Episode 669: Andrew D. White, Gay Latter-day Saint, Convert, Left Church, Rebaptized

Listen, Learn & Love Hosted by Richard Ostler

Richard Ostler

Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 839 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2023

⏱️ 126 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My friend Andrew White (age 29, finishing up dental school, living in the Kansas City area) starts with knowing he was attracted to the same gender around age 5 and recognizing he was gay around 15. Andrew talks about the events that led him to join the Church at age 15 (including a powerful dream) and then doing everything to ‘become straight’ including being active in the Church (becoming an Elder, going to BYU, temple endowment, and serving a mission)—all with the hope of “rewarded with being straight” and also wanting to help others feel the love of God and our Savior. Andrew then talks about the super difficult and painful church experiences on his mission and then at BYU which causes so much pain/trauma that Andrew felt his only path to healing was to resign from the Church in 2016. The things Andrew experienced on his mission and BYU are heartbreaking—church generated trauma is real for some members of our Church and something I’ve learned to validate even if I haven’t experienced it directly. Andrew then talks about his life out of the Church (very good experience) and then his spiritual promptings to return to the Church which happened with his rebaptism on June 10, 2023 by his lifelong friend Michael. Andrew bears a strong testimony of God’s love for all of His children and the need for inclusion and diversity as we create Zion. This is one of the most powerful podcasts we’ve done. I learned so much from Andrew about hope, healing, grace, and forgiveness. I’m grateful to so many in Andrew’s circle (friends, father and stepmom, allies, local church leaders and general authorities) who love and support Andrew—and see his great heart and needed contributions to build Zion. Andrew talks about a healing visit to the BYU Honor Code office and how that positive experience helped “over-write the trauma.”. Andrew concludes how he has gone from wanting to be “rewarded with being straight” to the “blessing of being gay.” Thank you, Andew, for being on the podcast. You are so brave. Honored to have you on the podcast. Your story will help so many. You have a great life ahead of you! Links: Ministering to LGBTQ Latter-day Saints Facebook Group www.facebook.com/groups/1433556613672143 Richard Ostler Book: Embracing LGBTQ Latter-day Saints: Deseret Book: deseretbook.com/p/listen-learn-and-love-embracing-lgbtq-latter-day-saints Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/1462135773 Index of Podcasts: listenlearnandlove.org/podcasts

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome listeners to another episode of Listen, Learn, and Love, hosted by Richard Osler.
0:10.3	My guest on today's podcast in my home is my friend Andrew White.
0:15.8	Welcome to the podcast, Andrew.
0:17.3	Thank you so much, Richard, for having me, and it's an honor to be here.
0:22.5	This is going to be a really brave, tender podcast. I've been looking forward to this.
0:28.1	Andrew has gone through, he's a convert to the church, he served a mission, he went to
0:33.2	BYU, and he had incredible painful experiences as a gay Latter-day Saint along away, which led him to
0:40.5	leave the church.
0:42.0	And that sort of makes sense to me, given the nature of his experiences.
0:47.4	We visited a couple months ago before we recorded this podcast in May, and he told me more
0:52.8	of his story.
0:53.5	But as part of his story,
0:55.2	he told me he was getting re-baptized and that indeed did happen. He'll talk about that.
1:00.5	He was re-baptized on June 10th, 2023. We're recording this podcast on his 29th birthday
1:07.4	on July 2nd. Happy birthday, Andrew. Thank you so much.
1:13.1	So this is, you know, Andrew said the prayer before we started, and it was a really heartboat
1:18.9	prayer.
1:19.4	And part of the reason he wanted to do this podcast is to help younger LGBTQ people that may
1:26.5	be walking a similar road and may be feeling feelings of not worth or suicide
1:31.7	or having difficult things happening around them, even potentially from their own faith community
1:37.1	and how he navigated that. I told Andrew before we recorded, if I had gone through the things
1:42.8	he had gone through, I'm not
	...

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