I rarely mention how readers can financially support my work. I have a hard time asking for money. This goes back to my preaching days when I had an aversion to “begging” congregants to give money to the church. I never wanted to be a money-grubbing preacher. That said, it does cost me money to operate this site. I determined from the start that I would not beg readers for money; I would pay for running the site, and if I reached a place where I could no longer do so, I would stop blogging. Fortunately, year after year enough donations come in to pay site expenses and provide a little bit extra for me to make a payment two on my Lear Jet. 🙂
In 2024, seventeen people made monthly donations via Patreon, which is my largest source of income. Through the calendar year ending December 31, twenty people made one or more donations via PayPal. PayPal donations have decreased dramatically for some unknown reason in 2024, while Patreon remained static. I appreciate everyone who let go of a bit of their hard-earned cash to support me I never take such things for granted.
I recently had to purchase a new laptop to use for my writing. I bought a Macbook Air for $1,399. I must claim all donations as income and pay federal/state income and Social Security taxes on every donation. This drops the effective amount of donations by 20%. Purchasing the laptop will lower my taxes for this year since it is considered a business expense. Other costs are site hosting and software/plugins. I moved to a less expensive hosting provider this year. Lower costs mean more money in my pocket.
That said, I am not getting rich off of blogging. I have a pathological aversion to using advertising on this site, but I do need to think about different ways I can increase my cash flow. Polly will retire sometime in 2025. This will mean a significant drop in household income. I am hoping to find ways to make money that doesn’t require me pole dancing at the strip club. 🙂
You may financially support my work in four ways:
Make a credit card donation using Stripe to process your one-time, monthly, or yearly donation. This is a new donation function I added today.
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to a country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one’s homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, political, or historical aspects. (Wikipedia)
Generally, patriotism is the love of country. I was born in the United States of America in 1957. I am grateful to have been born in the United States. That said, I don’t think the United States is #1, the best country above all others, or a nation that is uniquely blessed by God. We have a violent, bloody history, one marked by slavery, capitalism, colonialism, and imperialism, so much so that I understand why non-Americans have less than positive thoughts about us. Worse, we have the prominent form of American patriotism that is actually jingoism:
[a form of] nationalism in the form of aggressive and proactive foreign policy, such as a country’s advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, jingoism is excessive bias in judging one’s own country as superior to others – an extreme type of nationalism.
I love going to high school football and basketball games. One thing that happens at every game no matter where I go, is that attendees are asked to stand, remove their hats if men, put their hands over their hearts, and listen to or sing the Star Spangled Banner. Due to its unsingability, few people sing our national anthem. I still try to sing it but have long since lost the range to do so.
Before the anthem is sung, the announcer reads a statement reminding people that we live in a nation with freedoms like no others, and that men and women are fighting over “there” so we have freedoms over “here.” Neither statement is true, but plays well with our jingoistic notion of country and place.
Government meetings are typically opened with the Pledge of Allegiance, a pledge of fealty to God and country. I refrain from saying the pledge due its demands that I swear allegiance to the Christian deity and the United States. This, at times, causes me problems when people notice my (supposed) lack of patriotism, but one of the freedoms each of us has is the right to dissent. My refusal to utter the Pledge of Allegiance is my private, silent way to say, “I object,” that I don’t applaud or approve of the violence and bloodshed our flag represents.
The trappings of American jingoism are everywhere to be found: flags, military flyovers, militarized pre-game festivities at sporting events, patriotic clothing, bumper stickers, yard signs, and household goods, and multiple patriotic holidays. Speaking of basketball games, every official wears a shirt with an American flag on one arm, similar to what is worn by law enforcement officers and soldiers. One local school board voted to require high school athletes to wear a flag patch on their uniforms. Why? The school superintendent said he wanted students to be reminded of the greatness of America.
With Donald Trump set to become our jingoist-in-chief on January 20, 2025, we should expect increased tribalism and white Christian nationalism. Claiming to be patriots, they are anything but. True patriots care for the common good of their fellow citizens; embracing differences of beliefs and practices. True patriots don’t threaten their neighbors in other countries with violence, war, and economic destruction. Trump’s threat to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland with military force, invade Mexico, and turn Canada into a state is so far beyond the pale that surely no right-minded American agrees with him, right? Think again. Millions of Americans agree with Trump’s expansionist ideas. The same can be said for his nationalistic economic beliefs which will likely lead to inflation and increased unemployment. Trump is willing to destroy the U.S. economy to prove a point. He is more than willing to ruin the lives of millions of people who live in the United States, all because they are “illegals.”
