Russell Marlett

Russell Marlett spent his childhood through high school in a small South Texas company town. In his words, he was raised by two of the best-intentioned people in the world who did not have a nickel’s worth of parenting skills between them. His mother made sure that he and his sister followed in her family’s tradition of Methodism, while his father stayed home and read the papers. As a child, he wondered about the biblical truths that were taught to him as guides for his life but were pointed out as justification for listing the shortcomings in the lives of others. His road to skepticism was taken the night he was in the kitchen with his mother was preparing the evening meal. The main course was to be the piece of round steak that was on the counter prior to being popped in the skillet. The eight-year-old Russell examined the steak and exclaimed to his mother that this was a cross-section of an animal’s leg that showed the muscle structure of that portion of the leg. She glanced at the steak and said, “No, Bubba. It’s flesh. The Bible says it’s flesh.” After high school, restlessness overtook good sense, and he left college after two years for a summer job with the U. S. Forest Service. The summer job lasted into the fall until the winter snows shut down all work in the woods. The next summer was spent working on a ranch up until the time he enlisted in the Army. He spent the first part of his three-year enlistment as a paratrooper at Ft. Bragg and then was given an overseas assignment in Berlin, Germany.After discharge from the service, he wound up in Houston, Texas where he enrolled in the University of Houston. He also took a part-time job to support himself. The part-time job became the opening to a career in replacement parts, first for industrial engines and then for automobiles. In his spare time, he became involved with the growing sport of skydiving and was appointed the jumpmaster and trainer for the just-forming Houston Parachute Club. It was through the activities of the parachute club that he was introduced to his soon-to-be wife, Shirley, and her son, Chris.Marriage and family instigated a return to church. Through activities of study and research for teaching, Russell discovered research material that he had never been aware of. He became a reader and student of religious thought and opinion, encompassing disciplines other than Christian. He was a teacher and eventually a lay speaker for his local church. In studies of various religious and spiritual disciplines, he found a common thread. What Russell believes is that there is only one truth and that it has been discovered and expressed in different terms and different forms by different adherents throughout history. “Commentaries” is his revelation of the one truth and its application to life.