Editing Randall Terry (section)

==Personal life==
Terry has been married twice. With his first wife Cindy, he had a daughter and then he fostered two additional daughters and a son. He adopted the two youngest foster children. He has four sons with his second wife, Andrea.<ref name="LABASH">Labash, Michael. [https://web.archive.org/web/20121019061805/http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/randall-terry-shoots-ad_654411.html?nopager=1 Randall Shoots an Ad], October 22, 2012. "The Weekly Standard.</ref>

The son of [[State school|public school]] teachers, Terry was raised in [[Rochester, New York]]. After dropping out of high school, hitch-hiking around the United States, and returning home to work in various jobs, he attended [[Elim Bible Institute]], graduating in 1981.<ref name="LABASH"/> He later earned degrees from [[Empire State College]] and [[Norwich University]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gibson |first1=William E. |title=Congressional race targets Obama, national themes |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2012/09/25/congressional-race-targets-obama-national-themes/ |access-date=February 26, 2024 |work=[[Sun Sentinel]] |date=September 25, 2012}}</ref> 

In the early 1980s, Terry married Cindy Dean, a woman who he had met in Bible school.<ref name="WP2004">{{Cite news |date=2011-08-20 |title=Family Values |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32934-2004Apr21?language=printer |access-date=2025-01-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820123527/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32934-2004Apr21?language=printer |archive-date=August 20, 2011 }}</ref><ref name="NNDB" /> In 1985, he met a woman who gave birth to her second child in prison and was planning to have an abortion rather than have a third child. Terry persuaded her to continue with the pregnancy and a daughter named Tila was born later that year. In 1987, Cindy and Randall Terry had a daughter together, whom they named Faith.<ref name="NNDB" /> In March 1988, they took in Tila, then aged three, and her siblings Jamiel, 8, and Ebony, 12, as foster children. All three of them are [[biracial]]; their mother was white. Terry formally adopted the two younger children in 1994 and on his résumé, he began to describe his family as: "Children: One by birth and three black foster children," although Ebony had left home at the age of 16 in 1991.<ref name="WP2004" /> 

Ebony, who was not adopted by Terry, uses the surname Whetstone, but Jamiel and Tila took and retained the surname Terry.<ref name="WP2004" /><ref name="NNDB">[http://www.nndb.com/people/704/000059527/ Randall Terry], National Names Database. Accessed May 29, 2009.</ref> Ebony converted to [[Islam]], a religion which Terry has preached is composed of "murderers" and "[[Islamic terrorism|terrorists]]."<ref name="WP2004" /> In 2004, Terry described his relationship with Ebony as "good."<ref name="WP2004" /> However, Terry banned Tila from his home after she became pregnant outside of marriage twice by the age of 18; her first pregnancy ended in a [[miscarriage]].<ref name="WP2004" /><ref name="HINOJOSA">Hinojosa, Maria. [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0404/15/lol.03.html ''Live From...'' with Miles O'Brien], April 15, 2004. [[CNN]] transcript.</ref>

In 1998, when Terry was accused of advocating racism while he was running for Congress, his son Jamiel stepped forward to defend him.<ref name="WP2004" /> In 2000, Jamiel worked with his father on [[Steven Forbes]]' campaign for the Republican nomination for U.S. president, and he campaigned with his father against [[Same-sex marriage|gay marriage]] in [[Vermont]].<ref name="WP2004" /> In 2004, Jamiel [[coming out|publicly announced]] that he was gay and he also wrote an article for ''[[Out Magazine]]'', for which he was paid US$2,500.<ref name="WP2004" /> When he learned that the ''Out'' article was going to be published,<ref name="WP2004" /> Terry pre-empted Jamiel by writing an essay, "My Prodigal Son, the Homosexual", in which he writes of pain and disappointment, blames Jamiel's homosexuality and his other troubles on his childhood experiences, and contends that much of the ''Out Magazine'' article is false and was written by other people. Jamiel's response was, "My father's first and foremost aim is to protect himself. He talks about how I prostitute the family's name, but he's used the fact that he saved my sister from abortion and rescued me from hardship in his speeches and interviews. What's the difference?"<ref name="WP2004" />

