My Highly Curated Story
Short Version: Dru Johnson is visiting associate professor at Hope College in Holland, MI (was a professor at The King’s College in New York City), director of the Center for Hebraic Thought, editor at The Biblical Mind, host of The Biblical Mind podcast, and co-host of the OnScript Podcast. Before that, he was a high-school dropout, skinhead, punk rock drummer, combat veteran, IT supervisor, and pastor—all things that he hopes none of his children ever become.
Medium Version: I have successfully remained married to one woman (God bless her!) since 1998. Also, I have four kids who wish not to be named (here we all are in 2006; good luck identifying them on the street today!).
At 16 years old, I failed out of high school due to the nominal success of my punk band—American Waste Control (ca. 1989–90)—and a waning career washing dishes in an Irish pub.
After getting my “skinhead” tattoo covered up at 17 years old, I served seven years total, on active duty and reserves, in the U.S. Air Force—working in ground-based units on counter-narcotics operations in the Amazon basin of Colombia (ca. 1993–98). Here’s an interview I did with the Half Percent Podcast on my time in the military if you’re interested. In 1993, I relented to God and I “became a Christian” (as they politely say, though that in no way captures the radical change in me).
Out of college with a degree in psychology, I got married to my current wife and worked in I.T. while in seminary. I then served for eight years as an associate pastor at a non-denominational church in St. Louis, Missouri and then two years with Holy Trinity Church in St Andrews, Scotland. I used to teach regularly in Western Kenya in a school for rural pastors, though not much anymore. I’m still ordained in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, but for my day job, I work as a college professor in NYC and a semi-pro scribbler on the side.
For those of you who are fluent in the language of “nerd”, my curriculum vitae.
Dru Johnson 