From: jimruttshow8596
The life story of Glenn Loury, as chronicled in his memoir Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative, reveals a profound journey through personal struggles and subsequent redemption. He openly discusses leading a double life, battling addiction, facing public humiliation, and ultimately finding sobriety and a renewed spiritual path [03:55:00].
Early Life Missteps and Recklessness
During his time at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Loury admitted to being irresponsible, indulging in “joy riding” and “drinking vodka in the middle of the day,” which led to poor academic performance and being asked to take a leave of absence from school [27:26:00]. This period also saw him get his girlfriend, Charlene, pregnant, leading to family disappointment and a need to find a job [28:37:00]. His earlier “hairbrain scheme” to steal a car for a prom date, which resulted in his arrest, also highlights a period of youthful recklessness [24:52:00].
Leading a Double Life and Infidelity
Despite achieving significant academic and professional success, Loury began leading a “double life” marked by philandering and extramarital relationships, driven by a desire to stay connected to his “roots” and avoid becoming perceived as an “alienated” intellectual [01:24:22]. He describes this as a way of “proving to myself that I hadn’t lost touch with my roots” [01:26:26]. This behavior culminated in a highly public incident involving Pamela Foster in 1987. After a fight, Loury physically removed her from his apartment, leading to an assault charge, public humiliation, and damage to his marriage and career [01:28:49]. This incident forced him to withdraw from a potential political appointment in the Reagan Administration [01:29:16].
Descent into Cocaine Addiction
In the wake of the public scandal and personal devastation following the Pamela Foster incident, Loury descended into cocaine addiction, specifically smoking crystallized crack cocaine [01:37:20]. He used drugs “to escape the feelings of depression and bereft sense of desolation” [01:37:42]. This addiction led to a second public scandal when he was caught by Boston police in possession of controlled substances [01:38:40].
The Path to Redemption
Loury’s journey to redemption involved multiple attempts at treatment:
- He initially went into treatment, but relapsed [01:39:10].
- He then entered inpatient treatment at McLean Psychiatric Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, a “renowned psychiatric hospital,” but relapsed again [01:39:03].
- Finally, he found success living in a halfway house for five months between June 1987 and Thanksgiving 1988, where he was able to stop using cocaine [01:39:43]. His mantra became “one day at a time, I only have to not use today” [01:40:59].
During this period of recovery, Loury also underwent a profound spiritual transformation, gradually submitting himself “with great enthusiasm to my Christian faith” [01:40:03]. He became a “devout Christian and a practicing member of a growing congregation in Boston” [01:40:20].
Loury was able to rebuild his life and his marriage to Linda, who remained “a wonderful person” and “stuck with me through thick and thin, through my philandering, through my drug addiction” [01:41:20]. They had two children together, Glenn II and Nehemiah, and their marriage was “restored after a fashion” [01:41:39]. Loury admits he “wasn’t always faithful” to Linda even during her decade-long struggle with metastatic breast cancer [01:45:35]. He recounts finding her self-help book on forgiveness, with marginal notes indicating her efforts to forgive him, which he now considers among his “sacred things” [01:46:20].
Evolving Spiritual Views
While initially a “born-again Christian,” Loury later developed doubts about some tenets of his faith. He identifies as agnostic, stating he “cannot believe what I affirmed when I became a born-again Christian which was that a man was raised from the dead and that he still lives” [01:42:24]. However, he maintains deep respect for the religious community he was a part of and the “seeking that people were engaged in to try to ground their lives in a meaningful understanding of the ordering of the nature of things” [01:42:50]. This perspective aligns with broader discussions on the meaning crisis and the human quest for grounding in existence [01:43:34].
Glenn Loury’s journey serves as a powerful testament to resilience and the possibility of personal transformation even after hitting rock bottom.