What Ken Ham THINKS the Atheist Agenda is

ken_ham

Based on a recent YouTube video of a few atheists talking about creationism, home school and Ken Ham, Ham has concluded:

A recent video of an atheist chat session on the internet is a must watch for all Christians! Every pastor, Christian leader, homeschooler, teenager, Christian parent, and, in fact, all Christians need to see this video chat featuring a number of very intolerant atheists (and some are hateful and angry). In fact, watch it at your Bible study, youth group meeting, home group, home, and so on—you will hear for yourself some of the best practical illustrations of many passages of Scripture come to life, including Romans 1, 2 Peter 3, and many other passages of Scripture that refer to people who oppose Christians. This can be an excellent practical Bible study for you.

The atheist video is one of the best I’ve seen to illustrate atheists exhibiting the following traits:

  • Intolerance and arrogance
  • Hatred of biblical Christians
  • Hatred of the Bible
  • Ignorance
  • Wanting to control education and capture your kids’ hearts and minds
  • Extremism
  • Fighting against freedom of religion
  • Wanting to close down or limit biblical, Christian homeschooling
  • Seeking to control what private organizations teach
  • Desiring to control what you teach at home
  • Claim Christians are scientifically ignorant but are themselves scientifically inept
  • Sanctimoniously determining morality for themselves
  • Attempting to shape the culture according to their anti-God beliefs

First, let me say I wish atheists/humanists/secularists would STOP putting out videos like the one mentioned by Ham.  The video is poorly done, quite embarrassing, and certainly should not be taken as representative of how all atheists/humanists/secularists think.

Second, Ham is an expert at ginning-up support for his conspiratorial ideas about atheists/humanists/secularists. It is NOT in our best interest to give him things that he can easily manipulate to gain his desired objective.

Now to Ham’s delineation of what he thinks the atheist agenda is. My response is indented and in italics.

Intolerance and arrogance

Intolerance and arrogance are human traits and not specific to any group. There are lots of intolerant, arrogant Christians, Ham included.

Besides, intolerance has its place, We should be intolerant of beliefs that deliberately promote ignorance, beliefs like the earth is 6,014 years old.

Hatred of biblical Christians

I am sure there are atheists who hate Christians. However, most atheists do not hate Christians. They hate their beliefs. They hate their attempts to promote ignorance. They hate their attempt to hijack the U.S. government and turn our secular state into a theocracy.

Hatred of the Bible

Hate the Bible? Really?  Who in their right mind hates a book, an inanimate object? I HATE you, Moby Dick!  This is a silly statement.

What we DO hate is what Christians DO with the Bible and that’s try to force everyone to worship their God and obey its commands.

Ignorance

Ignorance of what? The Bible? Not a chance. I may be ignorant of many things, but ignorance of the Bible is not one of them.  Ham mistakes disagreement for ignorance. He is also oblivious of the fact that many of us were raised in church and know the Bible inside and out.  We are anything BUT ignorant.

Wanting to control education and capture your kids’ hearts and minds

If Ham is talking about the Public Schools then the answer is Yes.  People like Ham, with his ignorant, unscientific beliefs, have no business being anywhere near the Public Schools.

Extremism

What’s extremism? In Ken Ham’s world, extremism is anything that differs with his beliefs.

Besides, whose beliefs are extreme? Those who follow the path of science or those who get their science and history from an ancient text written by unknown authors thousands of years ago?

Fighting against freedom of religion

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

We are fighting those who want to establish a theocracy. We are fighting against those who say the separation of Church and State is a myth.

Wanting to close down or limit biblical, Christian homeschooling

Limit, yes. Close down, no.

Home school teachers should be competent and society has a right to expect that every child receives a quality, comprehensive education. If home schoolers are willing to do this, I have no problem with home schooling.

A number of states need to improve their home schooling and non-chartered private school laws. As it stands now, there is way too much latitude for parents and schools to give their children a poor, substandard education.

See my recent post on this subject.

Seeking to control what private organizations teach

Again, we all have a vested interest in what children our taught. Our future depends on them receiving a quality, comprehensive education.

If he is talking about the Home School Convention, Answers in Genesis, or the Creation Museum, then, yes, they should be free to teach whatever they want, as long as tax money is not being used to support these “teaching” endeavors.

Desiring to control what you teach at home

See above. Ham has repeated this point three times.

Claim Christians are scientifically ignorant but are themselves scientifically inept

No, we don’t say Christians are scientifically ignorant. We DO say that Young Earth Creationists are scientifically ignorant.

Oh wait, Ham says Young Earth Creationism is NOT an article of faith, BUT, he questions the “faith” of Christians who embrace evolution. There’s the intolerant and arrogant Ken we all love.

Sanctimoniously determining morality for themselves

Duh, who else is going to determine what my morals are but me?

Ham wants everyone to have his morals because he got his morals directly from God.

If Christians all get their morals from God, why is it so many of them have differing moral views?

Attempting to shape the culture according to their anti-God beliefs

Guilty as charged with one caveat. I am trying to shape our culture with my humanistic beliefs not my one point atheist belief.

You can check out the video in question here.

