Like Jesus, Carlton Morris was born in an inn—a combination boarding house and restaurant. His mother was a waitress, an orphan adopted by the owners of the inn. His father was a whiskey drummer. He came into the world like a child of unwed parents at the beginning of the Great Depression, one of many thousands born into chaos: the Depression, World War II, and single-parent homes. Like countless others, he survived one world only to become cannon fodder for two additional conflicts halfway around the globe.

Carlton served on submarines and destroyers, directed air traffic, and worked as a Navy recruiter. He enlisted in the Navy in September 1950, two months after the start of the Korean War. He celebrated his thirty-seventh birthday with the Green Berets in Vietnam when the 1968 Tet Offensive began. He later served one year as a warden in San Diego, responsible for more than 150 military personnel awaiting court-martial.

After retiring, Carlton entered college and obtained an associate degree in commercial art and advertising. He has been married twice, has four sons, and lives in Phoenix, Arizona. He bowls, golfs, plays poker and bingo, paints in both oil and acrylic, and holds patent rights to a lifting device.

Carlton was raised Christian, within both the Catholic and Baptist traditions. His mother was Pentecostal, and he married a Lutheran. He spent his youth attending services at the local Baptist church, and in between obligatory Catholic services he would, whenever possible, spend Sunday mornings enjoying the hand-clapping, foot-stomping tent revivals of the Old South. His father, a Baptist, did not care which church he attended—as long as he went and put something in the offering plate.

Today, Carlton describes himself as an agnostic, borderline pantheist. He believes in a divine power and intellect—whoever or whatever that might be. He believes this power and intellect is responsible not only for the creation, action, reaction, and interaction of all that exists within the universe and cosmos, but also for the laws, principles, and physics that govern and control all things, including the existence and functions of both God, humanity, and all forms of living matter. Based on written scripture, he holds that this reality is beyond the power and abilities of the mortal gods portrayed in sacred texts.