I looked him up. He did not want "the God I grew up with" but he asked who he felt was the real God to help him recover from drugs. After recovery, he joined a Christian church (probably Evangelical) and sings in the choir of their local congregation.

I wonder how many other famous Mormons from long ago have left by now? I am overjoyed for Johnny.

This is wonderful!

I never met him, but he was one of the people we covered in the magazines I used to work for...

...which meant I was "enough" aware of him that, had I had been given the assignment, I could have turned out 750-1,250 words (in other words: regular article length) on him in an hour or so if we needed it.

I am very happy he left!!

Could you please post a link to this information. Reading the story would interest me a great deal.

Thanks!

I looked at more than one website. I'm tired and need to sleep now; I will try to do the links tomorrow. Sorry for the delay. Between the two Gods (Mormon and Christian), he spent a few years being an atheist. In Rehab, he learned about calling on your Higher Power for help abstaining from drugs. But he didn't want the Mormon God he grew up with.

Didn't his first and very Mormon wife leave him for some other guy?

That didn't help his identity as a Mormon.

Johnny Whitaker, man, is a vast improvement over the childhood icon he played. He has had a difficult life, but has dealt with the crosses he's been given exceptionally so.

Being a childhood star is no easy obstacle to overcome.

He's still someone that is relatable and humble considering all he's been through. God love him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2018 09:54AM by Amyjo.

"Being a childhood star is no easy obstacle to overcome."
Can you imagine as an adult, people are still talking about what you did at 11 years old? i.e. The Brady Bunch kids. Geez they are still in the news.

". . . Johnny spent two years in Portugal as a volunteer Mormon missionary. When he returned to the United States, he had difficulty finding acting roles. He eventually enrolled at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and graduated in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications.

"In 1984, Johnny Whitaker married Symbria Wright of Reseda, California, a former talent agent. The couple divorced in 1988 and Symbria later wed Johnny's best friend. After the collapse of his marriage, the actor went through a very dark period in his life. He told Roger Mullen of the 'Fayettevillle Observer' that his divorce was 'the precipitous event which caused me to lose faith in God and faith in myself and whatever else and kind of went to the dark side, Luke Skywalker. I started hanging out in bars and smoking and smoking marijuana and then going from marijuana to cocaine and methamphetamine and smoking heroin and losing three cars, four apartments, five jobs and a company that I'd started and ran into the ground.'

"In an interview with Nicki Gostin for 'Fox News' (June 2, 2016), Johnny discussed those troubled years further: 'I started a business in Utah for my wife and then she turns around and says, 'I don't love you anymore and I want to marry the man who gave you your bachelor party.' So with that I lost my faith in God and man and the world. I didn't ever have a thought of suicide but I did the second best thing which was to drop into sex, drugs and rock and roll. That lasted about seven, eight years and then my family said you have a choice between getting clean and sober or getting excommunicated from the family.'

"That family intervention was the wake up call Johnny needed. He told 'Fox News' that it provided the impetus for him to stay clean and sober for over 18 and a half years. Whitaker also discovered a passion for helping people recover from substance abuse. He became a certified drug counsellor and he currently runs the Paso Por Paso alcohol and drug rehabilitation centre. Paso Por Paso (Spanish for 'step by step' is a non-profit organization for recovering addicts. It was founded by Johnny himself and provides support and treatment services in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

"Due to his past behaviour, Johnny was excommunicated from the Mormon Church. In his interview with Nicki Gostin, he said that he now sings in his congregation's choir and is 'working towards getting reintegrated."

http://www.tvbanter.net/2016/08/whatever-happened-to-johnny-whitaker.html?m=1



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2018 08:50AM by steve benson.

FOX411: "Was it hard to transition from child star?

Whitaker: "When I was 14 I was the star of my own television series. I was an associate producer, I was at the top of my game and making quadruple what my father made and I made a decision to leave show business to serve a mission for the Mormon Church and when I returned they would accept me again but they didn't. That was very difficult, not to be accepted back into the brotherhood.

"As a 56-year-old man today, I believe I've done a lot of good. I still do acting jobs here and there. I continue to act but it's not my number one focus. I think it was Christopher Knight from 'The Brady Bunch' who said, Hollywood loves its puppies but once they became real adult dogs they kick them to the curb.

"I went to Brigham Young University University for directing and producing and unfortunately Utah, which I thought would open their arms to me as being a brother, did not do so with my 17 years of experience and didn't accept me so I went back to California. I type 110 words a minute, so I started working and had to survive with my wife.