Al Mohler’s Dance Around God’s Culpability

Severe Weather

The Christian God’s Handiwork in Moore, Oklahoma

In a post today on his blog, Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a five-star member of the John Calvin club, tries to explain how God is absolutely sovereign and decrees everything BUT he must never be blamed for evil or the bad things that happen in the world.

Mohler writes:

Every thoughtful person must deal with the problem of evil. Evil acts and tragic events come to us all in this vale of tears known as human life. The problem of evil and suffering is undoubtedly the greatest theological challenge we face.

Most persons face this issue only in a time of crisis. A senseless accident, a wasting disease, or an awful crime demands some explanation. Yesterday, evil showed its face again as a giant tornado brought death and destruction to Moore, Oklahoma.

For the atheist, this is no great problem. Life is a cosmic accident, morality is an arbitrary game by which we order our lives, and meaning is non-existent. As Oxford University’s Professor Richard Dawkins explains, human life is nothing more than a way for selfish genes to multiply and reproduce. There is no meaning or dignity to humanity…

…Natural evil comes without a moral agent. A tower falls, an earthquake shakes, a tornado destroys, a hurricane ravages, a spider bites, a disease debilitates and kills. The world is filled with wonders mixed with dangers. Gravity can save you or gravity can kill you. When a tower falls, it kills.

People all over the world are demanding an answer to the question of evil. It comes only to those who claim that God is mighty and that God is good. How could a good God allow these things to happen? How can a God of love allow killers to kill, terrorists to terrorize, and the wicked to escape without a trace?…

…First, the Bible reveals that God is omnipotent and omniscient. These are unconditional and categorical attributes. The sovereignty of God is the bedrock affirmation of biblical theism. The Creator rules over all creation. Not even a sparrow falls without His knowledge. He knows the number of hairs upon our heads. God rules and reigns over all nations and principalities. Not one atom or molecule of the universe is outside His active rule…

…Rabbi Harold Kushner argues that God is doing the best He can under the circumstances, but He lacks the power to either kill or cure. The openness theists argue that God is always ready with Plan B when Plan A fails. He is infinitely resourceful, they stress, just not really sovereign.

These are roads we dare not take, for the God of the Bible causes the rising and falling of nations and empires, and His rule is active and universal. Limited sovereignty is no sovereignty at all.

The second great error is to ascribe evil to God. But the Bible does not allow this argument. God is absolute righteousness, love, goodness, and justice. Most errors related to this issue occur because of our human tendency to impose an external standard–a human construction of goodness–upon God. But good does not so much define God as God defines good.

How then do we speak of God’s rule and reconcile this with the reality of evil? Between these two errors the Bible points us to the radical affirmation of God’s sovereignty as the ground of our salvation and the assurance of our own good. We cannot explain why God has allowed sin, but we understand that God’s glory is more perfectly demonstrated through the victory of Christ over sin. We cannot understand why God would allow sickness and suffering, but we must affirm that even these realities are rooted in sin and its cosmic effects.

How does God exercise His rule? Does He order all events by decree, or does He allow some evil acts by His mere permission? This much we know–we cannot speak of God’s decree in a way that would imply Him to be the author of evil, and we cannot fall back to speak of His mere permission, as if this allows a denial of His sovereignty and active will.

A venerable confession of faith states it rightly: “God from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and all events; yet so as not in any way to be the author or approver of sin nor to destroy the free will and responsibility of intelligent creatures.”

I really don’t have much to say about what Mohler has written here.  I will say that I find it interesting that he says that natural evil has no moral cause and then turns right around and says God decrees EVERYTHING. Surely, natural evil would be included in EVERYTHING.

Mohler does his best to avoid charging God with being the power and force behind evil, but, if God decrees EVERYTHING, then God most certainly is the creator and perpetrator of evil. At least some Calvinists understand the logical inconsistency of Mohler’s view, and admit that God is the creator and perpetrator of evil.

Of course they then say, God thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and way and we cannot understand them. Paraphrasing the Apostle Paul, shut the hell up. Who are you to question what God is doing? (Romans 9)

All of you are aware of the horrible devastation of Moore, Oklahoma from a tornado. If God decrees everything…tell us Dr. Mohler…whose to blame for the death and destruction in Moore?

It seems every time a horrific event like this happens, up pops Al Mohler or John Piper to let us know that we shouldn’t blame God. Again, if God has the world in the palm of his hand, and not one thing happens contrary to his Sovereign , decretive will, I ask, who else should we blame?

Let me close out this post with a long quote from a post I wrote in April 2011:

If you are a Christian and you believe the Bible is truth then the answer is an emphatic YES. The people recently killed by tornadoes? God’s doing. The people killed by Hurricane Katrina? God’s doing.

The Bible is clear:

And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt. Exodus 10:19

And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day’s journey on this side, and as it were a day’s journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. Numbers 11:31

For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: Job 28:24-26

But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Jonah 1:4

But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.  Jonah 4:7,8

He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.  Psalm 78:26

These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.  Psalm 107:24,25

He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries. Psalm 135:7

And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish. And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him! Matthew 8:25-27

Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. Exodus 9:18

And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. Exodus 9:22

Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. Isaiah 29:6

And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.Genesis 6:17

Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers. The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Psalm 74:16

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; 2 Peter 2:4-6

For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. Genesis 7:4

And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. Deuteronomy 11:13-15

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5:45

For he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth; likewise to the small rain, and to the great rain of his strength.  Job 37:6

There is no doubt about who is in control of the weather. The Bible makes it clear that God controls the weather. ( and everything else for that matter)  If God controls the weather then HE is responsible for the devastation and death that comes when bad weather comes our way.

