Warning. Snark Ahead! Easily offended Evangelical preachers should NOT read this post. You have been warned.
Much like Evangelical pastor Mark Hodges, Pastor James Thompson thinks I am sick because God is judging me; that it is likely that I am still a Christian and God has afflicted me with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, degenerative spine disease, herniated discs, peripheral neuropathy, and gastroparesis to get my attention — all because he wants me to love him again. Talk about a violent, jilted, pathetic ex-lover. And much like Hodges, the lazy Pastor Thompson made no effort to understand my story. Thompson, hailing from the Dallas area, read all of one post. To Thompson I say — quoting the book he believes is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Words of God — Answering before listening is both stupid and rude (Proverbs 18:13).
Thompson left the following comment on the post titled Evangelical Pastor Grant Hodges Says I am Sick Because God is Judging Me. My response is indented and italicized. All grammar and spelling are in the original. As you shall see, the good pastor is grammar challenged, but, hey, he knows God is going to roast me like a pig on a spit or refuse to let me play with the nice toys in Heaven.
I sure hope you did genuinely accept Christ years ago and have just fell [sic] into deep deception from the enemy.
Yes, I genuinely accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior at the age of fifteen. I’ve even been cicrumcised and baptized — three times — the baptism part, anyway. I can’t imagine getting circumised three times. I don’t have that much to work with. 🙂
I spent the next thirty-five years devotedly and unreservedly following Jesus. At the age of fifty, I left Christianity and I am now an agnostic atheist. The only deception was the lies I was told by my parents, pastors, and college professors, lies I spent twenty-five years repeating as a preacher. What I have found since divorcing Jesus is new life, the old life has passed away and all things have become new. All praise be to reason, skepticism, and science — the Holy Trinity.
If that be true then you have only loss [sic] rewards at the judgement instead of your soul.
What would I really lose? I still get to go to Heaven. I will still have a pain-free resurrected body. I will still get to eat at the Heaven location of Golden Corral. I am trying to figure out what it is you think I will lose by being a “saved” atheist? Maybe you will think I will lose rewards. What rewards? No pool pass? No preferred parking? No lawn service by Hey-Zeus? Or maybe my room in God’s Trump Hotel will only have a double bed instead of a California King?
If you were trusting in something else other than Christ then you were lost as a minister and still are as [sic] Anti-Christian agnostic “atheist”.
Well, I wasn’t, so we can dispense with that line of “logic.” I was every bit as much of a Christian as you are, probably more so. Would you like to compare theology and good works?
By the way, I am not anti-Christian. I am anti-Evangelical, anti-Fundamentalist, anti-IFB, anti-Asshole. Oh wait, I suppose that you think your peculiar brand of Christianity = True Christianity®?
Hell is real and is the eternal place for those who have chosen to reject Christ. Have you ever accidentally touched a hot stove or pot? I have! It hurts!
Hopefully that experience is at 5 seconds or less.
Imagine burning in torment for all eternity in your sins in a body that cannot die or be destroyed.
What evidence do you have for your claim that “Hell” is real? I would love to take a tour of Hell so I can know what my accommodations will be after I die. Is Hell listed on VRBO? Maybe I can look Hell up on the Internet and take a virtual tour.
What I am not going to do is take Pastor Thompson’s word for it. Hell is a religious construct, one used to elicit fear. People fearing judgment and Hell are more likely to seek out a remedy for their fear by going to the charlatans who sell the cure for the disease they have caused.
Like most Evangelical preachers, Thompson is into torture porn. In what other setting is threatening people with violence and death acceptable? Thompson has likely been trying to scare the Hell out of people for years. Sorry, that won’t work with me.
Thompson fails to understand that threatening me with Hell is a waste of time. Even Gawd, the Father, Hey-Zeus, and the Holey Ghost can’t reach me. I am an apostate, a reprobate. Not only don’t I fear Hell, I don’t fear Thompson’s God either. Both are myths, and I am not in the habit of fearing fairytale characters. I do, however, fear my wife. She wields a mean cast iron skillet.
Pastor Hodges is correct. You are likely sick because of the deception you have swallowed.
That I hope shows you were genuinely saved [sic] at Christ is giving you another chance to repent.
Because he could have just pulled the plug already and taken you.
What evidence do you have for your claim that I am “sick” because of the “deception I swallowed”? Most of my diagnoses predate my loss of faith. Snap, so much for that baseless assertion. Further, what evidence do you have for your claim that I am “deceived”? Perhaps you would like to discuss your beliefs, especially your claims about the Protestant Christian Bible, and then we can see who has been “deceived.” Time for you to throw some pearls down before swine. I think you will find I am quite conversant in all things Evangelical.
In Christ
Rev James.
What’s with the Rev. bit? Is Thompson trying to make me see him as a man of Gawd or a great theologian? Is he trying to assert his superiority over me? Child, please. I hated title mongers when I was a Christian, and I hate them even more now. (For the record, I am a Rev. too — ordained three times. See, James, my dick is bigger than yours. Email me for pics.)
Thompson read all of one post on this site before backing up his truck and dumping a load of shit on my doorstep. He made no effort to understand my story before passing judgment, threatening me with Hell, and saying I am sick because God is judging me.
Thompson cannot see that his “In Christ” is speaking loud and clear; that he is a terrible representative of the lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, the man filled with the fruit of the Spirit (which Thompson is not). To James Thompson I say, I heard you loud and clear.
Saved by Reason,
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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And Christians NEVER get sick because they BELIEVE in the One True God (R).
Which you did, until you didn’t.
