I want to share with readers several emails I received from a Fundamentalist Christian named Matt Nye. Nye is of the opinion that people reject Christianity and become atheists because they are sexual deviants. I hope you find his emails instructive. Pay particular attention to the fact that Nye tells me he is 21 years old and that he became a Christian after years as a porn-loving atheist/agnostic. My God, they must start watching porn quite young where he lives! Besides, since he was an atheist before he became a Christian, doesn’t this mean that he was a sexual deviant too?
One of Nye’s favorite preachers is Tim Conway, pastor of Grace Community Church in San Antonio, Texas. I wonder if Nye is aware that I once was Conway’s pastor? Imagine, one of his favorite preachers had an unsaved, sexual deviant as his pastor. Gotta love the irony, right?
Based on several posts on his now-defunct blog, Matt Nye is a Calvinist. As a card-carrying member of the John Calvin Club, surely Nye knows that God has decreed and predestined me to be an arch-enemy of Christianity. And since I cannot overthrow the plan God chose for my life from before the foundation of the world, it’s God’s fault, not mine, that I’m a sexual deviant.
I hope you will also note in the one email that Nye asks me to watch one of convicted felon Kent Hovind’s seminars. Ken Hovind attended Midwestern Baptist College, the same college I attended in the 1970s. According to Wikipedia, in 2007, Hovind was “convicted of 58 federal counts, including 12 tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents, and 45 counts of structuring cash transactions” and sentenced to ten years in prison. In July 2015, Hovind was paroled. Now out of prison, Hovind, also known as Dr. Dino, has returned to his calling, preaching the gospel of young-earth creationism.
Here’s email number one:
Hi.
I noticed you said you left the Christian faith and are now an atheist. I have a question for you though. Before I ask you it, we have to define what a born-again Christian is. A born-again Christian is someone who knows the Lord, evidenced by 1 John 2:4.
So my question to you is this, did you know the Lord?
This presents a serious problem for you, because if…
A)… you say “Yes” then you are admitting there is a God and creator, but you walked away from him.
B)… you say “No”, then you are proving that you never were a Christian.
I don’t mean to sound condescending and I’m sure being a former pastor you know the scriptures more than a 21-year-old like myself, but according to 1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”
You’ve had a false conversion my friend. I ask you to consider these things seriously because eternity is a long time to be wrong.
Email number two:
Hi Bruce.
To be honest, I don’t know you at all personally, as I am a nobody who stumbled across your site.
What I’m asking you to consider is this, were you truly “born-again”?
I was a false convert until the age of about 20 when the Lord opened my heart and saved me.
I’m willing I can describe your situation all those years. The “church” or “worship” part of Christianity is this “grit-your-teeth” sort of feeling. There’s also a sense deep within that you are rebelling against something. Like this energy within you that is fighting against something. I can assure you that “inner-rebellion” is completely gone. The only thing left is my sinful flesh which is dying little by little. Theology or preaching must have been your #1 thing while Jesus was just some accessory.
As I’ve said before, I don’t know you personally, but I assure you that the main reason people reject Christianity and become atheist is because of a sexual deviance. (Jude 1:18 “How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.”) Pornography is a big one. It was with me. I actually was atheistic/agnostic for some years and then intellectually became a Christian again, or “returned from a back-slidden state” thinking I was still saved. But when God saved me for REAL, he really revealed himself. Christianity isn’t a mental acknowledgement of the facts. Saying a sinner’s prayer and trusting in the prayer won’t do it.
Sir, I’ve had too many prayers answered to know that this isn’t just a coincidence. There really is a God. I plead with you, regardless of what you’ve heard about Kent Hovind. Watch one of his seminars and just think to yourself “Ok, there’s a chance I could be wrong, so I’ll be open minded” Eternity is too long to be wrong.
Email number three:
I’m amazed at how atheists can be so emotional over something they don’t believe in. I’m only spending my time to e-mail because I truly care about you, not to be condescending.