Not happenstance.

Not Mother Nature.

God.

Around the Yard, May 21 2013

Here are a few pictures I snapped today as I took a s-l-o-w, halting tour through the yard.

dandelion 2013

A dandelion getting ready to further the dandelion species
with its seeds.

flaming azalea 2013-001

An old flaming azalea that we pruned back in hopes of spurring
growth. It looks like it worked. Every year, people stop at our
house and say, what’s that?

iris 2013

Iris, the day before it fully blooms.

montana blue

Montana blue, Polly says. Whatever it is, it is pretty,

japananese iris 2013-001

Japanese Iris

Chives, A Look at Polly’s Herb Garden

When we bought our home in 2007, it came with a deep, cavernous well pit in the backyard. The well pit had been abandoned many years ago when the village of Ney put in a water system.

The well pit was a concern because we had visions of one of our grandchildren figuring out how to get the metal lid off the well pit and then, with great curiosity, climbing down into the well pit.

We filled the well pit in with construction debris, laughing…that hundreds of years from now an archeologist will be digging in our back yard and stumble on the building remains in the well pit.  We are funny like that. When we remodeled our home, we taped newspapers inside the walls and wrote our names and the date.  This is our way of saying, we were here.

Once we filled the well pit with debris, we covered it with a lot of dirt and Polly turned it into a herb garden. This Spring we had to add some more dirt because the sparrows had taken to dusting themselves in the herb garden and had worn down the dirt in spots all the way to the metal well pit lid.

The Chives are in full bloom this week. I took a few pictures. I hope you enjoy them. I hope you notice the little helper that helps to make so much of what we have in our yard possible.

chives 2013-003

chives 2013-004

chives 2013-002

chives 2013-001

chives 2013

For the camera geeks. I shot these pictures with my Sony A77 DSLR and a Sony DT 2.8/30 Macro Lens. Due to the wind today, I had to bump the shutter speed up to 1/500 sec.  The minimum focus distance is 5.1 inches. This lens is quite affordable.

Raiders of the Lost Suet

The Starlings have arrived in full-force today. This happens every year. For a short period of time, the Starlings eat everything they can get their beak into, especially the suet.  Here are a few pictures I took today of what I like call the suet raiders.

starlings 2013-001

starlings 2013-004

starlings 2013-002

starlings 2013-003

My apologies for the odd pictures sizes. I forgot I had turned off the aspect constraint the other day when I needed to do some manual cropping.

World Missions and the IFB Church

go_to_all_world

If you were raised in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church (IFB), you know how seriously they take world missions. IFB churches think their beliefs are the only truth and their practices are the only way to function as a church and live as a Christian. All other Christians sects are looked upon as “doubtful”  and non-Christian sects are considered tools of Satan used to deceive the masses and lead  them to a Christless hell.

Members of an IFB church hear missionary speakers quite often. Some churches have letters from the missionaries read from the pulpit, and most of them, somewhere in the church building, have a board where all the letters from the missionaries are posted.

In the IFB church, everything revolves around numbers. Attendance. Souls saved. People baptized. Offering size. How many preachers boys called into the ministry. How many men and single women called to the mission field. And…how many missionaries are supported by the church.

All of these numbers matter in the IFB church movement. Success is determined by the size of these numbers. I have often said, size matters, and what plays out in IFB churches is quite similar to men with their my dick is bigger obsession. Men with small dicks say nothing, as do pastors who pastor small churches and do not have the numbers the “successful” pastor’s have.

IFB churches like to support lots of missionaries. They may only give the missionary 25.00 a month, but, if they support fifty missionaries at 25,00 a month, they can brag at the next Preacher’s Meeting that they support FIFTY missionaries.  Remember SIZE is everything!

Many churches have Missionary Conferences. These conferences are focused times when hotshot preachers come and preach about missions. Rarely do missionaries preach. They might give a report to the congregation or share their calling to ____________ country, but most preachers know, if you want to raise money for missions, NEVER allow the missionaries to preach.

Why? Many missionaries can’t preach a lick. They are often their own worst enemy.  They may have a passion for winning souls but they often lack good communication skills. An IFB adage goes like this…preachers who can preach do, those who can’t go to the mission field.

So the hotshot preachers preach, and through their manipulative preaching and stories of lost people in need of IFB salvation, they make church people feel guilty over not giving enough money to the missions fund. If they are real good, they might successfully guilt a few church members into leaving the secular world and joining the preacher/missionary fraternity.

Countless young men and women, and quite a few older married couples, have abandoned all their hopes and dreams to chase after their “call” to be a  missionary. Many of them NEVER make it to the field and quietly return home and fade back into the fabric of the IFB church.

They are failures. They weren’t willing to sell-out and follow Jesus. They are looked down on because they said God was calling them to the mission field and they didn’t follow through.  Surely, there is something wrong with them, right?

