Randall Murphree
AFA Journal editor
September 2010 – For almost three decades now, my life has been enriched by a growing and fruitful friendship with three generations of Mississippi Wildmons. Working with some of them side by side every day, worshiping with some on Sunday mornings, traveling with some occasionally – the roots have grown deep and strong.
So I was quite excited when Allen Wildmon showed up at the office unannounced a few weeks ago to bring copies of his new book, The Wildmons of Mississippi: A Story of Christian Dissent.
Allen and his wife Mickey were AFA staff members for 16 years (1985-2001), and this book had been a dream of his since before he retired. Its recent release heralds an opportunity for friends and admirers to get an inside look at the Wildmons, their humble beginnings, their down-home Christian values, and their calling to sound the trumpet for restoring traditional morality in our nation.
It’s not a stark scholarly analysis of a remarkable family and their contributions to society. No, it’s much better than that – it’s an insider’s reflections on generations of Wildmons and how God has worked in their lives. In one chapter, Allen remembers the January 1977 phone call when his sister Louise asked excitedly, “Allen, have you been listening to the radio this morning?”
“No, what’s happening?” he answered.
Well, what was happening was that their “little” brother Don had made some pretty big media waves with his presumptuous “Turn off the TV” week in the Southaven United Methodist Church he pastored in northern Mississippi. That little media stir planted the seed that was to grow into AFA.
But before he gives the full story of AFA, Allen spins yarn after yarn of his and Don’s childhood and the sacrifices Ellis and Bernice Wildmon made to give their five children a strong foundation for godly living. The book is chock-full of laugh-out-loud anecdotes.
“Reading Allen’s book brings back memories I had long forgotten,” says Don, “how as a little boy I was almost killed in a car wreck and how I was attacked by a red rooster. Some of these memories aren’t so pleasant. But I particularly cherish his recollections of our mother and father, whose love and strength gave us what we needed to succeed in a fallen world.”
Toddler Don’s encounter with the rooster is retold in words that draw a vivid picture: “He struck Don on the chest with his sharp, long spurs. ... He hit the ground and Red landed on top of him.” Older sisters came to the rescue of their screaming little brother, and poor Red’s next big appearance was on the Wildmon dinner table.
That’s the kind of anecdote that fills the pages of The Wildmons of Mississippi – stories that will entertain and illuminate, that will elicit tears and laughter, that will challenge and motivate.
May we all be challenged and motivate by their example. 
