Here’s what I want to know: why can’t Evangelicals turn water into wine, raise the dead, or heal through sick? The miracle-working Jesus allegedly did all of these things and more. Surely, people saved, filled with the Holy Ghost, and owners of leather-bound Bibles they rarely, if ever, read, should be able to do the same miracles Jesus did.
Did not Jesus say to his disciples:
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12 NRSV)
Was Jesus lying? Name one place where we see Jesus’ followers doing greater works than he did? If Evangelicals are commanded to walk in the steps of Jesus, you would think they would work a few miracles, now and again. Instead, Evangelicals are busy waging war against anyone who disagrees with them.
Of course, just because words in the Bible are red doesn’t mean Jesus said them. All we have is what an unknown author, sixty to eighty years after the death of Jesus, says Christ said. And since it is clear that Evangelicals don’t have supernatural powers, we can either conclude that Jesus lied or Evangelicals are not real Christians.
What say ye?
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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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Supposedly, Evangelicals believe in salvation by grace, not by works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8,9). For those of us who spent years in Evangelical churches, we heard preachers say that we are saved by grace apart from the works of the law. Of course, these same preachers quote Old Testament verses, when needed, to justify their claims — i.e. tithing.
Recently, world-renowned theologian Dr. David Tee, whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen, wrote:
Circumcision was instituted by God, and that makes it a right and healthy act to do. When one circumcises their male child, they are acting in obedience to God’s instructions and not mutilating the body.
Thiessen claims Christians are commanded by God to circumcise their male children; that in doing so, they are being obedient to God.
If circumcision is commanded by God, we can conclude that it is a sin not to circumcise your male children, right?
Just another day in the wacky theology of Dr. David Tee. I have long believed that Theissen has a warped understanding of the Christian gospel. This is yet another example of this.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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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U.S.Attorney General Pam Bondi recently released a statement saying that the man in the following picture with Donald Trump is none other than former President Barack Obama. When questioned about the photo, Bondi said that it is the Trump Administration’s policy to blame everything on Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and the Democrats. When asked about the missing Epstein Client List, Bondi told reporters that Biden and Obama broke into her office in the dead of night and stole the list. When asked by MSNBC for evidence for her claim, Bondi replied, FAKE NEWS!
This is satire for Republicans too stupid to know the difference between fact and fiction.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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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Warning! Evangelicals who have never had sex with the lights on or in anything other than the missionary position might find this post offensive. The rest of us? Snicker away!
Last night, I listened to a YouTube channel called the Deconstruction Zone. Its host is a college-trained former Evangelical preacher named Justin Holmes. I love Justin’s approach when challenging Evangelical dogma and presuppositions. He regularly “cooks” Evangelicals in their own juices. 🙂
Justin has a wonderful, snarky sense of humor, which is shown below.
Snarky Atheist named Justin: No, but I’ve heard of cunnilingus.
Bruce rolls on the floor laughing.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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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Benjamin Netanyahu nominating Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize is akin to nominating OJ Simpson for husband of the year. (From The Daily Show)
The Jeffrey Epstein client list doesn’t exist says Attorney Pam Bondi, after telling the American people it was sitting on her desk to be reviewed. Shock! Another Trump cabinet official lies to the American people.
Congress needs to criminalize law enforcement wearing masks in an attempt to evade identification and accountability. If I have to show law enforcement identification, they should, at the very least: give their name and department and reason for stopping or arresting someone.
The Trump Administration put on a show of force at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. The park was flooded with law enforcement, soldiers, and military vehicles, scaring the bejesus out of innocent park users. Just what Trump wants — fear.
Alligator Alcatraz is testimony to the brutality of the Trump Administration’s war against undocumented workers.
Scores of devout Christian Texans were swept away and drowned in recent flash floods. A tragedy of the first degree, but I can’t help but wonder where God was as his followers were drowning.
I hope Musk follows through on his political threats. Nothing better than a junior high lunch room food fight to distract the MAGA crowd.
Did you notice that many of the tax cuts passed by Republicans don’t take effect until after the 2026 midterm election? Cowards.
Trump does something right . . . Airline passengers no longer have to remove their shoes during TSA screening.
Listening to a non-parent Evangelical justify beating children if they disobey. Here’s hoping he never has children.
Bonus: The IRS ended prohibitions on churches endorsing candidates. Good riddance! Now it is time to start taxing churches and end tax benefits that only apply to ministers.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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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Donald Trump is currently waging a proxy war against Russia, funding Israel’s genocidal war against Palestine, and recently bombed Iran, along with off-book military operations conducted by the U.S. military, CIA, and NSA throughout the world. Explain, then, how anyone thinks the Toddler King deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump is a violent man, a bully. There’s nothing in his behavior or polices that remotely suggests that Trump is a man of peace. He’s not, and anyone who suggests otherwise ain’t paying attention.
