Part 34 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal.
Byron Jamal once told me that the Christian Church, in his youth, handed him a mask to wear. He talked about putting on that mask of perfection and wearing it for many years. In the aftermath of his death, I can only wonder if he was ever really able to remove the mask, or masks, he wore for so long.
We wear the mask. We are well familiar with the comedy and tragedy masks. There are other lesser known masks. Wisdom and grief are masks. Knowledge and sorrow are also masks.
In this clip, from September 10, 2011, Brother Andrew brings us to the place in his story where he is standing, one Sunday morning, in front of his new church congregation, about to unmask before them a secret that he has been carrying around with him, like so much baggage, his entire life. Only right before he goes into further detail, he casually mentions that he was once married. Wait! What?!?! So, we pause, and briefly back up for the details of his 2001 marriage, before resuming with the big church confession. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 35 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal.
The masks we were handed through the doctrines we were taught. The masks we wear to survive our inner reality. The masks we remove to, ultimately, live as our Authentic Self. This is the context we are building around the October 9 death by apparent unaliving of Byron Jamal.
In this clip, from September 10, 2011, Brother Andrew talks about hisThe need for acceptance at a young age: “I did not want to be different.” Brother Andrew says that societal expectations caused him to lie to the woman he would marry and ultimately divorce. “Lying, that was just my pattern of living.” Brother Andrew says that he believed what the Christian Church taught him: that he could pray his gay away. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 36 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. This is a story about the masks we were handed, the masks we wear and the masks we remove.
In the wake of Byron Jamal’s death, on October 9, by an apparent unaliving, after being arrested on five counts of felony sexual act by a government/private institution employee, we are left to contemplate the masks he wore on his public face, that may have concealed a darker hidden life. Only God and Byron know the depths of those shadows.
Brother Andrew’s message, “No More Masks,” builds greater context for understanding “the battle royale,” as Brother Byron once described it to me, that some brothers face in reconciling their spirituality with their sexuality. In this clip, from September 10, 2011, Brother Andrew talks about his 18-month marriage to a woman he once wed, knowing full well that what he really wanted for himself was a man. He recalls the time his wife rolled over in bed and asked: “Are you gay?” He vehemently denied it. I then ask him: “So, did you all have a sex life that was fulfilling to you?” Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 37 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
Brother Byron, may he rest in peace, taught on the traumas he knew, speaking openly in his lifetime about the SA he experienced as a very young boy. Unmasking this part of his childhood was part of the public story he frequently told. There are others who knew even more of his layers; some of them have come forward, since his death, in social media comments on several platforms, detailing their intimate relationships with him. In the 14 years that I knew him, Byron Jamal and I never once spoke about a single romantic relationship either of us had ever experienced. I knew him as a brother. In the spirit. We mostly talked about God, the Bible and spiritual things, encouraging one another in the work we each felt called to do. I sensed in him something familiar, as if our souls had somehow intersected in a lifetime before this present realm.
Podcasting now for 16 years, I have met a few such souls in cyberspace, that I have never crossed paths with in person. I have heard and told their stories, and listened deeply to their teachings, without ever having laid eyes on them in real time. Brother Byron was one such person.
Brother Andrew is another. In this clip, he answers my inquiry about his sex life with his former wife. Then we pivot back to the pulpit, to that certain Sunday morning, when Brother Andrew stood before his church congregation and unmasked perhaps his deepest and darkest secret. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 38 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
The week after Byron Jamal first appeared on the podcast, I met Brother Andrew, from Long Beach, who reached out to share his story on the platform, back in 2011. Both of these brothers were raised in two-parent homes where they were loved and supported.
Denial. Deception. Depression. Silent agreements. Leadership roles as youth pastors of teens. Church hurt. Obesity. Loneliness. Thoughts of unaliving oneself. These are the common threads between these two brothers that are bigger than any one of their stories. It is these larger threads that are our primary focus.
In this clip, Brother Andrew talks about a whole row of his invited guests who rose from the pews in the middle of his sermon, “No More Masks,” and left the church, after he confessed to the entire congregation that he is gay. Some of them he had known his entire life. And he never saw or heard from any of them again. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 39 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
Byron Jamal (1983-2025) was a single man in his very early 40s with, to my current knowledge, no sons and daughters of his own. Culturally, a never-married man with no children raises eyebrows at the cookout. In the park, a man sitting alone on a bench is, for some, cause for a side eye. These are stigmas. Stereotypes. Generational, doctrinal teachings that have been ingrained in the collective consciousness and reinforced by religious and political traditions. Damages needing the soul work to heal. Some of us accept this mission and set about our lives doing this healing work. Others do not.
By grace and through discernment, we learn and we grow from listening to the stories of others. Even though we may have never shared their exact experiences, we may even still see and understand ourselves more clearly from witnessing their journeys.
After unmasking his sexual identity in front of his church congregation, Brother Andrew says he was worried about how his siblings would feel about him being around his nieces and nephews, now that the entire family, and indeed all of Long Beach, knew how he got down. In this clip, from September 10, 2011, he shares a conversation he had with his sister about her feelings surrounding his relationship with her children. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 40 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
Here in America, we were handed a ceremonial tradition of masks from European settlers and their masked balls of Old World society. Indigenous Americans had their own masks. Africans brought to the Americas had, too, their masks. These physical props have long been used in spiritual traditions throughout antiquity.
Beyond the physical are the invisible masks we wear. The ones hidden in plain sight. Some of our smiles are a mask. Some of our words are a mask. Some of our behaviors are a mask. The less truthful we are, the more masks we wear.
