INTRODUCTION
Not the Righteous is a collection of short stories about people who needed to be made whole. They are true stories sensitively written by a man who himself has been made whole. Jack Odell, the dynamic and well-loved announcer on "Unshackled," himself narrated each story when it was broadcast. He knows the people personally and by the time this book is in print, Jack's own amazing story will have been dramatized on "Unshackled." As the former writer of this series, I often sat in the control room of Studio 5A at WGN in Chicago and watched the HOLY SPIRIT of JESUS CHRIST "take over" the life of Jack Odell during the closing moments of a broadcast on which Jack played the leading role!
This book is an authentic book because the stories are all true and because the one who wrote them is himself an authentic! He sees as few Christians see (new or old!) through the fog of misleading self-righteousness! He sees JESUS CHRIST as He is, not things about Him! Jack Odell knows, from his own experience, that this JESUS CHRIST came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance! And he knows why this is true.
He also knows, along with the devoted men and women who labor day in and day out at the Pacific Garden Mission on Chicago's Skid Row, that "sinner" is not necessarily one lying in an alley or in need of a shave! Jack Odell and I were both in so-called big-time radio for over fifteen years. We remained well-dressed. We were still working. But we were not the righteous!
We were sinners and JESUS CHRIST called us to repentance! We have prayerfully and carefully selected for inclusion in this book a wide variety of true stories from the some two hundred and fifty broadcast so far on "Unshackled," in the sincere effort to show by actual cases that "all have sinned" and all need the cleansing Touch of the One who alone was sinless!
Jack Odell joins me in calling your attention to the unusual vision shown by our sponsors on "Unshackled," the famous old Skid Row Lighthouse, The Pacific Garden Mission of Chicago. I am sure the Lord's Heart rejoices that Superintendent Harry Saulnier and his executive board of Christian businessmen care about the lonely, empty, sin-twisted, neurotic "up and outer" as well as the equally lonely, empty, sin-twisted, neurotic "down and outer" shuffling along Chicago's Skid Row streets and alleys. "Unshackled" is reaching into the lives of all kinds of people and because it carries the simple dynamic of the Cross in every broadcast, all kinds of lives are being changed.
These pungently written true stories were poured from the overflowing heart of my Christian brother, and their authenticity will grip you because Jack understands conversion to JESUS CHRIST! His own darkness was invaded by the Life of GOD and now the man who once played gangsters and bartenders because he looked the part, fairly "lights up" Studio 5A on a Saturday night as the Inner-Light shines through his voice and his radiant face!
This same Light shines through these stories in Not The Righteous!
They are stranger and more wonderful than fiction, because GOD Himself wrote them on human lives. If you are inclined to scoff at Christianity and honestly feel no need of CHRIST, be open-minded enough to read Not The Righteous! and then check your reactions against-truth. They are each one true.
And they each contain The Truth.
If they do not, then JESUS CHRIST was confused when He declared: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life!"
Eugenia Price
Chicago