Nashville, TN (AP) -- I-65 will never be the same. The serene and scenic highway that runs south from near Chicago’s congested web to the southern tip of Alabama is soon to host a social celebrity’s grand entrance into Nashville, and many don’t simply know what to make of the whole phenomenon. The “celebrity’s” name is Josh Daub. He is a Christian, what we might call a “conservative evangelical.”
Originally from the very small town of Hiawatha, IA, he had come very quickly to national attention. Not only was he a riveting preacher on tour who walked the walk, he was proactive in whatever community he stumbled upon. Reports and investigations have shown that, when Mr. Daub visits a town, he usually gives a few sermons and does some counseling, but more unexpectedly, he rallies and leads his new congregations to action. Even after he leaves, his congregants remain committed visitor-volunteers to homeless shelters, child and family associations, crisis pregnancy centers, tutoring schools and prisons. One police officer from Kansas City reported that four ex-cons now attend his church. A teacher from the South Side of Chicago claims that she’s started to get calls and wealthy donations for a new school to be built, saying they were encouraged to do so by Mr. Daub.
If you visited any village where Mr. Daub had just been, you would sense positive change. As the rest of the media has followed his movements (double-entendre fully intended) for the past three years, they’ve found that the towns he’s visited, because of the hope and inspiration he’s given the citizens, have stabilizing economies. Statistics of poverty, illiteracy and crime have gone down, and the immeasurable auras of morale and community have gone up.
But little is known about Mr. Daub before he was spotted on the media’s radar. He has no formal education in theology, public speaking, engineering, economics, culture or social work. Those outspoken and well-versed thereof (especially in theology) have challenged him and his works to frequent debate, but to no avail. His positive influence and large appreciation seem to speak for themselves. All the while, he seems to know how exactly to best give what he calls “new life” to whoever he sees, both on earth and what he believes to be eternal life, through the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. Understandably, church attendance has also gone up.
Here north and outside of Nashville, a large group of people, numbering about 108,000, are waiting alongside I-65 for him to arrive in his humble ’89 Civic. This group from across the nation includes everyone from homeless people, telemarketers, a few CEO’s, pastors, and construction workers. They’ve actually covered the road with tarp and some of their own clothes. They’ve brought homemade welcome signs and seem very unified in their anticipation, as if they were all from the same town, one that Daub visited.
Nashville was once arguably the Christian capital of the nation. Now known for country music, it has lost much relevance in the cultural and political evolution in the country. It is now in Washington’s spotlight.
What will the rest of the country make of this event? Some believe that Mr. Daub, while his social work and charity has done undeniable good for portions of the nation, is only another conservative evangelical, spouting intellectual nonsense and, like some Christians, hoping for a restoration of Christian-inspired government that he supposedly misses. Others believe, though that he is of a line of innovative ministers of God’s Word that actually can and do “change the world,” and in a good way.
However Nashville and the country respond to Mr. Daub and his message over the next week will reveal much about us, and maybe humanity as a whole.
