WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Pastor Back on the Job a Week After Being Beaten Up

Pastor Back on the Job a Week After Being Beaten Up

Love conquers all. That's the message that Springfield pastor Ralph Davis wants to share with people. One week after being tortured and beaten, it was business as usual today,  broadcasting from his gospel radio station for the first time since the incident.

But what happened there exactly a week ago was anything but usual. Davis said two men beat and tortured him.

"I just had said my amen, just brought the lever down, I had just brought Southern gospel music back on the air," said Davis.

When the attackers first broke in, Davis thought it was a prank.

"I honestly thought that it was a big game, and I said, 'Whoever has got me, you win,'" said Davis.

But this was no prank.

"A gentleman said, 'This is no game,'" recalled Davis.

That's when the beating began.

"I was hit a number of times in the head, this hand, my right hand got mutilated," said Davis.

A beating that could have taken his life.

Davis said as the attack was taking place, he continued to keep the faith.

"I told these gentleman, number one whatever you do to me I love you, number two more importantly than me, Jesus Christ loves you," said Davis.

"I have taken hundreds of stitches in my head, yes I have a hand that'll have to be rehabilitated. There's more bones broken in this hand than I thought that I had," he added.

Though Davis's body is bruised and aching, he said he still loves the men who harmed him, but he feels they should pay a price before another person gets hurt.

"These gentlemen need to be put away," he said. "Love does not say that we should supercede the law."

Strong words from a man who survived his ordeal with the same faith that will carry him through.

"I'm going to keep on serving Jesus. Joshua 24:15, 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,'" said Davis.

According to Effingham County Sheriff's Department, two men have been arrested for the attack, Chris Wayland Thomas and Eugene Howard III. Now pastor Ralph Davis is up and moving and plans to start up his own task force called the Brother's Keeper Program, which will be designed to help clean up local neighborhoods.

Reported by: David Hall, dhall@wtoc.com