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How do you feel your faith was portrayed on the show?

It may have looked like [the other Christians on my tribe and I] were walking around every five minutes saying, "Praise the Lord." We were not. I could say "Thank you, Jesus" once in a day and they would use it in several voiceovers or place it in other conversations.

Each time I praised God, I walked away by myself and had my own quiet time because people get intimidated by something they don't understand. When we lost a challenge, I would thank God that no one was injured. But [the show's producers] only made it look like I prayed when we won. That was not the case. They never highlighted the fact that I thanked God that we all stayed healthy and returned from challenges.

There were also times when my words were misconstrued. It is unfortunate, but we sign up that they can use our voice, our image, and anything they want during the show. There was one on-show interview where I was asked, "How do you feel as a Christian having to lie and backstab? Do you feel you can ask for forgiveness afterwards?"

I answered, "As a Christian we have that liberty to go to our Lord and Savior after we have wronged our brother or sister and ask forgiveness. In this game, though, I cannot do that. I can't lie and backstab and then turn around and say, 'Oh Lord, please forgive me.' Nor can I say, 'Lord, I am about to lie to this person, please forgive me after the fact.'"

When it aired on television, my words were flipped around. The minute I heard it I said, "Oh my, that is not what I meant." I got a lot of flak for it. I had preachers e-mail me saying I was not a good role model for Christianity.

How does Christian ethics interact in a game where there's a certain amount of manipulation and deception needed to win?

A lot of people claimed that I was a hypocrite because I lied and backstabbed, but I looked at it as a game. I said, "Lord, the rules of this game are to outwit, outplay, and outlast. You wouldn't allow me to come here and do these things if you felt I was being a hypocrite as a Christian." That was my conviction. I looked it as playing a game of poker. Sometimes you have to embellish your hand. It is part of the game.

As a Christian, it is definitely an opportunity to see how well you can go out and play a non-Christian game. That was what I chose: to take an opportunity to play a game and be someone totally different than who I am. Don't get me wrong: I still had my morals. But because I knew I was playing a game, I could truly put my morals aside and play. It is within the context of a game, so I didn't feel bad about anything I did or anything I said.

It was tough to do what I had to do in order to advance instead of taking the game personally. Some people are not able to do that. There were times that Joanna Ward [from Survivor: Amazon] couldn't do that. She truly brought her Christianity into the game. She didn't want the immunity idol in the camp. I wanted to tell her, "Get past that. Don't look at it like idol worshiping. Look at it as a reward for your team not voting someone off."

She couldn't step out of her Christianity and focus on why she was there. Maybe her reason for being there was to win souls. I don't know what her key objective was. But mine was to solely win the game.

Did you take opportunities in the game to share your faith?

I wanted to be an example [to those in the tribe] more than someone throwing the Bible around. They saw something different in me. When they asked me what it was, I told them that I loved the Lord. There were times that I'd sing and someone would ask me what I was singing. I'd sit them down and tell then that it was a song from my church. It opened a door.

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May (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47