Riders for God:
The Story of a Christian Motorcycle Gang
by Rich Remsberg

from Killing the Buddha, a religion magazine for people made anxious by churches, people embarrassed to be caught in the spirituality section of a bookstore, people both hostile and drawn to talk of God. Fearless, serious and irreverent, KtB admittedly looks more like Babel than the City of God. But so be it, they say. "Babel, after all, came close." Killing the Buddha.com is edited by Peter Manseau and Jeffrey Sharlet.

-- (more images below)

Riders for God takes us into a world generally inaccessible to outsiders, one situated at the crossroads of two seemingly incongruous realms: motorcycle gangs and Spirit-filled Christianity. Founded by a former biker and located in southern Indiana, the Unchained Gang is a group of former outlaw bikers, ex-convicts, and recovering addicts who are now born-again Christians. While they have given up drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and violence, they have kept their motorcycles--which they consider to be anointed--and use them as a tool in their witness of the word of God as they understand it. (Order your own copy from the University of Illinois Press.)

The Unchained Gang is an outreach ministry, going into prisons and jails, biker rallies, and other places where people on the fringe are often ignored by other churches and the rest of society. Combining powerful photographic images with gang members' first-person testimonies, Rich Remsberg shows the ironic juxtaposition of tattoos, leather vests, and the iconography of the biker world with the Christian practices of Bible study, speaking in tongues, and praying at the altar. In an unobtrusive manner he explores the lives of these men and women who have redirected the extreme nature of their former ways. Through their own powerful stories, they explain how the addictions and uncontrollable violence that once shaped their lives have given way to dramatic worship and a zealous ministry.

Documentary photographer Rich Remsberg has worked on the professional staff of the Indiana University School of Journalism and more recently as the Visual Resources Specialist with the Indiana University Digital Library Program. In addition to working on his own projects, he is currently a consultant on several programs for PBS. His publication and exhibition credits include the New York Times, MSNBC/Newsweek, the Peace Museum, and other national publications and venues. He is a contributing photographer to the Indiana Historical Society’s Heartland Documentary Project and has received two grants from the Indiana Arts Council. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Click on images for larger view.

Traveling evangelist Irv Goldman leads a prayer over Pastor Larry during the annual blessing of the bikes.

Praying at the altar.

This is the world the Unchained Gang has left behind, but still returns to in order to preach the Gospel.

Non-Christian bikers at the Bean Blossom Boogie.

Randy, carrying a cross through the Boogie to remind people of Jesus’ sacrifice.

Every September since 1992, television evangelist Kenneth Copeland has hosted the Eagle Mountain Motorcycle Rally, an international gathering of Christian bikers, held in Newark, Texas.

Gabby at a flea market in Ft. Worth.

Gabby holding his then-wife’s hand at an Unchained Gang meeting. They were divorced soon after.