The Gospel According to Dangerous Dave

What happens when a man who has spent his life running from the law comes face-to-face with a power that asks him to stand still? In this riveting episode of Self-Reflection, host Lira Ndifon sits down with David Damptian—a man formerly known as "Dangerous Dave"—for a conversation that excavates the wreckage of a past defined by crime, addiction, and violence, and uncovers a story of radical redemption that challenges the very limits of belief.

Dave’s story begins in the shadows—a self-described "criminal, thief, drug dealer, and alcoholic" from a dead-end town, whose life was a series of bad choices leading to jail time and despair. He recounts the gritty details of his descent, and the almost unbelievable story of how a desire to meet girls on a church basketball team led to an unexpected, "supernatural" encounter with God. But this was no instant miracle. What followed were decades of wrestling with faith, a cycle of running away and being relentlessly pulled back, a journey that ultimately transformed him from a street-level criminal into a sought-after "fixer" of failing psychiatric hospitals.

But this episode goes far beyond one man’s incredible life story. Lira and Dave venture into the complex, often contradictory heart of faith itself. They grapple with the questions that have haunted believers and skeptics for millennia: Is the Bible literal truth or a collection of profound metaphors? Why does a book that preaches love also contain verses that justify "an eye for an eye"? And where does the flawed, human institution of religion end, and a true, personal connection with the divine begin?

Ultimately, Dave’s journey reveals a powerful truth about the human condition: true change isn’t something that happens to us, but a choice we must make. He shares the stunningly simple, yet impossibly difficult, mindset that allowed him to walk away from decades of addiction overnight. This conversation is more than just an interview; it's a mirror held up to our own lives, forcing us to ask: What do we choose to believe in, and what are we willing to do to be saved from ourselves?