In 2000, Terry divorced Cindy Dean, his wife of 19 years,<ref name="WP2004" /> and married his former church assistant, Andrea Sue Kollmorgen.<ref name="NNDB" /><ref name="HINOJOSA" /><ref name="NYT2001">Barry, Dan. [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/20/nyregion/icon-for-abortion-protesters-is-looking-for-a-second-act.html Icon for abortion protesters is looking for a second act]. July 20, 2001. ''New York Times.''</ref> Kollmorgen, born c. 1976, was approximately 25 years old at the time of their nuptials;<ref name="SLY" /> As a consequence of the divorce, the home on {{convert|119|acre|km2}} where he had lived with Cindy and their four children was going to be sold.<ref name="NYT2001" /> In 2000, some in the press unfavorably compared his decision to divorce Cindy Dean and marry Kollmorgen to the opinion which he expressed in his 1995 book, ''The Judgment of God'': "Families are destroyed as a father vents his mid-life crisis by abandoning his wife for a 'younger, prettier model.' "<ref name="WP2004" /><ref name="TJOG">Terry, Randall. ''The Judgment of God.'' (1995). ISBN unavailable.</ref> His sentiments against divorce had been so strong that when his own parents got divorced, "Randall refused to let his children speak with their grandfather for three years," according to interviews which were conducted with the family by the ''Washington Post.''<ref name="WP2004" /> 

As a result of Terry's divorce from Cindy Dean, the pastor of the Landmark Church of [[Binghamton, New York]], "unceremoniously tossed him out"<ref name="WP2004" /> although Terry had been a member there for 15 years.<ref name="AU">[http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2000/04/pampe.html Religious Right Leader Randall Terry Censured] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090519211939/http://www.au.org/media/church-and-state/archives/2000/04/pampe.html |date=May 19, 2009 }}, April 2004. [[Americans United for Separation of Church and State]].</ref> That church had previously [[censure]]d him because he had abandoned his wife and the two children while they were still living at home in preparation for divorce, and it also censured him by claiming that he was engaging in a "pattern of repeated and sinful relationships and conversations with both single and married women."<ref name="HINOJOSA" /><ref name="AU" /> After the censure and expulsion, Terry joined the [[Charismatic Episcopal Church]], a denomination which was established in 1992.<ref name="AU" /> 

After a period of study which commenced in 2005, Terry formally converted to [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] in 2006, taking the confirmation name David Mark.<ref name="DRAKE">Drake, Tim. [http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=19866 Pro-life activist Randall Terry converts to Catholicism, still slaying dragons] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070204012141/http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=19866 |date=February 4, 2007 }}. May 17, 2006. ''National Catholic Register.''</ref> After his conversion, he disavowed his first marriage and divorce, saying, "There were tragic problems that were inherent to the marriage. According to Catholic doctrine as it has been taught to me, those problems made it an [[Annulment|invalid sacrament]]."<ref name="DRAKE" />

In 2004, the ''Washington Post'' reported that Terry and Cindy's daughter was in college.<ref name="WP2004" /> Five years into his second marriage, a 2006 article in the ''[[National Catholic Register]]'' described his current family as "his three, soon to be four, rambunctious young boys."<ref name="DRAKE" /> Terry's second wife, Andrea, is also an anti-abortion activist and in 2008, she was arrested for trespassing while she was leafleting a Catholic cathedral parking lot with campaign fliers for a fictitious candidate who was advocating the [[slavery|enslavement]] of African-Americans. Terry stated, "The piece was intended to be incendiary and basically a satire," a protest against vehicles in the church parking lot which, he said, carried bumper stickers supporting [[pro-choice]] political candidates, particularly [[Rudy Giuliani]].<ref name="SLY">Sly, Randy. [http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=26597 Pro-Life Workers Arrested at St. Petersburg, FL Cathedral] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011112701/http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=26597 |date=October 11, 2012 }}, January 26, 2008. ''Catholic Online'' (news).</ref>

Terry's son Jamiel was killed in an automobile accident in November 2011. They had reportedly reconciled prior to Jamiel's death.<ref>[http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/12/02/Gay_Son_of_AntiChoice_Activist_Dead_in_Car_Crash/ Gay Son of Antichoice Activist Dead in Car Crash] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111204061247/http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/12/02/Gay_Son_of_AntiChoice_Activist_Dead_in_Car_Crash/ |date=December 4, 2011 }}</ref> Terry's daughter Tila died in 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Funeral Fund for Tila Marie Terry Cullifer |url=https://www.givesendgo.com/FuneralTilaTerryCullifer |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=GiveSendGo}}</ref>

In 2012, Terry moved his family to [[Romney, West Virginia]], to focus on his political campaign.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://journalism.smcvt.edu/webcourses/PresidentialProfiles/randallterry.htm|title=Randall Terry: Shifting Parties for a Purpose|author=Liz Kendall and Katie Hodges|publisher=Saint Michael's College Media and American Politics class|access-date=May 11, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604003722/http://journalism.smcvt.edu/webcourses/PresidentialProfiles/randallterry.htm|archive-date=June 4, 2012}}</ref>