A patriot, I am, but I reject the patriotism being peddled by Trump, the Republican Party, the MAGAs, and, sadly, many Democrats. You will never see me show my patriotism by saying the Pledge of Allegiance, wearing a flag pin, or flying a flag on our front porch. Such things are what I call patriotic masturbation; feel good behaviors that have little to do with real patriotism. I choose to show my patriotism by loving and caring for others and working for the common good. At the political level, patriotism demands I push back against colonialism, imperialism, and military interventionism that presents the United States to the world as a violent bully who only cares about her thirst for power and world dominance. People hate America not for her greatness, but because she only cares about what advances her interests. Countries with oil, minerals, and other things that fuel our materialistic lust interest us, but emaciated people of color without food, water, housing, or medical care? Who gives a shit about them? Oh, we throw a bit of foreign aid here and there to help with these problems, but most aid goes to prop up governments and expand U.S. military presence across the globe (and the very reasons Trump wants the Panama Canal and Greenland).
I know patriotism is a touchy subject. Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Recently, Heidi left the following comment (slightly edited):
I love coming up with my own practical deconstructions, such as: Why does God care more about popular people? Every time there’s a prayer chain for someone, isn’t it just an admission that God is keeping a tally, and once the prayee is sufficiently supported by the numbers, then that person will be healed? I guess the person with few friends is out of luck where God is concerned.
For the uninitiated, a “prayer chain” is a group of Christian church members who agree to pray for a person or circumstance when the chain is activated either by the pastor or whoever is in charge of it. Typically, a church member calls the pastor with a prayer request, asking others to pray for him, or a member is made aware of a “need” someone has and passes that need along to the pastor or whoever is in charge of the prayer chain. The pastor then calls one or more people on the chain, who then call one or more people until everyone on the prayer chain knows about the need. Sometimes, one person handles the chain activation, calling everyone on the list. The goal, of course, is to get as many people as possible begging God to save/heal/deliver someone or meet some sort of need. The thinking is that the more people who bug God in prayer, the more likely it is that God will favorably grant the prayer request.
The Bible diverges in two directions when it comes to God answering prayers. On one hand, the Bible portrays God as an instantaneous prayer-answering deity. Ask and it shall be given to you, right? Most Christians learn early on that God rarely, if ever, answers prayers immediately. Believers are encouraged to have faith, pleading with God without ceasing to answer their prayers. These prayers rarely, if ever, get answered either. Christians love to trumpet to the world that their peculiar deity answers millions, billions, and gazillions of prayers every day, but when pressed for evidence for their claim, believers turn deaf and dumb.
When my partner and I deconverted seventeen years ago, one of the first things we wrestled with was our past prayers. Both of us were praying people — morning, noon, night, before meals, at church, in the car, together, and alone. I suspect between the two of us, we uttered over 100,000 prayers for ourselves and other people. Yet, when we gave an honest accounting of our prayers, we concluded that only a handful of prayers couldn’t be explained naturally. Most of our prayers went unanswered, and those we thought were answered by God were actually answered by self, family, church members, or friends. Virtually every answered prayer was of human origin. And the few that weren’t were not enough to convince us that the God of the Bible exists, that he is personally involved in our lives, and that he answers our prayers. What we were left with was a few experiences we could not explain. Live long enough and you too will have similar experiences; things you can’t explain.
Heidi raises an excellent point about prayer chains. The same can be said for corporate prayer meetings. Evangelical churches often set aside one day a week for members to gather together and corporately pray. I grew up in an era when Baptist churches typically held prayer meetings on Wednesday or Thursday evenings. Some churches take praying seriously, spending an hour or more beseeching God, while others give lip service to the notion of a prayer meeting, taking requests from the congregation and then offering a single prayer, usually given by the pastor, for the people and needs mentioned. Sadly, most church prayer meeting nights are long on gossip and short on prayer.
