The five people who were killed in the nightclub that night, there is no evidence at all that they were Christians. So assuming that they were not, that they had not accepted the truth of the gospel of Christ and affirmed Jesus Christ as the lord of their life, they are now reaping the consequences of having eternal damnation. And that is far, far greater – we should be having that conversation. Instead of just the tragedy of what happened to the body, we need to be talking about what happened to the soul and the fact that they are now in eternal separation from our lord and savior Jesus Christ.
— Jenna Ellis, former Attorney for Donald Trump
If I stand up and I tell you, ‘You should treat the homosexual with honor and dignity. Does that make you want to hate that person in your heart? No.
But if I get up here and I say, ‘Every faggot is a pedophile, they are a child molester, they are an abuser,’ guess what? That instills a little bit of hatred. In fact, you’ll grow to have a perfect hatred for the enemies of God.
They’re sick and gross because the Bible says so. And not just the male faggots. Also the women-faggots too.
All the lesbos, all the dykes, all these butch dykes out there, they deserve the death penalty too. It should be punished with death by the government.
— Tanner Furrh of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, Texas
I could spend several days posting hateful, violent quotes from Evangelical preachers. I routinely get nasty comments and emails from miscreants such as Victor Justice and Revial Fires — the latest in a long line of Christians who feel it their duty to harass and harm, not only me, but my family.
Just today, Justice said:
Little Bruce,
You really are a demented piece of crap. Human words cannot describe the consequences which you will face soon! You’ll be held 100% accountable for these very words, and it will start just one second after your death! Your genocidal hatred of Almighty GOD (Praise His holy, glorious, and wonderful Name, that Name that is above every other Name, everywhere) will NOT go unpunished. You will pay for every idle word you spoke against my GOD and My LORD, Jesus Christ Almighty (that beautifully majestic Name, the only Name that saves)!
You can’t even handle a few rough emails without running your fat, obnoxious, read-end over to your head shrink. You then need to sit on his couch, while you cry like a little sissy, while he hands you multiple tissues. How are you going to cope with an ETERNITY in the Lake of Fire? I’ll tell you how; you’re not going to have any choice, and there will be no ESCAPE…
BTW, when you leave the counseling office; the entire staff laugh’s you to scorn! Later, they go home and eat dinner with their families while retelling the miserable clown’s story from work…and they, and their families all MOCK YOUR NAME TO SHAME! YOU PATHETIC PUNK!!!
The three individuals quoted above all claim to be devout followers of Jesus. Yet, their behavior suggests that they are anything but. One could argue that these people are outliers, but my experiences with such people over the past fifteen years suggest that such behavior is far from rare. In fact, its prominence seems to be increasing.
I was a serious student of the Bible for most of my life. I have read it from cover to cover numerous times. I spent thousands and thousands of hours reading and studying the Bible. What I learned is that I should treat my enemies with kindness and respect; that I should give evidence in my life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; that no corrupt communication should proceed out of my mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Why, then, do so many Evangelicals viciously attack atheists, liberals, and LGBTQ people? Are they not acting in ways contrary to the teachings of the Bible? Polly and I talked about this very thing over the weekend. The “why” question has always fascinated me, so when Evangelicals act in ways totally contrary to the teachings of Christ, I wonder “why?”
I told Polly that I think a lot of Evangelicals view atheists, liberals, and LGBTQ people as “less than”; people unworthy of love, kindness, decency, and respect. I suspect their thinking flows from the belief that people can apostatize and become reprobates — people beyond the saving grace of God. In their minds, I have crossed a line of no return, and once I crossed it they no longer have to treat me as a fellow human being. Lost on them is the fact of how Jesus treated reprobates such as Judas. Did he attack them and their families? No. These purveyors of hate will find no justification in the Bible for their behavior.
Sadly, nothing I know of will stop these preachers of hate from viciously attacking anyone and everyone who runs afoul of their warped view of the world. They are the ones who have crossed a line of no return.
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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“What I learned is that I should treat my enemies with kindness and respect”… and you learned that from the Bible. You did NOT learn from the Bible “the belief that people can apostatize and become reprobates — people beyond the saving grace of God…(and Evangelicals)no longer have to treat (such people) as a fellow human being.” Sounds like many Evangelicals in this time, and maybe the past, are actively preaching hatred for The Other to make it easier to move moderate Christians to accept extreme talk and actions. Sounds like Hitler preparing for Krystallnacht.
