The information on this entire website has been drawn together from numerous sources & personal experience by me, a "born-again" Christian of "saving belief" in Jesus of Nazareth. I happen to be a Caucasian male & native of the South of the United States of America. I was born (1943) & raised in Sumter, S. C. An Eagle rank former boy scout, former college cadet "L" company commander at The Citadel (a military college in S. C., class of '66), and a practicing pathologist (MD physician) since 1975...raised as a Methodist, I spiritually "backslid"...damaging many in the process...terribly from about 1962 to 1991, nearly 3 decades.
On moving from Charleston to Columbia to start my career, my then-young family joined Union United Methodist church in Irmo, S. C. about 1975 but attended only sporadically. About 10 years later (about 1985), we attended Cornerstone Presbyterian in Irmo; and 10 year old son, David, walked in fast and went down almost to the front row (I would have NEVER been a front-row sitter on my own). After moving 15 miles from Irmo to West Columbia in 1987, we visited in about 1989 (& I became a member of it in 1991 until August 2003) a Southern Baptist Church (Northside Baptist Church). I underwent a marital divorce from Dixie in 1994 and married Betty in 1997. In May of 2003, we left NBC & then joined the very nearby church of Betty's childhood, Zion Lutheran Church (a congregation since 1749!) 21 December 2003.
I was born in 1943 in the midst of Would War II into a Christian family& infant-baptized on day 5 in the hospital before Daddy had to return to Montgomery, Alabama. As far as I have been able to tell (one hobby of mine is genealogy since 1965), both my mother's and father's people were Christians for generations back...her side, Methodists and his roots, Presbyterian. I was raised and "confirmed" in the Methodist church (Trinity United Methodist Church, Sumter, SC). My earliest religious memory...I can see it in my mind's eye even now...is of me watching my grandmother Brown's beloved black cook, Beulah "Bunkie" McCullom, reading the Bible under a lamp.
As a member of that church's Boy Scout Troop 336 under South Carolina's then dean of scoutmasters, Wilbert Bernshouse (1914-2007), I had an anchoring with the church in older childhood and early teen years. The road to being an Eagle Scout implanted/secured numerous Christian values. Mr. Henry Shelor provided a financial incentive to all new Sumter Eagle Scouts to experience Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico or the National Jamboree. That trip to Philmont in 1958 (age 14)...which included at least 7 days way high in the Sangre de Cristo (Blood of Christ) range of the Rockies...was a defining experience (I got VERY hungry and VERY cold) which made me realize how fortunate I was to be where I was in the family that I was in...that is, I experienced profound gratitude. I swore to myself that if I got home alive, I'd never ever complain again (and, to this day, I almost never have complained more than momentarily).
And I had a strong spiritual encounter at about age 18 (about March 1962) while on an Episcopal youth religious retreat (their Parish Life Conference, lead by Holy Comforter's Rev. Seddon Lee) at a plantation in Georgetown County, S. C. with my girlfriend & now attorney, Anne H. Palmer (now of Atlanta) and my boyhood- through-college best friend, Henry D. Harder (now of Palatka, Fla.). I strongly sensed the presence of what I have ever after only been able to say was the Holy Spirit during a skit at that retreat. I briefly thought maybe God wanted me to be a preacher.
But, as a prodigal son from Jesus, my Christianity faded to "pilot light" from 1962-1991. But that Episcopal retreat experience kept me believing. And, just knowing that my Citadel faculty advisor, Col. I. S. H. "Ted" Metcalf, PhD. (professor of biology @ Citadel...then of Anatomy at M. U. S. C., the medical school I went to), was a Christian helped to keep me believing in spite of the teachings of evolution and the things I saw in college embryology.
