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named Stanley A. Thurber had offered him a place to live and a job (or two). Chapman described Thurber as "an older fellow" with "a lot of contacts in the area" who "agreed
to refurbish his upstairs apartment for me…"
This would not be the first time that Chapman has been befriended by a member of the clergy. Wikipedia tells us that he became a born-again Christian in 1971 (approximately nine years before Lennon's murder), and was distributing biblical materials as part of that conversion experience. He
afterwards moved to Chicago, and was playing guitar in churches and in "Christian nightspots." He later studied for a while at Covenant College, an evangelical Presbyterian school in Georgia. After a suicide attempt in 1977, Chapman "found a place to live with a Presbyterian minister."
Stanley A. Thurber is an Assembly of God minister who pastored the Oak Orchard biblical community in Medina for years, along with his now-deceased wife Ann. According to Ann's obituary, Stanley "completed
the Biblical Studies with Burean Bible College..."
Oak Orchard Assembly of God describes itself as a community "made up of people just like you learning to love each other where we are while we become who God wants us to be."
It goes on to explain that this "is most effectively accomplished through relationships – life in life, serving and helping one another."
Certainly, Thurber's offer to assist Chapman seems very much in line with this type of Christian hospitality.
It might even be a viable answer to the soul-searching question: What would Jesus do?
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_David_Chapman
http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=753933&ocid=rr-mus-news
http://www.memorialsolutions.com/sitemaker/sites/BatesT1/obit.cgi?user=115550Thurber
http://www.ooag.com/?TargetPage=8F341530-4170-47B2-A52F-0CE72937F15F
http://www.bereanbiblecollege.net/Berean_Bible_College/Home.html
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