Victor Justice (must have changed his name to that) writes with such vitriol, claiming you have “genocidal hatred.” Hard to believe he can write that. Is he projecting his own hatred or someone else’s emotions?
Derrick Thiessen responds to my post:
https://theologyarchaeology.wordpress.com/2022/11/30/why-the-hatred-for-god/
Wow, what a mindset on display in that post. They really are pointless to engage with, so completely skewed in their thinking, an addict’s mind on religion, everything starts with a conclusion and works backwards from there. Madness, quite frankly.
Not one single fundie/evangelical ever comes on here and is genuinely caring to Bruce of his faithful readers. Instead, they lash out with ugly words. They are convinced we are evil and bad and past saving. Funnily enough, these people don’t ever seem intelligent. They think very concretely, and can’t cope with abstract ideas. Metaphors, similes, sarcasm, Poe’s law: they can’t comprehend any higher level of thinking. I have noticed this problem running rampant through all the conservative Christian Trump worshipers.
I think Victor hasn’t read the Bible properly, he appears to have missed a whole bunch of stuff. Victor, stop pretending to be a Christian and start learning to be a proper one:
And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. You have heard that it is said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Matthew 5:40-43 ESV
“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
Luke 6:27 ESV
“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great.”
Luke 6:35 ESV
Here’s another that Victor and his ilk seem to have ignored:
“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Ephesians 4:32 ESV
Tanner Furrh is beyond scary, and I hope he’s on a watch-list somewhere. In fact, his entire congregation should be on a watch-list, because he’s whipping them into a frenzy.
Is the Southern Poverty Law Center aware of this guy Furrh? He is openly admitting to hating a group of people based on an immutable characteristic, which, by the SPLC’s is own definition, qualifies any group he leads as a a hate group.
I wonder if Victor Justice is aware that he too will be judged for all the hatred and vile he has spoken.
so, ol’ orange dotard donnie will burn in hell? I’m sure they would claim not.
Just as there are verses in the Bible telling people to treat others with kindness and compassion, there are other verses condemning people for not being one of us, telling believers not to hang out with nonbelievers, etc. Victor Justice and the like are not wrong that they’re told that unbelievers will burn in hell, that people choose to get saved or not, that people are responsible for their choice to burn in hell. It’s interesting how some Christians will focus on the verses about being kind, and other Christians will focus on the verses about reprobate sinners choosing and deserving eternal damnation. I think it shows a lot about the character of those people – separating the kind sheep from the asshole goats, or showing the fruit of the Christian (sweet delicious fruit or rotten bitter fruit).
“I suspect their thinking flows from the belief that people can apostatize and become reprobates — people beyond the saving grace of God.”
That’s probably how they read those first few verses of Hebrews 6– that once you’ve fallen away, then you are locked out of heaven for good, and automatically going to hell, so don’t even try to come back.
Bruce: “They are the ones who have crossed a line of no return.”
Zoe: You know Bruce, this is why (despite it never landing with any of them) I continue to point out what I do. “They” whoever they are, continue to throw judgement and warn of judgement, all the while ignoring that according to their own beliefs, they will be judged. I mean, I’d be scared shitless to face my God knowing my God heard me speak this way to another human being.
There does seem to be a process some go through that leads them to dehumanize other human beings. I tend to think this comes via their own Bible re: satan, demons, unknown entities etc.. You’re not a human being, you are “other.”
And honestly, I also think they get their murderous language from the Bible itself. They are justified in their hatred as God justified his hatred of his own creation and well, murdered almost the entire human race. If God could do it, so can they and all with his blessing, so to speak.
Bruce, what you have described here illustrates something I realized after leaving Christianity and examining other religions: religious fundamentalism is nihilism. Whether it is the contemptus mundi of medieval monks, the bellicose zealotry of Muslim extremists or Evangelicals’ denial of the humanity of others, all such extreme forms of faith tell people that only their faith in Jesus or whomever matters. Such a world view makes everyone either “us” or “them” and everything that is not faith or scripture nothing more than dust in the bin.
If you believe and accept that the majority of people who ever lived will be tortured forever you have already lost your humanity. If a small ember of human decency still burns in you it must be extinguished to make such a belief palatable
This is the very reason why we need seperation of church and state. These people are scary and how they convince others to follow their path of hatred is beyond me. I hope the powers that be are keeping a close eye on them at all times. Extremeism has no place in a free society.