In this clip, from September 10, 2011, Brother Andrew talks about how two of his Aunties and a lifelong female family friend walked out of his sermon, “No More Masks,” as he removed a major mask of his own, revealing his sexual identity to his church congregation. He says his relationship with those Aunties and that family friend has never been the same since that Sunday morning. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 41 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
A spokesperson from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, responding to my inquiry regarding the current state of the case of Byron Jamal Leach, yesterday wrote this: “The SBI is investigating the in-custody death of Mr. Leach. There have been no new releases about the case, and no information is currently available. The investigation is active and ongoing.”
This statement arrived in my email inbox while I was reading Byron’s 2018 book, The Call Path: Volume 1: A Journey Into Love, that he sent to me right before our last recorded podcast conversation, but which I had not read before the interview. Which of his stories, how are his words now teaching me from the grave about the light and shadows of his life here above ground? He was the kind of writer that I read slowly. Thoughtfully.
“Be seen and not heard.” This is from the Silent Generation (1928-1945): in an effort to survive those times, they didn’t talk about anything other than putting one foot in front of the other, from sunup to sundown, one day after the next. Silent agreements in families: we all know, but we aren’t going to say a word to one another about it. This is silence as a mask. One that we are handed. One that we wear until we remove it.
“We wear the mask that grins and lies…it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,” wrote Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).
In this clip, which we recorded way back in the fall of 2011, Brother Andrew and I begin wrapping up our conversation about his sermon, “No More Masks.” Here, we are talking about the universality of pain, how no matter what the specific details of how one arrives at pain, it all feels the same: pain hurts. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 42 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
While we are looking at and pondering the visible facts of this case, we will never know the inner motives of Byron Jamal, as he sat there alone in a North Carolina jail cell, in the final minutes of his life on October 9. The haunting decision we are told that Byron made, in perhaps a desperate moment, where not one of us was present, to consciously bring to an end a life that he did not create. This choice, that thought, these visuals linger in the mind. A good deal of our choices can be fixed. There is that one decision that is final. We can no longer ask Brother Byron our questions in the flesh. Only in the spirit. We can, with righteous curiosity, listen once more to his words spoken (which we have done) and read his books written (which we will do). We can, with good intentions, discern what we will from that which we know, or think we know, of the life Brother Byron lived. We can, with benevolence, trace the footprints he left behind and paint a picture of the brother we knew. Or thought we knew. It is in these tracks, on this quest, that we are respectfully walking.
“We smile, but oh great Christ, our cries…To thee from tortured souls arise,” wrote Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).
In this clip, from September 10, 2011, we arrive at my final question for Brother Andrew, in our talk some eight months after he stood before his church congregation and unmasked a tormenting part of his identity, in his sermon titled “No More Masks.” It is in this testimony, one Sunday morning in Long Beach, that Brother Andrew confessed, “This is why I lied so long.” Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 43 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
We have now gone back through the podcast archives and listened once again, this time more deeply, to Byron Jamal’s words and teachings over the seven years that we recorded conversations together, covering a wide range of spiritual questions.
We then followed on with the story that came in one week after Brother Byron’s very first appearance on the podcast back in 2011. This was a discussion with Brother Andrew, from Long Beach, called “No More Masks.”
These brothers, who both grew up in loving two-parent homes, each talked openly and powerfully about the masks they were handed by the Christian Church. They detailed their early struggles, coming up in and being committed to the Church, with both having once served in leadership roles as youth pastors. We listened to their souldier stories: fighting obesity, loneliness, depression, deception, denial, silent family agreements, and thoughts of unaliving themselves. While he was here above ground, Brother Byron was very public about the SA he experienced as a child. That was not Brother Andrew’s experience: he was never violated as a child.
Our last conversation with Brother Byron, back in 2018, was right around the time he publicly declared his bisexuality. And we heard his reasons for doing so. By the time Brother Andrew and I spoke for the first time, he was eight months into his next chapter as an openly same-gender-loving man, as he describes himself. We walked with both of these brothers as they each took us on their journeys of removing the masks that they had been handed, in order to move forward as whole people, living their authentic lives in the truth that they understood about themselves.
In this clip, Brother Andrew and I share our final moments together from our first interview, on September 10, 2011. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 44 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
One of the great soul satisfactions of podcasting, season after season, is that you are able to tell a brother’s story through a series of interviews over a number of years that reveals the evolution of his journey over time. This was true with Byron Jamal. This is also true with Brother Andrew, whose story provides greater context for the unanswered questions we are left grappling with in the wake of Brother Byron’s death.
Unanswered questions. While we inhabit our body on this earth, we may never fully understand life’s many mysteries. What we can do is examine what we do know. Or think we know. This is the assignment. And it is a great privilege to have someone trust you enough to tell you their story. And to keep telling you their story, year after year, even though they have never laid eyes on you in person. These are spiritual relationships.
One year later. September 8, 2012. Brother Andrew and I sit down again, brother to brother, this time to discuss life after “No More Masks” and to get an update on his book, This is Why I Lied So Long. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 45 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
In his lifetime and through his teachings, Byron Jamal (1983-2025) arguably inspired and motivated a lot of people toward the self-knowledge and understanding that would ultimately produce for themselves more authentic lives. And like every other human being that has ever lived, with the help that he gave there was also some hurt that was served.
It is worth a minute or two to reflect upon the hurt and harm we cause others by the masks that we are wearing. And once wore. The damages we do to ourselves by the masks that we wear. And the repair required to heal the still-open wounds from the masks that we have long since removed and abandoned. There is often a wake that requires reckoning. These are called consequences. What price are you willing to pay for the masks that you are wearing? This is our exploration.
