I put out the call to readers, asking them for questions they would like me to answer. If you have a question, please leave it here or email me. All questions will be answered in the order in which they are received.
Tammy asked:
Are there any famous/successful pastors who have not had affairs, committed crimes, been guilty of fraud, etc?
They’ve fallen one after another like dominoes . . .
Tammy, along with her husband Jim, has been my friend for years. When Polly and I walked away from Christianity in 2008, Tammy and Jim walked the path with us, providing love, kindness, and support.
I suspect there’s a bit of sarcasm in Tammy’s question. That said, rarely does a day go by without me receiving a Google Alert about this or that preacher committing a crime — usually sex crimes. In 2017, I started the Black Collar Crime Series. This series primarily focuses on crimes perpetrated by Evangelical preachers. As of this date, I have published 800+ articles. I also have 200+ stories that I have not yet posted.
While most Evangelical preachers, famous or not, do not commit crimes, thanks to the Internet, we now know that Evangelicalism has a huge problem with sexual assault, rape, and other predatory behaviors perpetrated by pastors, evangelists, youth directors, missionaries, deacons, worship leaders, parachurch leaders, college professors, and other church leaders. When I first started the Black Collar Crime Series, Evangelicals told me that predatory preachers were just a few bad apples. Four years later, it’s evident that there are more than just a few bad apples in the proverbial apple barrel. We now know Evangelicalism’s sex scandals are every bit as pervasive as those found in Roman Catholicism.
Are Evangelical churches “safe”? Maybe. If I were a member of or visiting an Evangelical church, I wouldn’t let my children out of my sight. I would NEVER allow my teen children to attend youth-focused classes or ministries. If the Black Collar Crimes Series has taught me anything, it is this: predators hide in plain sight. The same goes for seeing a pastor for counseling. I wouldn’t recommend ever being alone with a pastor. Sadly, way too many pastors “prey’ on vulnerable church members, using their positions of authority to engage in sex with “consenting” adults (which is illegal in most states, but rarely prosecuted).
I know some Evangelical preachers will be butthurt over me painting with such a broad brush. I also know most preachers are decent, thoughtful, caring people. However, there’s an awful stink coming from the apple barrel, and little is being done to eliminate the smell. Everywhere we look, we see coverups. The largest Protestant denomination in the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), has an alarming sexual abuse problem. What has the SBC done to address this problem? Nothing outside of referring the “problem” to a board for study.
Most clergy sex crimes go unreported; thus, we can’t know the percentage of Evangelical preachers committing crimes. Famous, big-name, megachurch pastors surround themselves with handlers. It is common for megachurches to have security forces. In addition, pastors have personal handlers/assistants. Often, when church members report misconduct by their pastors, these handlers make the “problems” go away. Brave is the person willing to go public about their pastor’s misconduct. Such people often have their lives ruined by the defenders of predatory preachers. That’s why when people contact me and share stories of abuse, I believe them.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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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It’s not the bad apples – it’s the bad barrells!
Got a vomit-inducing message from a catholic on my social media about priests who abuse being like the ‘few bad apples’ in any barrel. He said when a plane crashes, it makes headlines around the world but no one ever thinks of the unreported thousands of planes in the sky flying safely every day. I replied that the difference is that every plane crash is thoroughty investigated by experts who then publish their findings internationally so that the fault doesn’t happen again, unlike churches. As you say, the whole barrel rotted years ago.
Sadly, this “circling the wagon” sentiment is everywhere, even affecting the victims themselves. I once ran across a comment made by a priest’s abuse victim on a Catholic-affiliated forum. He said that the reason he didn’t leave the Catholic Church was because he was convinced that it was the Truth. I wonder how much of the convincing involves the threats of eternal damnation. My heart sank when I read that.
I’m pretty naïve, and 30 years ago I would never have believed in any pastor, anywhere, in almost any church would be doing sexual assaults, sex with minors etc etc. And to think we Protestants felt so self-righteous over all the priests assaulting children, we couldn’t see it was a power and authoritarian problem, not a specific religion problem.
BJW, I was the same (naïve) but Bruce’s blog posts have been very educational (and alarming).
Me too, BJW. Until I started following certain Christian bloggers who routinely exposed the rampant abuse happening in Evangelical/Protestant churches. The bottom line is always power and influence over people.
I then found a link to Bruce’s blog in one of those posts – that was how I discovered The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser.
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Authoritarian systems create excellent conditions for abuse. Add to that the belief that a pastor is called by God, is God’s mouthpiece, hands, representative in all ways, and people are reluctant to see abuse even when it’s blatantly obvious.
Any organization is susceptible to sexual abuse, but organizations led by authoritarian men in a culture in which they rule supreme is particularly vulnerable. I will never again attend a church which teaches patriarchy and/or complimentarianism, yet another heresy of the Christian Right, which make the Church of the the men, by the men, and for the men.
Christianity of the evangelical, fundy sort is designed to harm. It is founded on the sick notions put forth in Genesis, The Garden of Eden fairy tale. Preachers harm because their training is to harm others, to convict them of their worthless state, the seduce and cajole, to take money. It is no wonder at all that they then start to get-off on the trainiing and discover more ways to hurt others.
The preacher calls it love, this systemic abuse…