A Fundamentalist Christian woman by the name of Lucinda Palestrant sent me the above email several years ago. Palestrant came to this site via a Google search for Darwin Fish. In 2015, I wrote a post about Fish titled, Darwin Fish, A True Prophet of God. I described Fish this way: Darwin Fish, the truest Christian on earth, a Fundamentalist on steroids. Evidently, Palestrant is also a member of that elite, super-sanctified, elect remnant of Christians who supposedly will someday be rewarded by Jesus for their mind-numbing. devotion to what they believe are the TRUE teachings of the Bible. Heaven awaits them, their reward for stoutly standing for true Christianity®, while the illimitable sea of humans, past, present, and future, will be cast into outer darkness, facing eternal torture and suffering because they were born in the wrong country, raised in the wrong home, or had the wrong beliefs. (See Why Most Americans are Christian.) And for people such as myself, those who have full knowledge of the truth, yet reject it and lead others astray? Hell, fueled by God’s hatred of sin, awaits.
Palestrant warns me: The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. (Psalm 94:11) Evidently, this verse is supposed to scare me. God knows what you are thinking, Bruce, Palestrant admonishes, thinking that I will quake in my Sketchers over the very thought of her God reading my mind. Here’s what Palestrant fails to understand: I think her God is a myth, no more able to read my mind than Leonard Nimoy — of Star Trek fame — is able to do a mind-meld and read my innermost thoughts.
As a writer, public figure, and a well-known atheist, I understand that my written and spoken words matter. Virtually every day that I am physically able, I send out my words to be read by thousands of people. For almost six years now, my editor, Carolyn, has edited my writing, helping me to hone my writing skills, saving me from countless careless, imprecise errors. My goal has always been the same: to passionately and effectively tell my story in such a way that it infuriates Fundamentalists, helps those who have been harmed by Fundamentalism, and provides a voice for those who have been psychologically savaged by Evangelical Christianity. (See Are Evangelicals Fundamentalists? )I consider it a great honor to have the Lucinda Palestrants of the world tell me that I am leading people to Hell. Since the Biblical Hell is about as real as Donald Trump’s Christianity, the only “hell” I am leading readers to is the one filled with reason and freedom. It is in this “hell” people find that they are free to follow the path of life wherever it leads. No longer shackled by Fundamentalist dogma, former Evangelicals are free to embrace the wild, wonderful (and dangerous) world on their own terms. I can only hope that Lucinda Palestrant will someday experience the wonders of a mind liberated from the bondage of the Christian Bible.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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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Yep. The Pied Piper of Blasphemy. I knew you weren’t quite right…
If Bruce is the pied piper of blasphemy, are we the rats or the children?
Yes. Yes we are.
Ami, you ratfink!
Why mince words? Call me a rat bastid!!!
“Since the Biblical hell is about as real as Donald Trump’s Christianity.” Lol
It is beyond me why Evangelicals follow anyone who clearly doesn’t fit their tribe, only because he sweet-talkes them a little. Perhaps it’s what they want to hear? An ego thing?
I have to say, however, ‘Lucinda Palestrant’. What a wonderful name!
She should have been a film star with a name like that, rather than a world hater.
And how is that Christianity, especially the evangelical kind, with its bigoted hatred of everything even slightly different, but very especially women (is being born a woman not just a psychological disorder; perhaps they could be sent to a rehabilitation camp?), generates so much support from…women. Odds are they’ll be stoned to death, or at the very least made to do all the menial tasks that are beneath the dignity of a man. Yet somehow they seem to thrive on the lemming mentality.
I have often wondered about that very thing. My mom is, to put it politely, a doormat. She defers to everyone within a 20 mile radius, male or female.
She waits on my dad. Although that’s less of a patriarchy thing and more of a co-dependent thing. You know you finally grew up when you’re able to psychoanalyze your family without whapping your head against the wall.
Mom thinks that all the bad things that happen are somehow right. That she did something to deserve it. Whatever ‘it’ is. It’s a really odd thing to witness now that I *am* older. In retrospect, I see that she’s been this way all along, what’s changed is my perspective.
I blame a great deal of it on her parents, but more of it on her heavenly father. She does everything to please him.
Well I can only assume that she is not a Calvinist as they consider the ‘Elect’ to have been chosen for salvation before the foundation of the earth. So based on that teaching us mere mortals can’t lead anyone to Hell.
It has to be more complicated than that, otherwise why doesn’t Lucinda Palestrant heed the siren call to Hell?
The Bible itself withers under Psalm 94:11…its own words lead it to condemnation.
“the Biblical hell is about as real as Donald Trump’s Christianity”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAA!!!!
Well and properly stated but for the HAHA’s… this is no laughing matter (burp)…..
But trump is a real TRUE CHRISTIAN™. At least according to james dobson of bisexuality=orgy fame.
If heaven is where Lucinda is heading, then upgrade my ticket to Hell to first class, please. I’d rather be there than spending eternity listening to a muppet like her.
Lead me not into temptation, for I can find the way myself.
Matt–Can I use that?
And this post was from a time before we knew that Christian theocrats were happy to have Trump as president. Hard to believe there was a time when they agonized about it for a little bit. But once they made up their minds they were all in for his bigotry and hatred. So all of these Christian types who come to this blog don’t impress me with their passive-aggressive assholeness. And I can’t stand to see them mess with Bruce but at least we can all skewer them. Their righteousness is as filthy rags.
BJW–Hard to believe, isn’t it, that there was time, however brief, when they agonized about it? I think the reason they went all-in on Trump was that, deep down, they are White Nationalists who equate Christianity with whiteness—and male dominance. That also is a reason why some of them also support Putin: they see him as representing the White Christian nation they believe, however erroneously, Russia to be.
I have my suspicions that Lucinda Palestrant is the half-sister of Dolores Jane Umbridge, who replaced Albus Dumbledore as Head of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Benny S, you’re probably right!
Party in hell, I’ll bring the chips and guacamole!
Obstacle–Make the guac extra spicy, please!