Michael Thornton’s evangelist style is reminiscent of the subjects of his book, the 1890s evangelists C.B. Cashwell and A.R. Crumpler. “When you get addicted to something, it is a disease, controlling you in sickness,” Richard explains. “It will make you do something you don’t want to do.” Corps put him in a men-tal hospital; they thought he was trying to kill himself with the cocaine. They actually quarantined him in the barracks and also in the Marine Corps mental hospital.” Released from the mental hospital, Michael sneaked off base, and was arrested — in uniform — walking into a crack house during a drug raid. “They gave him a choice of getting out of the Marine Corps with an other than honorable discharge or federal prison,” Richard says. “He opted for other than honorable. Now, he was a loose cannon, worse than he had ever been.” Esther foreshadows what came next: “He just got in deeper and deeper.” 25 way,’” Richard says. “I could tell he prayed at that time. The Lord was starting to work in his life there. He lost 20-some pounds. That helped him get into the Marine Corps. He thought in the service he was going to get it together. He wanted to get orders to go somewhere else.” But after boot camp, the Marine Corps stationed Michael right back in the midst of his drug dealers: Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville. “He went to Japan as a first sergeant. He worked hard. The colonel, they loved him. He would drink, but he was a go-getter,” Richard says. But when Michael returned stateside he started using again. “Big time. There were a bunch of Marines doing drugs. He was selling them drugs,” Richard says. “He got other guys to do his pee tests. That’s how he got by with it so long. He was getting ready to go to Iraq. They got him on a quick test, they caught him. The Marine www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
Wrightsville Beach Magazine May 2015
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