ABSTRACT
A few years ago, when Otto Muller and his third wife Maxine and six of the youngest of their eighteen children moved to the outskirts of Baltimore, they put a sign outside their house that said "the chapel on 97—teaching the nine steps to the totality of being a christian." They hoped that the sign might attract strangers, who would knock on the door to hear Otto's message. Otto, who once was a prosperous hairdresser, gave up his business to become an evangelist. But not many strangers were dropping by. Evangelism wasn't keeping Muller very busy. At least it wasn't in the spring of 1975, when I visited Muller myself. I didn't go there to learn about evangelism or hairdressing, though it turned out I heard plenty about both of these subjects. I went there to try to get some sense of a family with eighteen brothers and sisters and an old-fashioned, strong, and present father. I had been wondering about old-fashioned fathers for years.
