Got it?

If you’ve driven Broadway in Eureka today, you may have noticed a screaming, red-lettered message emblazoned across a hulking semi parked near Mr. Fish. It could not be ignored. Seriously, if you missed this thing, you should not be driving a vehicle on a road with other humans. 

“JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, NOT A SWEAR WORD” the truck proclaims. Fair enough.

Yesterday, LoCO Facebook-shared a photo that someone else had snapped of the evangelizing contraption. People cared more than we thought they would, so this afternoon LoCO stopped to investigate and was able to contact the truck’s owner. After some discussion as to this reporter’s salvation status, he agreed, perhaps unsurprisingly, to tell us about his journeys, as well as what inspired them (hint: Jesus).

Sam Kholi, Jesus-lovin’ truck driver

Originally from Syria, these days Sam Kholi calls San Diego his stationary home, but that’s only when he’s not out on the road piloting his brazen big rig. He’s driven it since 2007 spreading the message that, uh, could you please not use his Lord’s name in vain? Thanks.

Kholi cites Hollywood as a main motivator of his crusade. He used to watch a lot of Hollywood movies and was troubled by the prevalence of blasphemous “Jesus” usage. He says he’s sent letters and emails to various studios in an attempt to understand the practice, but no response.

“I’ve never gotten an answer from Hollywood,” he admits. There are so many other swear words filmmakers and actors could use, Kholi feels. He totally gets that characters need to cuss to get their ‘tude across, but c’mon, guys!

“F-word, S-word, D-word, whatever. But leave God out of it. This way you don’t offend the Christians,” he pleads. Ball’s in your court, Hollywood. 

Kholi says he used to drive the truck solely to spread his message and advertise — he also makes hats, shirts and jackets that read “JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, NOT A SWEAR WORD” — but these days he hauls goods — on this trip to Humboldt he delivered some mattresses to the Eureka Inn.

“I have to make some money,” he says. More of LoCO‘s chat with Sam in the video below.