When you look at the Venus Fly Trap or any other Carnivorous plants, are you really going to believe that it was the result of a mutation? Here’s something striking, mutations have never been observed to introduce new information in the genome. Mutations can only scramble or duplicate existing information.
Check this page out.
I made no attempt to engage Nye or answer his emails. After he emailed me the first time, I responded and told him I wasn’t interested in corresponding with him. I asked him to not write me again, but, in classic Evangelical fashion, he ignored my request and emailed me several more times. This kind of behavior is quite common among Evangelical zealots who feel duty-bound to share what “God” has laid upon their hearts. They have no respect for atheists, and seem only concerned with hearing themselves talk.
I suppose I should feel sorry for this young man. His head has been filled with foolishness that he thinks is “God.” He’s a youngster who pridefully and arrogantly thinks he knows the Bible and the mind of God so well that he can, with great certainty, pass judgment on my spiritual condition. Never mind that I have likely forgotten more Bible knowledge than Nye will ever know. All that matters to Nye is putting in a good word for Jesus. He’s told Bruce, the atheist the truth, and now that he has done his duty, he’s free to move on to other atheists who desperately need to hear that they are sexual deviants.
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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“As I’ve said before, I don’t know you personally, but I assure you that the main reason people reject Christianity and become atheist is because of a sexual deviance. “
Apparently, Matt Nye is one of those who uses a book to do his thinking for him, instead of using his brain.
Oh dear, a very foolish young man.
Does he not realise that many people view religious authority as a synonym for sexual depravity. Whether this is true or not, the fact is that religion provides the ideal subterfuge for the perverted.
And…if Bruce was never a Christian then, by the same token, he never was an atheist.
And…prayer? It’s a perfect foil for when you can’t think of anything useful to contribute; pray; just don’t think it is of any benefit to anyone but yourself, though that this all Nye actually claims, anyway.
And…emotional over something I don’t believe in, you’d better believe it, you silly little boy. Have you heard of Paris? Have you seen what’s happened there? I know Paris well, I visit frequently, and let me tell you there’s a lot of things been done in the name of things few believe in.
Grow up.
I learned several of my deviant behaviors by watching the pastors/deacons/pillars of the church segments on the evening news. Those guys are flat-out creative!!!
I guess there are an awful lot of us former believer / sexual deviants out there!
I agree with those above. Hopefully Matt will start thinking in the future with his brain. I also think it’s interesting that many (especially younger) former believers find that any perceived struggles with lust were greatly diminished when they left the faith. https://www.reddit.com/r/exchristian/comments/3df2v9/i_actually_stopped_lusting_after_i_stopped_being/
Human nature is often such that when we’re told not to do something, it’s all the more enticing.
Oh Bruce, you coulda bin sumbuddy!
Matt, you missed your calling. Contact Michael Pearl. It is clear to me that you have the gift.
I wonder how old he’ll have to get before he looks back on this and sees he was a foolish jackass?
OK Bruce – that’s it. I am doubling my monthly Patreon account contribution to you. I am amazed by the onslaught you experience from fundamentalists. I have been reading your blog for less than five months, and I am already exhausted by them. You are a paragon of patience and wit in the face of this aggressive absolutism. I appreciate your continued efforts to explain to us non-Fundies what the hell is going on. Your point about the dangerousness of fundamentalism to social and political freedom is critical. I hadn’t seriously considered this before reading your posts, but I am now. You are doing high-quality, important work for which you are uniquely qualified, and which is having a positive impact on others’ lives. Please keep writing. Thank you! My best wishes for your health.
“So my question to you is this, did you know the Lord?
This presents a serious problem for you, because if…
A)… you say “Yes” then you are admitting there is a God and creator, but you walked away from him.
B)… you say “No”, then you are proving that you never were a Christian.”
Hmm. I’d say you could answer both in a similar way which would still not prove God’s existance. “Yes, I knew the Lord. There was this voice in my mind that was sometimes encouraging, often berating, me, and I took this to be God.”