Maybe the real issue is one of envy. Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize. Why shouldn’t Trump receive the same? Let me be clear, Obama did nothing to deserve the award, and Trump has done even less. Neither man is what I would call a peacemaker. I’m convinced that Trump is primarily driven by lust, envy, greed, and jealousy. He’s determined to be the “bestest president who has ever lived,” even though his political track record suggests he will go down in history as the worst president ever.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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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Senator Lisa Murkowski has long been a pain in the ass for Democrats. Murkowski will support a Democratic cause now again, but she is best known for feigning concern over this or that Republican bill, only to step in line when it comes time to vote. Murkowski, along with feckless compatriot Susan Collins, continue to “fuck over the American people.”
Recently, local attorney Donald Mitchell set the record straight on Murkowski in an opinion piece for the Anchorage Daily News.
Here’s what he had to say:
Over the past forty years, the Alaska Republican Party has morphed from the party of Jay Hammond and Ted Stevens into the party of Donald Trump and Mike Dunleavy. Watching that happen, Alaskans who are not members of a political party and who collectively are more than half the electorate, and many Democrats, have taken solace in the fact that in 2002 in one of the most brazen acts of nepotism in American political history Frank Murkowski appointed his daughter to his seat in the United States Senate.
Had there been a special election to fill the seat, Lisa Murkowski would have been the last person Alaska Republicans would have elected. But everyone who knows her, including me, will vouch that Lisa is a decent, courteous, kind, and thoughtful woman who has seemingly grown into the job.
But since 2002, Lisa has won four elections only because having no discernible, consistent political ideology enabled her to be all things to all Alaskans, particularly independent and Democratic voters who in three of those four elections saved her from her own party.
In 2004 Lisa won the Republican primary election because Ted Stevens cleared the way for her, she raised $3.5 million mostly from Outside political action committees, and the Alaska Republican Party allowed independent voters to vote in its primary election, most of whom, according to pollster Ivan Moore, preferred Lisa to Mike Miller, a right-of-conservative former legislator who was her principal opponent.
In 2010, Ted Stevens was gone and the Alaska Republican Party no longer allowed independents to vote in its primary election. As a consequence, Lisa lost fair and square to Joe Miller, for whom Sarah Palin, who has no use for father and daughter Murkowski, campaigned and for whom Sarah arranged for the Tea Party Express political action committee to spend $600,000 to get out the vote for Miller. But after reneging on her promise to abide by the results of the primary election, Lisa won the general election because independents and Democrats wrote in her name on the general election ballot.
After being reelected in 2016 by only a plurality in an election in which the Alaska Republican and Democratic Parties did not run serious candidates against her, in 2022 the jig finally should have been up. But two years earlier, Scott Kendall, who in 2016 had been Lisa’s senior campaign aide, orchestrated the passage of an initiative that brought the ranked choice voting system to Alaska.
In “Far From Home,” her hagiographic as-told-to autobiography, Lisa says she told Kendall she thought ranked choice voting was a bad idea, but she then “didn’t have any further involvement,” and “my team insulated me from the issue to avoid the appearance that the initiative was intended mainly for my benefit.” That spin stretches credulity past breaking. But even if true, Lisa was the beneficiary because in 2024, ranked choice voting allowed her to avoid having to compete against Donald Trump and Mike Dunleavy’s handpicked candidate, Kelly Tshibaka, in a Republican primary election she would have lost. Instead, she was elected to a fourth term by the independent and Democratic voters who had been her base since the beginning of the political career her father arranged for her.
But in the predawn hours of July 2 in one deplorable act of political pusillanimity, Lisa shattered her relationship with the independent and Democratic voters who had three times saved her. After the usual performative handwringing and dithering that Alaskans have come to expect, she provided the last vote Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune needed to pass H.R. 1, Donald Trump’s Big Ugly Bill.
The bill contains tax cuts mostly for corporations and the wealthiest Americans that, over ten years, will add $3.3 trillion to the $36 trillion federal debt. And the red ink would be worse if the bill did not eviscerate the safety net that keeps millions of Americans healthy and food secure. Here is what Maine Independent Sen. Angus King told Lisa and her colleagues before she cast her vote:
“Imagine a bunch of guys sitting around a table saying, ‘I’ve got a great idea. Let’s give $32,000 worth of tax breaks to a millionaire and we’ll pay for it by taking health insurance away from lower-income and middle-income people. And to top it off, how about we cut food stamps, we cut SNAP, we cut food aid to people?’ I’ve been in this business of public policy for twenty years, eight years as governor, twelve years in the United States Senate. I have never seen a bill this bad. I have never seen a bill that is this irresponsible, regressive, and downright cruel.”
