The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

How Dare I Talk Smack About IFB Evangelist C.T. Townsend

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Bruce Gerencser

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ct townsend

C.T. Townsend is an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) pastor and evangelist located in North Augusta, South Carolina. In 2019, Townsend became the pastor of Victory Baptist Church in North Augusta.

I have written three posts about Townsend:

In the eyes of some of Townsend’s followers, he is a demigod, a man of God who must be defended at all costs. As I showed in my previous posts, some of Townsend’s devotees are vitriolic and hateful. Townsend likely knows about my writing. My posts show up first page in Google Search. I suspect that this why my posts about him attract so much attention from loving, kind devotees of his. Townsend has made no effort to stop his attack dogs, so I assume he is okay with their defenses of his preacher virginity.

Over the weekend, I received the following email from yet another Townsend follower. I am starting to think that Townsend is a cult leader. Naw, just typical IFB behavior.

William, a Baptist preacher, had this to say (all spelling and grammar in the original):

I believe the Great White Throne judgement will be much worse for people like you. I am glad there is enough grace and mercy in GODs salvation plan for people like you. The BIBLE says YOU will be judged with the same judgement that you judged CT Townsend with. I have seen myself 100s of people accept CHRIST UNDER HIS GREAT HOLY GHOST PREACHING I don’t believe you have a clue what that is. You may be an atheist now but when you get to this judgement I promise you Will Not be an atheist. I wont be at this judgement but I would love to watch people of great intellect like Darwin and you bow before a 3 times HOLY GOD and CONFESS JESUS AS THE ONLY BEGOTTON SON OF GOD. How you can look at GODs beautiful creation and believe there is no creator is beyond me. The BIBLE says to TOUCH NOT mine anointed. Be careful brother you are walking on dangerous ground. You know nothing about CT Towsend. The life He lives and what He says proves what’s in His heart I don’t know you but THE BIBLE SAYS Out of the abundance of the Heart the mouth speakerth What you say about GODs man exposes who You Are ! It’s funny to me that a child of satan thinks he’s so smart that he can judge a Great Man of GOD like CT Townsend. I will leave you with this Bible verse The FOOL hath said in his heart There is no GOD. THE BIBLE IS NEVER WRONG. I wouldnt be in your shoes for all the world’s riches you may have years of experience but that means nothing when you’ve never been born again . I am a Baptist preacher and have been a lot of years and there is absolutely nothing you can teach me. But there is a Whole lot I could teach you. But you will learn soon enough you expect respect from Christian’s really ?? You can run down our savior our indewller and God himself and you want respect. Talk to other atheist maybe they will ! Lol !

Just another day in Bruce Gerencser’s inbox.

While I was working on this post, I received a comment from a follower of Townsend (who says she’s not a “follower” of Townsend, but commented on a post specifically about him) named Dedra McCoy:

Jesus Loves You even though You Don’t Believe in Him. My Prayer is that You find The Truth. I would rather take my Chance in believing in Heaven and hell. I definitely don’t want to take a chance going to hell. I’m Church of God, and I have experienced The Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Meaning of True Love. I Love You and Pray that You find God in Your life.

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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Comments

40 responses to “How Dare I Talk Smack About IFB Evangelist C.T. Townsend”

  1. Avatar
    Adam Thiry

    Yeah this is what I’m talking about with my fellow Christians. Why on earth would anyone, Christian or otherwise, think this tone and approach would convince someone of their point of view? I understand taking a harsh tone with other “christians” when they are speaking heresy. But speaking to someone who clearly says he isn’t a believer that way is just plain dumb, and does nothing but drive that person further away. This is one thing about my fellow “christians” I don’t understand at all.
    They should thank you for your honesty. I wonder how many people are sitting under pastors that don’t even believe the Bible but stay in the pulpit for money’s sake?

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Howard Grant

      ” I wonder how many people are sitting under pastors that don’t even believe the Bible but stay in the pulpit for money’s sake?”