There were many chances for spiritual re-ignition. I admired Pastor Jim Nates, Union Methodist pastor, who I first heard in Charleston, S. C., in Irmo. And a Citadel alumnus, Ed Taylor, invited me to join a Christian men's' group for weekly breakfast and fellowship in about 1978 (when I lived in Irmo, S. C.). I didn't respond...in fact (to my current shame) I pretty much disdained the thought. Besides, the few times we did go to Union Church, I would let the slightest imperfect thing about the service or an usher's behavior irritate the daylights out of me (I practiced "messy spirituality").
Though my professional life seemed to climb higher, I committed (directly or indirectly, in one way or another) infractions against all 10 of the Ten Commandments. The "bottom" seemed to have fallen out, and I came very near to the end of my earthly rope in the summer of 1987. All in the space of a few weeks: (1) one of my children ran into a huge problem, (2) my momma (a very independent, self-reliant, highly experienced nurse) called and said, "Ervin, there is something wrong with your daddy; and, if you don't do something soon, I'm afraid he's going to die!"; (4) my partner and I got the phone call from Mayo Clinic that our senior partner had awful pancreatic cancer, and, (5) I had my personal life all tied in knots in and around a failing marriage (my ex & I had been years in ordinary "shrink" counseling during which I was absolutely stunned & disoriented to find out that I was a heavy percentage of the cause of problems!!). I finally, reluctantly & dragging my spiritual feet shamefully (as if, in defeat, it might cost me all the "fun" in life), turned back toward church in about 1988-89...at least as to infrequent church attendance.
[An Aside: While daydreaming in the Richland County Public Library in about 1978, it came to me how wonderful it would be to be reading a book and be able to instantly have the definition of an unknown word "appear" if I wanted it to. Or, if the word was a color, one could instantly see the color (a "tow-headed" little boy) and read a description of it...and maybe even "will" that another description come forth at a more technical level. Or, if the word were a particular sound (the "forlorn" sound of the harbor buoy), then there would be a way to actually hear that sound.]
But I didn't really "turn back on" spiritually until I met (and began to admire & hear..."had ears to hear") Pastor Steve M. Cloud at Northside in 1990. Steve was the lamp bearer God used to guide me into the safe harbor. To this day (2006), I can't read or sing the hymns "Amazing Grace" or "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning" without getting choked up at the grace of God and...and I think of Steve & his smiling but dogged beckoning of me back into the faith. [delay in meeting]
I was re-baptized at Northside by immersion on mother's day of 1991 subsequent to a Jim Wilson revival (at the "alter call", Dixie's cancer-crippled mother grabbed up her crutches to come out of the pew, and several others of us went down front with her). Though now plugged into the Power Source, I would further unravel through a separation (1991) and divorce (1994...even though I had come to know what God's word was on divorce & His power to prevent it...the power of reconciliation and restoration).
I was maritally separated & living 15 miles from town on a houseboat when Pastor Steve Cloud asked me to join a small group of 6 men to meet weekly at the church. I started to make excuses when Steve said something like, "Come on, Ervin, you don't have anything better to do at 6AM on a Monday!" After the first meeting, I sensed strongly that I should continue; Steve gave me keys to the church so that I could get there 10 minutes early and start the coffee pot (I thought, "Who would have ever guessed I'd have keys to a church!"). Through regular weekly meetings in that men's discipleship group with Pastor Cloud, I began to yearn to "get a grip" on Christianity. This caused me to take notes and collect information from many sources (and I didn't document the sources...so most all that I learned is not properly source-cited on this website [and I've continued not to do much source-citing]). These valuable meetings went on 6-7 years.
Separated, I was between 1-3 years living on a 62 foot houseboat docked at Lake Murray Marina (outside of Columbia, S. C.) when I commenced membership in those men's group meetings. What I was seeking and learning began to come together in some writings. I wanted to "make sense" of religion (but quite possibly I was fulfilling James 3:15, in part) and to have a source of modifiable review notes...and then it occurred to me that I may one day be able to disciple others from the notes.
