Joe, the Evangelical, continues to email me. The count is now up to twenty-five comments and twenty emails. Today, Joe emailed me at 12:19 pm, 12:29 pm, 12:46 pm, 1:34 pm, 1:54 pm, 4:06 pm, 6:17 pm, and 8:08 pm. Joe even went over to ex-christian.net and said:
I don’t know but thought I would drop in to say I am still investigating every angle of deconversion. An older ex-Christian named Bruce in Ohio just threw me off his board and told me to f&$#$k off! I remembered that the Moderator here has much thicker skin, and is far more respectful to people. The man in Ohio immediately took offense when I quoted 1 John 2:19. But I wasn’t the one stating what it says in the verse— John the Apostle was!
I have not responded to any of Joe’s emails today, and I don’t plan to do so. I do plan to address some of what he said later in this post.
Here’s what Joe — a man who thinks he is Jesus — had to say:
Email One
I should have known you would do this. You opened up a door for me to respond to you. I tried to be civil in my response to you. I even explained I never said you were going to hell. But you insist on painting me in the worst way possible, and still insist you have the right to tell another person to f$#$k off at your leisure. You have only reinforced by your posts the fact that reconverts are very, very angry people with malicious attitudes. I will also share your blog with others to show them how a deconverted man reacts to discussions about God. How his hate is the dominant force in his life. You lost your soul for sure when you turned from Jesus—you no longer have a heart. Hate consumes you and is hunting you down now. Praise God he has saved me and continued to keep me. I pray I never wind up like you.
Email Two
This will absolutely be my last email to you Bruce. One day this will be reviewed as everything else will be before the Judgment seat of Christ. You will realize on that day that MANY people have tried to persuade you to repent from your decision to deconvert. You will realize then how you have treated those same people. I don’t care what you say Bruce— I genuinely continued to post on your site not to snidely judge people but to hopefully warn them and cause them to turn. But you are too hateful to accept that. I think there are other “lurkers” on your site that will be amazed to see the amount of hate you have towards Jesus Christ. In trying to “reveal” me on your site you have truly revealed yourself. I hope they see that and turn back to Jesus, seeing what they will turn into if they continue to reject Jesus. You may have committed the sin in 1 John 5:16 and I pray others will read your posts and beware. I know your response to all of this: f&$&$k off! Unfortunately those are the main words in your vocabulary now. Hopefully I’ve made your board more interesting. I note the SEQUELS keep coming Bruce. Otherwise the board is quite predictable and boring. Narcissists normally do have quite boring boards. Yours is no exception.
Email Three
By the way, you continue to shoot yourself in the foot Bruce. It’s your blog but you are centering on ME. I’m very flattered. Will there be a Part 5 and 6 also. I’ll go get my popcorn.
Email Four
It’s time to ‘fess up. You’ve been played. That’s why I’ve repeated twice now that you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I was VERY surprised the last Deconversion board that I was on I was the one who left–I wasn’t “thrown off” like you are doing. lol.
That moderator was VERY COOL and kept his composure. He knew I would continue to make the claims I was making but allowed me to continue. There were no personal attacks between he and myself, but I could tell he was very angered at my saying he was never a believer. I expected to be cussed at and removed but he never did. I had written a thread called “Israel: proof of God’s existence”. It might appear if you Google it. I’ve forgotten the name of the site.
But every other site I have visited had the same result: make a few posts, suffer harsh criticism, a few begin to cuss at you (but I never cuss back), and eventually the moderator bans you, or takes away your rights to post.
When I stumbled onto your site about Halloween and realized you were a deconvert, I said to my wife “I’ll bet I get banned within a week”. LOL. You took away my posting rights within TWO DAYS.
The majority of you are very angry people. Just read the posts on your “I hate Jesus” thread Bruce. So it doesn’t take much to get most of you all riled up. There is the occasional Michael (whom I take seriously) who is cordial and civil. But the majority are just like you Bruce. Ever heard the term “thick skin”? Deconverts do NOT have thick skin. LOL.
I email you again and again to see how much more I can rile you up. Man, you’ve dedicated 3 threads to me due to your anger.
I showed the most recent addition to the thread, PART 3 to my wife and she said “you should stop doing that. Someone is going to have a heart attack”. But I told her it was too much fun watching the reactions I was getting. I told her that “These people hate Jesus so much they spend HOURS talking about it”. And you most certainly do.