      They stay in those churches because they live in a world of complete and utter F-E-A-R but they call it “love” and say “Oh, we’re so happy” when they live miserable lives trying to live up to some stupid “standard” that is pushed on them by the idiots in suits.

      Christianity, the primary evil in this country, needs to be exposed for what it is. It’s a fear-based, complete and utter BS belief system, that subjugates people to the rule and dominance of others.

      I have no sympathy for stupid believers. I have no sympathy or time to waste arguing with people who are intellectually incapable of sheer honesty. Looking at cold, hard facts will humble most logical and reasonable people. Only morons can be so narcissistic and arrogant on the subject of spirituality and religion. Wake up and get a clue already. Grow up. Put the childish fantasies away. We live. We die. Deal with it. Make the best of the time you have here. You have one life and that’s it. Treat others like you want to be treated. Help the world. Make society a better place. You don’t need to do anything else.

      Reply
  2. Byroniac

    Loved the video. LOL! I did not think that my opinion of IFB evangelists needed to be lowered further, but you have convinced me that I have been too charitable. I suppose to be any more cynical now, I would have had to have actually been an IFB insider. On a related note, judgment porn (and likewise revenge porn) is not a good look on a shrinking religious demographic that begs to be taken seriously and charitably while simultaneously claiming emulation-worthy status concerning morality and good works. Some Christians I really like and respect, but it ain’t these folks.

    Reply
  3. Avatar
    Hugh

    Every time someone talks/writes about ‘not wanting to take a chance on ending up in hell’ etc. etc. ,what they are really doing is revealing their TRUE motivation for being a ‘christian’. It’s NEVER about love with these people, only threats and fear. And it certainly isn’t anything to be proud of, or self-righteous about either….it’s simply COWARDICE masqueraded as ‘virtue’.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Howard G Grant

      Exactly. Fear beaten into them to the point of loving the abuser. Stockholm Syndrome is the appropriate diagnosis for the DISEASE of religion. I’m speaking particularly about the Abrahamic ones based on Judaism. Those “preachers” aka people who talk loud and shout as if that makes their commentary true, are abusers. They abuse their followers mentally and emotionally to the point where the abused fall under the control and manipulation of the abuser. It’s a sickness. It should be eradicated from this planet.

      No, I’m not calling for the eradication of believers. But I would have no problem taking them to court and telling them to either bring their deity to show up or their belief system would be banished from the public square, no longer funded, tax exempt, or have any role whatsoever in political discourse. We could solve a lot of the worlds problems that way.

      Reply
  4. Avatar
    Dedra McCoy

    Huge first of all I do it out of Love .Jesus is Love., and no Idw to go to hell .Who would. Ik that some Churches turn People away from God, but I’m Church of God ,and My Church helps People. My Church was built in a bad area, and My Pastor get out and talks to The addicts, drug dealers, and Prostitutes, and invites them to Church and doesn’t look down own them, and if he caught Church people disrespecting them, He will call them out and tell them if They have a problem with it. Go to another Church. He tries to bring People to Jesus with Love. So Speak for Your ownself. You know nothing about me. Id believe in Fake Preachers.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Bruce Gerencser

      You did say what you said in your comment, right? Had you bothered to take the time to learn a bit about me, read my autobiographical material, or read the commenting rules, you wouldn’t have said:

      “Jesus Loves You even though You Don’t Believe in Him. My Prayer is that You find The Truth. I would rather take my Chance in believing in Heaven and hell. I definitely don’t want to take a chance going to hell. I’m Church of God, and I have experienced The Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Meaning of True Love. I Love You and Pray that You find God in Your life.”

      Yet, you felt led by the “Holy Ghost” to preach AT me. And to what end? Thousands of Christians have come before you, Dedra. The unsolicited/unwanted preaching/sermons/testifying gets old after awhile. You stepped in shit. Own it and try to be a better person.

      Let me give you some Biblical advice:

      It’s stupid and embarrassing to give an answer before you listen. (Proverbs 18:13)

      Reply
      1. BJW

        But they never listen to you, Bruce. And I found trying to read her comment with its lack of actual spelling out of words to be a bit hard to understand.