Perhaps there is another scenario. Perhaps what really happened is that they were emotionally and mentally manipulated by a hotshot preacher who was an expert at getting people to think that his voice was the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Once a person says, God is calling me…it is almost impossible to undo what has been set in motion. The pastor brags about Bro, Mike being called to Canada. (yes, IFB churches send missionaries to Canada)  The church is excited. Bro Mike, remember little Mickey? He is going to Canada to win the heathen Canucks to Jesus.

And so, off to Bible College Bro. Mike  goes. He is trained in the IFB way of doing things. He graduates and starts on  deputation. He travels from church to church BEGGING them to give him money so he can win heathen Canucks to Jesus.

He has a table display of items that show why the Canucks really, really need Jesus. Most likely he has a slide presentation or a multimedia presentation that he shows to churches in hopes of getting them to see that Canada is a vast wasteland with millions of people in need of the IFB gospel and Jesus.

If he is lucky, after his presentation, the church will commit to supporting him. If they don’t, he moves on to the next church. Maybe the next church will “see” the need and support him.

Prospective IFB missionaries will often spend years trying to get enough money together to get to the field. Many will never make it. Imagine the humiliation of having to go back to their home church and admit they aren’t going to the mission field.

Some of them will try to redeem themselves by coming up with a new calling. Instead of going to another country, they now think God is calling them to be a missionary in the U.S.

In this new scenario, they can work a secular job (tent making like the Apostle Paul) and still be a missionary. Their home church will kick a few bucks their way every months, and they will then be able to say they are still a missionary.

I have met countless missionaries who are missionaries to things like public schools, nursing homes, the streets of X major city, etc.  Anything is better than being labeled a failure, a quitter.

Do you have a missions story to tell? Were you called at one time to be a missionary? Please share your story in the comment section.

Notes:

Let you doubt they actually send missionaries to Canada and the U.S. check here, here, and here.

My wife’s cousin’s husband, Jamie Overton was recently called to be a missionary to India. They are working through a Fundamentalist mission agency called, World View Ministries. Their sending church is my wife’s uncle’s church, the Newark Baptist Temple in Heath, Ohio.

The Victim Becomes a Victimizer

bruce_early_years_0001

Bruce, Ordination, 1983, Emmanuel Baptist Church, Buckeye Lake, Ohio

In the early 1960’s, my parents put their faith and trust in Jesus and our family joined the Scott Memorial Baptist Church in San Diego, California. Tim LaHaye was the pastor at the time.  From this point forward, until I left the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement in the late 1980’s, I was immersed in IFB thinking, ideology, and practice.

When my parents moved us back to Ohio, we immediately found a “good” Bible preaching church to attend. Wherever we moved, and we moved a lot, my parents made sure we were going to an IFB or IFB-Like church.

I spent my teenage years attending Trinity Baptist Church in Findlay, Ohio. I lived in Findlay for almost four years. This was the longest time I lived in one place, even though I lived in three houses over four years. I spent 1973-74 living apart from my parents, splitting time living between two  families in the church. (Bob and Bonnie Bolander and Gladys Canterbury)

As we all know, our teenage years are very important. It is during our teenage years we begin to develop critical thinking skills and we begin to develop a worldview.  Of course, my worldview had  God, the Bible, and IFB thinking smack dab at the center of it.

Not long after my parents divorced, I made a profession of faith in Christ and was baptized. Shortly after that, I told the church I was called to be be a preacher.  From this point forward, I immersed myself in the IFB way of life.

I was a true-blue believer. When my less-spiritual church friends were drinking, smoking pot, and having sex…it was the 1970’s…I was going to church every time the doors were open, attending all-night prayer meetings, running  a bus route, going out on visitation, carrying my Bible to school, and witnessing to classmates.

In every way, I was the real deal. Keep in mind my parents stopped going to church after they divorced. I went to church on my own, often riding my bike or walking to church.  I sincerely believed the IFB church was the way, truth, and life.

When I had to move away from Findlay in 1974, I continued to involve myself in IFB churches no matter where I lived.  While I had moments where I strayed from my IFB beliefs, for the most part, I remained a loyal-son of the IFB church.

In the fall of 1976, I enrolled, for the purpose of studying for the ministry, at Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan.  Midwestern was an unaccredited  IFB Bible college started in the 1950’s by IFB megastar Tom Malone. It specialized in training men for the ministry.

bruce_early_years_0002

Bruce preaching to full house at Somerset Baptist Church, Somerset, Ohio 1986

I met my wife while at Midwestern, and in 1979 we left Midwestern and I began working at an IFB church in Montpelier, Ohio. (affiliated with the GARBC) For the next ten years, I pastored IFB churches.

In the late 1980’s, I moved away from the IFB church, embracing Calvinism and expository preaching.  For a time, I was a Fundamentalist Calvinist, quite conservative, but, bit by bit, my theology, and, most importantly, my treatment of the people I pastored, changed.  When I left the ministry in 2003, I was a long-long way from my days in the IFB church movement.

Those of you who have read this blog for years know everything I have written so far. Perhaps you are wondering, Bruce…do you have Alzheimer’s? This is old news to us. Smile First, I want new readers to understand how and why I got to where I am today. Second,  it is important for me to write what I have written above so what I write next makes sense.  If readers don’t understand my past, the context of my life, they will certainly misjudge what I am about to write.