Or you could say, “No, I didn’t know the Lord. There was this voice in my mind that was sometimes encouraging, often berating, me, and I took this to be God.”
Of course, you truly believed! What a nonsense. Why would you want to be devoted pastor that doesn’t even make a lot of money out of it, if you did not have the religious zeal of true faith and certainty? Of course, you knew the Lord but saying and believing that you did, doesn’t make him real. If you say, “No, I did not know the Lord,” you might be saying that you couldn’t know the Lord because he’s is probably not there to get to know, it still doesn’t mean that you weren’t a true Christian TM at the time.
It is the problem of apostesy… I’ve had discussions about this when I still believed. My dad said things like: a true christian can never be unsaved again which gave me kind of hope in case, heaven forbid, I would ever lose my faith. But if I started to get deeper into it asking if someone who left the faith and didn’t return even on their deathbed would still get to heaven, the answer would suddenly be different… Sometimes they would, sometimes they wouldn’t, which wasn’t a very comforting reply. The difference in answers is probably due to different bible verses, as you can easily argue both… so there you go, yet another thing where a christian can pick and choose what they want to believe.
A great comment Melody.
As we have noted on this site over recent times, the Bible is riddled with contradictions which is why Christian theology is so mixed up.
As I’ve said before, I don’t know you personally, but I assure you that the main reason people reject Christianity and become atheist is because of a sexual deviance. (Jude 1:18 “How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.”)
I confess, I’m baffled by this. This is almost as weird (and seems vaguely related to) the assertion that atheists all secretly know that God exists, and are only pretending he doesn’t because that… um… accomplishes something?
I’ll take Mr. Nye’s word for it that he was an atheist/agnostic “for some years”, but I have to say: his experience of atheism must have been very different from mine, because this sounds like the sort of verbal flailing and failed mind-reading that happens when someone simply can’t conceive of how or why someone might honestly think that there aren’t any gods out there.
But when God saved me for REAL, he really revealed himself. Christianity isn’t a mental acknowledgement of the facts. Saying a sinner’s prayer and trusting in the prayer won’t do it.
So, here we are again: a bunch of atheists, stuck in disbelief until the Almighty gets off his divine butt and reveals Himself to us. Given this scenario, how exactly is our lack of belief our fault, again?
I’ve listened to quite a number of apologists over the years, and the more I hear the more I’m puzzled by the twin assertions that:
A. Our salvation is absolutely, unquestionably all down to God, and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves.
B. But, it’s entirely our own fault if we aren’t saved.
Matt Nye, if you happen to come by and read this, I think you’d be extremely well-served to stop and really explore what atheists believe and how we think… at least, if you want to engage in evangelism or apologetics with us. If you want to communicate effectively, you have to know your audience — and based on these emails, you clearly don’t. (Again, I don’t mean to accuse you of never having been an atheist yourself; but your conception of what being an atheist is like is so different my own that we almost need a different term for it.)
Michael, that was so very well said!!
When my oldest son turned Matt Nye’s age (21), he confessed he was an atheist rather than a believer. At the time, I has heart broken. He had spent significant time studying the arguments and apologetics and came to his conclusion. Thanks to him, I decided to do the same and eventually the truth became clear.
That is a brilliant comment Michael.
I suspect Matt Nye was not so much an atheist before his conversion, not even an agnostic, but rather what might be termed a cultural Christian.
The U.S> started sliding into fascism with imprisonment of Kent Hovind?!?!?!? I just blew a month’s worth of irony meters on that one. The stupid it hurts!
Wow, he shows he knows nothing about fascism, US History, world history and a boatload of other things. I am always amazed when people with no understanding of a great many things profess ultimate knowledge on how something really works.
While I was no genius at 21 I at least knew how to remedy it, and it did NOT involve more religion.
Scott
A great post Bruce, it also shows once again the illogical nature of Calvinism as a Christian sub group.