In this clip, from September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew apologizes to the women, including his former wife, that he once upon a time deceived as a brother on the down-low in his earlier years, before he came clean and complete with his sexuality and openly confessed his truth. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 46 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
Natural talents and spiritual gifts. Over the years on the podcast, Byron Jamal and I talked a lot about the distinction between the two. The different purposes of each. Natural talents more often than not get the rent and mortgage paid. Spiritual gifts many times return to you in the knock of a new opportunity and an opened door. This is bread long ago cast on the water that comes back to you one fine day in the development of your character, an elevation of Understanding and a greater sense of your intrinsic value to yourself and others in your sphere of influence. A seasoned appreciation of your spiritual gifts makes you love yourself more.
In this clip, from September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew talks about how he accepted the call to ministry primarily out of a talent for theatre and a passion for public performance. There was no higher calling that he heard from God. It was the voices of the people around him, urging him to preach, saying he would be good at it, that he says convinced him to eventually rise from the pews to bring forth the Word. As a youth pastor, once upon a time, Brother Andrew says that he was always subtly conscious of his sexual identity while ministering to the kids in his flock. He says that, after some time, he had an epiphany: he was teaching one thing to the youth and living another way himself.
This is what unhealed healers do: refuse for themselves the medicine they prescribe for others. Take a listen. (To Be Continued) #byronjamal
Part 47 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
“We wear the mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,” wrote Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). “This debt we pay to human guile; with torn and bleeding hearts we smile and mouth with myriad subtleties…”
Masks disguise what’s behind. And whatever is on the other side is something that the wearer does not want revealed while the mask is in place. On the most surface and material level, one’s physical identity is concealed. At another level, beyond what is seen, there are one’s secrets that are being masked. This is sometimes the words that one speaks and the behavior that one does in private that are never intended to travel beyond those walls. In this way a home that looks happy from the outside becomes a mask for the hidden dysfunction within. This is the happy family mask. In other words, how we speak and do outside of the house is incongruent with what really goes down at the kitchen table during mealtimes. And during the midnight hour. Some of these masks are more harmless than others. And then there’s the question of how many masks is one wearing at the same time? Multiple masks obscure many layers to unpack and analyze. This is our current quest.
In this clip, from September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew talks about why he will not take a young boy to the bathroom for a woman who has asks this of him in a public space. Take a listen.
#byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints…footprints…in the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
Part 48 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | Currently: Creating Context: The Evolution of Brother Andrew.
Stereotype and stigma cause masks to be raised. These masks rise from the shadows to cover shame and guilt. To prevent public embarrassment and humiliation. Human feelings become stories that we tell ourselves, about ourselves, over and over again. We begin to believe the stories we tell ourselves. We become what we think. We behave how we feel. And in our efforts to manage our ever fragile feelings, we wear the mask. This is the human experience. We might even call it the Universal Survival Mask. Everyone has one. You may recognize it as the urban scowl you witness on a brother’s face as you walk the streets, hot tea in hand, making your way to work on any mundane day. He isn’t mad. That scowl is protection. An amulet of sorts. A talisman. He’s wearing the mask. That’s the Don’t F**k With Me Mask. Many of us have one of those too.
In this clip, from September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew and I talk about the stigma surrounding never-married men with no children. Have you ever read in a newspaper obituary the last line: He never married and had no children. That is code. Stereotype. Stigma. Historically, that line was put in there to send a message, to raise an eyebrow, to cause a side-eye, to paint a specific picture and to implant a subtle suspicion in your mind: He wasn’t like other men. He was different. A mystery. An enigma. This unfortunately keeps many good, single, childless brothers from stepping forward as respected role models for those young boys and young men, in and out of the family, needing the presence of strong, stable and secure men in their vulnerable lives. Take a listen.
#byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints…footprints…in the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
Part 49 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | Currently: Creating Context: The Evolution of Brother Andrew.
Why this work now? For some assignments, there is no sign-up list. You are handed this work by the facts of life. And you will either say yes, and do the work, or you will say no and eat that fruit. Yes. Checked. When Byron Jamal (1983-2025) left this realm, that still small voice within asked: What are you going to do with all of the hours and hours of original interviews that you have with this brother? And with all of your archive material, from the others that I have sent into your life and work, that tells a larger story than the life and death of this one dearly departed brother? This is the sacred puzzle revealing its own picture as this work unfolds from a wiling vessel.
Be willing to be used by God for good purposes.
Traditional Christian Church doctrine — at least in the familiar Protestant Baptist tradition — teaches that through faith in Christ, your change will someday come; that, in the meantime, however, you are saved. What is saved is your soul, not your flesh, not your human personality, not your character. Your soul. We know this to be true because no matter how many times you receive Divine healing for all of the sickness and disease you have experienced, there is no cure for the nemesis of Age, which ultimately conquers all. Many of the faithful are seeking the promises as manifestations in this material realm, which is its own necessity and has its legitimacy on one level. One fine day, when Age and Death come to claim your physical body, however, all of your earthly possessions are to be left for others to divide and treasure. What will have been saved, for some, is the soul that left the body behind. That very soul, this inner garden, is what one is cultivating while still living and breathing in the human body.
The work of one’s life is to save one’s soul. And to enjoy everyday life. Much beyond that is ego.
The masks we remove. In this clip, from September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew talks about his book, This is Why I Lied So Long. He brings us to one night when he was 17, standing at his church altar in Long Beach, where he says that against his Inner Knowing, he accepted the call to preach the Word. Brother Andrew divided his own soul in this way, he says, to please other people. “In my eyes, the Bible enslaves me, because it tells me I’m not supposed to be who I am,” he says. Take a listen.
#byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints…footprints…in the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
Part 50 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | Currently: Creating Context: The Evolution of Brother Andrew.
The masks we were handed. Sitting in church, listening to the preacher’s sermon, Sunday after Sunday, year after year, decade after decade. This can create in one a sin consciousness: the belief that some of your behaviors will forever damn you to Hell. This mindset makes you wrong. Unworthy. Undeserving. Not good enough. Worthless. These feelings become a cloak you don or a mask you put on, to cover the guilt, shame and embarrassment that has been preached into you as part of the indoctrination that is part and parcel of organized religious institutions. This is, perhaps, the broadest stroke of Church Hurt. Preachers, however well-intentioned they may have been, handed you these masks. They didn’t mean any harm. They believe that what they teach is good for your soul. And, for some, it may be. The point is to be clear on the distinction between indoctrination and education. The Holy Spirit, should you choose to accept this Presence, is the ultimate Teacher to edify and guide the soul. This is the still small voice. Listen.
You reach a place on your spiritual journey where you are absolutely clear on these two things: The Bible is essential. Preachers are optional. This is the path beyond church walls. Away from traditions that traumatize. Toward thoughts and ways of being that don’t make you hate and want to destroy yourself.
To love God and hate yourself is not holy. It is harmful. To love yourself is to love God.
There are whispers in the pews. “God don’t call no gays,” say the Silent Generation. Many Baby Boomers believed this too. Generation X began taking a second look. Millennials put in some work, gradually repairing this mindset. Gen Z is largely indifferent. This is evolution. In this clip, from September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew talks about the masks he once wore, especially in church, attempting to divert attention away from any public perception that he might be “batting for the other team,” as some people of a certain generation would put it. Take a listen.
#byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints…footprints…in the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 51 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
✅ (Parts 1-33) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 34-Current) Creating Context: The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015): “No More Masks.”
✍🏾 Deep healing. To what depths must one travel to get to that? Deep healing. To the roots. All of one’s vices long left behind, leaving only a singleminded focus on what is valuable and virtuous and of intrinsic spiritual endeavor, exploration and enterprise. Even, then, your mistakes do not hurt as they once did. Just a moment’s sting before a sigh and finally a giggle. Deep healing. Where you are exactly who you appear to be. Integrated. Whole. Balanced. Deep healing. This is the soul work. And some of us do not live to tell the tale. We leave before we ever really reach deep healing. We may not know this at that very moment just before we leave this realm — that we did not reach deep healing. Or maybe we do. This is one of the great and enduring mysteries of suicide: what were those last thoughts as one ends a life that one did not create? Deep healing. It is possible to reach deep healing. This is the daily work. Whatever it takes. Deep healing.
🗝️❓Will one’s deep healing show up in the last line of one’s obituary?
🎭 That masks we were handed. In this clip, from September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew talks about his book, This is Why I Lied So Long, particularly why he, once upon a time, wanted to take his own life. Take a listen.
🎬 #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 52 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove.
✅ (Parts 1-33) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 34-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 There is a great price to be paid for not loving yourself. To not love yourself is, many times, to hate yourself. To loathe some part of your body or aspect of your being. This self-hatred is ever present, even among the fabulous and famous. In vulnerable and trusted moments, I have heard their confessions of self-hatred. Imagine millions loving and adoring you and, on the inside, you are silently and secretly hating yourself. There are a great deal of souls living in this divided house. We are not born hating ourselves. We are taught to hate ourselves. This is learned behavior. Now, we learn again. To love yourself is to love God. To know yourself is to know God. To be yourself: this is the soul work.
🗝️❓Do you love yourself? Do you know yourself? Are you being yourself?
🎭 The masks we were handed. “Church was all I’d known, that was where I heard all the messages about how I should live my life,” says Brother Andrew. In this clip, from September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew talks about the lifelong impact of being continually preached to Hell from pastors at the pulpit, bringing forth their interpretations of the Word. “I think that’s where s***cide comes up for a lot of people,” he says. “We paint these images and we don’t know how to escape these images we’ve painted…I was going to kill this actual body, all this, for an image that I had made for other people to be impressed by, while this Black man, this human being was hurting on the inside. I was just gonna wipe him out, ” says Brother Andrew. “We’re already dead when we’re not living to our true being.” Take a listen.
🎬 #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 53 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal. | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 63 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-33) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 34-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 Familiar souls. You may not talk often. Your paths do not regularly cross in the routines of everyday living. You may never have even met in person at all. And yet when you do talk or text, when you do see one another, it is as if time, space and distance collapse and you pick right up where you last left off. Familiar souls. Byron Jamal (1983-2025) was a familiar soul. A brother in the spirit. We never met in person. And yet our paths crossed on the podcast for seven years of recorded conversations. This is Divine design. And yet when you are in the weaving process, when you are the pot of clay on the wheel in the moment, you do not necessarily know nor do you see the God’s Eye view of the ultimate what, when, where, why and how of it all. You just commit to doing in the moment the work that you are assigned. And the completion of the assignment reveals its ultimate purposes in a time you do not yet perceive. And then one fine day, you see something more. Familiar souls come and go. Some stay longer than others. Perceiving the purpose of this presence and completing the assignment for which you were brought together: this is the work of familiar souls.
🗝️❓Who are the familiar souls in my sphere of influence? What is our Divine assignment together? Am I presently doing this work?
🎭 The masks we remove. The more he came to Know Thyself, the more he began to break open and awaken, says Brother Andrew. In this clip, from September 8, 2012, he talks about such a spiritual awakening, an epiphany that he once upon a time had that caused him to question the substance of the religious teachings he had been receiving all of his life. “Why did I believe that for so long?” he says he asked himself. Take a listen.