"I started a business in Utah for my wife and then she turns around and says, 'I don't love you anymore and I want to marry the man who gave you your bachelor party.' So with that, I lost my faith in God and man and the world. I didn't ever have a thought of suicide but I did the second best thing which was to drop into sex, drugs and rock and roll. That lasted about seven, eight years and then my family said you have a choice between getting clean and sober or getting excommunicated from the family."


FOX411: "Did that work for you?"

Whitaker: "It did thank goodness. It woke me up, gave me the wake up call that I needed and got clean and sober. And found a new passion which is helping people in recovery."


FOX411: "Still a member of the Mormon Church?"

Whitaker: "Due to my actions and was married in the Temple I was excommunicated. It's been a long road for me. For a good 13 years I wanted nothing to do with God or religion. I'm currently singing in the choir in my congregation and working towards getting reintegrated. I know God loves me and I'm a Christian and Jesus is my Savior."

https://www.google.com/amp/www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2016/06/01/family-affair-child-star-johnny-whitaker-survived-drug-and-alcohol-abuse-now-helping-others.amp.html



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2018 01:47PM by steve benson.

>>Hollywood loves its puppies but once they became real adult dogs they kick them to the curb.

So true--even outside of Hollywood. I was universally loved as a cute kid and hot teenager, then when I hit middle age and put on a few pounds it was like night and day. It took me a while to figure out what was going on.

Google Halo Effect / Horn effect.

I have no idea if this is true or what his views are yet.

Sounds like possibly he needed a Jesus crutch for substance recovery? That is not the specialty of Mormons.

I wonder if he is another Kirk Cameron type.

Whatever the situation, it's a good thing when someone finds a way out of addiction and a spiritual home if they need one.

I was in the same ward with the Whitaker's when Johnny was on 'Family Affair'. The Osmonds were also in our ward. Johnny and his family tried to maintain a 'normal' life, or so it seemed to us.

Knowing the whole family, I kinda doubt that they would be okay with anyone in the family drifting away from the LDS. If he is not re-baptized or on the road to rebaptism, I would be very surprised.

Whitaker's been a volunteer helping others escape from drug addiction. That he's been there done that himself helps him to empathize with those he seeks to help overcoming their addictions.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2018 03:03PM by Amyjo.

He belongs in my faux EllDeeEss Living article: 'Celebrities We Can't Claim As Mormons Any More, But We Do Anyway'.

:-)

Just reviewed Whitaker's wiki page. I had forgotten that he was the boy in "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters."

Turns out Amazon has done a reboot. Wow.. brings back memories. Now if only "HR Puffinstuff" was redone...

HH =)

I liked him in Tom Sawyer. Playing alongside Jodie Foster. He was the perfect Tom for Twain's character.

Also when he played the "Littlest Angel," Christmas story. One of the sweetest children's stories of all time on screen and book. He was the sweetest faced little red headed cherubim to take that part.

He could make a believer out of the hardest of hearts. ;-)

Further research has indicated that I made a mistake! Johnny Whitaker has returned to Mormonism. It took a lot of digging today for me to find out.

Very late last night when I was very tired but curious, I looked him up on YouTube. When Johnny was in Rehab, he related to someone that he did not want to pray to "the God of my childhood." They counseled him to pray to God as he himself understood God. He did and got real results, enabling him to stay off of drugs.

On the Road to Recovery: Johnny Whitaker

https://youtu.be/m1ad9POuCXs

On Google, I read from Foxnews.com that he was singing in the Choir in his local congregation. He declared himself a Christian, and announced Jesus Christ as his Savior.

In the "old" days, Mormons referred to themselves as Mormons rather than Christians, and did not then declare that "Jesus Christ is my Savior." But things have changed, and Mormons are only too eager for the world to understand that they are Christians and into Jesus too.

Was I disappointed today, after digging further and learning that Johnny is still Mormon. He was excommunicated before he got sober, and apparently had done so many crazy negative things that the church waited years before allowing him to be re-baptized.

I'm sorry I mislead everybody. I should have known that someone from a devout extended family in Utah would not leave the LDS church for another.

Too bad...I wish, for him, that the facts had been otherwise, but everyone has to find their own way.

Thank you for checking this out and updating us, bridgidbarnes---you are appreciated!!!

Yeah well all I can say is this. Anyone who has been disfellowshipped or excommunicated knows that, despite reinstatement and all of the alleged "forgiveness of sins" that this makes you a marked person for life in the Church. It is never forgotten and makes you defective in most people's eyes once they find out. After all that Jonny has been through during these many years, I would love to know what he gets out of the Church at this point in his life.

