Under The Halo Changelog
Under The Halo: Examining the Legacy of William Branham is available in print, electronic and audiobook versions. This is the official changelog for the book where we will record any substantive errors brought to our attention.
Under The Halo Changelog
The following are changes that will be made to the second edition of Under The Halo.
26 07 23
2026-07-25, Chapter 9 ("The Healing of Congressman Upshaw"), scheduled for second edition
- In a July 22, 2026 sermon, David Courchaine used this chapter as the opening example of his "Manhattan Project" and charged that footnote 419 had trimmed "After 59 Years" from a Los Angeles Times headline in order to conceal how long Upshaw had been a cripple.
- The charge is unfounded. The chapter states the fifty-nine-year figure twice, in Upshaw's own quoted words, before footnote 419, once near the opening of his account and once in the paragraph directly above the footnote itself.
- A fact printed twice in the source's own voice on the same pages cannot be concealed by a shortened footnote title.
- Nonetheless, three voluntary precision tidy-ups are scheduled for the second edition, none of them material and none of them a correction of a landed critique:
- footnote 419 will carry the full headline ("Ex-Rep. Upshaw Discards Crutches After 59 Years");
- and the two sentences describing Upshaw's pre-meeting mobility (one in the body, one in the conclusion) will be reworded from "could walk without crutches before the meeting" to match the newspaper's actual, more precise wording, that he could manage only two or three unsupported steps beforehand and walked four blocks afterward, with the loaded verb "admitted" replaced by "told."
- These edits improve citation precision only.
- The chapter's central claim is unchanged: William Branham's account of the healing evolved dramatically between 1951 and 1954, from a message relayed by pastor Leroy Kopp with Branham never speaking to Upshaw, to a face-to-face pulpit miracle featuring a brown-suit vision, a wired microphone, and Branham personally declaring "Thus saith the Lord... you are healed," with Kopp written out.
- That evidence rests entirely on Branham's own recorded words and was not addressed in the sermon. Newspaper wording confirmed against the archived clipping and independent sources.
Source of the error
It appears the error came from Wikipedia. The article on Congressman Upshaw on Wikipedia originally states the following:
At age 85, a few months before Upshaw's death, he claimed to have been miraculously healed and had regained the ability to walk in a William Branham revival meeting.[11] Upshaw sent a letter describing his healing claim to each member of Congress.[12][11] Among the widespread media reports was a story carried in the Los Angeles Times where Upshaw admitted to reporters that he had been able to walk without crutches prior to the Branham meeting. He claimed that his strength was improved and he could now walk farther than before the healing without the aid of crutches.[12][2]
Footnotes on Wikipedia were as follows:
- 2 - "Ex-Rep Upshaw Discards Crutches". The Los Angeles Times. February 19, 1951. p. 2.
- 11 - Harrell 1978, p. 35.
- 12 - Weaver 2000, p. 57.
Courchaine has been advised to change the page on Wikipedia
Footnotes