Recently, an Evangelical sent me the following via Facebook (unedited) :
Charles Spurgeon made this statement. ”if sinners will be damned then let them leap to hell over our bodies if they perish let them do so with our hands around their ankles imploring them to stay let no soul go unwarned or unprayed for” I understand you were a pastor for 30 years. Judas Iscariot also spent 3 years with Jesus physically during his earthly ministry yet he never truly believed in him for salvation and forgiveness of sin. Looking at these anti-God pics you are posting makes it appear you are right in line with Judas. Ive talked to many atheists in the Seattle area and they admit to being 2 or 3 generation atheists. And are not advocating anti-theism with anti-God photos on facebook. I cant and wont judge you. But my message to you all is this. Put complete faith and trust in Jesus Christ. He died so you wouldnt have to be separated from the Father eternally. If not like Spurgeon said STAY ALIVE! When on deathbed if you get that much of an advance warning do whatever it takes to remain alive. Spit,scream,tear sheets.fart,chew the pillow ,grab the mattress,etc once you slip into eternity without Christ your decision is FINAL.
What I want to know is this: where is my 30 pieces of silver?
I love it when Evangelicals say that they can’t or won’t judge me and then turn right around and judge me. Of course, their justification is that it is GOD judging me, not them.
This particular person is part of a group of Evangelicals who have made it their mission to harass me, send me emails, and leave numerous comments on my Facebook page. Not much I can do about this other than ban/block them. Well, that and make sure readers see their comments. These zealots are oblivious to the fact that their behavior leads people away from Jesus. At times, I wonder if their real goal is just to be assholes for Jesus. I suspect they are Calvinists, and if they are my salvation or lack thereof is all up to God. The same could be said for Judas. He was chosen by God to be the Son of Perdition, thus making his eternal damnation settled before the foundation of the world.
Whatever their motives might be, I love the gospel they are preaching. It will surely lead people AWAY from Jesus and his church and into the arms of atheism or some sort of non-Evangelical religion. Keep up the good work!
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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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They’ve got the wrong apostle, anyway. It’s not Judas; we aren’t the sort who knew Jesus intimately and made a volitional decision to betray Him. No, we thought we knew Him, but when it came time to put up or shut up, we found that He wasn’t really there, not the way we thought He was.
No, we aren’t Judas. Even those of us who oppose Christianity or just fundamentalism aren’t betrayers. We’re another apostle altogether: we’re the dark shadow of Thomas. Like him, we no longer recognize the savior we thought we knew. Like him, we need to touch the wounds for ourselves to be convinced.
But unlike the guy in the story, we don’t get that opportunity. We are exactly what Thomas would have become, if he’d only been told that Jesus had come back from the dead, and never shown.
I’ve had a lot of Christians tell me things. I’ve never yet seen one who could show the things they were telling me about.
I like that: being the dark side of Thomas. Thomas is so often discredited but actually he’s using his reason. He’s the one saying: wait a minute…. Let’s give this a moment’s thought. He’s the sole voice of reason.
He should get a lot more credit. After all, doesn’t Paul praise the people of Berea for not taking him at his word either? (Acts 17:11-12)
So much Christian love…. Isn’t it impressive? /snark
It’s also remarkable how often they preach love and hell in the same breath. God loves you so much, but if you don’t love him back?! Well, then it’s your own fault, off to hell you go. Nothing voluntary about love that way.
My view of Judas has certainly changed over the years. Even as a Christian, I felt sort of bad for him, especially since he regretted his decision (apparently), but couldn’t receive any grace anymore, whereas Peter easily could for his betrayal… Bit unfair that. But now I just think that Judas was much more pragmatic. He realized that there wasn’t a revolution coming, that there wasn’t a kingdom around the corner and so he took his chances with the establisment instead.
Grab your matteress bayBE
Hold on to da door
Cuz Eterrnity cums BOOM
While you fall on da floor,
Chew dat pillow, Bruce Gee,
Twist your sheets in shame,
You be goin’ with Judas
And nobody to blame!
