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, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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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