Published on August 17, 2000. At the time, I was pastor of Our Father’s House in West Unity, Ohio.
It is time that we make some radical changes to our printed money and the pledge of the Allegiance. Both our printed money and the Pledge of Allegiance give testimony to the historical truth that the United States was a country that believed in God. Not just any God, but Jehovah God, the God of the Christian Bible.
Sadly, we as a nation no longer believe in Jehovah. Due to misguided thinking about pluralism and tolerance we have become a nation of many gods. Those that dare assert that we were founded as a Christian nation (and a Protestant Christian nation at that) are labeled narrow minded, bigoted, intolerant, miscreants.
The God attested to on our printed money and in the Pledge of Allegiance is no longer allowed to be mentioned in our Country. Recently,a young girl wanted to sing the song Kumbya at a camp talent show. She was not permitted to sing this song because it mentioned the word Lord. Government schools have eradicated every vestige of God from the classroom. The very schools that were founded on Christian principles (Just look at a set of McGuffey Readers) have not only left that foundation, but try and insist such a foundation never existed. School officials are so afraid of God (or is it the god called the ACLU) that children no longer have Easter break. Instead they have spring break. Children are given two weeks off at Christmas, yet they are never told what Christmas is. Attend the average government school Christmas program and you will come away with the conclusion that Christmas is all about snow, Rudolph, Frosty, et al. Pages could be written on the deliberate banishment of Jehovah from every aspect of public life.
What are the reasons for this happening? They are several. First, there is the mythical, so called “separation of Church and State.”The separation clause is routinely quoted by government and school officials when they want to dismiss the religious requests and activities of others. Truth is, what is really happening is that Jehovah is the only God not welcome. All other gods are quite welcome.The god of humanism is quite welcome.The new age god is welcome.This past school year, in a Williams County elementary class room, a teacher took class time to teach the children about serial killers.Our children can be taught about such perverse things but they can not be taught the solution to serial killing? (faith in God) Schools try and enforce a moral and ethical code yet they fail. Why? You cannot have morals and ethics without a religious foundation. Morals and ethics demand an answer to the question “WHY is this wrong?”
Why is it wrong to have sex before marriage? Why is it wrong to steal? Without God and His standard, the Ten Commandments, we have no foundation for morality and ethics.
Another reason. is the myth called toleration. Liberals and conservatives alike bandy about the thought of toleration. The foundation of toleration is that all truth is equal and that all viewpoints are valid.Our country has become one big comparative religion class. Truth is, there is no such thing as true toleration, nor can there be. Christians believe the Bible to be their standard of morality and ethics. They believe the Bible to be, not just one truth among many, but THE TRUTH! Christians are called on to love what God loves and hate what God hates. Yes, we are a narrow, intolerant bunch because we dare suggest there is but one God, one way to heaven. We dare suggest there is but one moral and ethical code, the Bible. We dismiss arguments couched in words “well that’s your opinion“ and we reply by saying “Thus saith the Lord.” Matters such as adultery, fornication,homosexuality, drunkenness, abortion etc. are not matters for political debate. The Bible is clear on such matters.
lt is amazing how we have redefined that which God calls sin.Homosexuality is called an alternative lifestyle. Drunkenness is called a disease. The adulterous partner is now called the significant other. On and on and on it goes. God said “Be not deceived. for whatever a man sows that he will also reap.” We are reaping our harvest in America. The foundations are crumbling. Is anyone paying attention?
It’s time we either admit that Jehovah is dead and remove His name from our money and the pledge of allegiance. or perhaps it is time we reassert the kingdom rights of the true and living God. God’s people need to stand up and be counted. Not in Marches for Jesus, but in the workplace, the school. the government and in every public arena of life. We need to sound forth that name which is above every
name. That name, and only that name, by which men shall be saved.
*this editorial might shed some light on why local Christians don’t know what to do with my defection from Christianity. I was a leader, a spokesman for the faithful. I wrote what they wished they could say. And now? An atheist? How can such things be?
Woww. Well, we all know you weren’t a “real” Christian. This editorial must’ve been written as a part of your conspiracy to discredit Christanity & all Christians.
Amazing how you deceived so many people for so long! Lol!
Yes, I sure sounded like a false Christian didn’t I?
Now THAT’s good sarcasm!!!