And it is pure guilt. You are afraid and I don’t blame you. You are rejecting the Lord of eternity. It displays itself in your anger and repeated reassurances to one another that Jesus is all “make-believe”. But Hebrews 10:26-31 states you are “expecting fearful judgment” It is something you cannot shake off no matter how hard you try to.
But you have all made your own choice to “trample upon the Son of God” (Hebrews 10:27) so I will continue to “play you” Bruce.
Oh– did I just ruffle your little feathers by emailing you again? Whoops! LOL. “How dare he continue to email me? I am Bruce Almighty and I asked him not to!” Ha ha ha ha
Will this email be in Part 4? Please entitle it “I continue to shoot myself in the foot” followed by 4 eggplants shaped like penises. That would be great. Ha ha.
Email Five
Google: “Deconversion Israel proves the existence of God”. Scroll down about 6 links. This is where I posted as Fish153 for quite a while. It is www.ex-christian.net. The Moderator was amazing. Very patient person. I truly admire him. He allowed me to post many different things and was confident enough in his own skin to not take it personally or ban me. I eventually left the board on my own. But I was told to f$@#k off many times by those without thick skin. I would feign surprise at their actions, but would never return the cursing.
I left the board admiring the man for allowing ALL views. I leave your board laughing. Another one shoots himself in the foot! Lol.
Email Six
Sing it with me Brittany: “Oops I did it again. I emai-eld Bruce, and now he’ll get mad, and send those egg plants…”Hey I wanted to let you know I’m drumming up readers for your blog. I was on another deconvert blog where they have allowed me to continue for some time now. I mentioned you. I didnt give your full name. I just said “A thin-skinned ex-Pastor and ex-Christian from Ohio named Bruce threw me off his board for quoting 1John 2:19 and stating he was never a Christian”. These people are used to seeing 1 John 2:19 quoted and being told they were never Christians. It goes with the territory. I also mentioned you have given me top billing on your board— even making sequels in parts 2 and 3 (so far). So I’m sure some will come to visit very soon. I think it’s always nice to get more readers for a blog. It definitely cannot hurt. All the best to you!
Email Seven
This is Joe’s wife. He doesn’t know I am sending this. Please stop encouraging him. You said “if he emails me again I will post it below”. Of course he e-mailed you. You left a door open for him.
I am pleading with you to stop. Ever since Joe was very young he has been extremely frightened of Santa Claus. He was frightened to the point of psychosis.
A couple of days ago my husband dashed into the living room in tears and cried out “Santa Claus just told me to fuck off!!”
I seriously did not know what he meant until I saw your picture. “Why? Why? Why would Santa Claus tell me to fuck off?? He asked me.
All I could tell him is that maybe Santa is frustrated. Maybe he can’t fit down a chimney any more.
I know you’re not Santa, but he thinks you are. After he saw your picture his psychosis returned. He is a sick man.
And then, to top it off you send eggplant emogis. Joe is allergic to two things: Eggplant and Ohio. We have to avoid Ohio because he breaks out in hives if he goes near there.
So I have to ask you. For the sake of my husband please cease and desist. Do not “invite” him to e-mail you again or he will most definitely. I am asking politely. Thank you for listening.
Email Eight
You know, I had read almost everything on your blog except “Dear Jesus”. Deconverts always say it was nothing personal in their lives that turned them away from God. They say it was because of something they read, or due to Science, etc.
But it ALWAYS turns out to be something in their lives that caused them to turn away. When I read “Dear Jesus” I now see clearly why you are an apostate. You “served” Jesus, but “blamed” Jesus your whole life.
Your Mom, the divorce–“where were you Jesus?” I understand now Bruce. I PROMISE to never send you another email. I have badgered you with emails because I was genuinely upset that a former “Pastor” would tell me to “f” off.
There is another site that I am visiting again. They are a bit more understanding. There are some quick to curse there also, but that is to be expected.
I wasn’t aware of your sad past.. I’m truly sorry. But I have a far better understanding for your deconversion now. “Dear Jesus” is a real eye-opener to those looking for reasons for deconversion. My past is also sad but I don’t blame God for it.
Good luck with your blog. I am deleting every link to your blog, and regret barraging you with e-mails. Now that I understand your reason for turning back I regret not stopping earlier.
— end of emails —
Joe’s comments speak for themselves. I do want to address several things.