The thinking goes, that the more people who pray for a person or need the more likely it is that God will answer their prayers. God is waiting and willing to answer prayer, but only if enough prayers come into Prayer Central. Picture God sitting in Heaven with a scorecard, putting a “I” on the card every time a Christian prays for Sister Bertha’s gallbladder or Brother Ernie’s hemorrhoids. Once the prescribed number of “I” are marked on the scorecard, God answers the prayer in the affirmative. As Heidi notes, pity the poor person who has few friends or isn’t well known. They never get healed because they don’t have enough people praying for them.
Why does God operate this way? Why doesn’t he help and heal people the moment they ask? Why does praying seem to be an exercise in futility; a practice that may comfort people, but rarely brings healing and deliverance? As with most things, Christians only count the “hits’ when deciding whether God answers prayers, ignoring the “misses” — which are statistically far more common than affirmatively answered prayers.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
I recently watched a discussion between Alex O’Connor, an atheist, and Dr. Francis Collins, an Evangelical Christian and former Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on YouTube. You can watch the video here:
I have heard countless discussions, debates, arguments, and brawls over the existence of God. Eighteen years in, I’m no longer interested in the “God debate.” I have heard every possible defense of or “proof” for the existence of God. Many of these arguments try to establish the existence of a creator God, a generic deity of sorts that they posit is found in every culture and religion. Such discussions are largely philosophical masturbation, for which I have no interest. I will, at times, engage Evangelicals when they try to claim and prove that the generic deity I mentioned is actually the Christian God of the Bible. Such arguments miserably fail. Why? They rely on the Bible as proof for their claims. (I am using the words proof and prove in a colloquial sense. I know proof is a mathematical term, not a theological/philosophical one.) As a former pastor and theologian, I still enjoy discussing the Bible and theology, though I no longer have the stomach for WWE-style wrassling matches over minute points of dogma. That said, I have yet to have an Evangelical make a compelling argument for their peculiar God’s existence.
Even within the framework of the Bible, there are numerous gods, beginning with multiple deities in the book of Genesis to the insurmountable differences between the God of the Old Testament and the Son of God in the New Testament. There’s no such thing as a singular Christian deity. One could argue that there are more Christian gods than we can count, with each believer shaping his or her God in their own likeness. That’s why, when talking to Evangelicals about the existence of God, the first question to ask them is “How do you define God?” What are his qualities and attributes? Typically, no two Evangelicals will give you the same answer.
During O’Connor’s discussion with Dr. Collins, one idea came up several times; that the most important question any of us can ask is “Does God exist?” I suppose in atheist-Christian debating circles this might be true, but, for me personally, and I expect for many of you who read this blog, answering the question “Does God exist?” is not at the top of your list of important questions to answer. In fact, I suspect, for those of you who have always been atheists or deconverted years ago, the God question rarely crosses your mind, that is, unless a Christian zealot is in your face trying to get you to pay attention to his God and the importance of getting saved lest you die and end up in Hell.
The only time I even think about God is when I am writing an article for this site. Otherwise, God rarely crosses my mind unless I just stepped on a Lego left on the floor by one of my grandsons, leading to me uttering “God dammit” or “Jesus Christ.” I sure hope the Lord appreciates my worship. 🙂
Pondering deep philosophical questions is largely the domain of white, affluent westerners who have time and money to sit around pondering God’s existence and the meaning of life. For most people, their lives are focused on more pressing questions such as earning a living, providing for their family, renting/buying a home, putting food on the table, and making sure they have a running automobile or reliable transportation to get where they need to go. By the time working-class/middle-class people sit down at the end of the day, the last thing on their minds is the question, “Does God exist?
How about you? Is the “Does God exist?” question important to you? Or do you find such discussions boring, reminders of the endless chattering about theology during your days as a Christian? I wonder if I am alone with my indifference towards this question. I have reached a place in life where I simply no longer care. I have far more pressing issues that vex my soul, especially matters concerning my health, family, and economic well-being. Please share your pithy thoughts in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Harold Cole, Jr., pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Farwell, Michigan, stands accused of sexually molesting a boy. Trinity Baptist is an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation.
A Farwell pastor is out on bond with a tether after being charged with sexually assaulting a boy in June 2021.
Trinity Baptist Church Pastor Harold Cole Jr., 57, was arraigned Nov. 1 on second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child under 13. The church could not be reached for comment and its voicemail is not set up. Farwell is about five miles west of Clare.
….
The male victim told out-of-state authorities about the alleged assault in March. He now resides outside of Michigan. Clare County Sheriff deputies received information about the assault and began investigating.
