Broken On the Back Row

January 17, 2005
In this inspiring memoir, Grammy- and Dove Award–winning singer Patty recounts her rise in Christian music, her devastating fall from grace and the long road back to God. In the early 1990s, Patty separated from her husband and began an extramarital affair with a back-up singer who was also married. Patty repeatedly covered up the affair and lied about it before confessing to her pastor and other church members, and asking forgiveness from those she had wronged. She doesn't make excuses for her behavior; although she discusses some of the emotional "baggage" she carried (including childhood sexual abuse by a trusted babysitter), she knows that her actions weren't in keeping with Christian teachings or her family's trust. Refreshingly, she offers no titillating details about the affair itself or about the pain in her marriage that led to the initial separation. Now married to the singer she fell in love with, Patty is the mother to eight children in a yours-mine-and-ours blended family and devotes a fair portion of the book to describing their new life. Although the writing style is a bit gushy and the account could have used better editing (the titular story about Patty crying in the back row of a church is repeated twice in full), this memoir is a powerful testimony to the joy of forgiveness.