🎬 #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 54 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 64 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-33) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 34-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 Nesut. | Suten. | King. | The word king is currently common in the culture. Brothers in the streets greet each other as king as a sign of respect, if not love. Are we referring to an earthly king or a heavenly king? Are these kings among men or spiritual kings who have mastered the Matrix of men? Know thyself. This is soul work and a major step on the road to the throne one claims. In this quest, we are examining the qualities of character exhibited by the kings among us. What masks they wear.
🗝️❓What kind of king am I? What is the spiritual substance of my kingship? Have I answered the high call, followed the ancient path, eaten the Divine breadcrumbs and walked out the requisite steps (discipline, commitment, sacrifice, temperance, responsibility) to the throne on which I sit?
🎭 The masks we remove. For four years (2011-2015), there was an anointing, a Divine favor and grace present in the conversations Brother Andrew and I recorded on the podcast, as he shared his spiritual evolution over time. He first reached out to me in 2011, to tell his story of “No More Masks.” This clip is from our second interview together, on September 8, 2012. We are talking about living in one’s truth. “The truth has become my friend,” he says. “I’m conscious about everything now…the truth, it frees you…I have to be careful because not everybody wants the truth.” Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 55 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 72 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-33) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 34-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 When I was a teenager, the brother of a teammate on my sister’s basketball team at the local municipal center came home from junior high school one day and unalived himself in his childhood bedroom. His name was Doug. I saw him a few times at the games. I didn’t know him well. Yet I have never forgotten him. God only knows (and perhaps maybe a family member or two) what led to his last act. Needless to say, there was a mental, emotional and psychological journey to that final moment.
We are each on a very layered and complex path, shaped by our genetics, our environment, our parentage, our schooling and our social circle. These trails we travel are lined with Divine breadcrumbs for us to see, eat and digest. We may not always see or perceive that this manna is there. When we do and this spiritual nourishment becomes a regular part of our diet, we carry on with purpose and confidence. There is a knowing that is present. There are, too, those roads we traverse where there are no crumbs ahead, only chaos, confusion and crisis. All of these paths challenge the senses and the spirit. Not to mention the toll that everyday living takes on the body and Mind. It is understandable how one reaches the point of giving up and refusing to go on any further.
In writings bearing Brother Isaiah’s name, we are told of that voice that meets you at the crossroads and says: this is the way, walk in it. Brother Isaiah wrote that we would have none of it, choosing instead the bitter fruit of our own way. Even if you think Isaiah is a figment of ancient imagination and never existed, is there any truth to be found in these words? This is a hard heart that, having been told and shown the ancient paths, nonetheless uses his freewill to choose the way of his own imagination, desire, pleasure and destruction. Subtle benevolent spirits opening doors, shining the light, showing the steps, leading and guiding one to higher ground, to what we are told is the promised land that is possible to reach in our own lifetime. And then there are those malevolent spirits, continually whispering in our ear, prodding us to hurt, harm and danger.
In this freewill universe, what we can do is choose. That is our most potent power. Every now and again, I think of what Doug’s life would have been, what he would have created and chosen to become in this present world. And I am inspired, once again, to be all that I Am.
🗝️❓Do I spend more time listening to my negative internal dialogue or my positive internal dialogue?
🎭 The masks we remove. In this clip, from September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew and I talk about the rebuilding process, brick by brick, after waking up spiritually and seeing, for the first real time, the grim realities of living in this present Matrix. And the spiritual truths that are hidden in plain sight. 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 56 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 72 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-33) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 34-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 Before the Bible. The average traditional church going Christian knows very little about the existence and substance of spiritual literature before the Bible. Everything preceding Jesus is tagged by most Protestant preachers as Pagan. Demonic even. By their tone and contempt, these pulpit teachers practically dare congregants to go look into anything before Genesis 1:1. This is part of Christian indoctrination dating back to Old World Rome in the century or so following the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Many self-identified Christians know very little of the history of the religion; they haven’t checked, relying instead on whatever they are fed from the pastor on Sunday morning. A great number of the faithful do as they are told by the shepherd of their flock. If, out of righteous curiosity, you exercise the free will that God gave you, and go off on your own and do deep research, and come back to the fold with additional information and questions, you risk being labeled a heretic. Demon-possessed. Such is the life of an independent thinker inside the walls of organized religious institutions.
Interpretations. Interpretation is a free will act. We are each all the time interpreting the massive amounts of internal and external stimulus we receive. We are interpreters of the world around us, the words we read, the teachings we believe and the vibes we get from the people we encounter. How and at what levels we interpret all of this determines how we think and feel about ourselves. Our interpretations are the stories we believe about ourselves and others. No one interprets things exactly as you do. There is always nuance. Add nuance to interpretation till you reach Understanding. This is a spiritual practice.
🗝️❓Am I interpreting my beliefs in ways that empower me? Does my belief system cause me to hate and want to harm myself? Is what I was taught to believe once upon a time still true for me now?