First, The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser is a blog, not a board.
Second, this is my personal blog. This blog has comment rules. Joe read these rules. He deliberately chose not to abide by these rules. He has no respect for me or the readers of this blog. I gave Joe rope to hang himself because I thought his comments (and emails) would be instructive, a reminder of the vile, ugly underbelly of Evangelical Christianity. Joe has certainly delivered.
Third, Joe has not read most of the 4,369 posts on this site. In fact, based on the server logs, Joe has read less than twenty posts.
Fourth, based on the server logs, this site has received no traffic from any of the ex-Christian sites.
If you have been reading this series of posts, it should be clear to you by now that Joe is a gaslighter, a liar, a bully, someone who isn’t used to someone standing up to him.
While Joe “apologized” in his last email, I don’t buy his apology, nor do I accept it. Joe is like an abusive husband who beats the shit out of his wife, abuses her with his words, and psychologically terrorizes her. And then, one day, he profusely apologizes to his wife, professes his love for her, promises to never, never abuse her again, and gives her $100 to buy a new dress. All is well, right? Nope. Days or weeks later, the husband abuses his wife again, a pattern of behavior that has been going on for years. Cause harm, apologize, cause harm, apologize, cause harm, apologize.
Joe tried to harm me, but failed. He tried to psychologically terrorize me, but failed. he tried to wound me, but failed. You see, contrary to what Joe says, I do have thick skin. Scores of “Joes” have come before Joe Sperling. I have been attacked and abused by God’s chosen ones over, and over, and over again. Years ago, Joe’s emails and comments would have caused harm. A decade of counseling has taught me how to deal with the Joes of the world. One way is to expose them, and that’s what I’ve done. Another way is to take their power away, the power to cause harm. And finally, putting people such as Joe in their place can be cathartic. I told Joe to “go fuck yourself,” not out of anger, but because I can. Joe can’t control what I say and that infuriates him.
Joe has repeatedly said he wouldn’t contact me again. We will see if he is a man of his word.
This is the last post in this series. Any further emails will be appended to this post.
Joe send me the following after this post was published:
Bruce– You tried to harm me and you succeeded. You tried to terrorize me and you succeeded. You tried to belittle me and you succeeded. Congratulations and goodbye.
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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Joe. Showing us once again (as if we needed it) that the stereotype of Overbearing Christian Asshole exists FOR A REASON.
I wish I believed in the Christian gawd… because if he existed, he’d know what a poor example of humanity and reason and brotherly love Joe is and treat him accordingly.
But alas, all that can be done is to tell him to fuck off and hope that he will, indeed, fuck off.
A man doubts Joe (and his fictitious wife) can stay away from reading this blog or contacting you, Bruce. He’s already bankrupted twice (based on public info.) because he’s condemned to be a loser like his Verführer aka Agent Orange. It would have been better if Joe (and his Jesus) had never been born.
I agree that purported email from his wife is really Joe. Joe clearly has psychological problems, like many evangelicals who have been so immersed in the culture all their lives that they can’t for a moment understand why others see it as the utter nonsense it is. Quoting bible verses to an atheist in support of your position is just ridiculous: what if a Muslim told Joe he was wrong but quoting the Q’ran?
Yes, my first thought was that the wife’s email didn’t ring true, it was probably Joe. Sadly I did have a friend whose husband was slowly, slowly, inch by inch descending into a form of dementia. It took her and her family some time to realise this is what was happening and she really did have to respond to some he’d emailed and said slightly irrational things to. If Joe has dementia, which seems likely, or other mental health issues, then I’m truly sorry for him. Especially if it’s that hideous, horrible illness dementia.
I gotta admit, my kneejerk reaction to the wife’s email was “Did Bruce write this?” 😀
(Which is unfair to Bruce, I know he wouldn’t do something like that without a disclaimer)
But as has already been said, Joe is troll, and as much as I’d like to agree that he has mental issues, in this case I suspect he was just trying a different style of lure.
When you confront a person who gaslights, do not let them get away with such manipulation, and reveal their gaslighting for all to see, they can responds in many ways. One way is to move on and never approach you again while moving to other victims. Others may move on while loudly blaming you for what happened and denying everything in spite of the evidence, hoping you remain silent. But Joe is the extreme end of response, knowing they look bad, decide to go all with a full press gaslight event. “HAHa sucker, you fell for it, I was playing you and you fell for,it. Now you are exposed by dong what everyone knew you would do.”. Once again saying you are the problem, while creating a clean slate for themselves by claiming their past comments were fake, so there is no responsibility.