You gonna spit and scream,
You gonna fart and chew
But it ain’t gonna stop,
You’re goin’ Atheist Zoo…
Yeah, Atheist Zoo been preparED for you
them other monkies too
who do like like Gerencser do,
they gonna fart and burp
they gonna take the hurt
they goin’ git the harm!
Come to Jeezus now
before your tear your sheets
before you fart like a preacher
and doo-doo on the street!
This my last little warnin’
ya dumb macaroon
Jesus told me last night
he be here by noon!
You should be a songwriter 🙂
I’ve always thought Judas has been misunderstood. Somebody had to betray Jesus in order for him to be taken and crucified (assuming there was a Jesus, of course), and I’m inclined to believe that Judas and Jesus out the scenario in advance. Since Judas was an Apostle, I’m sure he felt terrible; but he did what he had to do. If there’s a heaven, I don’t doubt that he’s in it, despite the condemnation of many Christians.
I don’t understand the rudeness thing with these people. They preach about being polite and how conservative means being left alone, yet they feel free to violate the personal choices of others and be rude. Also, they claim to be non judgemental then proceed to tell you what your sin is. Can we please for them to take a basic class in logic?
Conservative really means being left alone just at the top of the hill where they can then roll rocks down on the rest of us hence the rudeness when someone challenges them to be king of hill
I think many Evangelicals think I am not deserving of respect or being treated as, you know, a fellow human being. They see me as traitor, one who dares to pull back the curtain and expose Evangelicalism for what it is. They consider me to be a reprobate — beyond the grace of God — so there’s no need for them to treat me as anything other hell bound dog shit on the bottom of their shoes. If I ever had a desire to return to the faith, their behavior would certainly be a reason for me not to do so. These miscreants fail to understand or care that thousands of people are watching how they treat me. Some of these people are still Christians. They see how I am treated by their fellow Christians and they wonder…is this really a religion I want to continue to be a part of?
It is the behavior of Christians that was the root cause for my lack of belief. How could that many people of grace be so awful, unless the whole idea was false. At first I thought, perhaps they only pretend? As time went on, I realized they believe in something their behaviors clearly belie. And poof – that planted the first seeds for me. As to the many wonderful christians… well, there as just as many wonderful athiests.
I have found myself more comfortable among the atheists, agnostics, others and nones for almost 4 decades. They are my friends and family and the ones who have supported me, not the church where family membership (and faithful support and service) went back 5 generations. In Biblical times, the difference between “slave” and “free” were just as profound as in colonial America, and so was the difference between men and women. The implications were not just legal, they were spiritual also. If the head of the house sinned, the entire household was guilty as well. One of the revolutionary ideas of Christianity was the idea, taught by Paul (misogynistic as I find him to be in general), that before God, there is neither slave nor free, no male or female. By that logic, our religious labels would be even less relevant. My “native theology” was Quaker though and I have never been able to see any authoritarian/legalistic structure as being at all what Jesus taught. Perhaps it is precisely my lack of attendance in church that has allowed me to retain a form of faith, albeit it a highly unorthodox one. As Billy Joel said the year I graduated high school, “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners have much more fun…” (Only the Good Die Young, 1978)
American Christianity is as it is because we designed it to harm ourselves further and to harm others in the process. So your turning from the self-harm and refusing to carry on harming others as a preacher undermines the unspoken goal of belief, to habitually deny your own simple humanity and say woo-woo is the answer, to hate the evil self born into sin. It is not in fact the dog shit that is going to hell. The shit stays but the Bruce who appears to them to be shitting on sweet Jesus who gave his life not just for America but the whole world for all time, that Bruce is surely going to eternal damnation. How can you be such a dawg, Bruce? Stop caring for yourself and using belief as a toilet! Can’t you see how clean that church is every Sunday morning? Get back to harming yourself! Lean not on your own understanding…