🎭 The masks we were handed and the masks we remove. Questioning God. Questioning interpretations of scripture that leave you feeling bad about yourself. “We have the same Bible in front of us, but everyone has a different interpretation of it,” says Brother Andrew, in this clip from September 8, 2012. “And it’s the interpretations that make people really just go haywire and hurt people — all in the name of God, we hurt people.” 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 57 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 72 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-33) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 34-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 There is a remnant that has been lifted from religious tradition and set down upon a path of sacred service outside the walls of the Christian Church. You will not see them in the pews on Sunday morning. Within their sphere of influence, however great or small, they are known by the spiritual fruit they produce and by the impact they have on the least of these among us. They are often lone wolf missionaries, doing their good deeds in silence. Not on social media. They do not post. They do not perform publicly. Their daily kindnesses are known only to those who benefit from their benevolence and largesse. You may never hear about or know their charity and compassion, unless and until you cross paths and receive from them the spiritual gifts they offer. These are the uncelebrated. Faceless. Nameless. Often rejected by the masses, these holy helpers are the shadow kings and queens — in this realm, but not of this realm — privately, subtlety and discreetly working with humility and in gratitude to bring about a world we aspire to live in and do not yet see. These are they that are seen most clearly beyond religious doctrinal judgment, through eyes that see, ears that hear and hearts that perceive and understand.
🎭 The masks we remove. Living with unresolved questions that trouble the soul. “Why have you forsaken me?” Brother Andrew says that, once upon a time, this was his inquiry to God. It went unanswered. In this clip from September 8, 2012, he talks about his life outside of the walls of organized religion. “I’m on this earth to be of service,” he says. There is a sacred service beyond religious activity. 🎙️ Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 58 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 73 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-33) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 34-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 Joiners and non-joiners. Most of what I know about the inner workings of Christian churches, I have learned from the experience of others. While I have been a member of two Baptist churches in my 59 years, I have never been involved in the back-of-house operations of any church. Never was I an usher. I have never attended Sunday School. Not one midweek Bible Study. No choir singing. Never attended Vacation Bible School. None of that. I sat in the pews, enjoyed the service, listened to the sermon and left. So, I have only front-of-house personal experience with the Baptist churches I attended.
Going to church all those years introduced me to the Bible and to the teachings of Jesus the Christ. And while I have retained a lifelong thirst for studying the Bible and following Jesus, as an adult living on my own, I have had little to no interest in attending church. I was baptized in my childhood church in 1976, when I was 10. The last time I was in that church was in 2007. I am one of those whose walk is outside of the walls of organized religious institutions. Because I am always talking and writing about God, this may come as a surprise to some. The only time I am in church these days is for funerals. I do not go to church. I Am the church. And I go to myself every single day. That said, I am religious about following the teachings of Jesus, which have served me well in my life. I have found deep and profound wisdom in all the red letters of the many Bibles I own. So, in that sense, I Am a disciple of Jesus the Christ. With humility and gratitude, I aspire to emulate His life and teachings. That is my spiritual journey in this present realm. This is the core of my soul work.
I am not a joiner. I never pledged a fraternity at university. While I was, for years, a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, I even left that organization after a while. I belong to no clubs and I am not associated with any organizations. I am neither Republican nor Democrat. Having removed all of those masks, some of us walk outside of all of that. Such is the life of an independent thinker.
🎭 The masks we remove. “The Bible to me, now, is a wonderful book of fiction,” says Brother Andrew, in this clip from September 8, 2012. From questioning God to questioning if there even is a God. This is the spiritual evolution of Brother Andrew. “I found the truth,” he says. “It’s a lonely world, it’s a lonely place.” 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 59 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 73 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-33) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 34-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 The Mysteries of Mythology. In the last paragraph of his book, The Masks of God: Volume 1: Primitive Mythology (Viking Penguin, 1959, p. 472), Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) writes: “Mythology — and therefore civilization — is a poetic, supernormal image, conceived, like all poetry, in depth, but susceptible of interpretation on various levels. The shallowest minds see in it the local scenery; the deepest, the foreground of the void; and between are all the stages of the Way from the ethnic to the elementary idea, the local to the universal being, which is Everyman, as he both knows and is afraid to know. For the human mind in its polarity of the male and female modes of experience, in its passages from infancy to adulthood and old age, in its toughness and tenderness, and in its continuing dialogue with the world, is the ultimate mythogenetic zone — the creator and destroyer, the slave and yet the master, of all the gods.”
🎭 The masks we remove. “The spirituality of truth.” Brother Andrew says this is now his path. Here’s a few more minutes from our September 8, 2012 podcast conversation. 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 60 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 74 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-33) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 34-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 Damages. For all the help, hope and healing that has come from Christian indoctrination, there has also been a lot of hurt, harm and danger done to some of the faithful within the walls of that organized religious institution. When you walk out of those doors for the final time, there is a rebuilding of beliefs that one has to undertake. We learn. We unlearn. We relearn. This is akin to living, dying and being reborn. Once the scales fall off, then what? Who are you? Where do you go from there? One has to dig deep to refashion a vision of God that is emotionally, mentally and psychologically healthy for you. This is not a one-size-fits-all prescription. This is a unique formula that one has to create for oneself, based upon the values and virtues one retains outside of traditional religious teaching. Religion can damage you, this is true; it can also develop you.
Les Brown taught me to reinterpret the past in ways that empower me now. This is a daily spiritual practice that happens in your Mind. This is the work.
🎭 The masks we were handed. Church hurt. It is a real thing. I feel it in this clip with Brother Andrew, from September 8, 2012. He talks about walking away from the church, religion, the Bible and God altogether. So, in my quest for deeper understanding, I get a little aggressive with Brother Andrew, saying, “People lied to you, not God. Why is God paying the price for what people did to you?” 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 61 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 75 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-28) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 30-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 In the opening chapter called “Thought and Character,” from his 1903 book, As a Man Thinketh, James Allen (1864-1912) writes: “Only by much searching and mining, are gold and diamonds obtained, and man can find every truth connected with his being, if he will dig deep into the mine of his soul; and that he is the maker of his character, the moulder of his life, and the builder of his destiny, he may unerringly prove, if he will watch, control, and alter his thoughts, tracing their effects upon himself, upon others, and upon his life and circumstances, linking cause and effect by patient practice and investigation, and utilizing his every experience, even to the most trivial, everyday occurrence, as a means of obtaining that knowledge of himself which is Understanding, Wisdom, Power. In this direction, as in no other, is the law absolute that ‘He that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened;’ for only by patience, practice, and ceaseless importunity can a man enter the Door of the Temple of Knowledge.”