Yeah well all I can say is this. Anyone who has been disfellowshipped or excommunicated knows that, despite reinstatement and all of the alleged "forgiveness of sins" that this makes you a marked person for life in the Church. It is never forgotten and makes you defective in most people's eyes once they find out. After all that Jonny has been through during these many years, I would love to know what he gets out of the Church at this point in his life.

I'm sure that he gets along with his family much better by staying Mormon.

When you look at Johnny's face, he doesn't look very happy. Perhaps he really would prefer to go to another church, or at least not be Mormon anymore. So many people like him are stuck.

LDS is the hardest monkey to get off your back.

His family, maybe more than the cult, is his support network.

When they're TBM can see how he'd get lulled back into that. It's a better trap than drugs and alcohol, but a pseudo religion IMO.

Mormonism is its own crutch. But heck, Whitaker lost his co-star who played Buffy to a drug overdose. His TV dad who was like a father figure off-screen to him, committed suicide.

That, in addition to his own experience married to a gold digger, has left him traumatized. He's a sensitive artistic soul. He got drawn back into Moism because he needed that support system he finds there, however inconvenient it is for him. It is maybe what keeps him holding on.

Religion is a sort of a crutch for me too. Only I found mine elsewhere, with a different theology. I no longer consider LDS a 'theology.' It's all dogma to me.

Amyjo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > That, in addition to his own experience married to
> a gold digger, has left him traumatized.

I grew up with the "gold-digger" and her second husband. Although I didn't know Johnny very well until he and Symbria came back from BYU, we did cross paths often enough during my childhood that he happened to be the person in the right place at the right time to teach me to tie my shoes. This took place while we were killing time in the foyer of a ward building somewhere in Burbank or North Hollywood while our fathers were both in a meeting that had to do with the missionary work that would tie into the soon-to-be-opening musical "Saturday's Warrior".

Johnny was our Gospel Doctrine teacher for a year or two while he was still married to Symbria.

While I do not claim to know what went on behind closed doors at their home, I can tell you that Symbria was not a gold-digger. Lynn, her second husband was all about the simple life, gardening, mentoring anyone who would let him,...etc. and came from a family with those same attributes. That is not somewhere that a gold-digger would run TO.

Thanks for clearing that up. Unless you knew them, it looked on the surface to be that she was a social climber.

In Johnny's own words, he said about that time, "I went to Brigham Young University University for directing and producing and unfortunately Utah, which I thought would open their arms to me as being a brother, did not do so with my 17 years of experience and didn't accept me so I went back to California. I type 110 words a minute, so I started working and had to survive with my wife.

I started a business in Utah for my wife and then she turns around and says, 'I don't love you anymore and I want to marry the man who gave you your bachelor party.' "

That was an unusually cruel and designing move on her part nonetheless IMO.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2016/06/01/family-affair-child-star-johnny-whitaker-survived-drug-and-alcohol-abuse-now-helping-others.html

and is trying now to get back into its good graces, even though Mormonism is a crude and backwater cult that does not preach or practice unconditional grace. Notwithstanding that, Whitaker apparently believes he can "reintegrate" with the flock by singing in his local congregational choir. There's no use trying to spin-doctor that fact, since he's the one who has publicly acknowledged it.

I enjoyed watching him on TV when I was a kid. In real life, he sounds like a nice enough guy, but if he's trying to return to Mormonism in order to be eternally happy in an extended LDS family of supposed Christian love, that's a very risky, not to mention delusional, proposition.



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2018 03:17AM by steve benson.

Johnny expressed in the video that he had not wanted to pray to "the God I grew up with". He instead followed the Rehab counsel to pray to God as he himself understood God--and actually got results. My gut feeling is that he would have sought out another church or fellowship if he had had a choice. It is sad that so many TBM families will bounce off a "loved one" if they dare follow another spiritual path, even a Christian one. So Christlike of them.

Cathy Garver and Johnny are the only surviving members of the cast of Family Affair.

They had a long separation where they hadn't spoken to each other due to some rift between them.

Johnny arranged a reunion of sorts so he could make a public apology to her. Her response was she accepted his apology, but added if he'd only have thanked her in the past for the gigs she sent his way it would have meant a lot. So that was the rift?

Well it took courage for him to man up by apologizing.

It was gracious of her to accept.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/family-affair-bad-blood_us_57bf7616e4b085c1ff28b50f