AI Summary
5 min readIn February 1989, a young man bowed his head in a university cafeteria and gave his life to Jesus. This was Dr. John White’s first conversion. Decades later, a second conversion would lead him into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—and cost him nearly everything.
White grew up in an unhappy home, moving nine times as a child. “I would hear my mother crying,” he wrote. “I knew my father drank too much even as a kid. I didn’t always know which father I was gonna get, the happy one or the angry one.” He felt like “a stranger in his own house, like a guest who had to measure up.” As a young man at Indiana University, he was kicked out of his fraternity for partying too hard. “I was alone and empty,” he said. “And in that emptiness, God found me.” A Christian minister told him something he had never heard: “God loves you. He has a wonderful plan for your life.” White had known of a distant, formal God, “a god you say the prayer to before you eat,” but not a God who loved him. He gave his life to Christ that day.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:02) **Introduction & Setup** - Hosts Hank and John introduce a special "Follow Him Favorites" episode that will tell the conversion story of Dr. John White instead of a typical scripture-based story.
- 2 (00:30) **John White's Early Life and First Conversion** - The hosts read from John White's written account of his difficult childhood and his first conversion to Christianity.
- 3 (02:12) **Academic Career and Professional Crisis** - Dr. White earned a doctorate in theology, moved to Scotland, became a professor at Baylor University, then faced a dark period of professional exclusion.
- 4 (03:12) **The Miraculous Light at a Conference** - On October 25, 2023, while presenting a paper, Dr. White saw a literal bright light over a Latter-day Saint scholar in the audience.
- 5 (04:07) **Conversations with Latter-day Saints** - Dr. White had conversations with Dr. Janae Nelson and Elder Kim Clark, which were not debates but opportunities for a seed to be planted.
- 6 (04:46) **Reading the Book of Mormon** - Dr. White's experience with the Book of Mormon was one of enlargement, not being overwhelmed.
- 7 (05:04) **First Sacrament Meeting** - In July 2024, he attended his first sacrament meeting, which was a logistical disaster but spiritually profound.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
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Thanks to the followHIM team:
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John Bytheway: Co-host
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Ariel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts
Amelia Kabwika: Portuguese Transcripts
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