After she cast the deciding vote, Lisa had the chutzpah to try and garner sympathy by telling the press how “agonizing” her decision to provide that vote had been. She also told NBC News reporter Ryan Noble that she knew when she cast it that “there are Americans who are not going to be advantaged by this bill.” Twelve million adults and disabled children who lose their health insurance, and the millions more who will become food insecure will be merely “not advantaged”? Lisa Murkowski, do you actually believe that?
On this site, Scott Kendall, ever the loyal sycophant, recently argued that Lisa made the best of a bad hand by selling her vote in exchange for the benefits she extorted for Alaska because if she had not done so Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul would have given Senate Majority Leader Thune the last vote he needed to pass H.R. 1 and Alaska would have gotten nothing.
There is a difference between spin and purposeful disingenuity that Kendall’s defense of the indefensible illustrates. Because he knows as well as I do that Sen. Paul would not have provided the last vote except in exchange for massive reductions in federal spending to which Donald Trump would never have agreed.
In 2017, Arizona Sen. John McCain solidified his reputation as a patriot who put what was best for the American people above partisan politics by turning his thumb down and refusing to provide the last vote Donald Trump needed to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Lisa had an opportunity to join Senator McCain as a solon whose service to the nation will be remembered and admired by future generations. Instead, when political courage counted, she turned out to be just another go-along-to-get-along fiscally irresponsible Republican hack. Speaking only for myself, that failure of moral rectitude will be remembered.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Evangelical apologists are known for their hatred of LGBTQ people — especially transgender folks. Evangelicals argue that there are only two sexes and two genders, so gender reassignment surgery is morally wrong. Many apologists claim that top and bottom surgery are genital mutilation. Surely we can’t allow people to mutilate themselves, Evangelicals say. Yet, Evangelicals practice genital mutilation themselves. How many Evangelical women have had breast augmentation surgery? How many Evangelical men use Viagra or mechanical means such as a penis pump to get an erection? Worse, how many millions of Evangelical males have been circumcised? If it is a sin for transgender people to “mutilate’ their bodies, then it’s a sin for Evangelical women to have breast/butt implants and males to be circumcised. Disagree? Explain the difference between permanently cutting the end of your foreskin off and gender reassignment surgery. Both change the physical nature of the person.
What say ye, readers?
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
Our Toddler King (Donald Trump) and his playdate friend (Elon Musk) are spatting again over Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill — which financially harms the working class and poor, throws millions of people off of Medicaid, and reduces or cancels numerous programs that demonstrably help the “least of these” among us. Musk doesn’t care about any of these things. Remember, much like Trump, Musk has no empathy. Both men care about two things: power and money. Musk is upset because the bill increases the federal debt by trillions of dollars and ends several subsidies that help Musk’s companies financially.
According to news reports, Musk has started a new political party — the America Party. Should we be concerned about Musk’s new party, or is this whole issue nothing more than a playground fight between two men who are bullies? And if we know anything about bullies, they cannot abide threats to their dominance. Trump threatened to deport Musk and stop government subsidies for his companies. Musk, on the other hand, not only wants to destroy Trump, he wants to destroy the Republican Party.
I am all for Musk’s plan to start a new party. First, he will peel off scores of Republican voters, likely handing Democrats victories across the United States. Now we just need someone from the democratic side to do the same. It’s time for an old-fashioned political food fight.
Let me be clear about my position:
Our two-party system is broken beyond repair. Neither party seems capable of competently governing.
Multiple political parties on the ballot are good for American democracy.
I support the end of corporate and PAC donations to candidates.
I support limiting political campaigning to the ninety days before the election.
I support term limits for all candidates — two terms for senators, four terms for representatives, and two terms for presidents.
I previously wrote that I was done with the national Democratic Party. Please read An Open Letter to Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. As I expected, the Democratic Party voted David Hogg out of its leadership. This was the last straw for me. While I will no longer support Democrats nationally, I intend to continue to support the local Democratic Party as long as their views align with mine.
This has been a simmering issue for me for at least ten years. In 2016, I wrote An Open Letter to the DNC:
Dear Democratic National Committee,
I write to express my outrage over recent revelations detailing how DNC officials attempted to derail Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Presidential campaign. It is evident, based on released internal emails, that Deborah Wasserman Schultz and operatives within the DNC were working behind the scenes to marginalize Bernie Sanders, paving the way for Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic candidate for President. Earlier this year Bernie Sanders complained about attempts by Wasserman Schultz and the DNC to keep him from becoming the nominee. The DNC dismissed Sanders’ claims, categorically stating that both candidates were being treated fairly and equally. Thanks to Wikileaks, we now know better.
