| Talking tough about Jesus |
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I  f you met Arthur White walking along a dark street, you’d probably want to cross the road. With his huge frame and smart suit, he looks like he’s just strayed off the set of the latest Godfather movie. If Arthur looks like a powerlifter and body-building champion rolled into one, that’s because he is. As a World Champion Powerlifter, his 26-year record for lifting 857 and three quarter pounds, remains unbroken. In addition, he holds nine British titles, six European titles and four world titles. But while Arthur is always happy to talk about bodybuilding, don’t be surprised if he strays onto his favourite topic – Jesus. For years, this one-time East End gangster knew nothing about Jesus or the Bible. He only went to church for the funerals of his gangster friends, shot dead or stabbed in bitter territorial feuds. Then one day, Arthur’s 14-year-old daughter Emma told him about a new youth club she had joined, at a nearby church. It was a conversation that changed his life. “I’d probably be dead or lying drugged up somewhere, an old has been living on his drunken memories if it hadn’t been for Emma,” says Arthur. “She brought me to know Jesus through her prayers and patience and forgiveness.” Today, Arthur is one of the trustees of a remarkable Christian ministry called Tough Talk. Its members are an assorted collection of former bouncers, debt collectors, criminals, drug dealers and gangsters. Arthur admits he carried a gun, and knew how to use it. He also favoured a knife and if those failed, well there was nothing like smashing a few noses with his sledgehammer of a fist. “I always loved physical exercise and started power-lifting when I was just fourteen,” he says. “I had no Christian background and relied on my own wits and strength to get ahead. If people got in my way, I’d knock them down without a second thought. I was very violent.” In the high-pressure world of power-lifting, Arthur encountered a twilight world of drug-taking and boozing. He was hooked on cocaine for 10 years, helped along with a taste for steroids with a sideline in good-looking women who flocked around the well-toned power lifters. “I was a cheat, a drug taker, and adulterer,” he adds. “All the while I had a successful building business, a lovely wife and family. But my lust for winning and the drugs saw me lose all that. I lost my family, my business, my house, my cars and my reputation. I don’t think I could have gone any lower.” It was then Emma went in a different direction. She started attending a local church at the same time her dad decided to walk out on the family. “Emma told me she was praying for me but I wasn’t interested,” adds Arthur. “I could only see myself and what I needed. My wife, Jackie, took me back several times but I always let her down.” Looking out for himself as ever, Arthur knew he needed to kick his cocaine habit if he was to keep winning titles. Emma told him about a Christian counsellor she knew who could help him. Arthur admits he was interested in the counselling but not the Christian part. “I expected a religious sermon but the way this guy spoke about Jesus knocked me over,” says Arthur. “I felt an incredible sense of peace and joy and love, like nothing I’d experienced before. We had a number of conversations and I grew hungry for more. “One morning, I was walking through Spitalfields market in the East End of London thinking about this. I started praying, in a clumsy way but I was praying. “Suddenly, I knew Jesus was real and that he wasn’t just some guy who lived thousands of years ago. “He is alive today and I could have a personal relationship with him. That morning while walking through Spitalfields, I accepted Jesus and my life changed.” That was 1993. Arthur and Jackie renewed their marriage vows and both were baptised. They moved to Cornwall where they attend a church. Arthur travels the country with Tough Talk, visiting prisons and doing street evangelisation, telling his own testimony  and lifting weights most people would be scared even to look at. “One day while we were in a shopping precinct, a young guy came over,” recalls Arthur. “He was really drunk and was shouting a lot. I listened to him and before he left, gave him a DVD about Tough Talk. “A few weeks later, he turned up at another event, sober and wanting to talk. He had accepted Jesus and wanted to know more about Christianity. He now works with Tough Talk as one of the team.” Arthur and the guys take their power lifting very seriously. But they are forever thankful for the day they found real power – in Jesus. |
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