Real Heroes: Let's begin at the beginning, that's always a great place to start.
Can you tell us your real name, or is your identity a secret?

Liberator: No, it's no secret. My real name is John Liberty Williams.

RH: Liberty is your middle name?

Liberator: That's right.

RH: That's different, how'd you come about that?

Liberator: It's kind of a family tradition. Someone in each generation of my family since the Civil War has been given the name Liberty. 

RH: In the introduction we said that you were an exciting new comic hero, and as you know some heroes fly, some shoot laser beams, and others are able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! Just what do you do?

Liberator: Well, once you boil it all down, what I do is liberate people.

RH: What situations would call for someone to need liberating?

Liberator: There could be plenty! Kidnap victims, religious persecution, those looking for political asylum, refugees, and hostage situations. I've even been asked to help rescue people from the violence of drugs and gang warfare.

RH: Do you ever work for the government?

Liberator: Sometimes, though not often. It's not something that I go out and look for.

RH: So I take it that a lot of what you do involves rescuing people?

Liberator: People are what's important in life. You have some people that would deem their material possessions, their empires, be it in business or some other venture, as the most important thing in life. They'll risk life and limb, and your life and limb, and even take life to protect those things. Well, I think that people are more important.

RH: Sounds to me like you've got a pretty strong, solid foundational philosophy of life that would lead you to feel that way about people, what is it?

Liberator: Yes I do, but I wouldn't call it just a philosophy, it's more than that, it's a relationship with the Creator of the universe! I'm a Christian, I've been born-again since I was a kid. I grew up in a Christian family, and with that came learning Godly values and the Word of God. It was those values that lead me to come to understand that God is all about people, that there is nothing more important than a person's soul. Therefore the saving of that person's soul means more than money, means more than things. Oftentimes, just from reading the scriptures, I find that those of us who follow Christ are often called upon to make sacrifices. There have been many who have given their lives for others because of their faith, a faith that says, "I'm willing to put someone else above myself".

RH: Earlier you said that you don't leap tall buildings in a single bound, so I'm sure that you don't have super strength, right?

Liberator: That's true.

RH: Do you have any super powers?

Liberator: No, not in the traditional comic book sense.

RH: What do you mean by traditional comic book sense?

Liberator: Powers like flying, super-speed, shooting laser beams out of my eyes, stuff like that. No, I can't do those things.

RH: Don't you come up against bad guys who have super powers or super weapons? I mean, they're definitely trying to get you! They're not pulling any punches while you go about liberating people from dangerous situations, so how do you get out alive?

Liberator: Good question! (Laughter) A lot of times I wonder that myself!
Seriously, though I don't have comic book super powers, I do have what I call real power.

RH: What's that?

Liberator: It's the power of God in my life! The power of God that comes through faith in Christ and through exercising faith in God's word! It gives me the full confidence of knowing that whatever mission I'm on right at this moment, it's God's will for me.

RH: Sounds awesome!

Liberator: It is!

RH: Since you don't have any super powers, do you have any special weapons?

Liberator: I do have a few weapons that I use. I carry a modified 9 mm pistol, but it fires knockout darts instead of bullets. Being a Christian I really don't want to kill anyone. Sooner or later we're all going to meet our maker, I don't want to be the one responsible for sending someone to eternity, especially when they may not be born again. Other weapons that I use are those that I've studied as a martial artist.

RH: So I guess that's where the Bruce Lee influence comes in? Whoooahhh!!!

Liberator: (Laughter) Yeah, that's right! Hey, Bruce Lee was my hero as a kid, so you know I'm down with nunchakus, swords, staffs, and weapons like that. But I have to say this, that the greatest weapon that I have, greater than guns, bombs, and swords, is my faith!

RH: All comic heroes have an origin, a beginning. How did you become the Liberator?

Liberator: I was a pilot in the Air Force for a number of years, and I flew an F-16 fighter in the Persian Gulf War. I flew a lot of combat missions over Kuwait and Baghdad, and on one of them a surface to air missile exploded so close to me that it caused an explosion in my cockpit. I was able to eject safely, but the explosion did leave me with some serious injuries. After I was rescued, I found myself lying in a hospital bed recovering from severe burns and damage to my eyes.

RH: Is that why you wear the dark sunglasses?

Liberator: Yes. I don't wear them to be cool! (Laughter) The explosion left my eyes sensitive to light, so that's why I wear them. Going back to that time, while lying there in the hospital I'd recovered enough to start reading, so I read my Bible. While reading I came to Luke 4:18, it says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at Liberty them that are bruised." Sometimes you can read a verse many times and nothing happens. But there are other times the Holy Spirit just picks you up, shakes you, and the verse you're reading just jumps off the page and knocks you out of your seat! You know what I mean?

RH: I know exactly what you mean!

Liberator: That's what happened to me that day. Luke 4:18 jumped off the page and the Spirit of God showed me the Godly heritage that was on my family.

RH: What do you mean by Godly heritage?

Liberator: A Godly heritage is something, usually it’s a talent, a gift, an ability, a calling that God places within a family. Often you’ll see a family where many of them have been in the ministry, or this is a family of artists, this is a family of leaders, this is a family of athletes, you know? Where you’ve got some strong blessing and anointing that’s in that family. Unfortunately, many families are kept from those blessings because the enemy of us all, Satan, does everything he can to disrupt that Godly heritage from being carried out. The Lord showed me that it wasn’t a coincidence that someone in each generation of my family was given the name Liberty. It wasn’t a coincidence that as far back as the Civil War men in my family had served this country, and fought to protect and liberate others. What was really exciting, was when I learned that so many of them even had the nickname "Liberator", and were involved somehow in rescuing other people!

RH: Can you give me an example?

Liberator: Sure. In World War II, my grandfather was in the 761^st Tank Battalion, they were all Black because of the racism back then, they were the first to reach Gunskirchen Lager, a Nazi concentration camp in Austria, and liberate it from the Germans. So it’s been things like that that have happened repeatedly in my family history that the Lord used to show me that it’s not a coincidence that being a liberator is something that so many in my family have done. All of that family history was the foundation for me to be the first to take being the Liberator as a mission in life. He showed me that’s what He’s put me here for, to be a Liberator and to set the captives free.

RH: Wow!

Liberator: Sometimes it blows me away to be honest! But you know, I’ve noticed that’s how God does things.

RH: What do you mean?

Liberator: God will put something on your heart to do in life, and everyone I’ve ever heard talk about it says it was always something bigger than them, always something that they couldn't do on their own.

RH: Yeah, I’ve noticed that in my life too. When God calls you to something, you can’t do it by yourself, He wants you to trust him to be able to get the job done!

Liberator: That way He gets the glory! I don’t get the glory, you don’t get the glory, man doesn’t get the glory. Man can’t save himself, we can’t even cure the common cold, how can we save ourselves? By having to trust God the glory is all His!