The walls of Marvin McMickle’s office are crammed with photos of him posing with a number of famous religious and political leaders. As the well-known pastor of Cleveland’s Antioch Baptist Church, McMickle has ministered to many parishioners who fall ill and are hospitalized. The tables were turned on him in 2003, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The news sent him spiraling into a crisis of faith. As an African American, he was particularly disturbed to find that black men get prostate cancer at much higher rates than any other ethnic group in the country. He documented his experience with the disease in the book, Battling Prostate Cancer - Getting From “Why Me” to “What Next”?
After we perused his Wall of Fame, he began the story that thrust him into the spotlight, several years ago. He said it’s useful to look at the human body as a “jar of clay.”