The title of this post is, A Victim and a Victimizer. It could just as easily be titled, Abused and an Abuser.  I am sure you are familiar with the fact that a person who was abused as a child is more likely to abuse their own children. Why is this?

Humans, like all animals, do what they know. They tend to do what they have been taught, what has been modeled to them by parents, extended family, and people they have intimate contact with. (i.e. teachers, preachers)

We also know that a child almost always chooses the religion of his parents, family, and culture. I could no more have become a Catholic than the Pope could have become an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist.  I became exactly what I was raised and trained to be.

I am sure many of you can relate to this. We look back on our lives in the IFB church and we are embarrassed and ashamed.  I know I have a lot of guilt over my past.  Yes, I now realize that I was a victim, but I also realize that I was, for many years, a victimizer. Sometimes, I find a bit of mental relief when I remind myself that I was only doing what every church, pastor, and college professor taught me to do…but the relief quickly passes as I remind myself that I mistreated people.

bruce_early_years_0003

Bruce preaching at Somerset Baptist Church 1986

Like every IFB preacher who has travelled a similar path, I reached a place where I had to embrace my “sins.” No, I wasn’t a child abuser. No, I never slept with women in the church. No, I never stole money from the church. No, I don’t have any criminal acts in my closet. Should I find comfort in the fact that I wasn’t as bad as some IFB pastors and church leaders?

In many ways, I was a good pastor. I loved the people I pastored and I sincerely wanted to help them. I was there for them, no matter the circumstance. I married them and buried them. I wept with them and rejoiced with them. I loaned them money, clothed their children, and gave them food to eat.  I took them to the doctor, grocery store, and the welfare office.  In these kind of things…I was a good pastor.

But, there’s the rest of the story.

I also was an arrogant, filled with certainty, hellfire and brimstone IFB pastor. I ruled the church as if it was my kingdom. I also ruled the lives of the people I pastored. I did this through my preaching. I preached on sin, their sins. I used the Bible as a club. What I thought was God calling out their sin was really me gutting them and showing their humanity to everyone.

Through “hard” preaching and high-pressure altar calls, I manipulated people into getting right with God. You see, I am a pretty good public speaker. I learned my craft well. At the time, I thought the response to my preaching was God working and moving, but I now see that I emotionally manipulated people to get the response I wanted. (after I became a Calvinist and an expositional preacher, these tactics stopped)

As an IFB pastor, I was the CEO of the church. I controlled everything. Anyone raised In the IFB church has heard the phrase “pastoral authority” countless times.   My word was the law and those who dared to challenge me usually ended up leaving the church.  Where did I get the idea to be so controlling? It was what was modeled to me by every church and pastor I was ever a part of. Even when I was in college, Tom Malone ruled the church, Emmanuel Baptist Church and the college with a rod of iron. (after all this is what the Bible taught, I was told)

I wanted to be like Tom Malone. A great orator who pastored a large church.  He was my idea of the ideal preacher. There was no doubt who controlled Emmanuel Baptist Church and Midwestern Baptist College. Cross Tom Malone and you were out on your ear.

Tom Malone is revered in IFB circles. (he died a few years ago) What a great man of God. Yes, and he was an autocratic control freak, who, in the name of God, always got what he wanted.

As a preacher boy trained in HIS college, I emulated him when I started pastoring churches. The victim became the victimizer.  I became what I was raised to be.

Yes, I find a small bit of comfort in the fact that my family and I escaped the abusive, mind numbing clutches of the IFB church movement.  I am grateful we were able to find and develop a more healthy form of Christianity. (though I never lost the tendency to need to be the CEO of the church)  But..finding a more healthy form of Christianity, and now embracing atheism, does not erase the emotional and mental damage I did to people when I was an IFB pastor.

When I come across former church members I always tell them, I am sorry.  It seems so hollow, doesn’t it?  I robbed people of their ability to think critically and I used the Bible to control and dominate their lives. I manipulated them, albeit sincerely, in the name of God.  I’m sorry, doesn’t cut it.

Most of the people who made me the IFB preacher I was, are either dead or still plying their trade in the IFB church movement. Most of my former IFB colleagues are still in the IFB church movement.  With great certainty, they continue to pass on the bankrupt, abusive heritage of the IFB church movement.

Why was I able to get away from it? Good question, a question that I have asked myself many times.  My counselor told me it is very rare for people who were immersed in Fundamentalist religion like I was, to break free from it. The same goes for leaving the ministry altogether. Rarely does a man in his fifties, a man who spent his entire adult life in the ministry, walk away. They have too much invested to walk away.

But, I did. Am I special? Of course not. I have met hundreds of people like me, This blog is read by people who grew up like I did. They may not have been a preacher, but they know what it is to have their lives ruined by the IFB church.

We are however, a fraternity of survivors and if we have one goal, it is to make sure that other people do not get caught up in the mind-killing and soul-killing IFB church. (and this could be said about Evangelicalism too) We are broken people and we bear the scars of our past. We can’t undo the past. All we can do is embrace the past and do everything we can to make sure other people do not follow in our steps.

As a father, I am so glad that the generational curse of the IFB church has been broken with my children. I am so grateful that none of my grandchildren will be raised in mind-numbing, soul-killing Fundamentalism.  They are free, thank the gods, they are free.