The hole is a pretty impressive hole. If his wife is truly concerned she will need to,fix this in her own, and not expect those he attacks to be helpful. The source of the problem is clear.
But I will agree with Joe on one thing. Santa. I too have a problem with Santa. I won’t go into details but….um..let’s just leave it there. Santa knows all anyway.
One question though. I am sure I was being very reserved, but apparently I am touchy, expecting everyone to support my right to happiness (wow, now that is funny, I’m surely not on the right path to expect people to respect that goal), and apparently not a nice person. I thought I was being very nice to Joe? I tried so hard to be nice!
Joe is merely a troll, pure and simple. He wants us to give him kindness while he is a smug, self-entitled prick. And hopefully he is done and gone, but no one can believe anything he’s said.
Agreed. Joe is a cowardly baiter, and a liar. If he is truly a good, pious Christian, he will shut up now, and never contact you again.
I bet Joe does all his blogging from Mom’s basement. Seems the ‘ incel’ type. There are many Christians who drop by to read the blog, without stopping to leave inane comments as Sperling does, and he doesn’t care if the image of his Jesus suffered from the boorish behavior of so many of his ilk. BTW, Joe,the Bible does mention believers who are considering leaving,and has warnings about that- it doesn’t just address’s non- believers. American Christianity is such a breeding ground for all kinds of toxic acts, from the Pilgrims on. Is it ANY wonder that there is such a high level of deconverts in this country ?? Thank you so much for your contribution to that ! It’s actually a struggle NOT to deconvert. Feeling prouder,yet ??🤖💩
oh, i love incompetent attempts at Parthian shots by Christians. Thanks, Joe!
Joe clearly thinks we don’t have thick skin. That’s not it, we have thick skin and a low tolerance for blowhards who trample personal boundaries and spout bullshit. Joe get a life, if all you do in your spare time is troll message boards and blogs to get your fix trying to save us, you are doing a piss poor job of it.
As a longtime member of ExChristian.net (17 years!) I’ve been following the return of Joe/Fish to the board but staying out of the conversation for now. He really is seriously butt-hurt, and obsessed with “But how could someone believe and then not believe?” It’s almost entertaining, but not quite… I’m not the type to slow down to gawk at car crashes.
I read his thread on ex-Christian.net. I noticed he was called out for the same behavior as he was here. Most interesting, was his story about getting upset with his phone, cursing at it, and giving the phone ☎️ the middle finger. 😂 Yet, he’s outraged I told him to “fuck off.”
Personally, I don’t think his goal is to learn more about why people deconvert. His behavior on this site and ex-Christian suggests his goal is evangelization, and when that fails he turns to gaslighting and abuse. I suspect Joe has a persecution complex. When he faces challenge, push back, or outright rejection, he thinks he is being persecuted.
I found it hilarious that he went to ex-Christian to tattle on me. I’m pretty well known in the deconvert world, so I’m not sure what he hoped to accomplish by tattling. I’ve being doing this a long time. I’m clear as to how comments are handled on this site. This blog is not ex-Christian.net. Each site has its own rules. Don’t like that fact? “Fuck off.” 😂😂
Earlier in the same “Pastor” thread at Ex-C, before he disappeared for a while, I F-bombed him and the Holy Spook. He was whining about that for days. 😀
Joe is an idiot. And my first reaction to these things is often one of ‘don’t feed the trolls’ and worrying that Bruce is maybe just falling for their obvious desire to wind him up by continuing to allow engagement. But then I remember what Bruce has said about what a valuable illustration these kinds of posts can provide – particularly for believers nurturing their first serious doubts – of what these people and their religion are REALLY all about. So maybe sometimes there’s something to be gained from a little bit of troll feeding. Just so long as we all remember that there’s a ballance involved and that these people REALLY do not deserve any time and/or space in our heads!
I have the same hesitation Davie. But I also believe certain things must be confronted and the reality revealed so that other people see that there are other alternatives and other views.
Christians in the United States have a strangle hold in many areas which make it very hard for people who do not follow their rules. This can lead people to very dark places. By allowing god’s hate filled, self righteous, power grubbing minions to speak, their true vile nature as is revealed when we confront them.
