Inspired

I believe religion is a private matter. Our founding fathers actually separated Church and State. But the desperation of my opponents has led them to send out a flyer falsely attacking my religion and my history book about Jesus.

Their false allegations about the book have been firmly rebutted in an article that came out a few weeks ago - Click Here to read that article.

The attacks on my personal beliefs will be answered here.

In September 2005 I went to rescue animals in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. I retired a year earlier and embarked on an ambitious program reading about the history of religion. In the process I came upon many contradictions in the stories about Jesus, and I was spending a lot of time researching these. You could even say I was obsessed. While in New Orleans I spoke about it all the time, and people urged me to write a book so that others could benefit from the research I was doing. I said it was a personal thing and I wasn’t interested in writing a book.

Then came what I described as “The Miracle in New Orleans”. Jesus came into my life and instructed me to write the book. I was so amazed by the events that happened that I wrote them down as the Introduction to my book about Jesus, but editors warned me that a “history” book couldn’t begin with an introduction that was “too Christian”. I took their advice and wrote a new Introduction and put away this article where it has remained unread for over a decade.

At the time the “miracle” occurred, the person I was with insisted we take a picture, because what happened to us was so hard to believe it needed to be documented. Hence I’ve attached the picture taken so long ago.

The full text of the article is too long to post on The Patch. If you want a copy, please e-mail me and I will send it. Meantime I did include the last section of the article –

“Day 4: 6:00 a.m.

I’m up and ready to go. Haven’t had a shower in four days, and probably smell like it, except among this motley crew, who would notice? With only two showers for five hundred people, showers are a rare commodity.

Today is Sally’s last day. She’ll come with us on the morning round, and then we’ll drop her off at New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong airport which just opened up. That way we can spend a full day in the Ninth [District].

1:00 p.m.

Rebecca and I are on a roll. We’ve re-inspected all the stations that were set up and re-supplied the ones that showed signs of life. But our supplies are running low. We’ve run out of containers to put the food and water in, and we’re perilously low on water. There isn’t any running water in the Ninth and no place to purchase containers within 25 miles of New Orleans.

“We’ll have to put the food on the ground.”

“It’ll spoil. And what about the water? What’ll we put that in?”

“What’s our alternative?”

Just them I look at the ground, which everywhere is littered with the contents of people’s homes. Among the endless debris, I spot bowls used to feed animals. They’re everywhere, particularly since most of the homes in the Ninth had watchdogs because this was a high crime area.

“Hey, look at this,” I say, picking up a bowl.

Rebecca instantly catches on. She scans the area and picks up two more bowls.

“Seek and ye shall find,” she says with a big toothy grin. I laugh.

“Must be all those Jesus books you've been reading,” she says.

We continue, supported now by the street and our endless supply of bowls. Manna from heaven. About half an hour later, we’ve poured the last of our water.

“OK kid, that’s all she wrote. We can continue with the food, but there’s no water.”

Rebecca is determined to succeed. She goes to the side of one of the houses and turns on the faucet. Nothing.

“Shit.”

I’m looking at Rebecca’s long thin body standing there with an empty hose, and my eyes go to the ground where I had hoped to see the water come spilling out. Instead, I see an unopened bottle of Dysani water.

“Eh,” I say, pointing at her feet.

Rebecca laughs. “I’m telling you Jim, Jesus is watching over us. First the bowls, and now the water.”

Sure enough, a quick scan of the street shows that bottles of water are everywhere.

“He’s telling you to write that book,” she says, smiling from cheek to cheek. But now there’s a little more credence to her remarks. After all, the bowls were one thing, but now the water. And hadn’t Jesus been concerned with bread and wine. Well, for animals, I guess that translates into crunchies and water.

I laugh. Spooky. “Tell ya this. If I get one more sign from Jesus today, I will write that book.”

We laugh. Rebecca gathers up a bunch of water bottles while I fill up a container with dry food. My forty-ninth station.

“Good things come in threes,” she says as we get to the end of the street.

We laugh again. I turn the corner and we start driving down the street, looking for signs of life. Up ahead, about a hundred feet, is a sign still standing on someone’s grey lawn. It catches my attention because very few signs of any kind remain in place.

We get closer. I can see the big bold letters in red, but I can’t make it out yet.

We get closer.

Rebecca blurts out “Jesus.”

“What?”

“The sign says Jesus.”

True, enough. Still standing amidst the wreckage is a sign that says - "Elect JESUS Lord of your life," and the JESUS part stands out in large bold red letters. Three months later, I finish my book about Jesus.

I took my "miracle" as a sign from Jesus that he wanted me to write this book, and I did. Studying Jesus from an historical point of view can only lead to a deeper appreciation of who he was and what he stood for. Any Christian who reads my book will come away with their belief strengthened, not weakened.

It’s incredible to me that my opponents have sunk so low as to falsely accuse me and attack my religious beliefs. As I said at the start, I believe religious beliefs are personal and I don’t intend to open a long discussion about them. Nor do I think that my qualifications for being re-elected rely upon a book I wrote more than a decade ago, nor on what happened to me in New Orleans.

My opponents are so desperate they will stoop to any level to elect Mark Tettemer. My record is so impressive that not a mention is made in any of their flyers about my accomplishments, nor is there anything they can say that will boost Tettemer. Instead they put out false news about every possible situation, so much so that they caused a resident to produce a "Fake News" column on The Patch, which I believe is nearly 15 episodes long. (Click Here for the most recent one)

If I am to be judged, judge me on my performance these past few years and on what I’ve been able to accomplish with the help of my colleagues, the staff, and the residents