In 1996, my then 21-year-old son introduced me to the internet...and hyperlinks...and web sites; & my thoughts returned to that library daydream (above) which I had in 1978. I find that it helps me to re-grip/refine my searching understanding of THE TRUTH if I recycle through this material periodically and review, reword, and add to, or modify the website. I'd learned so much while at NBC.
In early 1997, after hearing a workshop on Smalley's personality types, I realized that I could handle marriage again with Betty. she & I were baptized in the Jordan River during a religious pilgrimage to Israel on 11 June 1999.
When we considered joining Zion in the summer of 2003, my ears were ready to hear the ELCA emphasis on the love & grace of God as so well put forth by Pastor John Derrick. I've always been distressed by what seems like "exclusiveness" in Christianity. In Dec. 2004, an e-mail came to me from a stranger, Kurt Kolstad, that there was no "bad news" in the "good news": my vision of the finished work of Jesus has changed significantly since. On May 6, 2007, I heard an exciting sermon by Rev. Geoffrey Chapman at the end of our annual trip to Pittsburgh in which he clarified Galatians 2:16 that it is the faithfulness of Jesus that justifies the believer. The "working out" of my salvation continues!
I hope that the other topics on this web site will attract the attention of persons who then stumble onto THE TRUTH of Jesus Christ in this site. Then maybe they will become either seekers of THE TRUTH or become discipled and encouraged in THE TRUTH. I have links from the hospital web site, our pathology group's web site and a few other areas as link-bridges the Holy Spirit might use to have others "stumble" into this personal website. By responding to strangers through internet e-mails and utilizing resources on the "web", one might even say that I have a little "ministry".
May God bless us all by keeping us focused on THE TRUTH of the sacrificial & atoning death of Jesus, the promise-proving resurrection of Jesus, the faithfulness & love of Jesus the Christ (the Messiah), and the promise of the return of Jesus by helping us: (1) to come to belief in Jesus, (2) to live the Christian life, and (3) by preventing us from making an idol of Christianity. As pointed out by Rev. Chuck Swindoll who noted this quote: English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, "He who begins by loving Christianity better than truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all."
I'm now at the height of my medical career in an excellent community hospital. I finally realized that I might be able to handle marriage again & that a coworker was my "soul-mate"; and we married in 16 May 1997. Between us we have a blended family of 4 children, 3 of whom are married (we have 9 grandchildren, 7 girls & 2 boys). All live within 20 miles of us. Of our parents' generation, my mother is still alive & well at age 89, 50 miles away. And we are blessed to have the greatest of all keeping watch over our lives...the Good Shepherd, The Lord Jesus Christ!
I have some people who I care for deeply who consider belief in Jesus and then make remarks such as, "I don't know, Ervin; more killing has been done over the centuries by Christians in the name of God than for any other reason..." [not true]. As to personally testifying as to the truth of Jesus, my thought is sort of like the healed blind man in John 9:25, "One thing I do know. I was blind and now I see!" And when I hear or sing hymns, none seems truer to me than John Newton's [his brief story] great hymn, Amazing Grace..."to save a wretch like me!"
To those who love and care about me: when my time on earth ends, don't mourn one second for me. I will have instantly come into the presence of Him who saved the world and who can change any life from one of gloom to one of peace and joy and hope! Gather with gladness for me with little or no funeral discussion and just sing: "Jesus Loves Me", "What a Friend We Have in Jesus", "There's Within My Heart a melody", "Since Jesus Came Into My Heart", and end with "I'm So Glad Jesus Lifted Me". I'm excited at what He did for ALL!
I take credit only for the deficiencies in this website...I've made many changes as my understanding has grown. I'm very interested in any reader's constructive feedback. If anyone is uplifted or encouraged or gets anything positive out of this website, I truly hope that all credit & glory will be given by them to God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (who may have simply used me as a vessel through which to pour out some of His TRUTH).
With my deepest admiration
to all who toil locally & worldwide to pass on the Gospel of Jesus,
Ervin Bartow Shaw, Jr., M. D.
(posted 2001; latest update 17 February 2008)