In Memory of Carlton L. Johnson

Seonghwa

Feb 13

Carlton L. Johnson

Spouse: Mihoko Johnson
Children: Tad, Jason, Tai
DOB: Feb 11, 1957
Blessing Date: July 1, 1982
Ascension: February 4, 2025
Seonghwa Ceremony: February 15, 2025 at 9:30 - 11:00 AM
Location of All Services are at: Manning Funeral Home 700 N 25th St., Richmond, VA 23223
Public Viewing: February 15, 2025 at 11- 2PM
Extended Family Funeral Service: February 15, 2025 at 2PM
Memorial Site:
https://rememberingcarlton.wixsite.com/memorial

Carlton Leon Johnson was an extraordinary, providential, and unique member of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, embodying in himself, and in his family the unity of races, of religions, and of nations all centered on God, to which he totally dedicated his life. He loved, served, taught, emailed, texted, prayed and shared his heart, his eclectic love for music, and his deep knowledge of spiritual wisdom from great teachers of all religions. He invested himself into his friends, colleagues, and contacts of all races and backgrounds, young and old, with the same unwavering passion. Throughout his life he would pour himself into his work late into the night, and then catch a few hours of sleep in his chair, perhaps not unlike True Father.

Carlton was born to Robert Lee and Doris Johnson, the second of their five sons. They grew up in Richmond, VA, in a large extended family that was part of the Chickahominy Baptist Association, where their father serves as a deacon. His ancestry includes African, White, and First Nations.

Carlton was an anthropology student at Harvard University when he met Laurence Baer in Oakland, CA and joined our movement on April 19, 1979. However, prior to that meeting, he had encountered someone in a vivid dream, and when he met Joe Taylor, he immediately recognized Joe from that dream. Carlton and Joe became close lifelong friends.

Carlton and Mihoko Demizu were introduced and matched together in 1982 and participated in the 2075 Couples Blessing at Madison Square Gardens. Mihoko had joined the movement on Feb 11, 1976, which was Carlton’s 19th birthday.

Shortly after joining, Carlton worked for six years on MFT and then returned to Harvard to complete his Anthropology degree. He continued on after graduation working with CARP at Harvard. The couple started their family life in 1989 and Mihoko gave birth to four sons. Tad was born in 1990. In 1991 Carlton traveled as a pioneer missionary to Myanmar for six months. After that the Johnsons moved to Japan for five years. There, Jason was born in 1992.

In 1993, their third son Stephen was born, whom they offered to Rev. Esteban and Lorna Galvan. Their families have remained very close ever since. In 1996 their fourth son Tai was also born in Japan.

Carlton tried for more than five years to establish a Nu Skin business in Japan, but it proved difficult given the cultural and language differences. In 1997 they moved to Korea, and after tutoring English privately for a while, Carlton was hired as an English Teacher at the prestigious Korean Minjok Leadership Academy. In 2006 he joined the staff teaching English at the Cheongshim International Academy at Cheong Pyeong. In addition to teaching, he advised the students on their strategies and applications for attending University in America. He also loved music and enjoyed performing with students there. Remarkably, Carlton and Mihoko and their three children all became fluent in Korean, Japanese, and English.

In 2010, the family returned to Richmond where they organized regular monthly community pot luck spiritual fellowship dinners in their garage, which they converted into a meeting room. In these gatherings there was always an eclectic aray of music and peace-building ideas shared by all. In addition, Carlton hosted annual dinners at a local buffet restaurant for his very large extended family representing a number of churches in the area. During this time, Carlton commuted between Richmond and Korea where he spent most of his time still teaching.

