In my dream during a spring night in March of 2025, I was standing on a covered portico outside one of my university's halls that was built after the classical Greek doric architectural style. My last teaching position was at this private liberal arts university in southern Vietnam. It was the beginning of the academic year, and my first class had just finished. One female student approached me and asked if she could call me Johnny Bob, to which I answered no. I told her she could call me Mr. Lankford.
Then I woke up. While my first name is Jonathan and could be shortened to Johnny as my grandmother always did, no one had ever called be Bob, nor is my middle name anything connected to Robert or Bob. Where did this name Johnny Bob come from? Why did it occur in my dream? Why was a student wanting to call me this?
While still in bed, I used my phone to conduct an internet search for Johnny Bob and found as the first link a book written about a real person with that nickname. Later searches would lead me to videos of this person, as well as his obituary. The obituary recorded his death on June 19, 2021, just 28 days (one lunar month) after I had relocated back to the United States from my teaching position in Vietnam.
I believe this nickname Johnny Bob was injected into my dream to raise my awareness of this man's political activism as an anti-Communist. I believe a Vietnamese student from my dream wanted to name me after this anti-Communist because we are supposed to educate the next generation on the origins, evils, and consequences of this political theory.
Today, Vietnam is firmly in the control of the Communist Party, but it has opened up to some international commerce because it sees the value of free markets.
After God miraculously healed him from cancer, he began being more public about his faith and politics. He started the Conservative Christian Church and the Christian Patriots Defense League. He was an outspoken advocate for Christian morality in government and free market capitalism. He warned everyone on impending threats from communism and communist-type ideas growing in the U.S.
Mr. Harrell was imprisoned for several years for harboring an AWOL soldier and faking his kidnapping to avoid his inevitable day in court. He later admitted that he had made poor decisions in this regard. He also held to some conspiracies with which I do not fully agree, but I firmly believe his life, work, and ministry were a net positive for the country and the Church.
The photo above came from an online obituary that can be viewed in full here: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/228689396/john_robert-harrell
Mr. Harrell's biography written by Cary O'Dell is well-researched, fair, and balanced, including over 30 pages of end references.
Johnny Bob: The Life and Times of John R. Harrell of Louisville, Illinois by Cary O'Dell. Get the book here: https://a.co/d/5JLNpfj
At some point in his life, Mr. Harrell was one of many things, including a self-made entrepreneur, a Christian and political activist, a member of the local school board, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, and a volunteer at the local church where he often spoke. He lived in a manor situated on a gated and fenced plot of land with several other cabins and bunkers. The compound became the center of activity for Christian nationalists and survivalists who believed they should be separated from the world and be prepared for the revelation of Jesus Christ. After Mr. Harrell spent several years in prison for refusing to handover an AWOL soldier to the federal government, his influence slowly waned.
It all began when he experienced a miraculous healing from lymphoma. The night after being diagnosed with cancer, he had a spiritual experience, after which he was completely healed. He would go on to live a normal life for several decades to come without any record of reoccurrence. Mr. Harrell explained that "the experience might have been so intense because not only as the Lord in visitation that night [of his healing], so was the Devil. These two forces seemed to be fighting over Harrell's cancer with Johnny Bob nothing more than helpless flesh being pulled between the two of them" (p. 18). He also stated that "God burned from me all disease".
The miraculous experience launched him into more public view, where he could publicize his views to more to see and hear. He stated:
Our people have been deceived, defrauded, hoodwinked, cheated, robbed, pillaged, and deluded by some of her so-called leaders into believing they can vote themselves rich with their own money when actually we stand at this moment on the brink of economic and Communistic disaster. (p. 24)
He believed the federal and even local governments were influenced by communism and that certain politicians had tendencies toward that political philosophy.
This town is overrun with Communists. There are Communists right here in this assembly that on a given day will overrun and take over this county. US currency will be of no value. A woman cannot walk down the street of the square in Louisville without being insulted by whoremongers wearing ties (pp. 12-13).