I think it was wise not to engage with your correspondent as I doubt that person who cites Kent Hovind as their authority figure would likely be open to a rational discussion.
I hadn’t heard of Kent Hovind until I switched on here, and from what I read of him I wish I still hadn’t.
Matt Nye in supporting Hovind displays the low level of ethical morality that belief in ‘objective’ morality brings about. There is no such thing as objective morality; defining morality solely as what is right at any given time is what makes subjective morality the only one that is relevant. When we start to believe in objective morality we cede our sense of right and wrong to others, and become less capable of making rational decisions. In supporting Hovind, Nye actually displays a lower sense of ethical consideration than that he purports to disparage.
The irony is that in the Bible Jesus said, ‘you will know them by their fruit’, when referring to false teachers. It might pay the true believer to dwell on this when deciding which teachers to follow.
Tell him to step away from the computer, and get a real job, education, or hobby.
Aaaargh! As a professional ecologist this sort of thing drives me nuts.
Not only do mutations absolutely “introduce new information to the genome” (e.g. the recent mutations to the genome of the COVID virus in some countries that cause it to develop different spike proteins that allow it to avoid our vaccines – something that in some respects is every bit as impressive as nutrient-starved plants evolving to start catching insects – and something which has also happened/evolved in literally a couple of months never mind the hundreds of millions of years that carnivorous plants have had to develop their current biology), but the very Wikipedia article he directed you to in his message actually states in it’s references (towards the bottom of that very page) – the “Genome of the pitcher plant Cephalotus reveals genetic changes associated with carnivory”.
Lazy thinking.
This is so maddening. I suspect there are more Christian sexual deviants, as they’ve been taught sex is naughty and so get off on the sinfulness. If a person’s sexual nature is acceptable, it isn’t something that pairs pleasure with sin. Also, these types frequently mean homosexuality. A frequent comment by gay guys is how these straight Christian types love to talk, talk, talk about butt sex…more than any gays do!
Funnily enough, responsible adults believe in consent. So what happens between consenting adults is no one else’s business. However, this type of Christian is into only married men and their wives having sex, but consent and legal adulthood aren’t usually as important. When Josh Duggar diddled his sisters it was considered an oopsie, not something that required consequences. But 2 adult people of the same gender that are attracted each other and love each other is an abomination!
Zoe looks around. Did I miss my sexual deviance phase?
Ken Hovind, never heard of him. I’ll look him up, and how could anyone think his conviction caused Fascism to kick in ? Calvinism is a particularly cruel version of Christianity. That’s why slavery and genocide could happen in America, because anything done to another was supposedly God’s will anyway. That’s how they thought back then, and many do now, apparently. I left church so I wouldn’t have to be around people like these.
Ah the usual arguments. You were never really a Christian. Talking about evolution, sex, and humans being unworthy pieces of fecal matter without a deity to “save” them. Threats of eternal torture in hell. Same old sh!t.
I read a comment somewhere on an atheist blog in which someone said fundies wouldn’t be happy till they could station a police officer in every bedroom to make sure sex was only taking place between a man and a woman who could produce their marriage certificate and it was only,missionary position, in the dark and for the making of babies!. When fundy, I wondered about the translation of Eve, in Genesis 1, as Adam’s ‘wife’. Was there a ceremony? a certificate? And some extra-marital nooky must have gone on to populate the world from those 2 people and their first offspring.
Dear Bruce, I say this not to judge you but because I care! There is a special men’s razor out now on the internets that will help you with the very very excessive hair-growth on your palms. Okay? Nuff said.
Brian, thanks for the chuckle!
Brian–That was priceless! Thanks!
I would ask him to define “sexual deviance.” If a priest or Evangelical pastor diddles young boys, is that not “sexual deviance”?
As far as I can tell, Bruce definitely suffers from one form of deviance–his choice of sports teams–and possibly another–uxoriousness. I am sure Polly doesn’t object to the latter! 😉