After father's death, 'Irish Ed' is back preaching to his flock: Bikers

Off the Wire News

The thunder of motorcycles will welcome Easter in Fort Worth.
Your church may host a sunrise service.
So will a biker club on East Vickery Boulevard.

After missing last Easter because of his father's death, biker chaplain "Irish Ed" Mahan will return to the Boozefighters' club parking lot and preach his 10th sunrise service for local motorcycle clubs.

"We celebrate the Resurrection and the hope it gives us for new beginnings in the face of adversity," said Mahan, 62, of Johnson County, a Baptist pastor-turned-biker.

"We draw men and women who are disillusioned with church and haven't gone in 40 years.
"Bikers aren't conformists. Neither am I."
Mahan's own career has taken some hairpin turns.
After a turn as a small-town pastor in the 1970s, he left the church and became a real estate investor and used-car dealer at Mahan Motor Co. on East Lancaster Avenue.

He found his way to the biker club in 1997 and tried to keep his past life a secret.

But when members asked him to conduct weddings, and when others started offering to skip drinks at nearby Cooter Brown's bar if he would lead Bible study, Mahan accepted the role of chaplain and turned back to the church.

Now, with a new counseling degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a career in social work, he has risen to program manager of HOMES, the homeless outreach program of Catholic Charities of Fort Worth.

His Easter worshippers at the biker club, 1501 E. Bessie St., will include friends who have lost homes and landed in shelters.
Even some Boozefighters have had to pitch in to help members keep their homes.
So Mahan's Easter message is about hope.
"For the homeless, the loss of hope hurts more than the loss of a home," Mahan said.

"They need shelter, but they need hope back in their lives more than anything else. The message will be that Easter is the ultimate message of hope for mankind."
He preached his first biker Easter in 2000.
In a 2005 history of the club -- the title, The O riginal Wild Ones, refers to the 1953 movie with Marlon Brando -- Mahan tells how the Boozefighters asked for an "Easter thing."
Soon, posters were tacked up in bars: "Easter sunrise at the clubhouse -- Irish Ed's gonna preach and stuff."
He expected a dozen worshippers.
More than 100 came.
Mahan preached every year after that until last year, when his father, a Baptist pastor, died in East Texas.
Bikers have been asking for months about Easter.
"They've e-mailed asking, 'Ed, are we gonna have that sunrise service?'" he said.
"I'm amazed. Members bring their kids or their siblings or their mom. It's a chance for the black sheep of the family to show that biker clubs aren't all about drinking, carousing and riding hard."
At least, not till after Irish Ed preaches and stuff.
Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 817-390-7538

Twitter @budkennedy

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