventeen at the time. The preacher was a radio guy named James MacDonald. He was at the height of his celebrity and the place was packed. We had great seats near the front right. I was there because my parents made me do church stuff. That’s what Christians do, after all. They do church stuff.

But I wasn’t a Christian. My life was...