Biker Gang's Enforcer Meets His Match

Doug says, “People ask me, ‘what’s an enforcer for a motorcycle club do?’ I can boil it down in one statement. I was the guy that came to see you when all the talking was over. The satisfaction that I got from fighting was a sense of being able to take care of myself.”

That was something Doug Dodge learned early in life. He lived in a home with alcoholic parents and an abusive father. His only escape was when the church bus took him and his brother to church.

Doug shares, “And I remember singing songs about Jesus on this bus. And I remember downstairs in the classroom, there was a picture of Jesus on the wall.  I wanted to just crawl up in that picture and not go home.”

When Doug was 11, his father shot and wounded a man, landing him in prison. But Doug’s mother was unfit to care for Doug and his siblings, and had to put them into foster care. In one of these homes Doug was molested.

Doug remembers, “And I did not tell anybody. I had already learned that there was nobody to help me. I felt ashamed and just helpless.”

Doug decided that the only one that could take care of was himself. To do that he relied on the only thing he learned from his dad, how to fight.

Doug recalls, “I remember fighting three times in one day. It was something I did well. That’s why my hands are all busted up now.”

Like his dad, the troubled teenager took out his anger on others. Then at 18, he shot a man during a bar fight. In a plea agreement, he received 15 years for attempted murder. He felt the only way to survive, was through violence and intimidation.

Doug shares, “My reputation in prison was if I wanted something that belonged to you, I would take it from you. And then I would hope that you had a problem with that. So I could take even more from you.”

After serving seven years, Doug was released and joined a motorcycle gang called the “riders.” He readily embraced the lifestyle and his role of enforcer. But for Doug, it filled a much deeper need.

Doug remembers, “I hear ‘family’, is a group of people that were going to accept me the way I am and they’re going to love me and protect me. All of these things that I had never gotten from a family.”

But after ten years Doug became disenchanted, so he left the club and started using meth.

Doug says, “It was just to numb all the senses. Here I am this grown man and yet again let down by the world looking for this family I so wanted.”

It wasn’t until a friend died from a drug overdose that he decided to go into a drug treatment program. But when the director told them that statically one in twenty would stay clean he became desperate.

Doug remembers, “It was a death sentence to me. I went there knowing, knowing that if I didn’t get fixed somehow I was either going to kill myself by the stuff I was shooting in my arm. Or somebody was going to put a bullet down me for the stuff I was doing on the street.”

Doug went home. He remembered those days as a boy in church, and prayed to God.

Doug says, “I said I don't know what I’m supposed to do. I said, but I need some help. And God made a deal with me that night. He said if you’ll believe in Jesus Christ, my Son, and trust in Him, He said I’ll prove to you that I’m in charge. And I was instantly delivered from alcohol, drugs, adultery, everything that the world had offered to me before that day.”

Doug began reading the Bible and spending time with a Christian neighbor to learn more about God. Four months later, he went to church and professed his faith in Christ.

Doug remembers, “When I was at the altar and I publicly gave my heart to Jesus Christ and accepted Him into my life, I felt Him say to me, ‘you’ve finally made it to the family that you’ve always longed to be in. You’ve arrived. We’re going to give you the love and all the things that you’ve wanted since you were a little boy.’”

Today Doug is married to Tanya and has a family. He started a Christian motorcycle ministry called, “Forged by Fire.”

Doug says, “If you want a second chance on life, if you want hope, if you want joy, then Jesus Christ is who you need to talk to.”