Published on August 17, 2000. At the time, I was the pastor of Our Father’s House in West Unity, Ohio. This is a good example of how I used to think about life, God, the Bible, sin, and culture. This was not a Letter to the Editor. I wrote it for the Community Voice editorial column on the editorial page of The Bryan Times.
It is time that we make some radical changes to our printed money and the pledge of the Allegiance. Both our printed money and the Pledge of Allegiance give testimony to the historical truth that the United States was a country that believed in God. Not just any God, but Jehovah God, the God of the Christian Bible.
Sadly, we as a nation no longer believe in Jehovah. Due to misguided thinking about pluralism and tolerance, we have become a nation of many gods. Those that dare assert that we were founded as a Christian nation (and a Protestant Christian nation at that) are labeled narrow-minded, bigoted, intolerant miscreants.
The God attested to on our printed money and in the Pledge of Allegiance is no longer allowed to be mentioned in our Country. Recently, a young girl wanted to sing the song Kumbya at a camp talent show. She was not permitted to sing this song because it mentioned the word Lord. Government schools have eradicated every vestige of God from the classroom. The very schools that were founded on Christian principles (Just look at a set of McGuffey Readers) have not only left that foundation, but try to insist such a foundation never existed. School officials are so afraid of God (or is it the god called the ACLU) that children no longer have Easter break. Instead they have spring break. Children are given two weeks off at Christmas, yet they are never told what Christmas is. Attend the average government school Christmas program and you will come away with the conclusion that Christmas is all about snow, Rudolph, Frosty, et al. Pages could be written on the deliberate banishment of Jehovah from every aspect of public life.
What are the reasons for this happening? They are several. First, there is the mythical, so-called “separation of Church and State.”The separation clause is routinely quoted by government and school officials when they want to dismiss the religious requests and activities of others. Truth is, what is really happening is that Jehovah is the only God not welcome. All other gods are quite welcome.The god of humanism is quite welcome.The new age god is welcome.This past school year, in a Williams County elementary class room, a teacher took class time to teach the children about serial killers. Our children can be taught about such perverse things but they can not be taught the solution to serial killing (faith in God)? Schools try to enforce a moral and ethical code yet they fail. Why? You cannot have morals and ethics without a religious foundation. Morals and ethics demand an answer to the question “WHY is this wrong?” Why is it wrong to have sex before marriage? Why is it wrong to steal? Without God and His standard, the Ten Commandments, we have no foundation for morality and ethics.
Another reason is the myth called toleration. Liberals and conservatives alike bandy about the thought of toleration. The foundation of toleration is that all truth is equal and that all viewpoints are valid. Our country has become one big comparative religion class. Truth is, there is no such thing as true toleration, nor can there be. Christians believe the Bible to be their standard of morality and ethics. They believe the Bible to be, not just one truth among many, but THE TRUTH! Christians are called on to love what God loves and hate what God hates. Yes, we are a narrow, intolerant bunch because we dare suggest there is but one God, one way to heaven. We dare suggest there is but one moral and ethical code, the Bible. We dismiss arguments couched in words “well that’s your opinion“ and we reply by saying “Thus saith the Lord.” Matters such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, drunkenness, abortion etc. are not matters for political debate. The Bible is clear on such matters.
It is amazing how we have redefined that which God calls sin. Homosexuality is called an alternative lifestyle. Drunkenness is called a disease. The adulterous partner is now called the significant other. On and on and on it goes. God said “Be not deceived…For whatever a man sows that he will also reap.” We are reaping our harvest in America. The foundations are crumbling. Is anyone paying attention?
It’s time we either admit that Jehovah is dead and remove His name from our money and the pledge of allegiance or perhaps it is time we reassert the kingdom rights of the true and living God. God’s people need to stand up and be counted. Not in Marches for Jesus, but in the workplace, the school. the government and in every public arena of life. We need to sound forth that name which is above every name. That name, and only that name, by which men shall be saved.
Notes
This article might shed some light on why local Christians don’t know what to do with my defection from Christianity. I was a leader, a spokesman for the faithful. I wrote what they wished they could say. And now? An atheist? How can such things be?
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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Because you were never SAVED, numbnuts??!!
Haha! Just teasin’, bro!
Powerful stuff. As I read it, I thought: “wow, how would the Bruce I know debate THIS one?”