🗝️ Thought and Character.
🎭 The masks we remove. Healing. As we begin wrapping up our conversation from September 8, 2012, here’s my question to Brother Andrew: “On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being completely healed and 1 being haven’t even started healing, where are you?” 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 62 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 76 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-28) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 30-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
💬 Eckhart Tolle, in his book, The Power of Now (Namaste Publishing, 1999, p. 25), writes: “Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body’s reaction to your mind — or you might say, a reflection of your mind in the body.”
✍🏾 Emotion. Tears between brothers. A lot of brothers will do everything they can not to show emotion in front of another man. We are socialized this way: by our fathers, our uncles, our male cousins, virtually any man who witnesses us being what they perceive to be “soft” — especially in public. So, when a brother does shed tears in your presence, as Brother Andrew does in this clip, it is important for a man witnessing that to know how to receive and respond to the brother’s emotions.
There have been many times on the podcast over the years when I have been overcome with emotion in the presence of my co-hosts while discussing this, that or the other. In those moments, my female co-hosts would often rush in to mother me. Don’t do that. Do not baby a man with mother love when he is showing his tears. This may make him feel emasculated. Between brothers, when one man shows his emotions in front of another, it is important to give him space. Say nothing. Let him cry. Just stand there. Sit there. Be there. The quiet strength of your presence alone is enough. When you have an opening, all that is really necessary, if it is true for you, is this: “I’ve been there. I know. I understand.” If what he is experiencing is something you completely do not relate to, then all you have to do is ask for more information. “Tell me what your tears mean right now.” That is all that is required. There is one thing for sure that is being communicated in the moment that a brother sheds tears in your presence: he feels comfortable enough with you to let his emotions flow freely. Recognize this first. Before any response.
Over the course of my life, on occasions too numerous to mention, I have been that brother that the man who never cries, calls. This is a gift. Brothers know which men among them can be trusted with their tears and emotions. And who cannot. Compassion is not always common or comfortable. It can even feel like a curse to be the one who feels things deeply — not only in yourself, but in the energy of others. Once you perceive its power, compassion is a tremendous superpower that has the potential for great spiritual healing. Being aware of how you make people feel is a master key to understanding your purpose and your mission in this present realm. The practice, as always, is to use your superpowers, your spiritual gifts, for good. This is the work.
🎭 The masks we remove. “It’s very clear to me that you do not see yourself as a religious person. You’ve made that very clear. Do you see yourself as a spiritual person?” This is my question to Brother Andrew in these final minutes of our conversation from September 8, 2012. His answer: “No. I just see myself as a human being,” he says. 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 63 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 76 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-28) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 30-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 Bitterness. When hurt, pain and anger turn to bitterness. We sometimes do not perceive when we cross this line, from sweetness to bitterness. It can sneak up on you. You may lash out unexpectedly. That’s anger. Your tongue may be sharp. That’s bitterness. You may weep. That’s pain. You may retreat. That’s hurt. These are damages done to your mind requiring repair. And the only repairman who can get the whole job done is you. You have to love yourself enough to want to stop hurting and start healing. And you will know that you are healed when you can go through book, chapter and verse of what hurt you and the retelling of it to another brings up little to no emotion. It will almost be as if you are talking about someone else. When the telling of your story doesn’t retraumatize you in the moment of recitation, when you can recount and recall what hurt you without falling apart emotionally, you have reached a level of healing. Your trauma is no longer a terror, but a teaching tool. This is a level of healing. You are no longer bitter, you are better. And the strongest emotion you now feel is gratitude, for having gotten over and come through what others didn’t live long enough to conquer.
🎭 The masks we remove. “My hand is up in this classroom of life now,” says Brother Andrew. “I feel like a child.” In these final moments of our conversation, from September 8, 2012, he talks about his 3-year-old nephew always looking to him with the question “why?” “I can’t get frustrated with him. I gotta give him an answer,” he says. And this is the point where I turn the tables. 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 64 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 77 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-28) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 30-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 Each interviewer has their own unique style. Most of the interview, for me, is fact finding. Questioning intentionally and consciously, and listening deeply, I spend most of my time in an interview pushing the add, subtract, multiply and divide buttons, painting a picture in my mind all along of where we are and where we are going with the story. And then there comes the moment when I hit the equal sign, summing it all up and responding to what I have heard throughout the entire interview. That’s where we are now, in these final moments with Brother Andrew. What I have been thinking but not saying in the background, finally comes to the forefront. The hope is that I have created a safe enough space, an atmosphere of compassion, so that when I am absolutely candid in my conclusions, the interviewee does not feel attacked by what I have to say.
Clarity of thought can feel like an attack. And I have certainly been told, on and off the air, that my words sometimes feel like a personal attack on the person I am addressing. Fair enough. I always consider that as a possibility and I check myself where necessary. Most of the time, though, I find that when you are absolutely clear and others are not, they will project their lack of clarity onto you. And get in their feelings. They may even resent you for seeing clearly what they cannot perceive for themselves in the moment. None of that is true here.
An intuitive interviewer, doing his soul work out loud and in public, knows when there is an anointing on the conversation. You can feel that you are speaking with a familiar soul and that the two of you are doing a Divine assignment together. Such is the case with Brother Andrew. For the four years that we interviewed together, we were brothers. In the Spirit. Doing the work.