        Reply
        1. Avatar
          Bruce Gerencser

          Sadly, you are right. 😢😢 All I can do is expose their hateful words and behavior—which seems to be pathological in the IFB church movement.

          Reply
    2. Avatar
      Hugh

      Second of all, the name is Hugh, although if ya wanna refer to me as HUGE, uhh huh huh, uh huh heh…….Anyway, I know what you believe in based upon your comment above, and really…that’s all I need. 🙂

      Reply
    3. clubschadenfreude

      Dedra, you don’t do anything out of love as far as I can see. You bother people and lie to them because of your need for validation.

      Your sad sadistic fantasies of hell are just that, your childish need to pretend that anyone who disagrees with you should be punished.

      Church of God people are no better than anyone else, and your denomination name is certainly not unique since lots of Christians want to pretend they are the only true ones. I got to see your folk up close when my brother was married in one. Such pretentious pious assholes. I was amused that only I and my husband, happily atheists were the only ones who thought to bring the wedding party drinks while they took a totally ridiculous number of photos.

      Reply
      1. Avatar
        Howard G Grant

        I grew up in the Church of God, initially with the Anderson movement and then we split off to another group. There have been so many splits, it’s absurd. And what’s funny is that they will all talk about each other going to Hell and needing to repent after they split.

        I agree with all you’ve said. Spot on. So glad I left that mess.

        Reply
        1. clubschadenfreude

          I grew up in a Presbyterian church, and then it split too. pretty common it seems.

          Reply
        2. BJW

          Oh hey Howard, I was in that church 40+ years ago. I guess the split happened since then? My boyfriend at the time went so I joined it.

          Reply
    4. Avatar
      Pastor

      To deny Heaven is to deny Jesus and that robs Christians of hope it is thievery it robs joy and it is slander because You call GOD a liar. One would have to wonder why would you fight so hard against something you don’t believe in ? And what gives you the right to tell others how they should believe ? It would be nice to be as smart as you think you are .Psalm 14-1 Roman’s 14 – 11 and 12 it is far better to do it now .

      Reply
      1. Avatar
        Bruce Gerencser

        https://brucegerencser.net/2021/10/why-are-evangelicals-so-easily-offended-by-my-writing/

        Reply
      2. Avatar
        Bruce Gerencser

        Why did you use a fake email address preacher man?

        Reply
      3. Avatar
        Astreja

        So why can’t your god defend its flock against us, “Pastor”?

        And what gives you the right to tell others what they should believe? For consistency, you need to resign from the pulpit and never discuss religion with anyone ever again.

        Reply
  5. Avatar
    Dedra McCoy

    Bruce I’m a Follower of Jesus Christ. Never said I was a follower of CT Townsend. I listen to different Pastors to See who I think is The real deal.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Sage

      There are quite a few things i could teach William, things like:

      Compassion for all people, no matter who they are or how they live.

      Accepting people instead of judging people.

      Caring for a person for who they are, not for what you want them to be.

      Viewing others as equals and not as substandard people that need to be fixed.

      Reply
      1. BJW

        Sage, at least online I find more compassionate atheists than compassionate Christians. I do know compassionate Christians in real life but online, not so many.

        Reply
    2. clubschadenfreude

      “Bruce I’m a Follower of Jesus Christ. Never said I was a follower of CT Townsend. I listen to different Pastors to See who I think is The real deal.”

      aka shopping around to see who agrees with you.

      Reply
    3. Avatar
      Howard G Grant

      I would recommend that if your spelling and grammatical skills are on an Elementary School level, that you should maybe stop listening to different “pastors” to see what YOU think is the “real deal.”

      Stop searching. What are you looking for anyway? It’s time to grow up and be an adult. Stop believing childish fairy tales to make yourself feel better about your life. You’re a result of many decisions beforehand. Our background and history places us where we are in life and sometimes, it takes immense courage, determination, drive, passion and a mental vision (I use that term loosely) to see our way out of bad circumstances.