By the way, I’ve been reading the book, Laziness does not Exist, about people who feel morally obligated to work harder than anyone else, and often end up with health problems. Sound familiar? 🙂
Darcy, I’ve read Laziness Does Not Exist too. It was like a breath of fresh air.
If someone else expects you to work preposterous and unhealthy hours on a chronic basis, especially in a salaried position where you can’t get paid for overtime… run!
And don’t fall into the trap of busy-work around the house till it’s time to fall into bed, either. Anything that’s important can wait for tomorrow, when you can do it with a refreshed mind and body (and probably faster and easier, too).
They never let up, do they? Bruce, do the “scare ’em into Church” pastors have any explanations for why devout Christians–the ones who pray and believe with all their hearts–get sick, too? It clearly isn’t all punishment for unbelief, so what do they think is happening?.
Wow, I am so convinced that there must be a God, and a living Christ, and salvation! All the love pouring from James Thompson’s writing. Why, it’s like he’s read all the verses about the sheep vs goats, and loving your neighbor, and love being the most important attribute for a Christian. NO, wait, it’s the complete opposite of everything I just posted.
Thompson’s silly fool nonsense about hell reminds me of the spoof military plaque ‘the beatings will continue until morale improves’.
I’m intrigued about this book,” Laziness” and I’ll be checking it out. As for Thompson,Hodges, and those other people, they need to get a grip. And realize that you can’t hammer someone into either believing in Jesus, or returning to him, with the tactics they’re using ! It seems as though they just like seeing themselves in print, or hearing themselves talking. There’s so much rotten behavior on the part of professing Christians that it boggles the brain ! Like what I read about ” Coach” Dave Daubenmire, of Pass the Salt Ministries, going to Ohio’s Serpent Mound sites, to leave rocks and other things there, at a place that local tribes like the Shawnees and Miamis regard as active sacred sites. There are burial sites there,put there before Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act, and thousands of years old. The local American Indian Movement chapter was there to block the interlopers as much as they could,given the ministry had lots more people with them- they were even spitting on the mounds as well( on You Tube). All this does is make Jesus look like an ass, at best ! I think one reason they do this stuff anyway,with the nagging,is because of the teaching that if you warn someone, and they don’t change, they get punished but you escape. It’s all about that ‘ fire insurance.’. There’s no attempt to reign in child abusers, or molesters, nor crazies, so there’s no credibility ether !! This is what Thompson and company need to understand. Until THEY are willing to do THIS, just shut up.
I don’t know who this Thompson person is, and since most people are aware that nagging me er works, yet they do it anyway- I have to wonder now if the idea is to bring on the very thing they claim they don’t want to see happen. I was reading Indian Country Today a while ago,and found the story about former coach, David Daubenmire, and his claim that the Ohio Serpent Mound sites are broadcasting ” dark energy.”. He wants to deposit bags of rocks and other things on the site,which is a cemetery for the tribes who held that region for thousands of years. Shawnees in particular. Daubenmire has a militant arm of his ” ministry” called The Salt and Light Brigade. That’s who went to the mound,and tried to get physical with the local members
of AIM, who were trying to intercept Salt. One old guy tried to shove the AIM leader out of the way, it’s on You Tube somewhere. My point is, since Daubenmire is a toxic Christian, who’s son had pleaded guilty to downloading child prn on the family computer in the tiny Hamlet where he still lives with his parents( 37 yrs. old)and is an obnoxious tryrant, he uses Christianity for a soap box. It’s always these types who do all of the nagging about atheism or backsliding. Even as they DRIVE people to those very positions ! No one can be hammered into going for Jesus, but this doesn’t penetrate their dense minds. They want to be in print,to be famous. I really now think that’s why so many populate the Peanut Gallery. Daubenmire is a Dominionist theocrat. I Googled him after reading about his brigade and their antics, spitting on the land included- on the Indian Country Today site this morning. All I can say is, poor America !
thanks, James for showing your god is to be considered nothing more than a petty tyrant, needing to hurt people to force them to obey it.
You know what? I’m starting to believe that James and his ilk (others of your kind, James) actually like God being a petty tyrant. Because that seems to be the behavior we see from these people: pettiness and tyranny. They LOVED good ol’ Trump, the master of both. Everyone considered it amazing when the white evangelicals supported Trump. Now we know better: they never had true love in their heart, the love described in the NT. Instead they show all signs of loving the idea of crushing their enemies.
I think you are on to something BJW. As for love described in the NT, there is vanishingly little. This god/jesus don’t even come up to the half-decent description of love in 1 Corinthians. Being so petty and fearful that you must kill/damn anyone who doesn’t agree with you is not love, and that is what Christianity is predicated on, those sadistic fantasies.
Yeah Clubs, and Christians make excuses every time THEIR god violates his own rules. I could never understand the story of Abraham and Isaac, and Abraham taking his son up the mountain to sacrifice his son. Abraham had to trust his sociopathic god, and lie in the process? And yet I never, not once, heard any Christians express surprise over this story.
yep that story is utterly bizarre. We have a god that is either just tormenting Abe, or is that stupid, and not omniscient/omnipotent, to need to test a human.
and not one eyelash is batted by a Christian. They are just good sycophants and dare not question their tyrant.
Wing-nuts sign their verbal vomit with ‘In Christ’…. Where the fuck ‘in-Christ’ do these yahoo-blubbers mean?
Another shallow, tiny pool appears on the endless cement sidewalk, In-Christ, indeed…
Hi James,
The Jesus of the Gospel according to Luke is supposed to have said: “Be compassionate just like your Father in heaven is compassionate, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” (Luke ch.6).
Would anyone with an ounce of compassion bring sickness upon another person? So if your Jesus or your God would do such a thing, isn’t he deficient?