The story of a nineteenthcentury New Yorkers struggle to reconcile his samesex erotic desires with his commitment to a Christian life.Angel on a Freight Train examines the experiences of Samuel Edward Warren 18311909 a teacher and college professor in Troy New York who struggled to reconcile his samesex erotic desires with his commitment to a Christian life. Unlike twentyfirstcentury evangelicals who try to pray the gay away Warren discerned no fundamental conflict between his faith and his attraction to younger males. Growing up in the antebellum Northeast in a culture that permitted and even celebrated emotional bonds between men he strove to build emotionally intense relationships in many overlapping formsfriendship pedagogy evangelism and romancewhich allowed him to enjoy intimacy with little effort at concealment.