I was born to bilingual (French/English) Louisiana Cajun parents. We were Roman Catholic, as were almost all the Cajun familys back then. I was baptised and then raised Catholic until just before I was to make my first communion. We were living in Eunice, deep in the heart of Cajun Country, and a baptist preacher came to our house and invited my dad to a Revival Meeting hosted by the First Baptist Church.

My dad attended the revival and had a dramatic conversion experience. The next night he took us all to here Rev. Angel Martinez preach. It is then that we left the Catholic Church for the Baptist. From that point on I grew up Baptist, but since all my kin people were Catholic, I still attended Roman Catholic services occasionally, either at weddings, funerals, or attending Sunday mass when I stayed with cousins.

During my service in the Navy, I developed a desire to know and understand the Christian faith better. This came about because of a spiritual and intellectual crisis that I went through at that time. I left the Navy a confirmed Baptist, but realised that there were good Christians in many different churches.

My first break with traditional Baptist teachings came shortly after I had been married. My parents, while strongly Baptists, were never part of the hyper anti-alcohol types, and I did drink a beer now and then. One Sunday the pastor at the church Lisa and I were attending preached a very strong anti-alcohol sermon. I remember he said "I can tell whether some one is a true Christian by looking and seeing if there was beer in the refrigerator." This was on a rare day when I just happened to have a few beers in our icebox.

I commented to Lisa that by the preachers statement he would consider us non-Christians. I had been reading the Scriptures a lot and saw that wine was a very common and good thing according to the Bible. Something was not right; either the preacher was wrong, or I was mis-reading the word of God. I determined to do an in depth word study on wine in the Bible. After much study, I was convinced that the traditional Baptist position on the issue of beer and wine was not Biblical.

This conclusion, while it validated my practice, bothered me greatly because I had acquired the desire to be a minister of the Gospel. Now I would not in good faith, be able to preach the Gospel because I disagreed with a strongly held Baptist position.

Not long after I finished my study there was a controversy involving the pastor at our church. I went to the pastor to discuss the issue with him (it involved abortion). While he maintained that abortion was wrong, he justified it in this case because of an individuals nearness to him. While our conversation was congenial it was clear to me that we would have to move on.

Before Lisa and I met she was attending and Presbyterian Church, and her brother-in-law, Ron, was nearing ordination in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Since our marriage, Ron had been ordained and had become the pastor of Lisa's former church.

When I first meet Ron I was greatly surprised. All I knew about Presbyterians was that they were theologically liberal. Ron loved the Lord, knew the Scriptures better than anyone I had ever meet and was theologically conservative as was the PCA (The PCUSA is the liberal denomination). Lisa and I decided to start attending the Prebyterian Church. I thought the Reformed (Presbyterian) view of baptism and and predestination were mistaken, but Ron was a great teacher and these things while held by him were not pushed.

Ron and I had become close friends, our families were very close and we visited regularly. Ron and I debated the Scriptures often. He contiually incouraged me to study the Scriptures, doctrine and history. He challenged many of my views; we were involved in a running debate on predestination. I studied the issue continuesly so I could point out his error, but he kept answering my objections. After two years I reluctantly admitted that the Scriptures did teach God sovereignty even on the point of predestinating those who would be saved.

In the next two years we would debate baptism and there too I came to understand the Reformed understanding of baptism to be correct.

My theological jourrney has been fun and exciting (for me). I love to study the Scriptures, biblical doctrine and Church history. I read theologians from most all Christian views and love to do so. Still, today I am Reformed in my theology.

Dominus Vobiscum,
Kenith