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He and his wife, Pam, have four children and five grandchildren, and he still believes today that faith helps guide his life, and that he doesn't have all the answers to life's challenges without first looking for guidance.
"There's a higher power out there than me," he said.
Wideman also went through a crisis years ago, one that ended up strengthening his faith. But in a curious shift, it also left him questioning something that few believers seem to ask these days: Can you really find God in church?
Wideman is no longer sure.
"For me, I said I've got to drop this title of Christian," he said. "It doesn't work for me anymore."
Again, that doesn't mean Wideman is an atheist or agnostic. He's found his "church," if you will. As a former deacon in a Baptist church in Montgomery, Ala., he now finds his greatest source of faith within a very different organization: Alcoholics Anonymous.
"I'm a fully recovered southern Baptist," he said. "There's a problem I have with the Christian church today. Christianity can pull apart as much as it brings together."
I recently heard David and Pam speak in Florida about the journey their faith has taken them on, and how it left them questioning whether spirituality and a strong faith in God can really be found inside the walls of today's churches.
It was a battle with alcohol that ultimately led David to the organization that he now views as his spiritual home: AA. What he found there was a very spiritual group, a brotherhood that encouraged a belief in a higher power in order to overcome the poison of addiction.
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SOURCE: The Ledger
