I received the following in my inbox. I’ll let you read it first, then give my thoughts.

GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS, ELDER
Just received this notice from Keith Shepherd the minister of the Alma School Rd. Church of Christ in Chandler, AZ where I worshiped while there after the 9/11 attack.
General Tommy Franks, who is directing the war, is an elder of the Church of Christ in Tampa, FL and was called out of retirement to head our forces. Our preacher told us last night.
Yes, and Gen. Franks married a girl who is from Memphis and graduated from Harding Academy here. My wife taught her in school.
In reference to you letter about General Tommy Franks. He has a sister living in Stillwater who is married to Dr. James Carley and they attend the Duck Street Church of Christ. So I would not be surprised if he were an elder at a church. We hear he is a very nice man. A quiet man who does not like the lime light.
shortened from a letter received from Jim Mettenbrink.

This could easily be an urban legend spreading rapidly through church of Christ circles. It sounds so rambling. 7 degrees of seperation, ya know. “I know so-and-so who knows this dog who shares the vet with Tommy Franks’ dog….”
A quick search for Alma School Road church of Christ popped up this webpage – http://aschurch.faithsite.com I’ve thought about emailing this Keith Shepherd for confirmation, but there is no publically listed email address.
But just because somebody in Arizona says Tommy Franks is a member of the church of Christ doesn’t make it true. I’d like to get official word from the church of Christ in Tampa which Tommy Franks is a member of. Not surprisingly the specific church isn’t mention…possibly due to security reasons. Some crazy terrorist might want to blow up Franks’ church.
Consequently a Google search for “Duck Street Church of Christ” showed no results.
I continue to remain skeptical, yet I’m not motivated enough to dig deeper into the query. I can’t exactly email all of the Tampa area churches of Christ to find out if its true.
Just like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop, we may never know if Tommy Franks is a member of the church of Christ. Not that I’m loosing sleep over it…
****UPDATE**** 04/29/03
I found this quote from an article on the net. It doesn’t shed anymore light on it.

�My faith in God is important,� Franks said in an interview, however, it is not known which faith he belongs to. Although it has been said that Franks is of Russian Jewish extraction, the son or grandson of Khazar Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union, like Gen. Wesley Kanne Clark (who was raised as a Protestant in Little Rock), the religious and ethnic background of Tommy Franks is simply not known.”