House of Paine

bible rider

CHEYENNE, WY, August 27-
The local bible wars are on again
here in Cheyenne, and once again 
it's one man at the center of it
all: the redoubtible, unsinkable 
Eddie Kendrick.  

Kendrick, in his own mind, is
just a man of God on a
mission.

"It's the truth that will win
this eventually. I’m on the side
of truth wherever it leads me, 
and I've got the likes of
Nicholas of Cusa and Sir Issac
Newton right there with me all
the way. 

"I’m resurrecting the real
Jesus. I want to get at the real
man- the man that kicked off
this movement. These bible
regulators of all stripes, from
the turtle-necked ivy league
brainiacs to the fee-simple
preacher morons, I’m after them
all. I’m after their pelts.

"For heaven's sake, they’re the
folks that kept the truth from
average people for two hundred
years. That's right, there are
lots of people that know this
stuff exists; know and have
known for generations. Turned
the curia queer trying to keep
this all quiet."

How does he feel about the
prospects for prising loose the
numerous suppressed and
unacknowledged Vatican
documents? 

"Well, if enough determined
folks finally get on the case,
them Vatican boys just may have
to cough up the originals." 

When asked if he feels
intimidated by the likely
response of the scholarly world
to his revelations and
reconstructions, Kendrick 
replies, "Intimidated? Come on,
did you ever take a look at
these divinity types? Fact is,
I plan on doing the
intimidating."

He’s not just bragging. In the
past, the response to Kendrick
outside his own circle of loyal
followers has been,
overwhelmingly, "a real nasty
brew of fear and silence,"
according to one close
observer of the self-styled
"bible outlaw."

Both the fear and the silence  
are easy to understand once
you’ve dealt with Kendrick 
personally, the observer adds. 
   
"I agree with that asseessment
entirely," says Dwayne Buckles,
a long time Kendrick associate. 

"Hell I’m his side kick," says
Buckles, "and I don’t forget
this is a guy with a black belt
and a 12-gauge love life."

Others not so close to the man, 
nevertheless agree with
Buckles' assessment.

"No sir, if old Eddie’s coming
at you, that's no small
threat," says Joseph "Buffalo
Joe" Cadwell, with a light
chuckle and a wag of the head.

"I spent twenty nine years
duking my way back and forth
across this nation's prairie
states," says Cadwell, who
describes himself as "no
lilly." "I’ve  spread the 
sacred word of debunkment far
and wide, and I’ve planted
more knuckles than Johnny
planted apple seeds, but I’ve
got to tell you straight up,"
he says, "I’m no Kendrick.
Nobody is."
 
"To any soul out there he
reaches with  his particular
brand of assault on gospel
lies," says Cadwell "the
effect is fearsome. Fearsome
beyond fearsome. The man's a
living legend."

Kendrick founded his own
bible center here in Cheyenne
three years ago, after a
mysterious explosion rocked the
meeting hall of a group he
belonged to called the Gospel
Riders. Though no one was
killed, 13 members of that
organization were hospitalized
as a result of the blast.
 
At the time, fingers pointed
at Kendrick. 
 
Two months earlier, he had
been at the center of a highly
public falling-out between a
dissident faction and the rest
of the Gospel Riders over a key
doctrine of the group.

"They had this diehard belief
that Mother Mary was an Aryan,"
says Kendrick associate
Buckles. "In fact, her supposed
Aryan identity was one of their
chief pillars of faith." 

At the time of the falling-out,
Kendrick’s faction had begun to
openly  scoff at the idea. 

Kendrick, himself, was quoted
in the local press at that time
as saying, "Mary not a Jew? 
Heck, that's pure 
Nazi-Santa-Klaus stuff. 
Straight reindeer water."

"Of course, reindeer water's
just perfect for the beer mugs
over there at the Gospel hall. 

"Drink up you morons. Go ahead,
go right ahead. Drink your fill
you mental hairlips. Drink 'til
your eyeballs pop out."

For years, Kendrick had been
the Gospel Rider’s co-director
and chief scholar-in-residence.

According to everyone involved,
the break-up was sudden, 
poisonous, and full of rage on
both sides.  Several lethal 
threats were allegedly
exchanged.

In the aftermath of the
bombing, Kendrick and the other
members of his faction were 
seen as obvious suspects, 
however, the police
investigation turned up nothing 
and Kendrick, though
questioned, was never arrested.

"No, Eddie wasn’t behind that
action. Not in any way," says
Kendrick associate Buckles. 
"But I do  remember at the time 
him telling me they sure had it
coming to them," Buckles adds
with a bearish grin.
 
"Listen here, let me tell you
something. Those guys over
there, the ones still in
wheelchairs or gimping this
place and that on short
rations, don’t let them kid
you. They know it wasn’t Eddie
done it to 'em. 
 
"Hells bells, they know’d damn
well if it was Eddie done it, 
he’da finished the job."