As for me, I continue to see a counselor and work through the past. By understanding my past I hope to be able to help others in the present. I can’t undo the past. At best, this blog is my penance, and as I get the Leaving the Faith Project up and running, I hope that I can in the latter years of my life help those caught in the web of Fundamentalism.  It is the least I can do…

If you have not read the ongoing series, The Fundy World Tales, I encourage you to do so. It will help give you some insight as to my past.

How IFB Pastor Bob Gray Excuses the Bad Behavior of Others

This entry is part 17 of 17 in the seriesJack Hyles and Jack Schaap

bob_gray_longviewBob Gray is the former pastor of the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist church, (IFB) the  Longview Baptist Temple in Longview, Texas. He pastored the church for decades and then passed off the franchise to his son.  Gray is a graduate of Hyles-Anderson College and is a noted conference speaker and disciple and defender of the late Jack Hyles.

I have always wondered how people like Gray can continue to defend Jack Hyles knowing what we now know about him. (see my series, Jack Hyles and Jack Schaap) Gray has to know that Hyles was an adulterer and a liar, but he still considers Hyles a Hero of the Faith, a man worthy of emulation.  Why is this?

In a recent blog post, Gray revealed WHY he still considers Jack Hyles a Hero of the Faith, a man that most preachers are unworthy to even lick the dust off his sandals. He doesn’t mention Hyles or any other IFB preacher by name, but, it is clear that Gray is quite a forgiving person when it comes to the peccadilloes of the preacher fraternity.

Bob Gray believes in a principle he calls, averaging life. Let me explain this principle to you. We know, based on the Bible, that:

  • Moses was a murderer
  • Abraham was an adulterer
  • Lot committed incest with his daughters
  • Jacob was a liar and a thief
  • David was an adulterer and a murderer
  • Noah got drunk and perhaps committed a homosexual act
  • Solomon had hundreds of wives and concubines

Yet, the Bible says:

  • Moses was a prophet God knew face-to-face
  • Abraham was God’s friend
  • Lot was a righteous man
  • Jacob was a prince of God
  • David was a man after God’s heart
  • Noah was a preacher of righteousness
  • Solomon was the wisest man in the world

Rather than seeing how inconsistent it is to say that David, an adulterer and murderer, is a man after God’s own heart, Gray comes up with a novel way of reconciling this inconsistency.  Gray writes:

How can all of these cases be true?  What was God thinking?  Maybe this is what God did.  Could it be that He looked at each individual’s life and average out that life? Did God take one day and grade it?  Did he then take the next day and grade it?

Did God, at the end of their lives, average out their days and then come to the conclusion that on an average Moses was a “servant,” David was a “…a man after mine own heart,” Noah was a “preacher of righteousness,”Lot had a “just” and “righteous soul,” and Solomon was a “wise” man?

God is not saying that Moses never did anything wrong.  God is saying the average came out to be such that God called him “my servant.” God is saying the same thing about Abraham. God is saying that He averaged out Abraham’s life and his average was defined in the word “friend.”

God summarizes Moses’ life taking into account the bad days, good days, and high days giving him the average grade of “my servant.”  God did the same with all of the above people mentioned…

…The professional baseball player who will lead his league in hitting will be the one with the highest average.  The Valedictorian for the class of 2013 will be the one with the highest average.  Isn’t this a wonderful thought?  Think about it! God will not judge any of His people by bad days, or by high days;  He will judge all of the days and give an average…

…Let us consider all of the good things people have done and average it ALL out.  A pastor is never happy when someone leaves their church.  However, I refuse to be a part of this crowd that says, “What have you done for me lately?”  How about changing the motto to “What have you done for me formerly?”   Averaging it out will cause you to keep a right spirit about those who forsake you and to keep a right spirit about those who are currently involved in your life…

jack_hyles_bookIn one blog post, Gray finally explains for me why he and many other IFB pastors continue to support and defend the legacy of men like Jack Hyles. According to Gray, one Aw-Shit should not cancel out five Atta-boys.  In other words, since there is no sin God cannot or will not forgive, it is possible for an adulterous, lying, pastor or a pedophile pastor like the other Bob Gray in Jacksonville, Florida, to redeem themselves and restore the favor of God in their lives.

As an IFB pastor, Gray savages those who believe that rightness with God can be gained by good works. Countless people believe that as long as their good outweighs their bad, that all will be well between them and God.

Gray surely calls such thinking works salvation and thinks these kind of people are not Christians. Yet, once a person has prayed the sinners prayer, once they have followed the One-Two-Three, repeat after me, bastardized salvation plan of IFB preachers like Bob Gray, as long as their good outweighs their bad, we should view the person in a positive light.

While Gray will never say  publicly for fear of being lynched…Look at all the good that Jack Schaap did. After all, he only sexually violated one teenage girl. On average, his good works far outweigh his bad, according to his averaging life principle, he surely must think that Schaap’s good outweighs the bad.

For Gray, it becomes quite easy to excuse and justify the bad things that IFB pastors do. Gray wants people to forgive and move on. He wants people to judge the fallen IFB pastors based on their total record, and not just on the few bad things they have done.

What Gray seems to not understand is that some bad behaviors (sins according to the Bible) should never be forgiven and the person committing the bad act (s) must NEVER be given a pass on their conduct.

