Recently, ZulaBula left the following comment on the post titled, Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Edward Williams Accused of Having Romantic Relationship with Teen Girl. My response is indented and italicized.
Did you stop eating after ever vomiting from bad food? The answer is probably no, and you probably never will.
Actually, the answer for me is yes. You see, I have gastroparesis, an incurable stomach disease. I am sick all the time. There’s never a day when I want to eat. I have to force myself to eat, knowing that eating will cause me pain and may lead to violent fits of vomiting. And so it is with Evangelical Christianity. I have an incurable disease called reason, skepticism, and common sense. When “eating” Evangelical food, I want to vomit. Worse yet, when I see and experience bad behavior from Evangelicals, I want to run to the bathroom and hurl. There is nothing in Evangelicalism that makes me say, “yummy, this is tasty, nutritious food.” Instead, Evangelicalism is a case of food poisoning waiting to happen. No matter where I eat from the Evangelical buffet, I find under-cooked, slimy food. But hey, the price is right. FREE, according to Evangelical preachers; but later, when diarrhea and vomiting hit you, you learn the true cost of FREE.
Then you shouldn’t have stop believing because of some bad taste or behavior put in your mouth. A lot of the bad behaviors that i see that go on in the name of God will never separate or stop this BORN-AGAIN Believer from believing in God thru Jesus Christ!!
You commented on a Black Collar Crime post, a series devoted to exposing the crimes and misconduct of primarily Evangelical clerics. You seem dismissive of this behavior, thinking that it speaks nothing about the veracity, truthfulness, and morality of Evangelical Christianity. Much like the Roman Catholic Church with its pedophile problem, Evangelicalism has a huge problem with preachers who are sexual predators. Throw in preachers who have sexual affairs with church members, and it is easy to conclude that children and women are not safe within the four walls of Evangelical churches. This isn’t a matter of a few bad apples — as if that somehow justifies immoral and criminal behavior. The barrel is full of rot, littered with bad apples, and thanks to the Internet, the truth about what Evangelical preachers (and other church leaders) do behind closed doors is finally being exposed.
Come back to God, Bruce, you know He loves you.
There is no God for me to come back to. Do you have any actual evidence for the existence of your peculiar God; anything besides bald assertions and personal testimonies? Since there is no God, your claim that he loves me is false. And even if God does exist, how do you know he loves me? Perhaps I am an apostate, or I have committed the unpardonable sin. Maybe the Calvinists are correct, and I am not one of the elect. Or perhaps the Arminians are correct, and I have crossed the line of no return. So, it is arrogant for you to assume that God loves me.
You wrongly think that when I left Christianity, I suffered loss. I didn’t. Instead, I gained freedom. Real freedom. I would say to you, don’t you want real freedom, ZulaBula? No Heaven, no Hell, no sin, no wrathful, judgmental God, no dictates from the Bible. Just F-R-E-E-D-O-M.
I get the impression that you were a sincere and honest Pastor with lots of compassion.
And I am still a sincere, honest, compassionate man — no God, no religion needed. Do you really think it was God who made me sincere, honest, compassionate, and now that I am an atheist, my character has changed? What evidence do you have for this claim — especially since you don’t know me?
No man lives or dies to himself.
All of us live and die to ourselves, so I am not sure what point you are trying to make. That I need God? That I have a God-shaped hole that needs to be filled? That my life lacks meaning and purpose without Jesus? None of these claims is true. You believe they are because your religion and pastors have told you they are. Freedom awaits, ZulaBula, once you recognize that you have been sold a false bill of goods; that meaning and purpose can be yours without your peculiar brand of religion and God.
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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This is incredible. Christianity is like eating bad food but you should still do it? What world does this person live in? Not America, where most people eat bad but tasty food. Even people eating healthy in the US can only convince others to eat in a similar fashion by showing people all the good, tasty stuff THEY CAN STILL EAT.
And why? Why have to consume something bad tasting because it is “supposedly” good? I don’t see any of these types of Christians attracting anyone to their Christianity. It tastes bad AND people behave horribly after becoming fundies. They have little empathy and can be cruel and vicious. Oh, I made a mistake. Many people who are mean and judgmental seem to be attracted to their Christianity. It gives them a chance to lord it over others and feel smug that they will go to heaven, while the rest of us are doomed. What would they do if they found out that the god of heaven wasn’t the Christian god? What happens if, god forbid,* it was Ra or a Hindu god? (Although Hinduism is syncretic so that god wouldn’t necessarily reject Christians. ) Or some kind of deity that saves everyone? They’d be pouty and upset that they were no longer the favored ones.
I daresay those of us who don’t believe in a god, or who don’t know if there is a god, would be much more attracted to people with love in their hearts who are Christian (or other religions). I have some lovely Christian friends, including pastors. None of them are fundamentalists.
*Yes, lower cases for “god” and “lord” and other religious names are deliberate, and religious phrases are ironic.
ZulaBula sent me the following email:
I understand clearly why you’re confused about my illustration of bad food and false doctrine. I never once implied that you or any believer in God should eat bad doctrine or believe it. I never address the sinful act of the self proclaimed Pastor, but to that point. The law was called for the unlawful act of this Evangelical pastor, and he should receive due punishment. My comment was to you and your decision to leave your church; it sounds as if you never knew God. You claim you don’t like eating and have problems doing so, but yet you still eat. The same should apply to following God even if you’re sickened by the carnality of weak Christians. God or born-again believers get that sinners will fall. You on the other-hand feel as if you have a mission to highlight the faults and sin of the evangelicals. Let the wheat and Tare grow together. Go and learn what that means. Trying to prove to you that there is a God is like paying off a blackmailer; no end in sight. You’re too bitter to be content. It would be like trying to cut stone with a feather. God loves you.
It seems ZulaBula is content to let clergy child molesters, rapists, and adulterers go unpunished until God’s sorts things out. How dare I exposed the evil works done in darkness by supposed men of God. She tells me to learn what the parable of the tares among the wheat means. Damn, Skippy, if I had only read the Bible or preached sermons on that very text. I am so ignorant of the B-i-b-l-e. 🙂 What ZulaBula is doing is this: justifying bad behavior by Christians, claiming they are “weak” or “carnal.”
She also misses the point about me not eating and what it is I find offensive about Evangelicalism. Her behavior alone is enough to cause me to vomit. I despise those who use the Bible to enable bad behavior, saying it is God who should judge, not us. Of course, Matthew 7 does NOT teach that we shouldn’t judge. In fact, it teaches the exact opposite:
http://brucegerencser.net/2020/08/does-the-bible-say-thou-shalt-not-judge/
And then, after saying we shouldn’t judge (the implication of letting the tares grow among the wheat) ZulaBula attacks my character, saying I am “bitter” — a claim for which she has no evidence (though after 13 years of dealing with this kind of bullshit, I might be justified in being bitter).
ZulaBula uses her character assassination of me as justification for not sharing what evidence she has for the existence of God. Nice dodge. Blame the atheist for your lack of evidence for the existence of your peculiar God.
But, hey, God, her God, here special, one-and-only imaginary and invisible God still loves me. 🙂
ZulaBula responded:
You’ve got one thing right in all of your response; God is peculiar, and so are His people. God loves you and there is nothing you can do about it.
Gee Bruce, can’t you feel all that godly love? The love that wants to destroy you for not having the right beliefs? The love that hates almost everything? Gee, it’s almost like ZulaBula doesn’t know what the word “love” means.