Christian bikers offer religion for the road

Written by Off the Wire
General News

By Dana Clark Felty
Big B recalls, from his early years running with motorcycle gangs, waking up to calls from friends alerting him that someone was in the hospital.

Often it was because Big B put them there.

"There were many times I'd wake up wondering, 'Where am I, what did I do, and who am I with?' " said the 6-foot-6-inch tall, roughly 500-pound Bloomingdale man.

Today, when he gets a hospital call, it's usually a request to visit and pray.

Big B, whose real name is Brian Miller, once ran with "outlaw" bikers. But the only men he calls brothers today are members of the Glory Riders.

The roughly 40-member club and other local Christian bikers see it as their mission to minister to the men and women of the open road.

Members say the job requires looking past the stereotypes of bikers as cursing, thieving, misogynistic brawlers. Even when the stereotype fits.

Many evangelists have tried and failed, Bill McGee said.

"I know more churches that have started bike communities and within 18 months, they don't exist anymore," said McGee, pastor of the men's ministry at Savannah Christian Church. "A lot of them don't take the time to connect with that community. It's too much effort for little return."

Rules of the road

McGee learned a lesson in biker culture early in the creation of the church's riding group "Grace and Thunder."

While planning a patch for the back of members' jackets, an experienced rider offered a friendly warning.

"You can't just go out and make a patch and put it on your back and ride with it," McGee said. "They all know which are sanctioned, and if they come up on some that are not, they can get pretty angry."

McGee isn't looking to rock the boat.

Through Grace and Thunder's occasional rides throughout the region, he hopes he can break down some stereotypes of Christians.

"They've all felt threatened by the church in the past," he said. "I think almost every biker has a story about some church or some preacher."

The Glory Riders wear the patch of the Christian Motorcyclists Association, a national motorcycle club founded in 1975.

Members meet once a month and ride every weekend, often mixing with other clubs such as the Wingmen, "AmVets," the Bomber Girls or various sport bike clubs.

Unlike Grace and Thunder, the Glory Riders share a relaxed approach to ministry centered on actions over words.

"If you start preaching fire and brimstone to them before they even know who you are, you might as well close the door because you're done," said Glory Riders chaplain David Steinhauser.

Steinhauser recalled one day when a new member couldn't hold his tongue around a scantily clad woman at a chili cook-off.

"That chili ain't as hot as it's going to be for you in hell," the guy told the woman, Steinhauser said.

"I could have hit him. She may have walked away and never thought about God again the rest of her life."

A couple of years ago, a fight broke out at a swap meet at the Coastal Empire Fair Grounds after a member of another Christian biker group said the wrong thing to an Outlaw.

"He just got in their face; they didn't recognize him or his colors and boom! That was it," Steinhauser said.

"He got nowhere with them and made them look worse on Christians."

Biker religion

Big B started running with biker gangs as a teen.

It was a community that accepted, even praised, his large stature and helped him express the pain of childhood abuse and neglect.

"In the biker lifestyle, if you're a big man who doesn't mind getting ugly and throwing down and being a maniac, you're almost treated like a god," he said.

The Hell's Angels and outlaw biker clubs all invited him to join over the 10 years he spent "in the life," he said.

But he shunned the ties of membership.

"They wanted me to join because I was the big guy," he said. "In a lot of clubs, the big guy is the enforcer. Right or wrong, he enforces things."

After being "saved" in the mid-1980s, Big B cast off the biker lifestyle and started a family.

Then about a year ago, he met Steinhauser, who talked him into riding again, but for a new purpose.

To Big B, faith and motorcycles make good partners.

"When you're riding your motorcycle, you're probably within the most spiritual time of your life," he said. "You're searching for stuff."

And, he sees the brotherhood of motorcycle gangs to be unparalleled with other kinds of organizations.

In fact, Big B believes Christians could learn something from bikers.

"If the Christian community could ever get to the point in their walk with God and fellow Christians like the way bikers walk with each other, it would be a whole different prospect."

If you go
What: "Run for the Son" annual ride sponsored by the Christian Motorcyclists Association
When: May 1; 9 a.m. registration, 10:30 a.m. kickstands up
Where: Savannah Harley-Davidson, Ga. 204 and I-95. The ride ends at Westside Christian Church in Bloomingdale.
Details: The free ride includes free food, bike games, door prizes, raffles and an auction to benefit motorcycle missions around the world.
Information: Call Elton Stafford at 912-308-8869 or Vinnie Dorsi at 912-658-7857.

original article