Mark Alan Lowry (born June 24, 1958) is an American singer, comedian, minister and songwriter. He is best known for co-writing the song "Mary, Did You Know?" and being a member of the Gaither Vocal Band from 1988 to 2001, and 2009 to 2013, along with Michael English, Guy Penrod, David Phelps and Bill Gaither. Lowry has recorded twelve albums, both music and comedy. Early life Lowry was born in Houston, Texas, to Charles, an attorney, and Beverly Lowry. He often uses anecdotes of his young life in his comedy, as well as speaking of his experience with hyperactivity and attention deficit disorder in his performances. He is a self-described "Poster Boy for Hyperactivity". Early career While attending Liberty Baptist College (now known as Liberty University), Lowry joined a college evangelistic team made of Charles Hughes and David Musselman and began singing. In 1978, Lowry was badly injured in a car accident near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, while touring with his college evangelistic team. He sustained eleven broken bones, and spent a good deal of time in physical therapy recovering from the accident. After graduating from college, Lowry began singing in Baptist churches professionally. His comedy career inadvertently began from here. There would be an elongated pause in his singing performance while he waited for the soundtrack to be changed. Lowry began to fill this pause with a monologue. He soon realized that the audiences at his performances were laughing not at him but at his monologues. "Mary, Did You Know?" In 1984, Lowry wrote the lyrics to the song "Mary, Did You Know?", when asked to write a script for a church Christmas play. He wrote a series of questions that he would like to ask Mary, the mother of Jesus. These questions were used in between the scenes of the play. Over the next decade, Lowry tried to find music that would complete the song. Eventually, musician and songwriter Buddy Greene wrote the music to the song. The Christmas play script then became the song. The song has become a popular Christmas song performed by more than thirty artists including Cee Lo Green, Clay Aiken, Kenny Rogers, Wynonna Judd, Michael English, Daniel Childs, Natalie Cole, Pippa Wilson, Kathy Mattea, Michael Crawford, Zara Larsson, Peter Hollens, Marnell Tanner, Dolly Parton, and Pentatonix. In 2016, Lowry himself sang it, backed by the a cappella group, Voctave. The lyrics have been criticised for