Long time readers, all three of you, know that I had a plethora of blogs over the past fourteen years. I would write for a while, burn my blog to the ground, only to resurrect again months later. Welcome to the mind of a depressive. The good news is this: The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser will celebrate its sixth anniversary come November. Can I get an AMEN! Or dare I not mention this milestone lest I find the gasoline and matches again?
Several readers have asked me about the names of my former blogs. Here ya go:
- Fallen From Grace
- The Way Forward
- Rethinking Church Life
- Bruce Droppings (my favorite name)
- World of Bruce
- A Restless Mind in a Restless World
- The Hungarian Luddite
- The World According to Bruce
- The Emergent Church
- Northwest Ohio Skeptics
- Restless Wanderings
Crazy, huh? Hey, I have never claimed to be sane.
I want to thank readers who jumped on Bruce’s crazy train in the early days and continue to ride today. Your love and support are appreciated.
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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You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.
I was somehow led to The Way Forward, I believe, around 8ish years ago. Still reading your stuff, still regretting health has kept me from actually meeting you in person. I believe reading your blogs helped me to see that, no matter what my spiritual views are, they don’t depend on the God of Christianity or the Bible. Now, if there was a liberal Christian church I might’ve gone for that and stayed in. But that hasn’t happened (I mean, liberal and Christian don’t happen in NW rural Ohio) so here I am.
I wouldn’t say it’s crazy, it’s just…ok, yeah, it’s crazy.
I’m not a long term reader unless 1 week is long. I do enjoy reading your posts although I have a lot to catch up. Your writings on your journey were very interesting.
I don’t recall how I found you (ok, I know, it’s only one week and I already don’t recall?? shrugs) but it was probably some variation of “why do christians hate me/science/sinners/liberals/dogs/cats/everything” google search.
Thanks for your blog and for sharing.
I found you in 2016 or 2017 through Rational Doubt on Patheos and the Clergy Project. I couldn’t believe there were so many ex-clergy who left. At the time, I had been out of evangelicalism for over 20 years, and had been taking almost a decade break from Christianity, not yet ready to admit I might be an agnostic atheist. The 2016 election with the evangelicals supporting the vileness of Trump like he was Jesus riding the donkey through Jerusalem on Palm Sunday shook me out of my apathy toward religion. I needed to know what was happening.
I liked your work out of so many others because I like your tone. Somehow you come across like I am hearing from a long-time friend. You have a wealth of experience, you’re well-read, you’re up-to-date on current issues, and you present your thoughts in a well thought out manner. I hope you don’t burn it all down and start over!
Congratulations Bruce. I’m glad the slings and arrows of nut jobs hasn’t kept you off the blogosphere. My favorite name is “The Way Forward”, as I think it best encompasses your story. We can not change the past, but we can use those lessons to forge the future.
I think I’ve been following you since around 2008. I think? I’m forever grateful for your part in my paradigm shift. Thanks, Bruce!
longtime follower. glad when you returned. you have helped so many you don’t even know about. hope you and polly are recovering nicely.
There is an honesty I find truly disheartening and depressing. It is the love-as-hatred of the religiously extreme. That you were a perpetrator of that way of dying and that you dragged yourself free to be again is something I much admire. That’s partly why I keep coming back. I benefit by more than me to remind me to be me and not fall into delusion. You provide the ‘other’ I want in my life. You help keep the wolves at bay.
Try this name for a future blog “One Flew Out of the Cookoos Nest”
I seem to remember one or two of your other blogs. Did you save all your blog posts?
I did not. Some are available via the wayback machine. I do know this, my writing has really changed over the years. ?
I don’t actually remember how I got here, but I’m sort of a medium-term reader: I’ve only read your blog in its current iteration. It’s too bad that some of your earlier blogs aren’t available, although I’ll check the Wayback Machine and see if I can find any. I’d love to see how your perspective changed over time.
Thank you for continuing this blog. You have an informed, interesting, very clear-eyed view of Evangelical Christianity, from the inside, and now from the outside looking in. I hope for the pleasure of reading what you’ve written for many years to come. All the best to you and Polly.
I found you while doing a search for Jack Hyles. This was probably around 2010, on The Way Forward.
The times when the blog shut down were a sad time for me, but I understand why.
It’s been a good journey. I have enjoyed most of what I read here. If I disagree with something, then I just move on. Pretty easy.
Thank you, Bruce, for all of your writings.
Wow, I’d forgotten about some of your older blogs. This was a nice trip down memory lane.
Pretty sure you were Emergent when I came across your blog or a comment somewhere. I think that means I remember 5 of those blogs. 🙂 Four for sure.