The gospel according to John Wayne Whitehead

John Wayne (his father admired the movie star) Whitehead became a hippie who thought that all politicians were the epitome of falsehood and could not be trusted. He loved taking on the establishment during his college days.

John married a church-attending Carol, but continued his self-indulgent ways, obsessed with his own urges and desires. That’s why he teamed up with Rick and Tom. But he also shot hoops with a kind of beefy guy who wasn’t athletic at all, so John usually won. But this guy kept picking up Jesus and over ten games found a way to lay out the entire plan of salvation in bits and pieces. John scoffed at every item, but that didn’t stop this missionary – he kept coming back for more. Later, John bought Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth because he thought it was a science fiction book. John was fascinated with Lindsey’s premise that the prophecies of the Bible were fulfilled and began to consider that perhaps the Bible was a competent source of information.

But John wasn’t going to let this change his lifestyle. So on Thanksgiving Day 1974, John refused to attend the families Thanksgiving festivities in Illinois and stayed home to work and play. On November 28, John was reading Matthew as a serious document on the life of Christ. But on the 29th he was ready to get loose at Rick’s house. Beer and smoking kept the party going. Then John began to tense. Rick tried to relax John and they started playing cards. Then Rick started talking to John without moving his lips in a “mental voice”, a form of telepathy. “John, there is more to life than you see. There is a spiritual power higher and stronger than us. He can help you in many ways.” John also replied without using his voice: “Who are you talking about?” And the answer woke him up suddenly: “Satan.” In John’s rush to leave, John’s crucifix flipped out of his shirt and the other three jerked their heads around. They couldn’t look at the cross. John was begged to stay, but he left the room and started walking down the driveway onto the street of this middle-class subdivision. Rick and Tom knew it was too cold for John to walk all the way home and they were soon pulled up beside him. “We can’t let you walk home … We need to talk.” In the car, the smell of sulfur was suffocating and again John heard a mental voice: “John, you have to let things go … If you stay with us, you can do it right. You won’t have any worries.”

John responded to this by looking up to heaven and saying, “Jesus Christ, you are my Savior.” Suddenly, he was engulfed by a strong but benevolent torrent and an astonishing sensation poured over him like warm milk flowing down his throat. He accepted this as the Spirit of God running through his body. At that very moment, Rick and Tom began to moan audibly, as if they were in pain. Then John amazed himself by saying, “You have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent and believe in Christ and you will be saved.” Silence fell, so John repeated it again. John left his house. There were no friendly goodbyes.

Now John wanted to call Carol. “I have become a Christian. I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.” Carol was stunned and finally said, “Are you drunk?” “No, this is real. I’m flying to Peoria tomorrow.” John was feeling energetic, so he called a minister he had spoken to earlier. When John told him that he believed in Jesus Christ, the minister replied, “I have never believed in Jesus Christ. This is all just a myth.” John tried one more call to his father to end the night on a more positive note. His father’s voice was full of cynicism: “Sure you are. You’re a Christian lawyer who helps all those people get divorced. It really does sound like a Christian thing to me.” But in the morning, John knew that he had changed when he felt no longing for his old habits.

John is still helping those abused by authority. He has represented other victims of sexual harassment and even a gay man, beaten as he was leaving a restaurant. Juan feels that God is using him and accepts criticism without holding a grudge. You want to be free to do all the work to be done.

Killing Dragons, John W. Whitehead, 1999