Earl Johnson helps people find comfort after trauma and gives us his insight

Earl Johnson trained as a pastor at Yale’s Divinity School, worked for anthropologist Margaret Mead in African and observed firsthand violence in London and in Jerusalem.

He then returned to a church in Columbia, Missouri but was restless. He then made major life decisions. He took a sabbatical from his church, came out as a gay man, and moved to New York City.

While in New York, he was discovered by agents, and he became a world-renowned model for high-end men’s clothing designers in Europe and the United States. He toured the globe.

However, he felt that he wanted to do more, so he gave up modeling and trained as a hospital chaplain. In the mid- 1990’s, he worked at New York’s Cabrini Medical Center and gave comfort to dying AIDS patients, their partners, and families.

In 2001, he moved to Washington D.C. to become a hospital chaplain and on his second day of work, he was inundated with victims and families from the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.

Johnson had so much experience comforting the hurt and bereaved that he was recruited by the American Red Cross to create its crisis response teams. He managed those teams for a decade through some our nation’s greatest tragedies.

Now, Johnson has put his decades of experience into a new book, “Finding Comfort During Hard Times: A Guide to Healing after Disease, Violence and Other Community Traumas.” The book helps readers discover ways to find comfort even through the most trying of life’s circumstances.

Johnson talks with WOUB’s Spectrum Podcast about his life, his career, and the book in this new episode. His advice is perfect for those who may be suffering during this Holiday period.