I used to ignore and go on with my life, but that only allows them to stand without confrontation and do as they please.
Holy hell, Joe. If I were a Christian, folks like you would convince me to reconsider.
The fake post from his “wife” is certifiable batshit crazy.
RF, you’re just tiresome now.
Now’s the time on Sprockets when we dance! 😀
I’ve told you before, and I know this for an absolute fact, that only atheists will enter heaven. You’ve still time if you really try!
Phúc Revie F.,
Until then, do swallow slowly and enjoy all Joe’s posts and ejaculations. Help yourself with the holy water above the throne.
The sheer arrogance is staggering, especially in e-mail two (and he freely broke his promise that it would be the last e-mail).
It’s bizarre that he accuses you of harming and terrorizing him when he was the one who came out of nowhere and started harassing you.
Yaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwn.
Seriously. So tiresome. So much well-worn ground, that you insist on retreading as if we’d never heard it before.
If God is intent on convicting us for not blindly leaping to agree every time someone makes some wildly improbable claim, He’s got more than enough evidence. Joe’s posts are hardly going to tip the balance; neither are yours.
Personally, I don’t believe it’s going to work that way; I don’t see any reason to conclude that God (as imagined by Christians) actually exists, and even if He does I don’t seriously believe He’s that much of an asshole. I think that part is pretty much coming from you, His devoted fans.
I am, at this point, forced to agree: Joe is not, in any way, attempting to “understand” deconversion. If he was, he would have noticed that I had offered next to nothing to explain my own deconversion, and that instead my advice was aimed at helping someone who might mean well avoid behaving like an asshole. Joe has: made no effort to avoid behaving like an asshole; made no effort to ask about or understand why anyone would leave Christianity; fallen back on sniveling excuses when called out on his behavior.
(I particularly detest the “I’m not saying it, the Apostle is saying it” canard, because no. The Apostle may have said it originally, if you have no understanding of how those texts were written, but the Apostle most certainly did not come here and repeat himself on Bruce’s blog. If you can get the Apostle — or for that matter the Almighty — to show up and speak for himself, I’m prepared to reconsider; but until then, you’re the one who’s over here behaving like an asshole.)
Therefore, I am forced to conclude — cordially and politely — that Joe is, in fact, only here to evangelize. He thus needs — and I say this as respectfully as his behavior and circumstances warrant — to fuck right on off into the sunset.
Seriously, dude. Whatever it is you think you’re achieving or demonstrating here, I promise you that is not how anybody else sees it. The kindest advice I can offer at this point is that you need to get out more. A lot more.
I offered you a chance to ask about why I’m an ex-Christian, and you skipped blithely right on past it. Do better. Or at least suck it up and be honest about what you’re really doing. ‘Cause saying that you’re “investigating every angle of deconversion” is a lie, and lying is…
…not cool.
It’s interesting that your loving, merciful god will also condemn people to an eternity of torture, unless worshipped in absolutely the right way. Why would an omnipotent being need to be worshipped anyway?
Revival Fires loves to jump in here and gleefully threaten us with his Great White Throne Judgment and Eternal Torture Porn.
Joe has lied a few times by stating that “THIS WILL BE MY FINAL EMAIL” while proceeding to continue to compose and send emails.
Joe, deconverts are not mean, hateful, bitter, or whatever other derogatory word you care to use to describe us. We just want religious people to leave us alone, especially when religious people want to threaten us with Great White Throne Judgments a d Eternal Torture in Hell. Please, we have heard that drivel all our lives. Many of us here probably know as much about the Bible as you do, perhaps more. Do you really want us to pull out our purple eggplant 🍆 emojis for a measuring contest?
“Do you really want us to pull out our purple eggplant 🍆 emojis for a measuring contest?”
OMG! 😇😇
Phúc Revie F.,
Since you’re condemned to come into this world as a nympho/satyro, do help yourself to all our juicy posts as often as you can. Remember to always swallow slowly and, most importantly, to share them with your BFF Jesus so he won’t get jealous/pissed and send you to Bruce Almighty for the Final Coming.
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars [that’s you, Revival Fires], shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Revelation 21:8
The Lord detests lying lips [are your lips moving Revival Fires?], but he delights in people who are trustworthy. Proverbs 12:22
There.
(I just had to add that.) 🙂