Bruce,
I haven’t been reading your blog for very long, but all I can say to this is . . . . . . WOW! I don’t know what happened to you, but rest assured that I will pray for you that you return to your faith. I know that God still loves you and he wants you back. The “parable of the prodigal son” (I prefer the story of the forgiving father) comes to mind. I do know that THE FATHER would love to see you come down that road someday, back home. God bless!
In order to pray for Bruce more effectively, I highly recommend reading through his excellent articles. Anything less makes a profession of “I will pray for you” rather shallow and meaningless.
You mean they should try to get to know me and where I came from first?
Marty,
Start here… http://brucegerencser.net/series/my-journey-eternity-here/
Bruce,
I read what you cited for me and I appreciate you bringing it to my attention. It explained some to me, but not all. It seems that you must have been hurt by someone who calls himself a Christian or a Baptist, and you think that God has hurt you in some way. I have encountered some people who are very hurtful to God’s Men, but they are not of God, they are of Satan. It is common for a lot of people to blame God for someone who goes by his name, but I know that God has never hurt anyone and I think that you know that. I am sure that you could go back in your mind and find that you preached that sometime in the past to your people and that, deep down, you know what is right. I can’t teach you anything, because you know the truth deeo down. I know that you don’t want it, but I am praying for you. Take care.
Marty,
Suppose I said to you, Marty you are not a Christian. You know deep in your heart that you are really a worshipper of Satan. After all, before you were a Christian you were are a child of Satan. Marty, I know, you know, that I am right.
Offensive, yes? Offensive because I do not accept at face value what you say about yourself?
This is EXACTLY what you are doing here to me.
No one hurt me. Why can’t you accept this? Is it beyond your ability to understand that a person can be a Christian and then not be a Christian? Do you find my apostasy troubling and it makes you wonder if I can fall-away perhaps anyone can, maybe even yourself?
If the Bible is the written revelation of God (and you think it is) then God has indeed hurt millions of people. Read the book. Now if you believe as I do that the Bible is a mythical book, akin to Grimm’s Fairy Tales, then God didn’t “actually” hurt anyone.
Why would I think a mythical being “hurt” me? That is like me saying, Superman hurt me. I suppose if I was 4 years old like my grandson…perhaps. But, I am 55 years old and mythical beings have no power to hurt or help me.
Now, if you ask me..have I been hurt by friends and family after my deconversion? Absolutely. When I said, I am no longer a Christian, I lost every friend I had but 2. Of course this showed me that all my friendships were contingent on me believing certain things. The things that have been said about me by friends and family is hurtful. Little do they realize that their hatefulness towards me (and my family) only reinforces my belief that Christianity is a bankrupt religion.
I am not a Christian, Marty, because I don’t believe the Bible is truth. I believe the Bible is an errant book riddled with errors and contradictions. (read Bart Ehrman) I believe the Bible is a book written by men and that God had nothing to do with it. While I believe that a man name Jesus actually existed, I do not believe that Jesus was God and I believe he got executed and is buried somewhere on a Judean hillside. I reject the virgin birth, the atoning death of Christ, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension back to heaven. THESE are the reasons I am no longer a Christian.
Marty, I am going to kill the neighbors cat tonight and burn its body on the altar of my God Buckykattius. I am doing this in your name in the hope that you will become a member of the Church of Buckykattius. Are you OK with this? Suppose you asked me NOT to do this out of respect for you and your belief in the Christian God. If I went ahead and did it anyway… would you be offended?
So it is with your “praying for me.” You know I don’t like it…and yet you do it anyway. I assume you do not respect me? You might say, I have a Christian obligation to pray for you. That’s fine but where are we commanded to tell the people we are praying for, “I am praying for you?”
So go ahead and pray away…but I am not interested in hearing about it. Talk to your God. He knows where I am and since no one can be saved unless God draws him and gives him spiritual life…well…here I am God…save away.
I hope you will think carefully about what I have written here.
Bruce
Bruce, first of all, I did not mean to offend you by saying that I will pray for you. I won’t say that anymore in our conversations. And, no, I am not offended by you saying that you don’t want me to tell you that.
However, I have been a Christian for a long time (I am 54) and have read all of the arguments AGAINST the existence of God. And, they have not swayed me one little bit. Sure, I have questions about “why” this happens and “why” the other happens, but I accept God by faith.
