A Waffle House in Rome, Georgia has seen its share of strange nights. But according to the staff, nobody has ever arrived by supernatural means... or have they? A senior federal official says that's exactly what happened to him.
Here’s What Happened
Gregg Phillips, who leads FEMA's Office of Response and Recovery, told a podcast audience that he once teleported to Waffle House in Rome (roughly 70 miles from Atlanta) without any clear explanation for how he got there.
Phillips later offered some clarification. Writing on Truth Social, he said the incident occurred while he was heavily medicated during cancer treatment – but he also framed it as a miracle performed by God.
Unsurprisingly, the internet had some strong reactions.
Commentary editor John Podhoretz, who pointed out that if teleportation were real, the destination could at least have been a Buc-ee's:
To further complicate matters: reporters visited the Waffle House in question, and nobody could recall seeing a man matching Phillips’s description.
Not a New Idea
But let’s back up a bit. Where does a claim like this stem from? Phillips took issue with the media framing his story as one of "teleportation.” He prefers using the biblical terms "translated" or "transported," which he called "not new ideas for people of faith."
Is that true? Well, yes – sort of.
The Bible does describe God physically relocating people outside the normal laws of space and time. Examples include the prophet Elijah taken to heaven in a whirlwind, and Philip the Evangelist vanishing after baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch and reappearing miles away in Azotus.
The Greek word used in Phillip's case is harpazō ("seized" or "caught up"), the same word that underpins rapture theology. The underlying idea is straightforward: God, as the author of natural law, is not bound by it. Miraculous transportation is less about breaking physics and more about the Creator temporarily suspending the rules.
The Bible has much to say on this matter; the Gospels are full of Jesus performing miracles that work in similar ways – from walking on water to raising the dead.
Modern claims of divine intervention are not exactly rare, either. In 2023, a Missouri church made national headlines when its pastor announced that a congregant's three amputated toes had regrown during a prayer service. Skeptics created an entire website demanding photographic proof. The woman declined, the church cited privacy concerns, and the toes remain unconfirmed.
Why a Waffle House?
What makes Phillips's claim unusual is its setting – in more ways than one. He leads FEMA's largest division, which coordinates disaster relief after hurricanes, fires, and floods.
As it happens, the agency also has a longstanding internal measure called the Waffle House Index: when a local Waffle House stops serving in the aftermath of a storm, it signals the damage is severe enough to send emergency resources.
For a FEMA official to end up at one under disputed circumstances has a certain unintentional poetry to it.
Do You Believe In Miracles?
History is full of claims about God intervening in the physical world in one way or another. And for many people of faith, those claims have serious weight – even if they’re hard to verify.
In that sense, Phillips’ story is nothing new. But it’s safe to say there is substantial disagreement about whether God is truly capable of, for example, teleporting FEMA officials to small town Atlanta dining establishments.
What do you think? Do divine miracles still happen in the modern world, and if so, how should we evaluate claims like this one?
14 comments
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Colleen McAllister
I do believe in miracles but they always have a purpose. In this case it is another example of how demented Trumps people are.
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Robert Gagnon
Notice the heavily medicated disclaimer. Most people keep their dreams and hallucinations to themselves. How odd one drug induced daydream made it into the news. Isn't credibility a factor in vetting these headlines?
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Merlin
More revealing, is that he shared this publicly.
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Nicholas J Page
Just another ridiculous story
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Reverend Paula Copp
Well, if you’re going to teleport somewhere, it might as well be a Waffle House… I guess.🙄
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Stephanie A Willey
In my youth I had an experience just like Mr Phillip's, having been mysteriously teleported to a Waffle House and having no clear recollection how I got here. It may have been related to my previous ingestion of some really incredible pot. It was after all the 70's.
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Robin Anne Hannon
OMG a waffle house? Someone needs help, that's both funny and pathetic.
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Matthew Mastrogiovanni
By teleported, he meant he was black out drunk.
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Sir Lionheart
I was recently chastised for suggesting that religion is just another form of mental illness. Here, on this blog topic, is yet another example of the crazy world of religion and what people who are affected by religion like to “believe”. It’s all part of the effects of the God Virus.
🦁❤️
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Rev. BH
An "Attention Getting Device".
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Rev. Miche'al Yosef Dixon
YHWH doesn't do "magic tricks" but Lucifer and his fallen angels, and other evil spirits do. If you believe God as a supernatural being exists then to doubt supernatural events is to doubt God exist. Whether the man is telling the truth is between him and YHWH. Then he may believe it true and someone doing a "magic trick" on him. No mention of time lapse; was it instant? Biblical instances it was instant. Why? In biblical instances there was a reason, Jeremiah taken to Daniel to feed him in the lion's den. Jesus appeared through a locked door hungry for some fish. This guy appeared at a waffle house maybe God wanted him to eat waffles.
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Robert Hauck, MD, FAAP
Yet another graphic example of the unfit officials managing our government during the Trump administration.
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Brother Peter
The probability of this being true is just about zero. Sorry, God doesn't do magic tricks, he/she/it doesn't have to.
There are a number of holes in this story, not counting the many holes cooked into the waffles: Let's assume this person did experience a shift in location as stated and that he isn't lying. Let's also assume that the information in the article is sufficient. Here are questions on my end and you may have some of your own:
There was nothing about a time check. How much time had passed during the "teleportation"? If it was teleportation, then the effect should have taken seconds. I suspect that it took much longer, such as may apply to fugue or simply a lapse of conscious awareness.
There was nothing that would suggest a portal being involved. A portal can not only result in change of locality, but also warp time by minutes, hours, days, or much longer without any congruence in the sensation of time by the person passing through it. This fellow might have even come to our universe from another... something we often suspect in our politicians anyhow.
Since possibilities include fugue, a portal, or general lapse of consciousness, there should be some indication of a divine source for this happening, but none is offered. No angel, no Bath Kol, not even an image of Jesus in the waffles as some indicator like the many stories of the Virgin Mary having appeared in tortillas to inspire many through pareidolia. It's only presumed.
Nothing is stated as to the purpose of ending up at a Waffle House. Was he to meet someone there on God's behalf? Or was he just "sent" there to enjoy tasty waffles? What was that vital message that perhaps others could benefit by learning? I mean, Phillip appeared at Azotus for missionary purposes and I think I can rightly say that waffles had nothing to do with that.
What exactly should be expected as possible effects of the cancer medication other than a possible craving for waffles?
But thank you for this article. You managed to settle one question of mine: that of what I should have for dinner tonight. I think I'll have some waffles with a side of fruitcake.