The Sheriff’s Office said Cole Jr. is currently a pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Farwell.
Detectives conducted an investigation and obtained a warrant for his arrest. He was arraigned on a charge of CSC – second degree and released on a $20,000 bond. He is currently on GPS tether.
Second degree CSC involves sexual contact with force or coercion, or with a victim who is under 13 years of age. This crime is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Joseph Mouser, a retired Catholic priest, stands accused of two counts of first-degree sodomy of a minor victim under 12, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor victim under 12, and two counts of second-degree sodomy of a child under 14 years of age. According to news reports, Mouser is allegedly a serial child molester, with accusations dating back to the 1960s. At the time of his arrest, Mouser was in a nursing home.
A former priest with a history of sexual abuse against minors has been indicted by a Washington County grand jury for alleged events that occurred 35 years ago.
Father Joseph Irvin Mouser, 86, 515 Nerinx Road, Nerinx, was indicted on two counts of first-degree sodomy of a minor-victim under 12 (a Class A felony), two counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor-victim under 12) (a Class C felony), and two counts of second-degree sodomy of a child under 14 years of age (a Class C felony). The indictment noted that these events happened on or about March 8, 1989, through March 7, 1991, in Washington County.
“Fr. Mouser ended any ministry several decades ago and resides in a nursing home,” Brian Reynolds, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Louisville, said. “We have not heard anything about the indictment and cannot comment on this matter at this time.”
This isn’t the first time Mouser has been in trouble. The accusations against him date back to the late 1960s and early ‘70s. According to five lawsuits brought against him, Mouser abused four victims between 1968 and 1972 at St. Helen’s parish in Barren County and the fifth while he was at St. Francis of Assisi in Jefferson County in 1974. One lawsuit alleged he “forcibly sexually molested, abused, battered, and assaulted” a victim at St. Helen’s in 1968. Others allege forced oral sex, groping, and fondling, among other charges. Victims reported receiving gifts from Mouser in exchange for sexual favors.
Mouser was placed on leave in May 2002. A month later, five men filed separate civil lawsuits accusing him of abusing them as minors in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Those lawsuits were settled in 2003, and the Review Board deemed the allegations credible in June 2004. In October 2005, the Vatican ordered Mouser to “live a life of prayer and penance.” Then-Archbishop Thomas Kelly of Louisville (who died in 2011) sent Mouser to live in a private residence on the property of the Loretto Motherhouse in Nernix, where he was explicitly directed not to serve in active ministry. But at the request of the sisters, he began offering Mass to them privately, which Kelly permitted and the Holy See approved. According to a March 24, 2020, article in the National Catholic Reporter, Reynolds said “Father Mouser was never appointed as the chaplain for the Sisters of Loretto.” Despite these claims, the article continued, Loretto identified Mouser as their chaplain in newsletters and magazines, even featuring him in photos on their website and annual reports. Reynolds told the National Catholic Reporter that the archdiocese was unaware of the priest’s expanded role. Before moving permanently to the Motherhouse, Mouser was appointed as chaplain twice by the archdiocese — from May 1993 to July 1996, and July 1996 to May 2002. The NCR reported that Kelly was aware of the allegations against Mouser before the appointment in 2002, and in 1993, Kelly had received “credible proof that Mouser was an abuser.”
According to BishopAccountability.org, a group that monitors documents related to the sex abuse crisis in the church, in January 2020, Mouser was discovered “working as a chaplain for the Sisters of Loretto in KY, despite the Vatican’s directive that he no longer wear clerical garb, celebrate mass publicly, administer sacraments, or present himself publicly as a priest.” After publicity in February 2020, the website reports, the Sisters said they were going to remove him.
“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered Mouser to live a life of prayer and penance. And it’s the archdiocese’s responsibility to make sure that happens. He was not supposed to be in ministry, he was not supposed to be wearing clerical garb. So, I believe, it’s the archdiocese’s failure here,” said Terence McKiernan, co-founder of BishopAccountability.org.
Joseph Mouser, 86, was arrested by Marion County Sheriff’s Department deputies Thursday morning on charges of first- and second-degree sodomy involving a child 12 or younger and first-degree child sexual abuse for the alleged occurrences that happened between 1989 and 1993.
