'Undaunted': Book Follows Iconic Life, Inglorious Death of NASA Chaplain and Decorated WW2 Disabled Texas Veteran

95-year-old missionary and pastor to Apollo astronauts left indelible imprint on astronauts, dignitaries, politicians, and three Presidents in two countries.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark., Dec. 29, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- When Oklahoma author-journalist Carol Mersch, a long-time friend of Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, learned in 2006 that he had landed the first Holy Bible on the moon, she was intrigued. The ensuing book, released by Pen-L Publishing, uncovered the epic saga of a legendary Texan that proved astounding.

The final ending, however, has yet to be determined.

Mersch's book, Undaunted: The Unflinching Faith, Audacity and Ultimate Betrayal of Reverend John Maxwell Stout, was released by Pen-L Publishing in 2018, although the final chapter is still churning in Texas courts.

The force behind the quest to land a Bible on the moon was Rev. John M. Stout, a NASA scientist who oversaw parts on the behemoth Saturn V rockets that would take Apollo astronauts to the moon -- and along with them a small packet of microfilm Bibles destined to become the "First Lunar Bibles."

When the Texas Department of Aging & Disability Services (DADS) seized the Stouts, an aging, disabled World War II veteran and his frail wife Helen from their low-rent apartment in Mont Belvieu, TX in 2010, the agency assumed the elderly couple was indigent, living amid a hoard of worthless documents and old memories. 

Only after DADS had stashed, given away, or thrown away virtually all of the Stouts' property did they discover among the so-called 'worthless trash' were valuable aerospace and religious artifacts including rare microfilm "Lunar Bibles" carried to the moon.

The people they assumed were indigent were, in fact, significant historic and religious figures. Unbeknownst to DADS, they had unwittingly captured an icon in American history.  

Rev. John Stout, a former NASA scientist and chaplain to the astronauts, helped form the 40,000-member Apollo Prayer League (APL) which worked with Apollo 14 astronauts to land the King James Version of the Holy Bible on the moon in 1971. The League operated under the auspices of Faith Presbyterian Church, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, in Pasadena TX.

Stout held six degrees in science and theology and a PhD in Linguistics. He befriended astronauts and dignitaries worldwide, including George HW Bush, Norman Vincent Peale, and news anchor Walter Cronkite.

The Handley, TX native forged a path that took him from the S. Pacific battlefields to the missionary jungles of Brazil and an unlikely friendship with a young Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson, chairman of the U.S. Space Committee, who provided Stout the orbital coordinates that allowed him to take the first clear photo of Russia's Sputnik from his missionary location in the dark forests of Brazil.  

His iconic path eventually led him to the halls of NASA where he tracked the parts of the behemoth Saturn 5 rockets that took American astronauts to the moon -- and eventually a small packet of 100 microfilm Bibles to honor the wish of Apollo 1 astronaut Ed White to carry the Holy Bible to the moon. White died in a flash fire on the launch pad in 1967.

White's wish was realized on Feb. 5, 1971, when lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell touched down on the moon carrying the packet of Bibles. Mitchell died in 2016.

Mersch had just completed her final interview with the Stouts in 2010 when DADS abruptly seized the couple with only the clothes on their backs as wards of the State and held them incommunicado in a Medicaid nursing home in rural Texas. All outside-world communications were cut off. Cell phones, laptops, writing materials, and stamps were confiscated. Incoming mail was censored, gifts were confiscated. Calls and letters went unanswered.

"Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, now Governor, officially defined such treatment as 'senior abuse,'" said former aviation-space reporter Preston F. Kirk who had followed Stout's life and accomplishments since 1969.

"Despite the guardian's admission in court of the maltreatment, protests by church members and a state agency investigation, Abbott declined to intervene," Kirk said. "His own website defined 'elder abuse' as 'isolation and deprivation,' yet he allowed the impoundment of a decorated, disabled WWII veteran whom Texas politicians purport to hold in high esteem."

In 2014, tax filings emerged showing the artifacts were actually the property of Faith Presbyterian Church, a small 20-member congregation. Stout was a substitute pastor there and Director of The Apollo Prayer League (APL), a nonprofit outreach of the church and therefore legally exempt from the reach of the State agency.

DADS finally dismissed the case in 2017 when nationwide media coverage cast a harsh light on the case and only after the couple had died in isolation, deprived of friends and loved ones.  

After 15 years of litigation over ownership of the Bibles -- Mersch and the church or the Stouts adopted son -- the current probate case has been stalled for two years in a Chambers County Texas court with no judicial action.

Meanwhile, millions of dollars in fragile artifacts are likely deteriorating in the courthouse safe.

Available at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and Pen-L Publishing.com

For more information Contact: Kirk Public Relations, 512-940-4402, [email protected]

SOURCE Pen-L Publishing