What happens when the world tries to define your identity — but God invites you to walk a different path?

In this powerful episode of Calibrate Conversations, Brady sits down with Jason Mellard to hear his deeply personal story of growing up with same-sex attraction, navigating confusion, trauma, and shame, and ultimately discovering healing and clarity in Christ.

Jason shares how cultural labels, childhood wounds, and internal conflict shaped his journey — and why rejecting identity labels didn’t mean denying his experience, but refusing to let it define him. This conversation explores faith, forgiveness, trauma, recovery, identity, and what it looks like to walk with God through confusion rather than trying to escape it.

This episode offers hope, honesty, and wisdom for anyone wrestling with identity, sexuality, or finding clarity in a confusing world.

Key Themes:

-Same-sex attraction without identity labels

-Healing from childhood trauma and abuse

-Identity in Christ vs cultural labels

-Walking with God through confusion

-Forgiveness, boundaries, and redemption

-Why behavior management isn’t the gospel

-Faith, recovery, and emotional healing

Timestamps:

0:00:37 — From Confusion to Clarity

0:02:00 — Walking Into the Fog

0:03:39 — “What’s Wrong With Me?”

0:05:01 — When Suppression Breaks

0:07:54 — The Relief of a Label

0:08:49 — “They Told Me I Was Gay”

0:11:17 — Searching for Belonging

0:13:24 — Why Men Felt Mysterious

0:18:42 — The Hidden Wound

0:21:24 — How My View of God Was Formed

0:23:02 — God Walks Into the Fog

0:31:17 — “You’re Gay Because of Your Jacket”

0:34:53 — Don’t Bury Your Life

0:39:41 — Being Fully Known

0:51:10 — “No One Gets to Define Me”

Join us weekly as we strive help people embrace God's standard for sexuality!

Other ways to listen:

https://linktr.ee/calibrateconversations

#Identity

#Clarity

#Healing

In this episode of Calibrate Conversations, Brady Cone sits down with Shannon Ayres, Texas Education Director for Citizens Defending Freedom, to expose what’s really happening inside school and public libraries.

Shannon shares her firsthand story of assuming her district was safe—“That’s not happening in Frisco, Texas”—until she started checking the titles in her kids’ school library. What she found shocked her… and launched her into a statewide effort to protect children from graphic, agenda-driven content.

We walk through:

* How explicit books are ending up in school libraries

* Why even small rural towns aren’t immune

* How top-down ideology is shaping library culture

* Why opt-out policies don’t actually protect kids

* The legal fight in Texas—and the strategy other states can use

* What every parent MUST do to safeguard their children (even if homeschooling isn’t an option)

If you’re a parent, educator, pastor, or Christian concerned about the ideological capture happening in schools, this conversation is essential.

👉 Get resources & learn how to get involved:https://citizensdefendingfreedom.com

👉 More biblical resources for sexuality & discipleship:https://calibrateministries.com

Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction & Why Libraries Matter

01:32 – “That’s Not Happening in My Town…”

03:30 – COVID, Losing Her Business & Becoming Activated

07:35 – Parents vs. Massive School Legal Departments

08:36 – The ALA’s Ideological Capture of Libraries

12:21 – Why Opt-Out Policies Don’t Protect Kids

19:03 – School Board Meetings: The Most Empty Important Room

24:55 – Secret Gender Transitions Hidden from Parents

33:08 – Why “Obscene” Isn’t the Right Legal Term

38:54 – How to Audit Your School Library Step-by-Step

Join us weekly as we strive help people embrace God's standard for sexuality!

Other ways to listen:

https://linktr.ee/calibrateconversations

#Scandal #Libraries #ProtectingKids #Sexuality

Today’s episode exposes an issue far deeper than most parents realize: what’s actually inside our public and school libraries. The journey began when I opened a copy of Gender Queer in a small-town bookstore and saw a graphic sexual illustration—sitting in plain view for any child to pick up. That moment sent me down a trail that led from local libraries all the way up to the American Library Association.

To help us understand the full picture, I interview Bonnie Wallace from Llano County, Texas. Bonnie discovered explicit books containing graphic scenes, sexual content, and online grooming pathways—in the children’s section of her library. When she raised concerns, she and her county were sued for simply moving the books to the adult side.

Her legal battle went from the local level, to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court—resulting in a landmark decision affirming the right of libraries to protect kids from inappropriate material.

In this conversation, we break down:

-How radical ideology has infiltrated the American Library Association and state library associations

-Why explicit materials are being pushed toward minors

-Why some books are too explicit for prisoners, yet accessible to children

-How pornography and graphic content shape a child’s mind

-What Christian librarians and Christian parents must do

-Practical steps for protecting your kids at home, school, and in your county

-Why Christians must run for school boards, library boards, and local office

-And why “book banning” is a false narrative—this is about book boundaries, not censorship

Parents: your vigilance matters. Shepherd your kids’ hearts. Guard what they see. Engage in your local community.

If one woman can take on the library industry and win, imagine what thousands of Christians standing up for righteousness could do.

Join us weekly as we strive help people embrace God's standard for sexuality!

Other ways to listen:

https://linktr.ee/calibrateconversations

#Sexuality #Libraries #Scandal