N THIS mountain community made up largely of conservative Christians, Michael Braithwaite and his adult novelty shop didn’t fit in.
     Churchgoing neighbors did everything they could to close him down. Nothing worked, until a higher power intervened.
     Braithwaite, with tears pooling in his eyes, said God persuaded him to close the shop after five years, burn the sex toys he had in stock and open a Christian bookstore in its place.
     A pile of ashes in his parking lot is all that remains of the vibrators, leather goods, books, and other porn paraphernalia.
     “Morally, I couldn’t sell it any longer,” he said. “It’s something you can’t do when you’re saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost.”
     Now neighbors are embracing Braithwaite, helping him to restock his store with Christian merchandise and buying groceries for him, his wife and daughter until his new business begins to turn a profit.
     He dropped the old name, Love World, and now calls his store Mike’s Place. He covered the formerly bright red outer walls with a fresh coat of white paint.
     “We were tickled to death that this man found the Lord,” said Russell Alred, a Harlan attorney who represented a group called the Concerned Citizens of Putney in the fight to close the shop. “The simple fact of the matter is, that material has no place in Harlan County society.”
     Frank Howard, pastor of the Closplint Church of God, said Braithwaite gave his life to the Lord last month during a Wednesday night prayer meeting and was baptized the next Sunday.
     In the meantime, he invited local ministers and neighbors to help him burn a huge pile of merchandise with an estimated value of $10,000.
     “I stopped and got 10 gallons of diesel fuel, and we packed load after load of stuff out of there,” Howard said. “We were hauling it out by the wheelbarrow.”
     Some of his former customers have been shocked to walk into the building to find a shelf of Bibles where unmentionables used to be displayed.
     “When the Lord gets ahold of you, you make some changes,” said Braithwaite, who now greets new customers by giving them Christian tracts, and quoting scriptures.
     Braithwaite still faces misdemeanor obscenity charges, which were brought at the behest of Concerned Citizens of Putney. Now that the shop has closed, Alred said he hopes the case can be resolved, perhaps with a small fine.
     Shaun Aslinger, a Harlan evangelist, said Braithwaite’s conversion and decision to close Love World were answers to the community’s prayers.

Please, tell me it’s not true. It’s too scary. Oh— I would have liked to salvage the leather goods ;-)