When I was a kid, my dad represented a man accused of multiple murders, and when he was acquitted of the crimes, as a show of gratitude, he took our family out to dinner at Bonanza Steakhouse. As we all sat there eating, I kept staring over at the man, wondering if he was capable of such atrocious acts. At one point, he busted me, looked up from his plate and met my gaze. He set his silverware down and…

When I was 19, I was shipped off to serve a two-year mission for my church and one of the rules was that we weren’t permitted worldly distractions, particularly movies. One evening, my companion and I were over at a Japanese family’s house and they threw Castle in the Sky on for their kids while we chatted about boring churchy stuff at the dining room table.

What started as a few stolen glances quickly became a full-on apostasy as I…