If I am going to write about Evangelicalism and the various players within the sect, I must read their blogs and news sites, watch their YouTube and Tiktok videos, and peruse their social media posts. I can’t accurately represent Evangelicalism in my writing if I don’t do these things. Believe me, I would rather not do so. Who wants to wade in a septic tank every day, right?
While there is a lot of diversity within the Evangelical tent, there are commonalities belief-wise and practice-wise across the Evangelical spectrum. It is not uncommon to hear “nice” Evangelicals say that people such as Fake Dr. David Tee (whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen), thrice divorced felon Fake Dr. Kent Hovind, and Revival Fires are outliers; that they are not representatives of Evangelicals as a whole. While these men are hateful, nasty, self-righteous bullies — certainly not followers of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, are they really outliers? Are their beliefs atypical for Evangelicals? Sadly, the answer is no. Their beliefs are normative within Evangelicalism. Based on my years of experience and observation, I know that Evangelicals are generally hateful, bigoted, and narrow-minded. Oh, many of them have big smiles and will shower you with love, but when you carefully examine their beliefs you find hate, bigotry, and closed-mindedness — in Christian love, of course.
Derrick Thiessen, Kent Hovind, Revival Fires, and others like them lack impulse control. They tend to just say whatever is on their addled minds. They don’t care how their words are received or whether they might cause harm. These so-called men of God say they speak on the Christian God’s behalf; that they are his mouthpieces. Other Evangelicals have mastered controlling their speech — in public, at least. That’s why you need to carefully examine their beliefs, or better yet, listen to what they say to their congregations when they think no one is listening.
I have heard scores of Evangelical pastors, evangelists, and missionaries preach over the years. Before the advent of the Internet, these preachers were insulated from accountability for what they said during their sermons. I preached 4,000+ sermons over the course of twenty-five years. Roughly half of those sermons were recorded on cassette tapes. As far as I know, none of those tapes survive. I have asked former members if they have any of my sermon tapes, but so far none have been found. I operated a tape lending library called the CHARIS Tape Library. Hundreds and hundreds of tapes were sent to people. As far as I know, none of those tapes survive. I suspect the tapes were either discarded or turned into Metallica mix tapes. Thus, all the hateful, nasty things I said in my sermons are lost to antiquity. For a number of years, I published a newsletter titled The Sovereign Grace Reporter. This newsletter was sent out to hundreds of people throughout the United States. Much like the aforementioned tapes, no copies of the SGR survive. I used to have hundreds of my preaching tapes and other memorabilia from my ministerial career, but in a moment of deep depression in the early 2000s, I piled these things in our backyard, poured gasoline on them, and lit a match. In a moment, twenty+ years of memories went up in smoke. While it felt good at the time, I regret doing so. (Please see Short Stories: The Night I Set My Life on Fire.)
I am insulated from my past words. All readers have to go on is my recollections. Readers will just have to take my word for it: Pastor Bruce Gerencser was a winsome, kind preacher, but he also had hateful, bigoted beliefs; beliefs he wasn’t afraid to verbalize from the pulpit.
It’s harder for Evangelical preachers to hide these days. When two Independent Fundamentalist Baptists (IFB) mentioned me in their sermons, I found out about it. There just so happened to be people in their services who knew me. I have spies everywhere. 🙂 Everyone has a smartphone. Increasingly, Evangelical churches videotape their services. While preachers likely think that only like-minded people are listening, they can’t stop people like me from listening to their screeds, harangues, and attacks on people different from them. The ugliness is there for all to see if people are willing to pay attention.
Preachers such as Theissen, Hovind, and Revival Fires are quite happy to advertise their hate and bigotry for all to see. While many Evangelical preachers are more careful with their words, make no mistake, hatred and bigotry are common, regardless of the clothes they are dressed in. Yes, I know of kind, thoughtful Evangelicals, but all they are is the exception that proves the rule. They are the outliers, not Theissen, Hovind, and Revival Fires.
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 the gentlemen mentioned above don’t have any self control. They think their crazed rantings represent Christianity at its finest. BARF.
When looking at those patriarchal types, I’m reminded of the slave- traders and explorers/ settlers from the 1400’s,into the 19th Century, and how they justified their depredations against Indeginous people in the Americas, abducting Africans to do hard,unpaid labor under the gun and the bullwhip. That same mentality,you can’t reason with them as atheists,and even other Christians, without the rabid authoritarian outlook, would have a hard time with such people. They are eagerro victimize others,and will, if given an opening to do so. I’ve seen it happen.
I remember having many of the same mean, hateful, bigoted ideas. I remember the righteous indignation regarding LGBTQ people, “unsaved” people, sinners. I felt smug and self-satisfied, “knowing” I was right. Now I am ashamed of all that, but I do remember. Everyone I knew at church and Christian school held these same beliefs. Most of us were able to keep the vitriol inside, knowing it was ugly. But it was “righteous”.
I have to admit that I became an Evangelical Christian, in part, because I held some of those toxic beliefs. There has always been plenty of room for them in the Roman Catholic Church in which I grew up, but I feel those beliefs, including homo- and trans-phobia, are more central, or at least expressed more overtly, in Evangelical churches–at least ones like the one I joined. When I “dedicated my life to Jesus,” I was really going all-in with hate.
Of course, my real hate was toward myself. I still struggle with it sometimes, but I recognize it and don’t try to “overcompensate.”
All preachers are whores working for sadistic/masochistic pimps (Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, Calvin, Luther, Arminius, etc.). All believers are juans/juanas. No exceptions.
sigh
Atheism has its Fundamentalist wing too. All believers, all preachers? Really?
Really. Name one preacher who is not a whore or a believer who is not a juan/juana.
Yes, really. Your comment reveals you have little understanding of the motivations and desires of Christians and pastors, in particular. I was a pastor for 25 years, dude. If you think I am going to let you call me a whore on my own site, you got another thing coming.
Was. If you wish, you can choose to be a whore and/or a juan again.. A man was a a juan and a cheap whore for the first half of his life and would gladly be a whore and a juan again for a price ($1B) this time. In the end, no-thing matters because no-thing lasts. Valar Morghulis. All things must die. Lighten up, Bruce Almighty.
I find your words offensive, so, no, I won’t lighten up.
You truly, after all this time, don’t understand my story. Do you really think I can be bought?
The poor and weak get offended. The rich and strong get the spoils.
Every-one and every-thing can be bought and sold. Seen and unseen. Bruce Almighty bought and sold the myth of Jesus (who gave his life as a ransom for the many) and his Abba for 50 years.
If Bruce Almighty were extremely well-paid (like Joel Osteen) in his 25 years of whoring, this exchange would not occur.
Now, Bruce’s god is Polly. Would Bruce sacrifice himself for his god?
Surely, Polly would rather grieve and miss Bruce clutching body pillows full of Benjamins instead of cotton.
If not for Polly, then at least for Bruce’s progeny who didn’t ask (maybe they did) to come into this craziness with so much lack. They, too, wouldn’t mind the millions.
A man gladly chooses to be a whore (preacher) again for $1B because he can help so many who are less fortunate than he.
Fuck off. This is your last comment.
“While preachers likely think that only like-minded people are listening, they can’t stop people like me from listening to their screeds, harangues, and attacks on people different from them. The ugliness is there for all to see if people are willing to pay attention.”
when I appear on christian blogs andn on youtube comments, the christians seem so surprised that I’ve found them and their lies. it’s quite adorable.
Bingo. Every time I enter a church I feel dirty afterward. Just like Naaman in the O.T. felt when he worshipped with his king.