Archdiocese records show that Mouser, one of 48 archdiocese priests and members of religious orders credibly accused of child sexual abuse, abused four boys when he was assigned to St. Helen Catholic Church from 1968 to 1972 and a fifth when he was at St. Francis of Assisi from 1973 to 1979. He was not charged criminally.
Mouser was previously ordered by the Vatican to stop functioning as a priest and asked to live a life of “prayer and penance” by the Holy See, meaning he could no longer wear clerical garb, celebrate Mass publicly, administer the sacraments or present himself publicly as a priest.
The Courier Journal confirmed he was continuing his priestly responsibilities at the Sisters of Loretto, which is south of Bardstown in Marion County, as a chaplain after being removed from ministry by the Archdiocese in 2002.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Chelsa Kinsella, a financial administrator for Trinity Lutheran Church in Bismarck, North Dakota, stands accused of stealing money from the church.
A pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church says Chelsa Kinsella was hired in September as a financial administrator. At the time, they say she’d undergone a background check, but the pastor told police Kinsella changed the spelling of her name to prevent anyone from finding any previous charges on her record.
KX News obtained court documents that show Kinsella was fired in December, but another staff member at the church says around $38,000 was unaccounted for at the time of her departure.
The pastor and a police officer talked to Kinsella, telling her to return the money. They say she returned some of it in bank deposit bags, while an officer adds he found more money in her car and a key to the church’s safe in her home. She allegedly admitted to police that she used the church’s credit card to order goods from Amazon and Walmart.
Kinsella is now being charged with felony theft and unauthorized use of personal identifying info to obtain credit, the latter of which could result in up to 20 years in prison for the more serious charge. Her trial is scheduled to happen on April 24.
On Tuesday, KX News called and spoke to Trinity Lutheran pastor Mark Narum — who says the thefts have not impacted the church’s operations outside of creating more work for the staff.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Lindsey Whiteside, a youth pastor at Getwell Church in Hernando, Mississippi, and high school basketball coach, stands accused of having sex with a minor girl under her care.
Whiteside’s church bio states:
My deepest passion is for everyone to experience Jesus in the same way I have. Through student ministry, missions, or any other ministry, I am so thankful that the Lord has called me to Getwell Hernando where I can pursue that passion both inside and outside the walls of the church. It is an honor that the Lord calls us all to participate in His Kingdom, and I am grateful to be able to do it within and alongside the community of Hernando.
“For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:26-28
A grand jury has returned an indictment charging a former DeSoto County youth minister with having sex with a child under her guardianship.
Court documents allege Lindsey Aldy Whiteside, 26, intentionally and knowingly had sex with an underage girl between May 14 and November 6, 2024.
An indictment was returned earlier this month, charging Whiteside with one count of felony sexual battery of a minor.
Prior to the indictment, Whiteside worked at Getwell Church Hernando as a student and outreach coordinator, and also previously served as an assistant basketball coach at DeSoto Central High School.
“We can confirm that the December Grand Jury of DeSoto County has indicted Lindsey Whiteside on the charge of sexual battery of a minor child by a person of trust or authority,” DeSoto County District Attorney Matthew Barton said in a statement. “Prior to this indictment, Lindsey Whiteside served as a youth ministry leader and basketball coach—positions that carry a profound responsibility to protect and guide others.”
Whiteside served as the assistant girls’ basketball coach at DeSoto Central High until she was hired by Getwell Church Hernando in August 2022.
Church members claim she was terminated after the sexual battery allegations arose.
Getwell Church did not immediately answer Action News 5’s calls for comment.
Whiteside faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
In 2023, Francis Young, formerly a pastor at The Sanctuary Pentecostal Church (A United Pentecostal congregation) in Marble Falls, Texas was accused of sexually abusing his two grandchildren, both under the age of fourteen. His trial got underway last week.
The trial of an elderly former preacher from a Marble Falls church started this week in 424th Judicial District Court.
Francis Young is on trial for alleged sex abuse of two children that reportedly began May 2023. The trial began Jan. 6 before a 12-member jury evenly divided between men and women.
Assistant District Attorney for the 33rd Judicial District, Carson Walker, is leading the prosecution. Local attorney Austin Shell is defending Young.
During his opening statement Jan. 6, Shell declared, in the absence of their parents, the 76-year-old Young was taking care of two of his grandchildren, one boy, one girl, both under 14.