      I grew up in poverty. And I was also super religious. I was destined to be a Pastor myself. And the more I saw of what took places in the so-called “Houses of God”, the more I realized that it was all a scam. Emotion driving, power hungry, money focused scam. I focused on my education, getting established in a CAREER (not a job) and then doing my best to learn everything I could to be the best at what I did. And it worked! I got out of poverty, I left behind childish fairy tales, I learned the true history of not only Christianity, but Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and other world religions. I didn’t limit myself and strove for higher knowledge. And what I found was that the biggest threat to humanity is not climate change or global warming, but zealous religious, fundamental bigots and racists who live in so much fear, they would kill the rest of us to make their fantasies come true.

      Grow up already. Get an education. Deal with the realities of life. Face the truth which means facing your fears and then dealing with them.

      Reply
  6. Avatar
    Bruce Gerencser

    You preached AT me on a post specifically about C.T. Townsend. You did a Google search that brought you to a post about Townsend. And you live in South Carolina, Townsend’s home turf. End of discussion.

    Reply
  7. Michael Mock

    Yeah, this rings hollow on several levels.

    Dedra,

    First of all, when you say your church “helps people” what exactly do you mean? What is it accomplishing? What are your metrics for “helping”? Anybody can talk to addicts, drug dealers, and prostitutes — pretty sure I’ve done all three, at one point or another — but whether your church and your pastor are doing any measurable good is highly questionable.

    Second: are you, or are you not, here to defend the reputation of C.T. Townsend? Do you, or do you not, think he’s “the real deal”?

    Third: as a believer, what is it that you think should make nonbelievers accept the existence of God and Jesus and trust in them for salvation?

    Reply
  8. BJW

    It’s not helping people if the pastor preaches at them, but doesn’t give them food, a job, housing, or actual help with their drug addictions.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Bruce Gerencser

      Talk is cheap, be it coming from a politician’s mouth or a preacher’s.

      Reply
    2. Avatar
      William

      So true BJW, in my experience most churches don’t even care about people with real actions. I’ve been sickened at seeing the accounts of churches, continually taking money off their congregants who are often living week to week. The poor and the needy never see any of the money.

      It sickens me that the lowly church goer is expected to trust the Lord to provide for them while the church doesn’t have to, instead having months and years of money in the bank.

      Reply
  9. Avatar
    GeoffT

    Your email ‘friend’ refers to grace and mercy, and it started me thinking about these words, especially when juxtaposed with God’s judgement. Grace I don’t really care about, because it depends entirely on God existing and bestowing you with his favour. Pretty irrelevant if God doesn’t exist. Mercy though? Surely mercy is the suspension of rightful justice. God judges you, pronounces sentence (go to hell) then for some inexplicable reason relents, saying it’s out of mercy. It’s completely arbitrary unless it has rules attached to it, such that ‘you will be granted mercy in the following circumstances…’. Of course then it simply becomes part of justice, in short, the word mercy, in the religious context, is obsolete.

    Reply
  10. Avatar
    Matilda

    Well said, all the comments I’ve just read here from Bruce and others about this pathetic excuse for a human being,Townsend. As a fundy of 50yrs…one of the most chilling, horrible verses in the bible to me, among many, many contenders is ‘Touch not the Lord’s anointed.’ I was in a church where some wanted elders to be appointed for life and others for a 5yr period before re-election was the rule. I said however holy a man was, no one was above temptation and that verse should not be used to allow someone to keep power….the coming of the internet has shown all of us how power is often held by those who shouldn’t have it, who mis-use it and sadly, blight the lives of many of their innocent victims!
    And to Dedra: Bruce – and others here have probably forgotten more scripture and theology than you’ll ever know. I think you’d agree, hope I’m not putting words in your mouth here, god gave us all a brain. It was only when we began to use it, to ask reasonable, rational questions that, often with great reluctance on our part, did we realise we’d been sold a pup. It’s all fiction and now the truth of that has set us free indeed.

