Charlotte public figures get personal about their faith journeys

On Friday, Charlotte’s Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary asked six local public figures to talk about their personal faith.

The panelists, appearing at the school’s forum on “Faith in Public Life,” are leaders in various fields, including education, media, religion and business. But they all spoke of spiritual journeys that ended up fortifying their Christianity.

Tony Zeiss, 69

The president of Central Piedmont Community College recalled the epiphany that came to him at age 13, in central Indiana. After swimming in a creek with friends, he made the walk home alone. On the way, struck by the beauty of his surroundings, the thought hit him: “God made this! And God made you. What are you going to give back?”

His answer: “To do good things for other people.” By 18, he decided his career would be helping young people, students. He rushed to tell the teacher he most admired that he wanted to study education at Indiana State University. “Oh, Tony,” she said, “you’re not college material.”

Five years later, Zeiss ran into his old teacher – at Indiana State University. He asked her why she was there. “I’m starting on my master’s degree, Tony,” she said. “What are you doing?” His reply: “I just finished mine.”

Ann Caulkins, 53

The publisher of the Charlotte Observer spoke of a time, in her 20s and 30s, when she was consumed by her work at previous newspapers. It defined her, squeezing out almost everything else. “When anything gets into your core to that degree,” she said, “Christ is not leading your life.”

She went to a therapist, which helped for awhile. But at 37, she turned to God: “Lord, I cannot do it myself. I tried.” She prayed about how she and her husband wanted children, even as she worried about the continuing obsession with her career.

Almost nine months later, Caulkins was pregnant, which she took as a gift from God. She gave birth to her first son in 2000. “They put him in my arms, and for the first time I really understood God’s love for me,” she said. “It was on that day … that the grip of work was removed from me.”

Stick Williams, 62

The president of the Duke Energy Foundation said that while growing up he usually made it to church only three times a year: Christmas, Easter and Mother’s Day. And when he went off to UNC-Chapel Hill, his mind was on one thing: Playing football.

He eventually became an accounting major, but made mostly C’s in his classes. “It really whupped me,” he said. “Maybe that’s why I found the Lord when I was in school.” He started reading Bible stories, which he found amazing. Still not convinced, he began praying and felt like he got an answer from God: Take the test to become a certified public accountant.

A difficult test even for A students, Williams took it – and passed. “There was no doubt in my mind that this God was real. ‘You know you didn’t do this,’” he said of himself. And from that day on, Williams said he’s made it a point of never claiming credit for himself, insisting instead that it was God’s doing.

Bishop Claude Alexander, 51

The senior pastor at The Park Church came to the Lord at age 7, in Jackson, Miss. His first evangelist: His mother. “She taught me the Scriptures … and I would open the doors of the house as if we were opening the doors to the church,” he said. “We’d have communion with crackers and grape juice.”

The family business was medicine – his mother was a psychiatrist, his stepfather a physician. But his early spiritual learning and play planted a seed in Alexander that, by age 17, had bloomed into a calling to proclaim the Gospel.

He had worked summers in the laboratory, including with X-rays. “I knew there was probably many things that I could be,” he said. “But there was nothing more that the Lord wanted me to do” than preach.

David and Jason Benham, 39

Twin brothers who sell real estate in the Charlotte area, the Benhams talked about growing up with a pastor father who expected them to get through the Bible by reading a few pages a day.

They both played Major League baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals. And it looked like they would hit the big time again when HGTV signed them for a reality show combining real estate and the Gospel.

But David Benham told the audience Friday that liberal and gay groups that did not like their conservative Christian views pressured HGTV to cancel the show. Though “we got our butts fired,” he said, they were able to go before God and say, “We will follow you whatever the costs.”

This story was originally published May 15, 2015 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Charlotte public figures get personal about their faith journeys."