It doesn’t matter how much good Jack Schaap did. He manipulated and violated a young girl and he deserves to rot in prison for what he did. I am sure Gray thinks that the lawsuit the girl filed against Schaap and the church is wrong. Look at all the good First Baptist of Hammond has done, Gray will say. Yes, they did a lot of good things. And they also enabled predatory preachers and stood by and did little to nothing while these preachers destroyed the lives of others. They should NOT be given a free pass, and if this suit results in the church being crippled, let it be a reminder to other churches that ignoring predatory and manipulative behavior by church leaders will be costly.

Gray probably thinks that God will give Schaap a second chance to redeem himself while in prison. Maybe he will start a ministry. Surely, Schaap deserves to be known for the good he has done rather than a moment of “weakness” where he manipulated and preyed on a girl he was counseling.

If you want to know why the IFB church movement has such a problem with abusive, dishonest, and predatory preachers, you need to look no further than Gray’s idea of averaging out a person’s life.

Some things in the grand scheme of life don’t matter. I am all for giving people a second chance. However, when it comes to things like murder, incest, child abuse, and pedophilia, it is one strike and you are out. No passing GO, no getting a second chance.

Lurking in the shadows of the IFB church movement are countless preachers who are saying Amen to Gray’’s idea of averaging out life.  They promise God, I will be different this time, God. Really. I promise to leave kids alone. I promise to keep my fly zipped up. I promise not lie, cheat, and steal. Really…Lord.

And off they go…as a leopard that cannot change its spots…doing the very things they promised God they would never do again.

I am all for forgiveness and second chances. However, to suggest that we only judge a person’s life on average minimizes the bad that some people do.

Jack Hyles was an adulterer who routinely lied to people.  He was a megalomaniac who mentally and emotionally damaged countless people. There can be no defense of  his behaviors and until the Bob Gray and the IFB church movement understands this, they will continue to be a haven for preachers who use their power and authority to prey on others and harm them emotionally, mentally, and at times, physically.

Do you think my words are harsh? Good. Unlike Gray, I am not willing to give bad-behaving preachers a pass. I am not willing to give David, Noah, Lot, or Abraham a pass either. I look  at these “great” men of faith and I ask myself, is this is the best Christianity has to offer? If these men are the “pillars” of the faith…dare any person be in a room alone with a man who calls himself a man of God?

Instead of coming up with a  method for dismissing the bad things people do and remembering them for only the good they have done,  we should see people as they are and we should never give them a pass when it comes to behaviors that savage and destroy people.  These predators and abusers don’t deserve forgiveness nor do they deserve a do-over.

As the Bible says, to whom much is given, much is required. To give them a pass and only remember them for the good they have done is to violate their victims all over again. I, for one, am not willing to do this and I suspect most of the readers of this blog are willing to do so either.

I Wonder

butterfly
A Spicebush Swallowtail  that found a resting spot in our garden today. A beauty to behold.

It’s late Spring in the rural, NW Ohio community of Ney.

The asparagus continues to grow, as does the rhubarb. Soon they will be done. I wonder will they again next year break through the early Spring ground to bless us with their fruit?

The apple trees blossomed and even survived a freeze. This year we added a cherry tree and peach tree.  I can’t wait to put the first bite of cherry pie into my mouth a few years from now. I wonder, will I still be among the living?

The maple tree didn’t make it. For four years it fought, trying to stay alive, every Spring displaying fewer and few buds. This Spring, there were no new buds. I wonder what killed our friend?

In its place we planted a river birch. Actually, we planted two river birch trees and two azalea bushes and two lilac bushes. I wonder, will we run out of yard someday?

The garden is planted. Peas, beans, onions, lettuce, beets, and spinach. And then there’s the nursery plants…tomatoes and peppers. I wonder, will they all produce this year?

We planted more wildflowers. The birds, spiders, and butterflies thank us. We planted marigolds sweet peas, and best of all, we planted four different varieties of sunflowers. I wonder if the birds know that we plant the sunflowers for them?

The honeysuckle we planted a few years ago is now taking over the trellis and the ivy is now making its way up the fence. Everywhere we look we see beauty. Yes, we see the fruit of  our labor but it is more than that. The sun shines, the rain comes, the earth gives up its nutrients. All so we can revel in the colors of life and have food to eat. I wonder, will climate change ruin all of this?

It is dusk now and the sun is setting in the west just like it has for the 20,378 days I have spent on this earth. I wonder if my neighbors understand our star is dying?

As the sun sets, Ney becomes quieter. It is one of those nights where every sound can be heard. I wonder, will my neighbors turn off their TV long enough to listen?

And then it starts. A croak. silence. The same croak again. The croaker is in our back yard. He is close and his froggy voice booms into the night. And then, just like a choir singing its parts, another frog responds. And the croaking choir sings out its song. It is such a beautiful sound. The air is still and I can tell that some of the frogs are way off in the distance. Back and forth they croak, each trying to woo to a female frog. It is their love song that I am hearing. I wonder, are we capable of stopping the spinning wheel of the rat race long enough to hear and see what a wonderful world we live in?

I wonder…

Email from a 76 Year Old Evangelical Woman

email_2

An Evangelical woman by the name of Mary emailed me several days ago. She wrote:

First time to read your blog. Just amazed that by becoming an atheist you have thrown out the baby with the bath. Seems like overkill.