Shell explained, Young realized both children apparently suffered from bladder difficulties, which made them prone to bed-wetting and urinary tract infections.
“He would clean them up,” Shell said. “He did things a grandfather should and would do.”
During subsequent months, several professional health care providers examined both children, the attorney added.
“Not one of them said anything about sexual assault,” Shell said. “There was not a boo-boo, a scratch of anything to indicate touching in any sexual way at all. Zero. This (trial) makes no sense to me. And, I am going to ask you (jury members) to send him (Young) home.”
However, during prior testimony removed from jury presence, the mother of both children recalled both children told her Young had “touched them in a bad way down there.”
“It happened a lot,” the mother said.
According to reports, Young was a preacher in Marble Falls at The Sanctuary Pentecostal Church until December 2022. The church confirmed he was a member but not in a leadership role at the time of his indictment in 2023.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
I started blogging in 2007, a year or so before I deconverted. From 2007 to today, I have received thousands of emails, comments, and social media messages from Evangelical Christians. Many of these believers think that God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, lives inside of them as their teacher and guide; that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God; that every word in the Bible is true, straight from the mouth of God; and that God either gives them messages to send me by whispering to them in a still, small voice only they can hear and having them put those messages in an email, or by directing them to certain Bible verses to send me that will bring conviction and repentance in my life if I dare but read and accept them.
As of 9:29 pm, on January 8, 2025, every Evangelical Christian who has deigned to send me a message straight from the triune God of the Bible has miserably failed. Every last one of them. Is it that I am so hardened to sin and the gospel that I am unreachable? Or is the real issue I know the Bible better than most of the Evangelicals who contact me; that their messages from God or quotes from the Bible are unpersuasive when measured by skeptical, rational, evidentiary standards?
Most Evangelicals are presuppositionalists (and all of us are to some degree or the other), presupposing without evidence that the Christian God is the one and only true God; that the Bible is the very Words of God. Evangelicals expect atheists and other unbelievers to accept these claims as true without evidence, and if we don’t, we are deliberately suppressing what we know to be true. If you have ever engaged an Evangelical presuppositionalist in a debate, you know it is impossible to have a meaningful discussion with him as long as he holds on to these unsupported beliefs. These are faith claims, and as such beyond rational debate.
You cannot prove the Bible by the Bible. That’s called circular reasoning. The Bible is a book of claims, not a compendium of evidence. When Evangelicals make claims from the Bible, I ask them for non-Biblical evidence for their claims. Just because the Bible says __________________ doesn’t mean it is true. To an atheist, the Bible is just printed words on pages. When the Bible makes a claim, the atheist is justified in asking for evidence to prove the claim. Ken Ham can say the Bible says the universe was created in six literal twenty-four-hour days, 6,027 years ago; that Adam and Eve were the first humans; that God destroyed almost every living thing on the earth with a flood a few thousand years ago; that human language variation began at the Tower of Babel, but these claims are meaningless to me apart from evidence outside of the Bible. Simply put, the Bible is a book of words, no different from countless other books I can buy from Amazon or other booksellers. When you say to me, Bruce, the BIBLE says ____________, my first response is this: “And I should care, why? “
To those God has given a message via Holy Spook ESP®, I ask you: How do you know the voice in your head is God’s? How do you know the message is from God and not the personal thoughts you want to share with me? How do you distinguish between God’s voice and yours? What empirical evidence can you provide for your claim that your message for me is a supernatural communiqué from the God of the Bible? Do you really expect me to believe you just because you SAY your message is from your peculiar deity?
I am an agnostic atheist. I am not an anti-theist. I can be convinced of a God’s existence if sufficient evidence is provided. My “heart” is open to truth, and since God knows where I live, he can cut out the middlemen and talk to me directly. Is this too much to ask for?
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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David Malllinak is the pastor of Berean Baptist Church — an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation in Ogden, Utah. Several years ago, Mallinak wrote a post titled Why It Stinks to be An Atheist. As is common in such articles written by Evangelical preachers, Mallinak writes about an atheism that does not exist. He claims to have heard all the atheist arguments, yet he dismisses them out of hand.
