Recovering from heart surgery, John Idris Jones finds himself remembering painful scenes from a life lived in the shadows cast by religious fundamentalism, bigotry and misunderstanding. When the psychologist at the cardiac rehab clinic suggests that these forays into the past may hold the key to becoming reconciled to the reality of coronary heart disease at such an early age, John embraces the memories.

From a Victorian asylum in rural Wales in the early 1970s to the radical politics of HIV in Liverpool during the late eighties, John’s is a journey in search of meaning and identity through the territory where sexuality, religion and culture collide. San Francisco’s gay community during the early eighties offers a vibrant backdrop to John’s emergence from the shadows, but AIDS begins to cast a more sinister darkness.

‘In the name of religion, so many people's lives have been devastated. Reading Crawling Through Thorns, I recalled too many painful stories of how fear and hatred, and how homophobia in the name of religion, crushed spirits and bodies. Yet, this story also tells of the words and deeds that save lives, and of the faith struggles of a man whose spirit finally could not be crushed.’
— Rev. Dr. Lynn Rhodes, Pacific School of Religion