I grew up agnostic, until the age of about 15. I began to believe in high school, but had very little knowledge. So, when persecution came, I quickly fell away. Until at least, I began reading the New Testament Bible in college. I read all of the book of John first. Then progressed onto Acts and the Epistles.

This was in 2003, when Mel Gibson’s movie about Jesus, “The Passion of The Christ” came out in the theatres. Switchfoot also came out with their first hit “Meant to Live.”

After struggling to maintain my mental health and feeling as though I was being persecuted by those closest to me, I deciding to bail on both parents, moving down to Binghamton, NY…

where my God-father lives. Things were a lot better for me down there. I was going to SUNY Broome full-time for business, working part-time at Giant grocery store, exercising, playing baseball, and attending a home church every Sunday. However, I never found a girlfriend and eventually broke my leg playing baseball. So, after that, I felt as though I didn’t belong there anymore… and like a Gypsie in the night I relocated to Illinois. There I worked for Apple Inc. as their Tier 1 Technical Support line. I was the best of the best. I was also going to a new Pentecostal church where I was baptized with full immersion, in front of the entire Church, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, I never made any friends at that Church, the pastor that baptized me (Scott) stepped down, and another “Ben” (not me) was hired for the position. That made things very difficult for me, and although I continued to volunteer in the food pantry every week and tithe at Church for a few months…

They never held communion.

So, I left Rockford Illinois and went up to Madison, Wisconsin where I had the last of correspondence with several WOmyn there. That is where Western Orthodoxy was born. The believers that were part of a new movement of people who held close to both religious and feminists’ ideologies. It isn’t a coincidence that lesbians were part a leading a new community known as LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender). If you happen to be both Transgender AND Lesbian, you are a part of a special group of people known as WOmyn.

I was warned NOT to go to Madison, because it was basically a Unitarian police state, one that would not be friendly to me and my Christian upbringing. I should have listened. My car broke down during a blizzard and I was too intoxicated to get into a shelter. I was homeless on the streets for months, before going back to New York. One day, miracle happened, I began to believe again with the help of the prayers of my Latter-Day Saints, brothers and sisters. We met every week in my mom’s apartment, while they tried to prepare me for a baptism. I had previously published blog about being part of a believing group of Epicurean Believers that were always interested in new ideas and philosophies.

And it came to pass, that my mom and I went to a few different local churches, including a Roman Catholic church, where I was eventually baptized again. This was right when Covid-19 started spreading in the United States. Due to social distancing and other precautions, they have since then never given full communion to anyone in NY.

Once again, I was baptized but not provided with a family of believers.

Now, I open my home-church to those who feel like they don’t belong to a body of believers. With doctrine-based guidance of the Holy Spirit, and learning all of God’s word, we believe and draw on our experience as vital members of a larger body of monotheism.