​Searching for Christ and Home

 

My first steps back into faith brought me into the Latter-day Saint community, where I spent two years trying to understand God, Scripture, and the human calling. But something in my heart remained unsettled. It was as though my soul knew a truth my mind couldn’t articulate. So, I stepped away.

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I joined the Methodist Church, where I was baptized, served in technology ministries, and helped plant churches. I wanted to live the Great Commission, to serve God with everything I had. But I still sensed an inner contradiction: the Bible called me to unity, fidelity, and truth… yet the denominational world around me contradicted itself endlessly.

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Driven by a hunger to go deeper, I went on to Liberty University’s Baptist Theological Seminary, where I earned my master’s degree and immersed myself in Scripture. I served as a youth minister for four years and later as a missionary Baptist pastor, shepherding a congregation with sincerity and love.

But even then, something was missing.

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My ministry was guided by sola scriptura, yet Scripture itself continually pointed me beyond it—toward the early Church, the apostles, the sacraments, the continuity of tradition, and a visible unity that sola scriptura simply could not explain. I found myself caught between the Great Commission and the fragmented world of denominational Christianity, and I couldn’t force them to reconcile.

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When Scripture Led Me to Tradition

 

The turning point arrived when I realized that Sola Scriptura (Bible Alone) is not taught by Scripture itself.
And if Scripture did not teach it, how could it be the foundation upon which Christ’s Church was built?

This single recognition opened the door to a wider world—one filled with history, unity, sacramentality, apostolic continuity, and the living witness of Tradition. As I studied Scripture more deeply, I also began studying Church history, not as an academic exercise but as a personal pilgrimage.

And like St. John Henry Newman, who said:

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“To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.”

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…I realized my faith had been formed by fragments, not the fullness.

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The Family History That Opened My Eyes

 

At the same time, I began researching my own family lineage for my book, Sacred Ground. I discovered stories of my ancestors, including connections to St. Nicholas Owen, and the role faith played across generations of my family. This research did more than connect me to the past—it revealed a thread of grace woven into my family’s story long before I understood it.

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The more I studied my history, the more Catholicism became not an option, but an inevitability—something God had been whispering to me through Scripture, study, suffering, ancestors, and grace.

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My heart and mind finally aligned, and I entered the Catholic Church, not as a rejection of my past, but as the fulfillment of every longing, every question, every prayer I had ever carried.

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Finding Home with St. Benedict and St. John Henry Newman

 

Today, my spiritual life is anchored in the Benedictine tradition, whose rhythm of prayer, work, humility, and daily conversion has become the structure my soul always longed for.

I am drawn especially to:

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St. Benedict’s call to stability

To remain rooted—spiritually, intellectually, vocationally—in the place where God has planted me.

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Lectio divina

The slow, prayerful encounter with Scripture that forms the heart more than the intellect.

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Ora et labora

The union of prayer and work, which guides my writing, teaching, and research.

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Conversatio morum

The daily turning of one’s life toward Christ, a conversion that never ends.

And like St. John Henry Newman, I believe:

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• the conscience is the “aboriginal Vicar of Christ”;

• faith must grow with reason, not against it;

• and education is the formation of the whole person—mind, heart, and soul.

 

These two saints together shape the entire architecture of my theological life.

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Where Theology Meets Technology

My academic work in AI ethics, computer science, and the human person is not separate from my faith. It flows from it.

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I believe:

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• AI challenges us to rediscover what it means to be human.

• Technology forces moral clarity, not moral neutrality.

• The Church must be present at the frontier of innovation.

• And Catholic anthropology offers the strongest foundation for a technological age.

 

My research asks what the future of work, conscience, and discipleship looks like through the lens of the Imago Dei, human dignity, virtue ethics, and the long wisdom of the Church.

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This is why I founded the Digital Newman Oratory—a spiritual and intellectual community dedicated to forming virtuous technologists, fostering ethical AI reflection, and creating space for prayerful engagement with digital culture.

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It is my small contribution to ensuring the Church remains both wise and courageous in the age of algorithms.

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My Vocation Going Forward

 

My journey has been long, winding, and marked by grace. I believe God is leading me toward a life of:

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• teaching,

• theological research,

• Benedictine spirituality,

• and service within Catholic 

 

Everything I have lived: agnosticism, atheism, grief, searching, preaching, ministry, scholarship, AI work, and conversion, has prepared me for the work God is calling me to now.

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And like St. Benedict teaches us:

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“Always we begin again.”

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I begin again each day seeking Christ, serving His Church, and helping others navigate a world where faith and technology meet. My desire to pursue deeper theological understanding flows from a calling to seek God through a life ordered by prayer, work, and faithful attention to the Church’s witness across history. I am drawn to Christian theology and applications of technology within it not as a pursuit of mastery, but as a practice of listening and learning to attend to God’s voice as it is received through Scripture, Tradition, and the lived life of the Church. Study, in this sense, becomes for me an act of obedience and a form of worship.

My research and previous work are guided by an interest in cultural and technological change that has shaped the Church’s understanding of the human person and how emerging technologies continue to challenge moral agency, conscience, and faith formation. In a world marked by speed and automation, I believe the Church is called to lead in patient discernment, preserving human dignity and the centrality of moral responsibility before God. These questions are not abstract; they are deeply connected to discipleship and the Church’s pastoral mission.

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My calling to teach, study, and write is rooted in service and stability. Teaching, when rightly ordered, participates in formation rather than efficiency, and scholarship becomes an expression of ora et labora, prayerful work offered for the good of others. My professional background in computer science pedagogy, AI ethics, and software development informs this vocation, always within a theological frame. I am grateful for my work at Murray State University, where I can teach and mentor future developers while engaging questions of ethics, responsibility, and human formation. It is a true gift to serve God by serving the Murray State students. I hope, in time, to contribute to the Church’s intellectual life through careful historical reflection, moral theology, and attentive engagement with technology, mindful that wisdom is received slowly and lived humbly.

 

It is from this posture of discernment that I seek further faith formation at Saint Meinrad School of Theology. The scholars and brothers there are experts in the history of the church, in theology, and how history has evolved the world and the human experience. I am truly honored to get to learn from them and to work with some of them on my future research into AI and ethical applications in pedagogical and theological fields. I approach this season of study as an opportunity to deepen my faith, order my thinking, and draw closer to God, so that whatever knowledge I gain may be placed humbly in His service.