Mallinak begins by saying:
If, as the atheist claims, all the world is a product of impersonal forces – the collision of matter and energy – or perhaps, lightning striking mud, then what we really have going on is this gigantic chemical reaction which members of the press somberly describe as “breaking news.” Sometimes the chemicals fizz; sometimes they pop; sometimes they experience diaphragm spasms; sometimes they debate. But the chemical activity from one beaker to the next really doesn’t matter because it isn’t really anything anyway. Some brains spark rationally, and some quite irrationally, and that is what chemicals do given certain temperatures and atmospheric pressures.
Atheism is the absence of belief in the existence of gods. That’s it. Any other belief added to this statement is beyond the scope of atheism proper. While most atheists accept evolution as the best explanation for our biological world and accept scientific consensus for the age of the earth and the universe, not all atheists do. Many atheists are indifferent about matters of science. I, for one, have little interest in discussions about the beginning of the universe. I am far more concerned about the here and now than what took place billions of years ago,
Mallinak would have us believe, based on his ignorant understanding of human minds, that atheists believe rationality and irrationality are based solely on chemical processes. While the brain sending and receiving chemical/electrical signals throughout our bodies controls all sorts of physical processes, including thinking, we must not ignore how external influences, education, experiences, and traumas affect our thinking too. Rationality and irrationality are affected by both nature and nurture.
Mallinak goes on to say that because atheists believe in a world of impersonal causes our lives lack wit, will, wisdom, personality, design, intention, or purpose:
Ideas have consequences. The atheist imagines a world without God – a world of impersonal causes. In the ultimate order of things, there can be no wit, no will, no wisdom, no personality, no design, no intention, no purpose. Thus, Christian apologists have pointed out that nihilism is the only consistent atheism.
While this may be true on a cosmic level, it is certainly not true as we live our day-to-day lives as godless heathens. Sure, some atheists are nihilists, but most are not. The reason for this, of course, is that most atheists are humanists. It is secular humanism that provides many atheists with an ethical and moral foundation by which to live their lives. (Mallinak writes as if he’s never heard of secular humanism.) Humanism gives them meaning, purpose, and direction. Want to call humanism a religion? Fine, I don’t care. To suggest that atheists don’t have wit, will, wisdom, personality, design, intention, or purpose is absurd, nothing more than an attempt to paint atheists in a bad light. Humanism provides a comprehensive challenge to Mallinek’s Fundamentalist worldview. And the good news for humanists is that we are free to draw from all sorts of worldviews as we build a moral and ethical framework for our lives, including Christianity. I have no problem admitting that my worldview is deeply affected by the fifty years I spent in Christianity — for good or ill. I embrace the good things I learned from Christianity while rejecting those beliefs and teachings that cause harm. I view the Bible as a book of wisdom and spiritual teachings, just as I do other religious texts.
Mallinak believes that atheists live in denial of the logical conclusions of their beliefs; those beliefs, of course, as defined by a right-wing preacher:
If we could get our atheist friends to be honest with their own worldview and to follow their premises to their logical conclusions, this is what we would get. And that’s why it stinks to be an atheist. Because once in a while, as someone else has pointed out, the atheist looks around him at all the beauty and all the splendor and all the delights of this world, and feels a strange and alien sensation creep into his heart that for a moment makes him want to contradict his own premises and feel what the Christians describe as “gratitude.” But in that moment of insanity, he stumbles over two roadblocks. First, his atheism leaves him with no way of accounting for the sensation of gratitude, aside from an exalted notion that his feelings are actually things and that they mean something. How irrational in a world of impersonal cause! And then, if those irrational sensations persist, he looks around for someone to thank and finds nobody.
Mallinak lives in a religious bubble that requires a God for goodness to exist; for beauty to exist; and for gratitude to exist. Lacking imagination, Mallinak cannot fathom a world without his peculiar version of God, one shaped by his idiosyncratic interpretations of the sixty-six books of the King James Bible. Mallinak alleges that he has talked to atheists; that he has atheist friends. I question how many intimate atheist friends he might have. IFB preachers have little room in their lives for people who disagree with them; especially people who consider their beliefs and practices harmful, both psychologically and physically.
I have been an outspoken atheist for almost seventeen years. I have answered allegations such as Mallinak’s many times. On the About page for this site you will find the following advice I give to readers:
You have one life. There is no heaven or hell. There is no afterlife. You have one life, it’s yours, and what you do with it is what matters most. Love and forgive those who matter to you and ignore those who add nothing to your life. Life is too short to spend time trying to make nice with those who will never make nice with you. Determine who are the people in your life that matter and give your time and devotion to them. Live each and every day to its fullest. You never know when death might come calling. Don’t waste time trying to be a jack of all trades, master of none. Find one or two things you like to do and do them well. Too many people spend way too much time doing things they will never be good at.
