Emily Graves spoke with Tribe of Judah

Bob: Yes, the actual headquarters is a place called Humble, Texas. It's in the River of God Church, where Ben Priest, who is the founder member, is the pastor. We're in, besides the States and Canada: Australia, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Norway, we're into Russia now and into Sweden and most of the Northern European countries where you would get a particular type of biker. We tend to go to the places where they are. We don't just set up somewhere: we actually try to find where they will be working and riding and we go to them.

Emily: Is there a large motorcycle community in the UK?

Bob: Oh, thousands and thousands and thousands. If you go right back to the beginning of the combustion engine - the internal, or some people call it the infernal, combustion engine - if you go way back to the late eighteen whatevers, the first things people did were put the engines onto bicycle frames. So yes, there's a lot of motorbikes and there's a huge community. There's I don't know how many magazines dedicated to them, from Motorcycle News to Street Fighters and Back Street Heroes.

Emily: So what is life like for the motorcycle community in this country?

Bob: Oh my word, that's so varied. You've got a group of people that meet together who are all Harley riders, so they go under the name of HOG, Harley Owners Group. They're almost middle management. They've got money spare to be able to afford these really nice motorbikes that you can spend twenty or thirty thousand pounds buying. You've got that kind of lifestyle where they meet together: they may meet in a restaurant and have a meal together; they go on holidays together. At the other end you may have people who are just bikers, who have to use a bike just to get to work. But the community itself and what it's like for us is as varied, or probably more varied, than it is for the average car driver. It's fun to ride a bike and we just love it. We ride winter and summer and the only difference is your moustache gets a bit of ice on it in the winter, that's all.

Emily: When all the motorcycle community get together, is there a real sense of family importance?

Bob: Yes and no. I think generally speaking your bikers are family-orientated and believe in family. They do a lot of charity work and do a lot of support work for things like Help for Heroes and Poppy Day and so on. We used to go on regular rides for the Salvation Army Toy Run in Manchester. We used to do that every year where you get two thousand bikes and raise a couple of thousand pounds and give a couple of thousand toys to the local hospitals in Manchester.

Emily: Is there a stigma that still needs to be broken when it comes to people's perceptions of motorcycles?

Bob: I would say so. I think you tend to think that if you're riding a bike you must be a criminal. There's that stigma that's come down through some of the naughty boys of biking back in the, I guess, the sixties. It seemed to be an image of bad boys ride motorbikes. It's not actually true. In any walk of life there's a minority of people who may be criminals - I've got to be careful what I say - but there's as many criminals or alleged criminals riding round in cars or pushbikes or walking as there are on motorbikes and I think the percentage is probably the same. But there is a belief that if you see somebody in black leathers, with a beard and dark glasses, they must be a criminal. Anybody who breaks some of the rules of the clubhouses, which may involve criminality, they're thrown out. There's some clubhouses won't have ex-criminals in there. It's surprising when you get to meet some of these guys, the rules are quite strict.

Emily: You are Chapter President of the Tribe of Judah. What does that mean?

Bob: It means I'm the manager or administrator. I look after them. I'm also the pastor and I'm the Chapter President for the UK. So we've got lads down south as well as up in the north and I look after the groups of the lads pastorally, but also I organise where we're going and which rallies to go on. We usually pray about all that first, just to seek God on that, because you don't want to just walk into some of these places. You've got to choose the best rallies to go to, the best clubhouses, where you may meet the people that need Christ. So you're in a sense asking God to give you divine intervention in some areas and divine meetings, so you're just not going blindly into places. You're actually praying to God saying where should I go, who am I going to meet, who do you want me to meet - and I tend to pray about all that and we get together and do that and then we choose which particular rallies or clubs or pubs to go to.

Emily: So how do you then see Jesus in the middle of this in how people's lives have been changed and restored?

Bob: The very fact that we ride round with a huge yellow cross in the middle of our back patch with the words 'Tribe of Judah' and 'Jesus is Lord', that for a start draws attention because it's a kind of gold yellow colour. It's visible for a long way and people can see it and then they want to know what's this about, who are you, why do you do this and then we get an opportunity to share Christ and to share testimony. That's what it's about: it's about us finding a way to share our testimony.

Emily: So how has the Tribe of Judah earned the respect and trust of people worldwide?