Bruce, there was obviously a time when you did accept God and Jesus was your Savior. As a Baptist, you believed in the doctrine “the eternal security of the believer”. I am hoping that for you. If you were saved at one time in your life, even if you reject it now, “God is faithful” and Ill meet you in Heaven one day. Thanks for the discussion.
BTW, you said that, when you left the faith, you lost every friend you had but 2, I agree how hurtful that must have been. They were wrong in doing that. Even though we have never met face to face, I will be your friend if you will let me. If you ever come down to Mobile, Alabama, let me know and I’ll be happy to meet with you for a cup of coffee or lunch. I promise I won’t “preach” to you or even try to pray for you in your presence. You seem to be a good man and a desire to help people. I try to do that as well. I have several friends that are not Christians. I umpired baseball for 27 years and know a lot of guys who are good men, but not Christians. They will tell you that, Marty McCoy (that’s my full name) is a good and loyal friend.
Well, it’s time for me to get ready for church! You take care and have a good day!
Since I don’t normally read this kind of stuff, it’s actually quite informative for me, Bruce, to see the interpretations of modern life taken by fundamentalists. What a denial of beautiful and mortal life, what a loss, what a hole to pour one’s life into.
It’s quite fascinating too how uninteresting and uncreative your writing is in this phase of your life, just parroting a lot of fundy platitudes. There is no Bruce here, just a nameless exponent of the nightmare death-in-life ghost God. Now you write from your own mortal heart and the difference is profound. Pardon the irony, but you seem finally born into the beauty and tragedy of life. I can’t imagine that Polly doesn’t see this as a vast improvement in the soul of the man.
An interpretive thought:
Doesn’t Galatians 3:28 (and many other verses) deny the whole idea of a “Christian nation”?
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And all of the gendered asymmetries of power, sexual orientation, etc.? Of course, this is the text that can say about anything one desires it to.
To all who suffer this kind of bondage, I dedicate this song:
Let us live our lives to the lees.
Rand,
Yes, Polly prefers this Bruce.
When you are in the bubble it all makes sense. I was sincere. I thought of myself as a counter-cultural, true-blue, preacher of the gospel. Like Elijah, I thought of myself as a rarity, a sold-out, committed, all for Jesus, prophet of God. I had little tolerance for people who “played” at Christianity. Even now, I have little use for cultural Christianity. If a person is going to say, I am a Christian, then they should truly embrace their faith and be serious about it.
Bruce
Wow Bruce, you really were one of “them”, weren’t you? I must say I much prefer the Bruce I’ve come to know from The Way Forward and your previous blog (still love that tag line, From Eternity to Here). The difference is amazing. Almost as if that Bruce was asleep and this Bruce is awake.
Thanks, Len.
Marty, you really need to go back and read Bruce’s older posts so that you can understand that he is never coming back to your imaginary friend.
It is so inspiring to know that people can change at any point in their life. I notice people in their twenties are some of the most inflexible people I’ve ever met. I like myself much more at 40 than I did when I was 25. I’m less dogmatic, I take my existence much less seriously, I don’t hold on to anger so much. I hope when I’m 60 I’ll like myself (and other people) even more than I do now.
Losing my faith has been a big factor, but having had a faith has helped my perspective as well, I can say that I know mostly everything there is to know about what it is like to be a believer, which is a handy thing to know. You kind of have to actually have lived it in order to know it.
Like you, age has tempered me. When I was a young married man everything mattered. These days my list of things that matter is much smaller.
It took a loss of faith to being me to this place…I don’t think I ever could have thought this way as long as I was in the Christian church. Too many walls and controls.
We are like the proverbial horse in the barn. Once the barn door is open and we are free, it is unlikely that we will ever be back. Once free, who wants bondage again?
I think this metaphor of loss as it relates to casting off old religions is wrong (“LOSING my faith”). What happens is that you FIND reality, you FIND your mortal self. Just here in the world. I mean, really, what can be more beautiful than to realize the truth? You’re here and this is it and it’s just unspeakably amazing. Nothing is lost in such an endeavor, all is gained. You gain your life, it’s no longer a fantasy. Religion is largely an impediment to life, at least when it’s about a text about a list of do’s and don’ts based on millennia-old visions of reality. Hey, God was the Higgs boson when chariots of iron represented kick-ass technology.
I can’t speak for you, Chikirin, but I can tell you that at 60 I am very at peace with life. Part of the reason for that is people like Bruce, who so eloquently share their lives. May we all.