George C. Ladd:
1) Brief Biography
I was born April 14, 1958 and raised on a farm near Santa Fe, Tennessee, near Columbia. I was educated in the public schools of Columbia. In college I studied accounting and computer science.
Realizing that I was not going to pass the Differential Equations course required for a Computer Science degree, I saw that I could leverage the courses I had taken in Religious Studies to obtain a Degree and graduate quickly. In the late 1970’s at University of Tennessee in Knoxville, you could avoid the requirement of 2 years of a foreign language by studying the culture instead of the language. I was doing that with “Ancient Mediterranean Culture,” an alternative to Greek or Latin, and had taken several courses in Christian and Jewish history. I reasoned I could get a job with a minor in Computer Science, so I changed my major to Religious Studies to graduate as quickly as I could, and stop wasting my parents’ money.
I reasoned Religious Studies would teach me the collective wisdom of the world. In this, I believe I was correct. I think it did so more effectively and succinctly than Philosophy would have.
I learned the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. I learned the admonition in the Bhagavad Gita to perform what needs to be done, what you are tasked or called to do—your duty, to the best of your ability without attachment to the results. I learned the Eastern concept that suffering is caused by desire, attachment, and craving—an excess of which causes life to be experienced as unsatisfactory. I learned the history of Israel and Christianity from Ivy League professors.
A major influence in my life was my studies with Dr. David Dungan, a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and author of A History of the Synoptic Problem. In his Images of Jesus course, we studied how the portrayal of Jesus in literature and art changes with changes in culture in society. Jesus changes from ruler King in the late Roman Empire to suffering martyr as Christianity moves to Middle Age England and Germany to the ordered machine universe of the Enlightenment to the Jesus that wants you to get rich in the American “Prosperity Gospel.” We studied how the World Wars brought a decline in religiosity in Europe. We saw Jesus portrayed as a black man by African American artists.
Another course under Dr. Dungan studied the increase in population since the Black Death and the imminent resource shortages projected by The Global 2000 Report produced by the Carter Administration. For various reasons, mainly technology changes, those debilitating shortages such as “peak oil” didn’t happen yet. But these studies and this awareness invested my life with a Malthusian pessimism that infinite growth on a finite planet will one day soon lead to a global train wreck. I thank the Lord that this has been delayed—possibly until after my death. In this context, we studied a Newsweek article from the late 1970’s that asked whether America would be an island of plenty in a global sea of want. I recently read a New York Times article stating that many of the migrants currently at our southern border are fleeing a Central American drought. I am acutely aware of Climate Change. As long as the weather fits what the climate models predict, I will be concerned.
Also, while at UT, I learned “Transcendental Meditation,” which I did off and on all my life, and still do in lieu of a good nap, but now I use a Jewish mantra. I find it an effective means of calming down and refocusing.
My plan to get a job as a computer programmer was frustrated by the 1982 recession. I paid an employment agency who found me a job at the J. C. Bradford and Co. regional brokerage firm. Two and half years later I landed a position as an information systems analyst with the State of Tennessee, and retired after 30 years of service, 26 of those with the Treasury Department. My two main bosses there were devout Christians, active in their churches. It was a wonderful place to work. I was honored the year before I retired with the State (Government) of Tennessee Information Technology Management Association’s Outstanding Information Technology Career Achievement Award for 2013.
In 1982 I met the love of my life, Sherry Whitaker, in a Unity house church in Nashville. We have progressed, spiritually, together.
2) My Spiritual Journey
I believe I am what Dr. Tara Isabella Burton in her book, Strange Rites, calls a “religious hybrid.” I have explored and partaken of many spiritual paths and communities through the years, progressing from my United Methodist upbringing to Unity, Native American spirituality, the Sufi Order of the West, the Episcopal Church, Religious Science, and Zen Buddhism. For eight years, from 1993 until 2002, I did the basic Tibetan Buddhist practices, and was active in a Nashville Tibetan Buddhist group.
The Science of Mind by Dr. Ernest Holmes has been influential on me. Sherry and I took part in a Religious Science (now the Center for Spiritual Living) study group in Nashville in the late 1980’s studying this book. Its core scripture is Matthew 8:13. What you believe is important and, I believe, has an effect upon what you experience. Prayer with faith is important. This notion is sometime abused these days (you got sick because of poor thinking), but I am convinced that faith and belief are existentially important. I pray regularly, and believe I experience abundant blessings as a result. What I pray about tends to work out well. I feel it is most important to pray about that which is worrying or bothering you the most—whatever is keeping you from peace.
In 2000 I joined my local Masonic Lodge, and my life changed. Motivated to study and deepen my understanding of the Biblical underpinnings of Masonry, I began attending the Santa Fe C. P. Church where Sherry had attended for several years, and where my Grandmother was a member. After two months regular attendance, I joined that Church and discovered, to my surprise, that my wife was called to the ministry. I realized my call to support her call.
Buddhism and the spiritual classics of India contain wisdom. In my view, Ecclesiastes could be a Buddhist text. I realized that Buddhism misses prayer and an active relationship with the Creator via the Holy Spirit. Thus, I “arrived at my destination” and have been an active Cumberland Presbyterian since 2001, doing whatever God has put before me.
I discovered the Cumberland Presbyterian Confession of Faith, the most eloquent and elegant statement of Christian belief I have seen. Rev. Keith Johnson taught me the importance of the basic practice: “Read the Bible, study the Bible, and pray.”
I enjoyed traveling to various places in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama as Sherry filled pulpits while she was in Seminary. I really enjoyed the Swan C. P. Church in Hickman County the first time we filled in for Robert Heflin. I thought the drive there was so scenic. Robert Heflin took a job with the Denomination and recommended Sherry fill the pulpit at his Churches. Thus, I found my home at Swan Church, where I am now Clerk and Song Leader. Out in the country, it is not close to anywhere but Heaven. I love my ...
