Chris Stevenson 2

Powerful and quick, at 55 Chris Stevenson looks and moves like a man half his age.

But he is quick to remind new acquaintances that his strength does not come from a lifetime as a physical education instructor or his proficiency in both Japanese and Korean styles of martial arts. He says all real strength comes from God.

Stevenson has been a training specialist at the Birdie Thornton Center for developmentally challenged adults in Athens for one year. It’s been a long road from his birth in Nashville’s Riverside Hospital to bringing new life to a group of people who have been more defined by their disabilities than their abilities.

Stevenson readily admits it took getting critically wounded in a teenage gang shooting to propel him toward a spiritually-centered life.

His physical training style combines elements of karate, clean living, spirituality and reflexology. Defined by the American Reflexology Certification Board, reflexology is a non-invasive, complementary use of thumb and finger techniques to apply alternating pressure to reflex points on the feet, hands, and outer ears.

These reflex points are believed to correspond to various bodily organs and functions. A look at Web sites on reflexology shows the method is not without its detractors. But Stevenson said combined with the other elements of his training, he is successful in bringing improved spiritual and physical strength and coordination to his students.

“When I studied Japanese martial arts, I learned if you can use pressure points to hurt, you can also use them to help,” he said.

But Stevenson does not profess to be a preacher. He has just learned what works for him and is anxious to teach others. In his free time, he teaches classes at two area churches in what he has calls his “Flowing Temple” karate style, the motto of which is: “I believe all power comes from God and all men are brothers. I will only use my martial arts ability to defend others and in matters of life and death.”



Birdie Thornton



“When I first got here we had this one guy who just came in and stood in the corner and rocked,” said Stevenson. “But he would stop the rocking when it was time to eat, so I thought he could be taught to stop rocking at other times.”

That Birdie Thornton client is now his assistant and helps with new students. Stevenson knew from his own experience that it took someone who didn’t give up on him to turn his life around.

“My real dad was a bootlegger, but I was really close to him,” said Stevenson. “He died when I was 13 and I ran away from Nashville to Houston, Texas, to live with an older sister there. I got into gangs and I got shot in the hip. The bullet hit my bladder and intestines and I was in the hospital for six months. They thought I would never walk again because the bullet barely missed my spine. But God brought me out of that.”

While recovering, Stevenson heard about a Christian academy in Weslaco, Texas, run by the Seventh Day Adventists called Valley Grande and decided he wanted to go there. He was also taken in by a white couple, who adopted him. After graduation, he attended Southwestern Adventist College, where he studied theology and continued his study of martial arts, a discipline in which he became interested at the age of 9.

“At 9, I looked at the concept and said, ‘I can do that,’” he said.

Stevenson said he developed his own childhood style of martial arts, but it wasn’t until he recovered from being shot that he got formal training in shotokan, a Japanese style of martial arts.

After earning his black belt in shotokan and attending tournaments in the Fort Worth, Texas, area, Stevenson became interested in learning the Korean style of martial arts, taekwondo.

“The class was taught by a Korean and I was one of his top students,” he said.

In 1985-86 his instructor was choosing students to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Karate Team.

Stevenson said taekwondo requires deep concentration and a spirituality that is not Christian-centered.

“By this time, I was really into my faith,” said Stevenson. “Qualifying was on Saturday mornings when I would go to church. I knew if I qualified that I would win a gold medal. But you can’t have a double mind — you have to be clear. My instructor told me that in karate, God has no place. For me, if it is not Christian, then it is not a good thing. I just said I will go my own way.”

So, Stevenson’s Flowing Temple martial arts stress a different approach to life.

“I emphasize nutrition, exercise, water, sunshine, temperance, air, rest and trust in a divine power,” he said. “These are all things that are found in the Bible.”

Stevenson is a practicing vegetarian as are his wife, Betty, and his 28-year-old son Jason. When ill, Stevenson brews teas from natural herbs and says he usually recovers in two days.

He moved back closer to his roots when his birth mother, who lived in Toney, became ill. The family came from Dallas, Texas, to care for her. Stevenson said after he moved his family to Toney, his mother, in time, moved back to Nashville, where she died. Stevenson took up truck driving and moved to Huntsville.

“I was driving an 18-wheeler, but I wanted to be home more,” he said. “My wife wanted me home more. She prayed to God, ‘please get him off the road.’ Then one day my boss called and said he had to let me go. I thought, what am I going to do? I was on the computer one day and this job with Birdie Thornton just popped up. Now I know that this is what God intended me to do. It is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”

He said his wife had always wanted to be a teacher, but she is visually impaired.

“She can’t drive a car, so we had to find a place where she could walk to school,” he said. “We moved near to Athens State University and she is a straight-A student there.”

Stevenson said his Birdie Thornton students can earn karate belts, but the points toward a belt are earned by practicing katas and not by full-contact karate.

He said the Birdie Thornton client who stood in the corner and rocked a year ago has now earned his yellow belt.