There is no need for me to comment on the following graphic. Its message is clear: Love and worship the Evangelical God now or after death be tortured in Hell for eternity. Do Evangelicals really think this approach works? Or is the real motive behind such tactics so Christians can say, Lord, I told that atheist blasphemer Bruce Gerencser the truth! When he dies and splits Hell wide open, he will have no one to blame but himself. Lost on the Tom Bakers of the world is that I once preached this message and have heard it thousands of times since my divorce from God. I get it, if I don’t submit to the demands of a “loving” God and worship him, after death, I will spend eternity in Hell — suffering horrific, never-ending torment.
Baker, from time to time, still leaves comments on my Facebook page. A true coward, he deletes them before I can respond or delete them myself.
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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.
Here, have some tequila Bruce and ignore these folks..they are never going to ‘get it’.. and no amount of explanation is going to cure that.
They’re still baffled by the whole “turn from a pastor to an atheist” thing, aren’t they? Not curious enough to read through your information pages, though, I imagine — though I’d love to be wrong about that. And the simple answer — you stopped believing — doesn’t really answer it for them.
A holy spirit can be a cold beer after weeding the garden. A holy spirit can be the trees translating a breeze while you listen. The holy spirit can be the quiet moment that has no words. The holy spirit is of this world, is a human thing. The language has been co-opted by religion to serve their offering plates. The holy spirit is not some imaginary person or thing but a relationship with the moment. A holy spirit can be waking to the dawn and realizing that you do not believe in all the gobbledegook you have been spoonfed from birth. A holy spirit can be a free breath, one free and mortal breath. If i thought for one minute that the holy spirit could turn me into an American evangelical Christian, I would denounce it and know in that moment that religion was busy reducing life again, squeezing the spirit of life out me.
Love me some holy spirits 😉
How’s the Holey Sprite’s work going there, Bruce?
Obviously that Tom Baker did not spend time wearing a costume that included a long scarf. That dude who messaged you is religion damaged. Even a losing football game provides more life enjoyment than what that guy is having.
Tom Baker, are you aware that your nagging has the opposite effect yet ?? Given the antics of the American church anyway, this is why so many have left the fold !! Like the Aarum scandal, it’s too common, and people are disillusioned. Not that you care about God’s reputation or the welfare of others. Bruce would not consider interaction with God because of something YOU say !
When someone uses any form of “I don’t mean to offend…” it means they know they are going to offend, but proceed anyway because they really don’t care they are causing offense.
Tom, let me ask you- could hold the hand of even the most vile human against a red hot stove for even one second before stopping in response to his screams of anguish? How can you actually believe that the “god of love” that you worship could listen to the screams of anguish of billions of people forever? And if you believe he will do this how can you worship such a monster?
I was 18 when I first had the conscious thought “Christianity is ridiculous. Why do I believe in it?” (Answer that managed to work at the time: Well in any case it’s true so it’s a good thing I do believe it!) It took another 18 years for the cognitive dissonance to crack enough to be able to say “Oh. I’ve believed because of what will happen to me if I don’t.” Scales fell, etc. Years of my life spent believing something that deep down I knew didn’t make sense because man, childhood indoctrination works. Half a decade down the line and I alternate between feeling sorry for people like this and just being mad at the psychological damage it does.