Here’s the conclusion of the matter. It’s your life and you best get to living it. Someday, sooner than you think, it will be over. Don’t let your dying days be ones of regret over what might have been.
I try to live by these principles every day. As far as gratitude is concerned, I give thanks/praise/credit to those to whom it is due. When my partner of forty-six years cooks an awesome meal, I don’t praise a dead Jew who lies buried somewhere outside of Jerusalem. I praise the person who prepared, cooked, and served the meal. When someone does something for me, I thank them. I focus my gratitude on those who matter, and not a deity who is nowhere to be found. And wonder? I am filled with wonder everytime I see my six children and their partners, and my sixteen grandchildren. What a blessing to have a wonderful family. I have a sense of wonder when I watch our four cats run and play with nary a thought of what is happening outside. We are blessed to have lots of wildlife frequent our yard; birds, squirrels, possums, raccoons, skunks, and deer. We also have numerous feral/stray cats that come to our home for food, water, and housing. I marvel at their abilities to survive both the cruelty of their former owners, but also nature itself. Finally, when I look at the night sky I am filled with wonder, grateful that I have been given this moment in time by my ancestors to experience life to its fullest. Yes, I live with a plethora of health problems and battle unrelenting, pervasive pain every waking moment of my life, but on balance, I am grateful to be alive.
Mallinak will reject the locus of my gratitude, but that’s his problem, not mine. He needs a God, a church, and a Bible for his life to have meaning. Having been indoctrinated and conditioned to have a Christ/God-centric life, he likely cannot fathom how an atheist can have a happy, satisfying life.
Mallinak writes:
I would rather worship the Triune God in all His glory and majesty and infinite, loving power and goodness, even if He was make-believe. Yes, I prefer an imaginary God to “the unyielding despair” required by the premises of atheism.
…
But of course, the Triune God is no more make-believe than the sun in the sky. Man could not invent such a God any more than a man could invent himself. If the Triune God Who has revealed Himself in Scripture doesn’t exist, then we cannot explain the world we live in. Morality goes away. Beauty is meaningless. Reason dies. All is meaningless, purposeless. It stinks to be an atheist.
Mallinak would rather believe in a mythical God than accept the world as it is. His ignorant view of atheism has allowed him to construct an atheist straw man, one which he burns to the ground, all the while surrounded by atheists who wonder what the crazy preacher is burning. Much like the deity he worships, Mallinak is torching a myth, Instead of allowing atheists to define themselves, Mallinak insists that he knows non-believers better than they know themselves. How could it be otherwise? He believes God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, lives inside of him, teaching and guiding him through life. He believes this same Spirit talks to him, both personally and through the pages of the Bible. He is certain that his interpretations of the Bible are right, and that his understanding of the Scriptures perfectly aligns with the mind of God. This kind of thinking breeds certainty and arrogance, so it is not surprising that Mallinak thinks he knows how atheists think and what they believe. (Yet, I suspect it upsets him when atheists ignorantly pontificate on what Christians believe without knowildedge and understanding of the religions and its teachings>)
Mallinak concludes his screed with his version of Pascal’s Wager:
Let me invite you to a thought experiment for a moment. Think of this as a spin on Paschal’s wager. If atheism is right, it doesn’t matter whether I believe in God or not. We all die like dogs, and then the skin worms get down to business. But if Christianity is right, we can make sense of the world. If God created the world, then that explains everything – reason, morality, goodness, truth, ice cream flavors, heat and cold, dreams and ideals and disappointments and satisfaction – it all makes sense. If God made the world, then we can justify our innate desires for the good of humanity.
Sigh, right? (Please see Why I Use the Word “Sigh.”) Mallinak’s wager is built upon the foundation of a false definition of atheism and a lack of understanding the humanistic principles by which most atheists live their lives. No matter how much Mallinak protests, atheists and humanists can explain “reason, morality, goodness, truth, ice cream flavors, heat and cold, dreams and ideals and disappointments and satisfaction.” It all makes sense to atheists, without deities and religion getting in the way.
Life is good. May Loki be praised! 🙂
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
