Member Profile - Dave White

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When Dave White, as a teen, went to the minister of his church with the confidence that his crushes were on boys rather than on girls, he was met with negative judgment rather than answers or understanding. Clearly part of him was no longer welcome at the church that he loved. So he drifted away as he drifted away from other churches that he persisted in visiting because he truly wanted a spiritual home. Some were even more dogmatic and judgmental than his original church. And to add insult to injury, he discovered that some of those denominations maintained that they -- and only they -- had the only real spiritual path and everyone else had it wrong. "Love God and love your neighbor" seemed to be getting lost.

But, somehow, Dave stayed opened to the possibility that somewhere there was a spiritual home for him. As he tells it.........

"I came to my first service here at First UU on Halloween 2004. While driving by I noticed the topic on the board outside was 'Ethics and Politics'. It piqued my curiosity. The presentation challenged me to think about ethics and privilege in a new light and put a current concern into a spiritual context."

"On top of that, the service ended with The Liberty Bell March by John Phillip Sousa. For those of you who don’t know, that is also the theme for the British Comedy, Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I’d never heard that in a church before.

" I thought, these people are a bit odd but the message is meaningful. I like this.

"I started coming back regularly after that and found that almost every service I attended challenged me to think and touched me emotionally or spiritually. What I found missing here was dogma, judmentalism or the insistence that our religion was the only true religion. People were open to talk about beliefs, principles and faith journeys. Other points of view were respected, even encouraged. It was a remarkable experience."

And he has taken advantage of it. Not only a Sunday morning church-goer, he remembers with enthusiasm an adult religious education class on the historical Jesus that provided a new perspective. "Seeing him from a human perspective made his life and teachngs more remarkable than the Bible stories alone." The activist history of the church and the opportunity to share and learn in another class from other's experiences "was a wonderful change from being handed answers and expected to believe them because that is what a particular faith demands."

"The diversity of experiences, perspectives and opportunities to ask and investigate those difficult questions are abundant at this church, as is the opportunity to take action to promote the dignity and worth of all people or, more simply put, to love your neighbor. I find this is an exciting place for someone who has been smashed, banged and bruised along one’s spiritual journey. That’s why I came here and why I come back. I feel very fortunate to have found this place."

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