I am a diehard Bernie Sanders supporter. As a liberal, democratic socialist, I found Sanders’ policy positions to be the closest to my own. Sanders is the voice of progressivism; Hillary Clinton is the voice of centrist Democratic politics. Sanders is a man of principle; Hillary Clinton is a political opportunist. Bernie Sanders didn’t take a dime from Wall Street; Hillary Clinton made millions off of private Wall Street-sponsored speeches. Bernie Sanders opposes war in the Middle East; Hillary Clinton will continue the blood-spilling policies of the Barack Obama. It is for these reasons (and others) that I support Bernie Sanders.
I am also an atheist. Offensive revelations that Wasserman Schultz and the DNC considered tarring Bernie Sanders with the atheist label suggests to me that the DNC doesn’t realize that most atheists are political liberals who most often vote Democrat. It is also clear that the DNC doesn’t understand that scores of millennials are non-religious. These millennials generally skew to the left — good news for Democrats. Good news, that is, if the DNC stops treating non-religious people as if they have some sort of communicable disease.
I am pleased that Wasserman Schultz has been removed as the head of the DNC. But that action is not enough. Every DNC operative who thought labeling Bernie Sanders an atheist was a good idea should immediately be fired. A failure to take such action shows that Democratic leaders don’t value fairness. The DNC should also publicly apologize to the atheist community for their shameful use of the word “atheist” as some sort of pejorative term. A full-page apology in the New York Times and personal letters to the major atheist groups will suffice.
I plan to vote for Hillary Clinton come November. I will do so for one reason and one reason alone — Donald Trump. I cannot in good conscience do anything that will increase the likelihood of a Trump presidency. These are perilous times, and I must do what is best for my country. Quite frankly, if a centrist Republican was running for President I would likely cast my vote for Jill Stein. In doing so, I would be telling the Democratic Party that until they value me as a voter, they have lost my vote. I want to do this now, but I can’t. I know that if Donald Trump is elected he will fundamentally and permanently harm our Republic. It’s Hillary Clinton’s lucky day. She will get my vote, not because I think she best represents my views, but because Donald Trump is a real threat to national security and social progress. If Clinton wins the election, the DNC might want to consider how to keep my vote come 2020. If liberal, democratic-socialist atheists aren’t welcome in the Democratic Party, then perhaps it is time to start seriously considering third-parties that value people such as myself.
Sincerely,
Bruce Gerencser A Former Right-Wing Evangelical Republican Turned Liberal, Democratic-Socialist Atheist
While my political views have changed somewhat since 2016, one thing is clear: I can no longer support the Democratic Party. I refuse to be bullied into voting for the “lesser of two evils,” so don’t bother trying to badger me into voting for the Democratic standard bearer. It remains to be seen whom the Democrats stand up for in the 2028 Presidential Election, so I may vote Democratic depending on the candidate. We want to blame stupid MAGA Republicans for ‘blessing” us with the worst president in American history, but the Democratic Party certainly played a part in Trump’s re-election by fielding unwinnable candidates (Joe Biden and Kamala Harris). As of today, I am unsettled as to who Democrats should field in 2028. But mark my word, if they trot about another “seniority” candidate as they did with Biden and Hillary Clinton, the Party will hemorrhage voters by the millions. I agree with most of Bernie Sanders’ positions, but he is too old. I’m a big fan of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) — what a firebrand! — but I suspect that many voters will consider her too young for the job. I like Elizabeth Warren, too, but it is unlikely she will run due to her age. Today? I would love to see people such as Katie Porter or Pete Buttigieg run for office, though Buttigieg being gay will likely hurt his electability. What are your thoughts about who the Democratic Party candidate should be in 2028?
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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.
He left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him.On the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown and among their own kin and in their own house.”And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. (Mark 6:1-6 NRSV)
He came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor except in their own hometown and in their own house.” And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief. (Matthew 13:54-58 NRSV)
In the passages quoted above, we find Jesus and his disciples traveling to his hometown to preach at the local synagogue. Jesus wasn’t well received. Jesus declares, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown and among their own kin and in their own house.” Jesus’ mother, his three brothers, and his sisters likely attended his sermon.
In Mark 3, we find:
Then he went home, and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat.When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, “He has gone out of his mind.
Many in the crowd believed Jesus was crazy, and when his family heard of this, they tried to restrain him.
….
Then his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him.A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers [and sisters in some manuscripts] are outside asking for you.”And he replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”And looking at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
What do we learn from these passages of Scripture?
First, we learn that Jesus had brothers and sisters. Second, Jesus’ family doubted who he was. Third, Jesus calls himself a prophet. Fourth, Jesus could not do mighty works in their midst because of their unbelief.
Isn’t Jesus God? Isn’t God all-powerful? How could mere humans stop Jesus from doing supernatural works?
Conclusion: Jesus is not all-powerful. Humans can thwart the will of God.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 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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