🎭 The masks we remove. In this clip, from September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew acknowledges the unhealed bitterness that had taken up root in him as a result of Church Hurt and the loss of friendships resulting from the shedding his false self and the donning of his authentic self. 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 65 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 77 days since Byron’s death.
✅ (Parts 1-28) A review of the archives, re-listening to all of Byron Jamal’s appearances on the podcast (2011-2018).
👉🏾 (Parts 30-Current) Creating Context: “No More Masks” — The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015).
✍🏾 Study. Read. Do deep research. Beyond the Bible. Seek out the information. Get the knowledge. The Catholic Bible contains 72 books. The Protestant Bible contains 66 books. Then there’s the Apocrypha. And the Gnostic Gospels. The Books of Enoch. The Nag Hammadi Library. Ancient Egyptian Wisdom Texts. The Pyramid Texts. The Teachings of Ptahhotep. The Instruction of Amenemope. The Metu Neter. The Kybalion. These are some of the readings that will get you labeled a heretic in the Christian Church. “They” will say that you are demonic. Possessed by devils. This is all propaganda that has long been a part of Christian indoctrination. Most traditional church-going Christians have absolutely no idea about the “Pagan” roots of the many rituals routinely enacted in the Christian Church. They have no knowledge of the meaning and history behind the symbols stitched into the vestments and the various shapes of the hats worn by the top shepherds of the faith. For a lack of curiosity, they haven’t checked into these things and are too afraid to look. They don’t care about any of that. And they will ostracize you for knowing the very things that they have absolutely no interest in learning. This is the burden of being an independent thinker on a spiritual journey. The one who lives outside of the herd mentality. It is often a very narrow and lonely road for these pilgrims, with like-minded passersby few and far between.
There are a growing number of independent thinkers, including some pastors and preachers, still within the walls of the Christian Church, who know these things of which I speak. They will tell you so. Privately. Yet they will not preach and teach from these texts, and congregants cannot speak on these things from the pews. Silent agreements. They know, but they won’t say a word about it. It’s bad for business and the building fund. Too often, this is empire building. Not spiritual education.
🎭 These are the topics on the table that Brother Andrew and I are discussing, as we run the clock out on our second conversation together, back on September 8, 2012. 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)
🎬 Part 66 | Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal (1983-2025). | The masks we were handed. The masks we wear. The masks we remove. | 78 days since Byron’s death.
A Review of the Archives, Re-listening to All of Byron Jamal’s Appearances on the Podcast (2011-2018)
✅ (Parts 1-2) “The Purpose of Your Past” (May 5, 2012).
✅ (Part 3) “Living Sexually Responsible” (February 4, 2012).
✅ (Parts 4-7) “Keeping Commitments” (February 11, 2012).
✅ (Parts 8-12) “Manageable Challenges” (October 14, 2017)
✅ (Parts 13-29) “Building with Byron Jamal” (February 10, 2018)
Creating Context: The Evolution of Brother Andrew (2011-2015)
✅ (Parts 30-43) Brother Andrew: “No More Masks” (September 10, 2011).
✅ (Parts 44-66) Brother Andrew: “Life After No More Masks” (September 8, 2012).
✍🏾 Unmasking the Life and Death of Byron Jamal is the framework for a deep-dive exploration of (1) The masks we were handed; (2) The masks we wear; and (3) The masks we remove. The idea of “unmasking” comes from my last conversation with Byron Jamal (1983-2025), who urged listeners to do whatever it takes to unmask themselves in order to live an authentic life in their highest truth. Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem, “We Wear the Mask,” serves as a backdrop for this quest.
Byron Jamal died by apparently unaliving himself in Charlotte, North Carolina, on October 9, 2025, while in police custody, nearly six hours after being arrested for five counts of felony sexual act by a government/private institution employee. The complainant was a 16-year-old male patient at Anderson Health Services. These facts left me with so many unanswered questions. While I never met Byron Jamal in person, we recorded many conversations together on the podcast over the years. He talked openly about being sexually abused as a child, his teenage attempt to unalive himself and his ongoing struggles reconciling his spirituality with his sexuality. In the aftermath of his death, I was compelled to go back through the archives and listen again, more deeply this time, to the stories he told and the teachings he offered to listeners.
What do the archives reveal now that I missed then? And what is the larger story beyond the circumstances of Byron Jamal’s death? What lessons are to be found in the life he lived, and the creative work he produced and left behind? What mysteries lurk behind the light we shine and what lingers in our shadows? In a celebrity-obsessed society where nearly everyone wants to be seen and heard, loved and adored, harmonizing one’s public face with one’s private life is hard work for so many brothers and sisters. In the cult of personality, where people are ever courting, counting and collecting followers, where likes, clicks and views fuel fan bases and fill bank accounts, how are we to know if what we see on socials is really what we get offline and behind closed doors?
These are the doors we are knocking upon and opening. This is the work.
Context is key. I met Brother Byron on the podcast on September 3, 2011, for a segment called “Iron Sharpens Iron.” A week later, Brother Andrew reached out to share his story of “No More Masks.” One year later, on September 8, 2012, Brother Andrew and I sat down to talk again, this time to catch up on his “Life After No More Masks.” This second interview concludes in this clip.
🎭 The masks we remove. The Awakened Andrew. 🎙️Take a listen.
🎞️ #byronjamal | This is not an investigation. This is a quest. A Divine assignment. A record. Fingerprints. Footprints. Soulprints. In the sands of Time. | (To Be Continued.)