Justin Crowe

Grew up… in the Methodist faith after being found by Reverend Norman Balthus. Brother Justin (his full name is Justin Crowe) and his sister, Iris, were orphaned immigrants, lost in the great wilderness of America, until Rev. Balthus rescued them from a life of begging.

Living… with his sister in the town of Mintern, Calif. Brother Justin has found himself living in changing times. The Great Depression has been wreaking havoc on the U.S. for nearly a decade, and he sees it as a sign of God’s anger. As he warns in a sermon, “Even now, brothers and sisters, even now drought and pestilence fester in the very heart of this great land. Titanic sandstorms, the likes of which man has not seen since the days of the prophets.”

Profession… preacher. Brother Justin received a message from “the Lord God” to create a new congregation in the former brothel, Mr. Chen’s. Given his divine visions – or at least visions that he believes to be divinely inspired – and the supernatural happenings that spring up around him, Justin believes himself to be some sort of prophet.

Relationship Status… single, but strangely obsessed with his sister, Iris. Justin catches himself lingering by the bathroom as she showers.

Challenge… getting the Lord’s Word out to as many people as possible. In Brother Justin’s view, his new congregation is not large enough to carry out God’s will. The first step to fulfilling his destiny is “getting out my message,” he says. Luckily, Brother Justin lives in an era of an emerging mass media. Radio is the perfect medium for broadcasting his preaching.

Personality… manipulative and narrow-minded. He tells a member of his congregation, “We all, each of us, carry within us the seeds of our own salvation and our own damnation.” But Brother Justin likes to think he’s the only one who knows the good seeds from the bad. While he believes himself to be fulfilling God’s will, his dark and dishonest methods frequently say otherwise.