For a long time now I have made my home in Louisville, KY.

I'm a charismatic Baptist whose late teen-aged conversion was, humanly speaking, led by African-American Pentecostals. 

At 17 (1980), I joined the U.S. Army in order to earn money for college--first generation in my family to go to college.  As I left for boot camp, a friend challenged me to memorize the Sermon on the Mount.  Working on the Sermon on the Mount at night while learning to be a soldier by day caused me much cognitive dissonance, but I compartmentalized it.  Later while stationed in Germany I heard sermons on nonviolence, Martin Luther King, Jr., and peacemaking at a small Baptist congregation in Heidelberg.  This led me to become a conscientious objector and file for discharge with the Army as a conscientious objector.  That was 1982-3.

First experienced tongue-speaking during a personal "dark night of the soul" in which my overly academic mind couldn't pray--2000.  This gift of the Spirit has manifested a few other times--always at times of personal crisis for me.

I have been a bi-vocational and interim pastor of small churches several times and taught religion and philosophy courses (mostly part-time) in several institutions.  I have also been a "peace and justice activist" since leaving the army--often against my better judgment.

I experienced 9/11 with the horror of most people, but also as a call from God to stop pursuing an academic career (with peace activism in my spare time) and turn my full attention to peace work.  I knew that it had to be deeply connected to the church.  So, when the opportunity came to become Outreach Coordinator for Every Church a Peace Church in January 2004, I took it.

In addition to Every Church a Peace Church, I am active in several other faith-based peace groups, especially the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and, since October 2005, the Pentecostal & Charismatic Peace Fellowship.

I am married (since 1990) to the Rev. Kate Westmoreland-White, an ordained Baptist minister who also has ministerial standing with the United Church of Christ.  Much of Kate's ministry has been with homeless people.  Together we are raising two wonderful daughters, Molly (b. '95) and Miriam (b. '99).