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Welcome

Welcome to my web site! When “Life Happens” (and it will to all of us) it is my hope that this website and my experiences will provide help and insight with whatever is happening in your life.

If someone had told me 5 years ago that I would have my own site, or that I would be speaking all over the country, or that I would have a book that made the New York Times Best Seller List in less than two months, or that my story would be featured on Oprah! and other national television programs I would have told them they were crazy.

But these all happened, and they came about because I suffered traumatic loss and deceptive treachery on an epic scale. The experience taught me some things I want to share that will encourage you when your world is shaken.

Because the truth is, change and loss are things that we all experience, aren’t they? And often that loss is the result of hurt we receive from others. How we handle that change - and especially how we learn to forgive and move beyond our circumstances when life comes crashing down - is what makes all the difference in the world. Helping you thrive within Life’s disasters - and learning how to forgive those that cause them - is what this website is all about.

Bio of Kent Whitaker

After graduating from the University of Houston in 1971, I entered the work force, and within a few years became the comptroller, office manager, and contracts negotiator for a successful Houston construction company. During that time I married Tricia, and we had two sons, Bart and Kevin. We were active in our church and in community service, and were very involved in our boys’ lives. We had what we thought was an ideal family. That all changed on December 10, 2003, when Tricia and Kevin were murdered, and Bart and I were wounded by a masked gunman who was waiting inside our home as we returned from a dinner out.

But that was just the first of many life-changing shocks that would crash through my life as a result of the murders. Within days of the shootings police became convinced that my son Bart had arranged the murders, even down to his own wound to mask his involvement; but for 7 months they did not charge him. How does a father resolve that conflict, living in the same home with a son he loves, but who may or may not have been responsible for everything? What do you do when he then disappears without warning? And how do you handle the truth when a year later he is arrested, and in time receives a death sentence for arranging the attack?

Let me tell you: that will teach you some things about Life and Faith that we all need to know.

Since his conviction, our lives have settled into a new, very different equilibrium. A series of decisions we both made has led to the restoration of our relationship. CBS’s program 48 Hours Mystery! was the first to feature the crime and our unusual journey, but they were not the last. Oprah Winfrey dedicated a show to it, and ABC’s Primetime and Good Morning America are planning features. Simon & Schuster’s Howard Books just released Murder by Family, a major book about the story, and within weeks it cracked the New York Times Best Seller List for Non-Fiction.

As strange as it sounds, with God’s help I made decisions that led to my healing. He has always been in the healing business and is very good at mending broken lives. I want to share with you how He has worked in mine – and in my son’s. In fact, preparing you through print and the spoken word to face problems victoriously is now my calling, career, and celebration.

 

Statement of Beliefs

• I am a Christian.
• I believe that all mankind is both fatally flawed and yet also created with divine value. I believe our sin nature blocks us from the direct, loving, two-way relationship that God intended. God communicates with us through His living Word, which is the Bible, and through prayer.
• I believe that God is all knowing, all powerful, and all loving, but that there are things about Him that are beyond our understanding. One of these mysteries is that (while one entity) He is three: the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
• I believe that God the Father is Holy and cannot allow sin in His presence. Which is a big problem, because we are not holy and have great sin in our hearts.
• I believe that God the Father (knowing that our sin would separate us from Him when we die, and knowing that we cannot remove that sin ourselves and that no amount of our good works would cancel even the smallest of sins) chose to pay the penalty for our sins Himself. I believe that God the Son (Jesus) became a man, lived a perfect life, and chose to lay down that perfect life because that would be the only payment great enough to pay for it all. I believe that God the Holy Spirit lives within our hearts, and that everyone who confesses their sin and believes in Jesus will not die, but have everlasting life.
• I believe that this forgiveness is sufficient for every sin, no matter how great. Even reaching beyond the sins of a son who murders his mother and brother.