Mr. Harrell believed there was no real difference between the two major political parties, so he started his own Christian Conservative Party for "God and country against foreign obligations and against encroachment on individual liberties" (p. 31). He also started a homeschool cooperative on his compound "because local schools were overrun with communists all pushing their communist agenda" (p. 49). He believed the teachers at his school were of higher "spiritual and moral standards", contrasting this with the public school's high drop-out rate and teaching of evolution (p. 50).
He often spoke of conspiracy theories related to immigration, the central bank, and other hot-button topics (p. 135), which do have elements of truth. At one meeting, "Harrell spoke for nearly two straight hours on such familiar topics as Good, war, communism, patriotism, Christianity, taxes, and education" (p. 80). Unchecked immigration of those who do not assimilate to American law, language, and tradition has adverse effects on national cohesion. Johnny Bob attempted to highlight this, stating, "One reason we've got trouble around the world is that the Oriental mind, the Mongolian mind, the African mind, the Caucasian mind, they all have different values systems. They see things in a different light" (p. 133).
Johnny Bob saw communism in many places most people would not. In some cases, this was likely the result of his belief in conspiracy theories. In other cases, his identification of communism in certain areas of government may have been well-founded. When asked if he could define Communism, he said it was the "low, vile, and most Godless creed of slavery the world has ever known." (p. 26)
His church met at his compound not far from the town center of Louisville, Illinois. But his beliefs about the world around him caused skeptics to proliferate rumors. This resulted in antagonism and threats from his opposition. In one case, when his congregation were on the way to a church meeting at the compound, they had to pass an effigy hanging off the bridge, covered in swatstikas, with an arrow through the chest. On another occasion, as they came to a meeting at a chapel, they found three burning wooden crosses (pp. 38-39). On multiple occasions, crowds showed up to heckle guest speakers or disturb services. One guest speaker explained what he witnessed.
I [guest speaker Goff] never saw such a night! I thought I was behind the Iron Curtain instead of in the Corn belt. The Sherif, Police Magistrate, and the States Attorney all refused me protection against mob heckling and even refused to register my complaint! They kept me there [at the police station] an hour and a half, grilling me, badgering me, and refused me even a drink of water or anything to eat, though I told them I had not eaten since before the meeting and, being a diabetic, I had to have soup or something to sustain me... (pp. 40-41).
Eventually, the local government was able to find fault with Johnny Bob by keeping his children out of public school. They did not consider his homeschooling or his teachers in his compound to be legitimate, so they fined him and was ready to sell his property at public auction for not paying those truancy fines. (p. 53) His response was uncompromising: "The only way they will get me to return my children to public school is to shoot me down in cold blood" (p. 54). This dispute over parental authority caused enough publicity for Harrell and his group to become a target of Leftist socialist organizations such as the Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). (p. 132) In one court case, a judge blamed the local community of Louisville as much as Johnny Bob and his supporters.
I strongly feel that much of what has happened must be borne by the people of the Louisville area... I feel that some people in the area acted about as nonsensical as you did and their attitude does not seem to have changed much. It is none of their business if you want to belong to the Christian Conservative Church or don't. It behooves every one of us to respect the rights of the individual. We cannot stomp on the individual's rights to obtain our own. (p. 108)
Johnny Bob would find himself in prison for several years for not handing over an AWOL soldier that sought escape form the armed forces by hiding out in his compound. The AWOL soldier had convinced Johnny Bob that the Army was permitting illicit immoral and dangerous activities to occur. During the arrest of both individuals, the FBI damaged and seized Harrell's property that was unrelated to the arrest. The FBI removed his legally owned guns, cash, and silver. (p. 79) During his time in prison, they transferred him to Leavenworth because they found him recruiting Minutemen. (p. 122)
Today, Johnny Bob's compound is heaps of rubble. But records of his nonviolent fight against communism and state control, including control of education, live on and made a pathway for further movements, including the homeschooling movement. Previously, the Illinois Supreme Court had already ruled in People v. Levisen (1950) that home education could qualify as a private school, provided it offered instruction equivalent to public schooling. However, Harrell’s case demonstrated how courts could use this law to scrutinize a child's education and continue to usurp parental authority.