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Walker, aka 'What's Your Name?' intrigues passers-by
Unidentified man, barefoot and dressed in robes, walks U.S. 1, raising motorists' consciousness of Jesus.
By EDIE GROSS
The Free Lance-Star
Date published: 12/24/2001
He is The Man Sometimes Mistaken for Jesus.
And it's not hard to see why. The man, who declined to give his name, age or hometown to a reporter, strolled south along the U.S. 1 Bypass yesterday wearing a flowing white robe.
He carried prayer books in his left hand. He was barefoot. His brown hair was shoulder-length.
It's hard to dismiss the resemblance.
"People say, 'He thinks he's Jesus.' Of course not," said the man, who waved to drivers and chatted with those who stopped for him near Fredericksburg's Twin Lakes subdivision yesterday afternoon. "I'm a believer in Jesus."
Actually, the man's identity may not be completely Top Secret.
In October 1999, when a barefoot, white-robed man stopped to preach in an eastern Pennsylvania coal-mining town, the press came out of the woodwork.
The Standard-Speaker newspaper in Hazleton, Pa., identified the popular visitor as Carl J. Joseph, 39, of Ohio. He spent more than six months in Hazleton, and thousands turned out to hear him speak in fire halls, gymnasiums and fields. Time magazine, The Washington Post, The Detroit News and The Cincinnati Enquirer all featured stories on him. It wasn't uncommon to see satellite trucks outside his speaking engagements.
The U.S. 1 walker said yesterday that he prefers to go by "What's Your Name?"--something he is often asked. Carl Joseph, in Pennsylvania, went by the same moniker.
The man said he has been wandering about in loose-fitting garb for the past 11 years, traversing on foot parts of Europe, Israel, Canada, Central America and 47 of the 48 continental United States (Montana isn't populated enough for a visit).
"It's, like, what I do," he said. "It makes people think."
Reactions from the public run the gamut. Some drivers honked and gave him the thumbs-up sign yesterday.
A smarmy teen-ager with a pizza-delivery sign strapped to the top of his car stopped to make a snide comment before continuing north on Jefferson Davis Highway.
A Spotsylvania County couple in a minivan offered to get the man lunch. Kenny and Betty Bartlett returned a few moments later with oven-roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw and iced tea from KFC.
"It's such a great testimony to see what he's doing," Kenny Bartlett said. "The Lord using him to minister to people, it's a blessing."
The man said he had been an evangelist before hitting the road more than a decade ago.
"I felt a calling for something much more focused on freedom," he said. "I set out on foot without a coat, without money. Through the people I met, God revealed this type of ministry."
He said he goes where the spirit takes him. Sometimes, if he is welcomed, he stays a bit longer in some towns.
Where will he be this Christmas? He shrugged.
"Hopefully," he said, "a place where I'm needed."
Date published: 12/24/2001
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