History of Poem

The poem first appeared in the November 1992 issue of Hi-Call Gospel Magazine, published by the Assemblies of God denomination. As a result of that publication, someone unknown to me placed the poem on the internet and it began a journey of international circulation as ‘author unknown.’

In 1998, Les Seamster, an artist from Branson, Mo. contacted me, requesting permission to design prints of the poem. He had searched for the ‘unknown author’ for 6 months before finding me. Because of his search, I was made aware of the attention my poem had gained on the Internet and that hundreds of web site owners were posting the poem. Upon investigating the truth of this I also discovered that a few site owners were claiming authorship. Thus I launched a personal campaign to alert people of my copyright, not for notoriety, but for protection over the sanctity of the words, that they might be kept in their purest, inspired form.

Since then, the poem has been published in Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul by Health Communications Inc., 2000; Stories for a Teen’s Heart by Multnomah Publishing, 2002; Real Teens, Real Life, Real Stories by River Oak Publishing, 2004; The Salvation Army ‘War Cry’, May 2006; Don’t Bet Against Me!, Deanna Favre with Angela Hunt, Tyndale House Publisher, 2007. With permission from the author, the poem has also been translated into different languages including Spanish; Indonesian; Finnish; Chinese; Korean; Farsi; Latvian; and many others.

In spite of the fact that the poem is protected under copyright law in the United States Library of Congress—TX-5-064-953, someone changed the title of the poem to “I’m a Christian” and took the liberty to alter the words of each verse. Therefore a copyright infringement occurred on the Internet which is circulating once again as ‘author unknown.’ More recently someone attached Dr. Maya Angelou’s name to the infringed version. Sadly this has caused undue confusion for those who honor copyrights and seek permission to publish the works of others.

Permissions