Mary’s email to me was based on her reading ONE post on this blog, But Bruce, Don’t Women Choose to Stay in Fundamentalism.

One post. Like many of her ilk, she made NO attempt to read anything else I wrote.

After five years of letters from Evangelicals, I am not as kind, nice, understanding, or longsuffering as I should be. After getting these kinds of emails day-after-day,, week-after-week, it wears on me. I guess I could just not reply to them…but I have never been able to ignore people like Mary. I don’t want them to think that they have put the atheist in his place or think , boy I sure told him.

I can be snarky when dealing with Evangelicals, so I hope you will forgive my snarkiness as you read my response to Mary:

By becoming an atheist I am free.

You see, I found out that there is no baby in the bathwater.

I spent 50 years in the Christian church, 25 years as an Evangelical pastor. The single best decision I made was to walk away.  I am sure you see things differently but it is where my journey led me and I am quite happy to be where I am now. (and so is my wife)

I wish you well.

In today’s inbox was this from Mary:

Thank you for your response.

I am so sorry. Sorry that while you successfully escaped one Lie, you turned and swallowed another.

I responded:

And you are now an insufferable Christian who arrogantly and self-righteously thinks they have the truth and that anyone who doesn’t has bought into a lie.

Instead of accepting people as they are and respecting the path they have chosen, you want everyone to be like you. Ask yourself, WHY would I want to be like you?  Your emails are just a reminder of what I left. Why would I ever want to go back to the leeks and bondage of Egypt? The atheist/humanist/secularist Promised Land is better, far better than that which I have left behind.

Hell? judgment? I fear neither. I don’t think there is a god, but if I am wrong then my good works will have to suffice. If not, why would I want to live in eternity with a god who values believing and right doctrine over good works?

So, enjoy your smug Christian life. I will continue to enjoy the lie I am living. It really is sweet. You ought to try it.

Mary responded:

It is interesting that while you do not even know me as a person, yet you have judged me to be a judgmental person?? I hear your anger. No doubt you have reason to be angry from your description of your past with its cast of characters who ascribe to a  harsh and indescribably self-righteous religiosity. I am 76 and have interacted with many like that. Even got caught in a group who originally taught truth, but eventually used it to manipulate and trap others. I am thankful to be free of that spirit.  Today I, too, am free . But I did not have to reject God in order to get there.

While your anger may have a legitimate base, your bitterness seems to spew forth on everyone, regardless.

I responded:

You read one blog post of mine (I checked the logs) and came to the conclusions you did.

You also have an online presence that I checked out. Surprise.

If you had bothered to read a bit more of my writing you would have learned that I left the Fundamentalist church in the late 1980′s. You would have learned that when I left the ministry I left as a progressive/liberal Christian. You would have learned that the reason that I am not a Christian is because I do not believe the Bible is an inerrant, inspired text and I reject the claims Christians make for the Bible. You would have learned that I think Jesus existed but that he was a man who lived and died. End of story. No miracles. No resurrection. It is for these reasons I am not a Christian.

But, please, by all means, dismiss me as an angry man. No one but people like you believes this about me…but, I don’t want to interrupt your delusional thoughts about me with facts.

Again, you made no effort to get to know me as a person. You read a post and responded.

You seem unable to see how your words might be offensive to me. You refuse to accept me as I am and you assume that there is some defect in my character. After all, imagine an atheist writing you without ever reading anything you have written, and them telling you your Christian faith is a lie and that you have bought into that lie?

What did you hope to gain by emailing me? It certainly couldn’t have been to help me nor was it an attempt to understand me better. No, you just wanted to make sure I knew that I had thrown out the proverbial baby with the bathwater and that I am believing a lie.

I am not a novice when it comes to Christianity and the Bible. As a former Evangelical I know how you think. Since it is clear you think the Bible is God’s word (based on your old blog posts), you know the Bible says in John 8:44:

Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

When you say I have bought into a lie, you are saying I am following after my father Satan.

Again, I ask you, what did you hope to gain by emailing me? There is nothing you can say that would ever cause me to reconsider Christianity. In fact, I doubt there is anything you can tell me from the Bible that I do not already know. To be blunt…been there, done that.

I wish you well Mary. Now I am going to go back to watching the ballgame and enjoying my family. They are what matter and they are all I need.

And so it goes. I am sure Mary is a nice person. I am sure she means well. But, nice, well-meaning people can also be blinded to how their words and actions are viewed by others, especially people like me.

You see, Mary is not concerned about me. Her email to me is all about making sure that the “truth” is proclaimed.  Those of you who are non-Christians understand this quite well. Many Christians feel they have a God ordained responsibility to confront what they think is error. (in Mary’s case, what she considers a lie) They rarely consider how their words will be received, or, for that matter, who they are even speaking to, Understanding my journey is of no importance to the Mary’s of the world. All that matters is Jesus.

After five years of this kind of stuff, I have come to accept that this is just how it is. Evangelicals are incapable of seeing anything outside their narrow, truncated worldview. Everything is judged according to the standard of the Bible, or should I say their own peculiar interpretation of the Bible.

Now back to the ballgame. The Reds have the bases loaded. I WILL be angry if we don’t get some runs out of this. Smile