*(Left to right) Esteban, Carlton, Lorna, Jimmy Galvan, Jason, Stephen, Tad*

Carlton would regularly send long letters to his sons, encouraging them to address their questions in prayer and asking them about the answers they received from Heavenly Parent. Throughout his own life, he had enjoyed an ongoing dialogue with God and had diligently obeyed God’s guidance. In fact, it was that very integrity and obedience which kept him in the Movement in 1979, when he felt strongly compelled to return to Harvard and to his fiancée at that time. It was something of a painful shock to Carlton when he learned that only a very tiny fraction of our members (he concluded 1%) were actually able to “hear God’s voice” as he did. He felt that it was his challenge, while still on Earth, to raise that number to 10%. Heavenly Parent gave Carlton a remarkable and challenging path to pursue this goal.

Carlton was massaging the feet of one of his teaching colleagues in Korea, who was suffering from cancer, and whose feet therefore had a very strong odor. He prayed for the ability to love that odor, and his heart opened up. When he reported this to God, Heavenly Parent replied, yes, “I love it 1000 times more than you do”. This was the launch of one of the most unusual, and one of the most holy ministries in our Movement. Heavenly Parent opened Carlton’s spiritual sense of smell, and instructed him to approach each of his contacts and request a pair of their stinky socks. Through those socks, Carlton was able to connect deeply in heart and spirit with their ancestors, both on their mothers’ and fathers’ sides. For each donor, he would experience a deep connection of love with their ancestry, which he would offer up to God in prayer. It became an incredibly personal and intimate experience between Carlton and Heavenly Parent.

He finally returned permanently to America in 2017, after 20 years of teaching in Korea. Carlton then made a condition to visit the ancestral homes of his contacts in twelve countries, and asked God to guide him. He did this completely on faith, without any income at the time. One of the countries that this ministry took him to was Japan. It was not at all clear to him what he was supposed to do there, but he went in absolute obedience to God’s voice. While in Japan, he became extremely ill and was hospitalized. It was determined that he had a very rare disorder which created huge blood clots in both lungs and which, if left untreated, would surely be fatal. Remarkably, in Japan, that disorder was included on a short list of medical issues selected for research. Even though he was not a Japanese citizen, and even though he had no insurance and no funds, the hospital performed two sixteen-hour surgeries, one on each lung. Normally this would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but for research all treatment was provided to Carlton at no cost.

Carlton recovered fully, returned to America and taught at the Kirov Academy, and at New Hope Academy. He would regularly drive up from Richmond, not knowing where he would sleep. His network of sock donors continued to grow, and he became more and more involved in trying to bring harmony and reconciliation between races and groups within our Movement. Although he and Mihoko extended the Blessing of Marriages to members of his tribe, Carlton felt that he could not fully pursue registering as a Cheon Bo tribe while our Movement was still struggling internally with disunity. As a solution, he devoted himself to addressing this problem through his ministry. He was particularly involved in trying to bring healing and reconciliation between members of the African American community and our leadership. Moreover, indirectly, this had impact on First Nations since many of our African American brothers and sisters, like Carlton, also had some First Nations ancestry. He also spoke passionately about the need for reconciliation between conservative and liberal political persuasions.

In recent years, Carlton began working as a substitute teacher in the Chickahominy Nation School System, where he was beginning to explore his own First Nations roots more deeply. Had he taken life a little easier, had he invested more attention to his own health, surely, he could have lived longer. Sadly, he contracted a chest infection, stopped eating, and died quite suddenly.

The day before his death, Carlton had what seemed like a normal phone conversation with Joe Taylor. Joe was shocked to hear that Carlton had transitioned. The following day Carlton came to Joe to say that he was fine, “but going through a process of adjusting to his new circumstances.” He will be deeply missed by so many.

Carlton is survived by his Father, Robert Lee Johnson; by his brothers Anthony, Wayne, and Danard; by his wife Mihoko, and by his three sons and two daughters-in-law; Tad and Takako; Jason, and Tai and Danielle, and by his three grandchildren Akash (7), Mone (5) and Surya (3) all born to Tad and Takako. He was predeceased by his mother, Doris Johnson, and his brother, Keith Johnson.

Support Carlton's family Here: https://gofund.me/32fcc02e

Funeral Home Obituary Site: https://www.manningfh.com/obituary/carlton-johnson

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