I am one man.
I do not represent any group or any other person but myself.
I alone am responsible for what I do, say, or write.
I don’t represent my wife, children, extended family, or the family cat.
In the Gerencser family, we don’t practice groupthink, and everyone is free to be whoever and whatever they want to be.
Yes, I am an atheist, but that doesn’t mean my wife or children are.
Yes, I am a liberal, but that doesn’t mean my wife or children are.
Freethought applies to everyone in the Gerencser family, not just me.
It offends me when local Christians judge my wife or children based on what I do, say, or write.
They ask, in whispered voices, isn’t Bruce Gerencser their father or isn’t she married to Bruce Gerencser?
Evidently, being related to an atheist is an awful, dreadful thing. What drives such thinking? What makes Christians so judgmental that they refuse to treat people different from them with respect?
My wife and children are not me.
I am a committee of one.
I own what I do, say, and write.
I am not ashamed of what I do, say, and write.
I have never been one to hide in shadows or use a pseudonym.
If you want to attack someone, attack me.
If you want to gossip about someone, gossip about me.
If you want to judge someone as worthy of the wrath of God, the judgment of God, and Hell, judge me.
I don’t hide what I am, and I am not ashamed to say that I am an atheist.
I am not afraid to say that I think Christianity is a man-made religion and the Bible is a man-made book.
If you want to go after someone, if you want to attack someone, here I am.
Come out of the shadows.
Quit being the kind of gossips the Bible condemns.
Man up, woman up, and stand up for your God and your Bible.
Quit hurling anonymous, veiled invectives towards my family.
I am not hiding from you.
I am right here.
No need to question people with the last name of Gerencser as to their affiliation with me.
No need to demand answers from them when you read a newspaper article or blog post you don’t like.
No need to corner them at their place of employment or college classroom and demand they defend their father or husband.
I am right here. Leave a comment, send me an email, or contact me on Twitter or Facebook.
Only a coward goes after a man’s wife and children. What’s next, going after my grandchildren?
While they are all related to me, they are not responsible for what I do, say, or write.
I alone am responsible.
I am a committee of one.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen 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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Love it. The sort of people who attack the friends and relatives are the weak bullies who know they would not stand a chance of putting together an even half decent question or argument to put to you. They feel brave because they asked a tough question, or made a cutting jibe, but to the wrong person. And then, knowing they are unlikely to get a response, feel vindicated in their stand. Weak and useless dickheads.
In the near future, I know I will be in a friend and family situation, where this sort of stuff will be thrown at me. And oddly, I think I know now how to respond. Ask me anything about myself, but don’t expect me to respond or react about the other stuff. It’s going to be hard, and I will need to help others with this, but I now have a clue of where to start. We each own our actions, we defend our actions, don’t attack other people for my actions. Thanks Bruce.
Can I get an “amen?”
I couldn’t agree more Bruce. I’m mainly active on Twitter where I go by my real identity and I have little time for pseudononymous cowards who hide behind witty handles spraying venom and defaming decent folks.
The fact that fundie reactionaries and swiveled-eyed christian lunatics are attacking your family is deplorable. Such people are beneath contempt.
Perhaps it might be some small consolation to know that such attacks indicate you’re making a difference. There are few things nastier than a devil-dodger on the run. What’s more, for every hater I’m confident you have a dozen supporters.
Matt
Bruce, I am sorry that mush-brains and fool-hearts sometimes trouble your days. And the idea that these vile bipeds target your family! Each one of these people confirm your work, confirm the shocking ignorance perfectly acceptable in evangelical Christianity. Thank-you, JESUS! Why would we need the erudition of a Hitchens or Dawkins to state the case when we have these supporters from Christianity who prove in their actions the utter failure of their belief….
Hey Bruce. Hope you are doing well. Sorry to hear you are having trouble of this nature. You are having no more trouble than my friend John Pavlovitz at his blog Called “Stuff That Needs to Be Said” at: http://johnpavlovitz.com/
Sometimes it is hard for me to know which one of you is actually winning the national “We True Christians Really Hate You” contest. However, I think john must be ahead of you right now because his blog has 14,000+ regular followers. They really, really, really hate John, but he has not complained so far about nutjobs going after his family members. Of course, it may have happened and it is just something he does not remark about publicly.
The thing I find amazing is that these people hate atheists, agnostics, other Christians, and nonbelievers. Unless I miss my guess, that’s like…uh…every human being on planet Earth except those in their in-group.
Signed
Charles (Your Christian friend who loves you and respects the path you have chosen)
So sorry to hear this Bruce. You are a presence and unfortunately, the unkind attack your family. If I hadn’t been about done with Christianity as a form of religion, reading your blog would have done it. All the mean, nasty Christians. When I was a devout Christian I figured Christians were supposed to be loving. Oh, I could be judgmental then too. But I got the THEORY at least.
Now, few conservative or fundamentalist/evangelical Christians bother to be kind to non-Christians. Instead, they are full of hate. They HATE gay marriage, so instead of showing Christ’s love to gays, they refuse to bake the cake. Instead of showing atheists that God is love, they revile you. And so on and so on.
I could probably call myself a Christian liberal and get away with it. But here and now, I’m telling you I’m not a Christian, because Christians are just too mean.