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?
35 comments
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JT Sunrise
THE WAFFLE HOUSE TRANSLATION
A Sermon on Miracles, Illusion, and Right Relation
Rev. JTSUNRISEBeloved friends, seekers, and all our relations,
A story has moved through the world this week:
A senior FEMA official claims that God transported him fifty miles to a Waffle House in Rome, Georgia. He describes being with friends, expressing a desire for breakfast, and suddenly finding himself there. He calls it “translation,” invoking scripture. He insists it was real.
No one at the restaurant saw anything.
The question before us is not whether miracles are possible. Scripture and tradition across cultures contain many accounts that defy ordinary explanation. The deeper question is this:
What is the function of a claimed miracle when it enters public life—especially from someone entrusted with responsibility during disaster?
Indigenous teachings speak of right relation: living in balance with all kin—human and more-than-human. Land, water, salmon, cedar, and future generations are not resources, but relatives. When relation breaks, suffering spreads. Restoration requires truth, humility, and accountability.
From this perspective, we must ask:
Does this story strengthen our capacity to respond to real suffering—fires, floods, displacement—or does it introduce confusion where clarity is required?
There are two ways the world is “cleaned” when something goes wrong.
One way removes evidence. It controls narrative, redirects attention, and replaces uncomfortable reality with spectacle. It protects systems in the moment, but leaves underlying damage untouched.
The other removes illusion. It names what is real, exposes fracture, and calls us back into right relation. This form of cleaning is unsettling because it strips away comfort. Yet it is the only path to repair.
A FEMA official holds a specific and serious trust. When disaster strikes, people do not need spectacle. They need clarity, competence, and grounded presence. They need leaders who can be relied upon in the physical world, not stories that fracture shared understanding of reality.
Scripture itself provides a measure:
“You will know them by their fruits.” — Matthew 7:16
Not by claims. Not by declarations. By outcomes.
The real miracle is not transportation across distance.
The real miracle is showing up where suffering exists, telling the truth about conditions, and acting in right relation to people, land, and future generations.
Whether this account is understood as miracle, confusion, illness, or something else, the obligation remains unchanged:
Choose the cleaning that restores the Way.
Not spectacle.
Not illusion.
Not narrative control.But truth.
May clarity cut through fog like morning tide.
May we walk in right relation—between land and people, power and responsibility, memory and action.
May we choose what restores.In cedar smoke and rising light,
Rev. JTSUNRISE
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Jannetje Eleanore Van Went
This is the loss of faith, back in old days he would have been believed - I would dare say it was even a test of faith. If we believe the man saw a godly figure, even while he was under the influence... we would still believe in the message (it's a wonderful life after all) if this changes his life in anyway, or anyone else I hope it is positive - Check For Zuzu's Petals This will tell him when he is awake and understands the message - Believe to Heal
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Tom Herman
OMG, 😱 I don't even know how such a story got posted here. At best, this FEMA official should seek help.
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Joe R Day
As a person who saw a UAP saucer, at 9am on a clear day, that was 100 yds in diameter and about 500 yards away... Very few folks believed me, even though dozens of people saw it. This seems similar, but very different. Do I think it is 'possible' God did this to him? Yes. My dad told me, "Many things are possible, but very few of those things, are probable." I believe that applies to this story,
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Roy S. Thorpe
Most people on medications have had strange things happen! A miracle NO! Mind altering by medications YES! For some people the reality of life is harsh or seems that way! Escaping helps them stay sane i think! Real miracles are rare! Don't forget the old testament is a collection of Hebrew stories! Stay with the new testament and you can't go wrong!
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Cheryl Pettijohn
The least surprising thing about this is the Waffle House. WH has a certain reputation during disasters. So someone who works for FEMA might certainly have it at the forefront of their brain. The teleportation however...most likely a blackout.
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Rev. Kev
Millions of starving people. Millions of unhoused and displaced people. Millions of sick people.
But....sure....God decides to display his miraculous power by "translating" a guy to a Waffle House. 🙄
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Alexander Clarke
According to Gregg Phillips he did. True Trump acolytes will believe it.
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Christian
Teleportation is not scary, it is less than an instant. The question is: Is he the REAL Human agent, or a copy?
Theories of teleportation include the idea that the ORIGINAL person is dead and gone. From their point of view life has ended.
The DUPLICATE, even though it holds the memories & is identical to the original , the second copy IS NOT the original.
The 'alledged' person making this claim is a copy, & should be tested to confirm it is a human being.
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Joe R Day
What kind of 'test' would expose the 'copy? Honest question...
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Lynnea Urania Kaylor
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.
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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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Alexander Clarke
Well the Waffle House has been struggling lately so maybe . . . . .
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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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Barbara Harris
Oh I vaguely remember those days. Late 60s into the early 70s. Hard to say where we would wind up sometimes, but it sure wasn't a Waffle House.
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Susan Mary Sciara
Hey, don't hate on Waffle House. They are open 24/7. They were great in the 70's after you had imbibed. They were clean, had bathrooms you could use even if you weren't buying anything, the food was decent and plentiful.
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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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Patricia Ann Gross
Under the influence of drugs from his cancer treatments. That can be some high-powered stuff, and play crazy things with your head. If you've ever had any major surgery that involved a procedure with a high risk of fatality, you'd know what I'm talking about.
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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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Alexander Clarke
I don't always agree with you but in this case you are spot on. One can have faith without religion. Religion was created by man to control what you think, say, do, separate you from your wealth and keep women "in their place. God does not need your money but religion does.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Even the athiests have their share of those with mental health disorders. It is an equal opportunity affliction.
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Sir Lionheart
You could be right, as long as we don’t go around threatening people with Hell, Damnation, or Death, if they don’t stop believing in a big man in the sky. 🤭
🦁❤️
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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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ServantOfJudgement
Trumps pick for nuclear waste disposal is even worse. Sam Brinton. Remember him? He's the bald guy that wears red lipstick and women's clothing. Got busted for stealing luggage at airports multiple times. Had a thing for stealing chicks baggage.
Can you imagine how deranged Trump must be to put a complete psychopath like that in charge of spent nuclear fuel rods?
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Alexander Clarke
Trump only requires loyalty. No other qualification necessary.
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Patricia Ann Gross
Actually, and unfortunately, I can. It sounds like about half his cabinet, maybe more. The meetings are a joke, with at least half the time spent polishing Trump's boots. It's like putting an anti-vaxxer in charge of Health and Human Services and an ex-FOX reporter in charge of the military. He's starting to clean out the DOJ, with Bondi and Noem, but I don't think the replacements will be any better.
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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.
So, when he looked around the Waffle House, did he go up to anyone and ask if they had seen him appear out of nowhere? How did he get back home, call a taxi, take a bus, call a friend for help? Did he vanish again back to his home? An inquiring mind wants to know. The first time I ever had a strong pain killing drug was after breaking my femur and I saw myself floating above me, was I teleporting or just having a good medically induced buzz? Whatever happened to him, it was real, to him. Perhaps he will need a bit of supervision for awhile.