Charles Henry Johnsen III, was born in 1944 in St. Charles, IL. Brought up in a retail greenhouse, his early love was for science, especially biology. For twelve years he was a student in the ministerial training system of the LCMS. He worked during those years as a maintenance man in industry, gaining more experience in the plumbing, electrical, and mechanical trades. He served inner city parishes in St. Louis and Baltimore and as vicar at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Skokie, IL. He graduated from Concordia Seminary in 1970 and was ordained as a Lutheran pastor that same year. Charles served parishes in Indiana and Illinois but as the Synod broke up was left without a parish.
Since then he has supported himself and wife Janice as industrial engineer, semiconductor product and process engineer, medical specialty test editor, principle
author and editor of the Life Skills Test for the Chicago Board of Education, and instrument service engineer and service manager. He started a business repairing personal computers before the IBM PC was available. He founded Minimum Instruction Set Computer, Inc., and designed the M17 microprocessor chip. He has several technical publications, including a refereed paper on microprocessor design.
Charles then turned to a life long ambition to author a book on the philosophy of religion. That has become a web site called biblefreedomscience.net (currently being revised to HTML5). He also works at The Home Depot in Castle Rock, Colorado.
Charles was active in the civil rights movement. He joined the Independence Institute and the Libertarian Party. He authored the cover article for the first issue of the newsletter of The Society for the Separation of School and State.
In 2004 he was confirmed as an Episcopalian. In 2009 he became a member of Emmaus Anglican Church of the Anglican Church in North America. He is currently pursuing ordination as a priest in that denomination.
Copyright © 2011, Emmaus Anglican Church, Castle Rock, Colorado.