I have been humbled at various times in my life. I believed one thing and another proved true. I truly believed and I was wrong. It is difficult to believe in that self afterwards, to know that what I accept as my own truth, might not be ultimately my truth. But that is what Science treats, day by day, the proven hypothesis set aside by new proof of it being wrong or less accurate overall. I make much of the joy of being able to tell the simple truth out loud about what I believe today. I do not tell someone else to believe it for themselves. But to be able to say the truth, to hear it is pretty special. Thank-you for your bravery, Bruce and for refusing to hide the truth.
I’ve spouted some intolerant opinions myself but often felt uncomfortable. I knew that I had to be intolerant because my religion and God asked that of me but I’m a people pleaser at the same time, so it was quite hard. Usually I felt very torn, wanting to make my parents and God proud, but not wanting to be seen as a bigot by ‘the world’ either.
Sometimes staying silent was therefore my best option, but that caused a lot of religious guilt: being ashamed of Jesus meant he would be ashamed of me and so he might not help me (against God’s judgement) anymore. Speaking up, on the other hand, caused me to be afraid of a backlash from ‘the world.’
I can’t understand how people say you weren’t a True Christian ™. I know where they are coming from, but this, and some of the other things you posted, clearly show that you were fully invested in Christianity and its beliefs. Of course, they want to believe you were never true, never the real deal, but all the arguments are there. You were clearly a warrior for God against those evil atheists with their so-called separation of Church and State and tolerating all sinful behavior… It doesn’t sound like someone who’s having a laugh and secretly believes none of it, far from it.
You preached against the very evil that you are embracing today.
It is hard to understand. It does validate scripture where Paul says Christ remains faithful and cannot deny himself.
You have obviously come under some severe demonic deception and oppression 😭
Actually, it’s easy for thinking, rational people to understand. Only Fundamentalist Christians can’t understand my story. Why? Their theology keeps them from thinking rationally. 📦
My wife doesn’t like you calling her a demon. 😈😈😂😂
Joe, “demons” are a figment of the primitive imagination. Grow up.
You got it wrong Bruce. Christian Fundamentalists have actually told me the name that is above every name. They tell me “Bible” is the name that is above every other name. It can’t be “Jesus” because no one on Earth would even know about Jesus if it were not for the Bible. Therefore, the name “Bible” is without any doubt whatsoever the name that is above every other name, I guess that must exclude the Holy Dad of Jesus. No one would even know about him if it were not for the Bible.
My family must be holy because it has the surname “Bible” in it. That is Walter and Caroline Bible. The Bible family hails from Morristown, Tennessee. That is pronounced “Marstown,” Tennessee, and if you ever visited there, you’d know why!!!
Another deeply fundie Christian area not far from there is Cocke County, Tennessee. Rumor has it that every male in the county is a mean, son of a bitchin’ bastard who had just as soon kill you as look at you. Cocke County has that reputation from one end of Tennessee to the other—–and even outside of the state. How can all those people be conservative Christians and think like that?
Bruce, you’ve come a long way, baby!
Charles, fellow Tennessean here. My ancestors settled in what became the McMinnville area in the early 1800s. Some of my forebears moved to Nashville in the late 1800s, and I was raised there. I moved to NJ to get away from a lot of things. My daughter is in college at Vanderbilt and is experiencing some really devout Christian kids in classes, which she didn’t experience in NJ. Still having family there, I have warned her about mentioning she is atheist – we are close with my aunt, uncle, and cousin who are liberal Christians, but they’re not the ones we are concerned about. My brother and his wife are fervent fundy charismatic Christians who see demons behind every yoga pose and TV screen… Fun stuff, right? (My son is in college at Elon in NC so he sees his share if it too – I had to warn the kids about fundamentalist Christianity before they went to college – now they see it).
Torture porn deleted
“SET THEM ON FIRE!!!” Says Joe. I’m a sadist who loves to see people suffer.
Comment from John, Joe, Tom . . . Edited for clarity 😂😂
You may delete my bullshit and torture porn from this page. But you WILL NOT hinder my lustful desire for gay porn 🍆🍆 buddy boy.
Have a nice day 🙂
Admit it, Joe – You want to watch Satan hump the Holy Spook, don’t you? 😀