    Reply
  11. Avatar
    Davie from Glasgow

    “How you can look at GODs beautiful creation and believe there is no creator is beyond me.” Oh man.

    How you can look at the wonders of the natural world and not take the time and interest to learn a bit about the science we’re continuing to perfect which neatly and elegantly explains it all is beyond me. Entirely.

    But I’ve also had to learn that I’m possibly in the minority in that I find learning and exploration fun. There are a lot of lazy minded people out there. For them – why learn about something by yourself when someone else (in this case I guess a self-important guy in a pulpit) can tell you what it is you think about things with no requirement for you to fire up the old grey matter whatsoever.

    Reply
  12. kittybrat

    Thank you for this. It is a stark reminder of why it’s a great thing to get far away from this type of “thinking”. Toxic and dangerous.
    BTW, LOVE the recording! HA!

    Reply
  13. Avatar
    … Zoe ~

    “I don’t know you …” – William
    Zoe: No truer words have been spoken.

    Reply
  14. clubschadenfreude

    what IS that woman wearing with the fake peals the size of quarters? Conservative women do love to wear them so they can clutch them in their hypocrisy?

    Reply
  15. Avatar
    William

    Not the William of this article here haha. Hey William the Baptist preacher, Christians should not show respect to people who don’t accept Christ? Let’s see what u bible says,

    “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.” Acts 5:41

    The disciples rejoiced when they heard things they didn’t want to hear about Jesus and suffered for his sake. The disciples got physically beaten (and worse), all you have is just someone who respectfully disagrees with you. But your pride gets in the way it would seem. William the preacher, I posit that what you consciously bring forward from the Bible is just something that suits your particular flavour of Christianity, rather than what the Bible you hold dear appears to actually teach about Christian grace and suffering.

    Thanks for the sermon, and I didn’t even have to dip into my pockets to hear it 🙂

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      … Zoe ~

      Sorry William. 🙂 I should have typed: William the Baptist preacher.

      Reply
  16. missimontana

    “There is nothing you can teach me.” At least he’s honest. This is why I quit speaking to Fundamentalists of all types. When a mind chooses to stay closed, there is no point in trying to change it. All one can do is expose the ignorance, which you do nicely.

    Reply
    1. Avatar
      Bruce Gerencser

      Certainty breeds arrogance. I know this for a fact since I once was an arrogant Evangelical preacher. 😂😢

      Reply
    2. Avatar
      Yulya Sevelova

      Love all the observations here ! That one statement by the S.Carolina Baptist preacher-” there’s nothing you can teach me”- could not be more RIDICULOUS, because Bruce indeed can teach these people, Dedra included. This would be how Bruce conducted himself when HE was a pastor who grew beyond those IFB protocols and cared deeply for his congregants, wherever he was living at that time. Hell yeah, there’s something to learn here alright,lol. These Townsend people are worshiping this guy, referring to him with upper case caps,etc. So bizarre. But again, it’s typical of the South, especially the Deep South. The deeper one goes, the crazier it gets. I was around these types of people years ago. No doubt, they are leaping for joy over the Carnage in Gaza right now !! I support Arab Spring, still do. American and Middle- Eastern politicians sabotaged what could have been a wonderful era. Lot of great people, especially young people making fun of their local Fundies( great cartoons,ha!)were lost to the world at that time. Here we go again. The Neoliberals and their policies brought this all on. Yikes.

      Reply
  17. MJ Lisbeth

    Bruce, I love the video.

    It reminds me of the period in my life when I wasn’t quite a full-blown atheist but my ability to believe in God was slipping away. Perhaps more important, at least to this story, organized Christianity (and most other religion) seemed irrational to me.

    Around that time, televangelists’ programs were becoming very popular. I watched some of them–for fun. In particular, I thought the BaKKKers were a hoot: Jim would preach and Tammy–looking like an overaged and overweight hooker–would wail, “I am sooo in loove with The Law-ad,” with mascara dripping down her cheeks.

    Reply

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