I haven’t mentioned Dr. David Tee (whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen) lately. He continues to write about me and steal my content, but I have chosen to ignore him. Thiessen is a defender of Christian rapists, child molesters, and clergy who misuse and abuse their positions of authority and power. I have yet to see him write a post like the ones I write for the Black Collar Crime Series. Instead, he has publicly attacked my work to publicize clergy sexual misconduct. He continues to defend men such as Bill Gothard, Ravi Zacharias, and Bill Cosby. According to Thiessen, all of these men are falsely accused; innocent of the accusations leveled against them. Thiessen, a Fundamentalist Christian, believes that any crime, no matter how vile, will be forgiven by God if the offender shoots up a 1 John 1:9 prayer to Heaven. And if God has forgiven them — how could Thiessen possibly know that he has done so? — so should everyone else.
Yesterday, Thiessen sent me a link to a news story about an elderly Florida man named Paul Zittel who had over 220,000 child porn images stored in his home. You can read the story here. Without providing any evidence for his claim, Thiessen said that Zittel’s crimes are an example of “atheist black collar crime.” There’s no mention in the news story that Zittel is an atheist. In fact, based on where Zittel lives and his age, it is actually more likely that he is a Christian. Of course, if I was covering this story, I would never say Zittel is an atheist or a Christian. I report facts, not opinions.
Thiessen’s email suggests that he thinks that anyone who is not a Christian is an atheist. This, of course, is absurd. Most people have some sort of religious belief. Atheists are a distinct minority in the world. Surely, Thiessen knows this, right?
Suppose Zittel really is an atheist, and while incarcerated he gets saved. According to Thiessen’s bankrupt theology, God has forgiven Zittel and so should everyone else, including his victims. Thiessen would expect and demand that the public and his victims move on. How dare they speak negatively about this new child of the living God. He’s a new creature in Christ, right?
Thiessen hates the Black Collar Crime Series. He has repeatedly impugned my motives for writing the series. He thinks that I shouldn’t write ANY of the Black Collar Crime posts. He prefers that the evil actions of preachers fade into the background noise of life. Nothing to see here, Thiessen says. Ain’t Hay-Zeus wonderful!
I have no intention of stopping my writing about clergy sexual misconduct. Evangelicalism is rife with scandal, every bit as bad, if not worse, than the sexual scandals that continue to plague the Roman Catholic Church. People deserve to know about these crimes and the great lengths churches go to cover them up.
I do appreciate Thiessen emailing me. He exposed his IP address when he did, and I blocked it. He will find new ways to read and steal my writing, but I don’t want to make it easy for him.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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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You started out with something that’s probably not true… ‘Dr. David Tee thinks.’
What a miserable twat that guy is.
Four words, four untruths. Is this a record?!
It is interesting how people who think in binary -in this case christians are good and holy while non christians are bad and evil – will incidents of this type as some kind of proof to defend the poor christians who get caught doing bad things.
It’s as if they believe that this proves them right, somehow. But when you respond with “yes they are bad and deserve to face their crimes” they seem surprised. Their moral code does not seem to fathom that evil people exist in all groups and should be held equally accountable.
They do not seem to understand that we do not worship the president, or put people who are atheist, or LGBTQ+, or any category into some protective cone and defend them no matter what they do.
The amount of moral relativism in the evangelical and conservative world is mind boggling. But I guess such moral relativism allows you to define what is “right” and use anything needed to achieve goals.
You got ’em, Bruce! Hope you can keep him blocked, as his thought process lacks…thought.
Not only does Thiessen think victims should forgive the abuser/rapist he also sees no excuse for victims seeing through the lies of Christianity as a result of their abuse and rejecting the claims of this religion. Never mind that these monsters use religion to shield and enable their crimes. Never mind the preposterous lie that a Holy Spirit dwells within them and guides their lives. And never mind that a supposedly omnipotent god does nothing to stop these crimes. Thiessen will argue that there is no excuse for rejecting Christ and the only fair judgment is eternal torture. A cruel man worshiping a cruel god.
Apparently he has never heard of Jews (and his Jesus was one), nor pagans nor Buddhists, nor any of a number of ancient or contemporary faiths. Old song I heard years ago: :Your brains are on vacation and your mouth is working overtime!
Mr T really is off base if he thinks everyone who isn’t a Christian is an atheist. Tell that to my Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Jainist friends – they are not atheists. They believe in deities and other supernatural things.
Someone who commits a wrong against another person does not deserve forgiveness from the person(s) harmed just by asking. I like the Jewish model which requires that the one who offended needs to express apology and ask the victim what the VICTIM wants them to do. Then the offender must take genuine steps to atone, as per what the victim stated. The victim is under no obligation to forgive even if the offender fulfills what the victim requested.
Christianity holds itself out as a bastion of morality. The government is riddled with politicians, admittedly thick as two short planks, who proclaim that shootings are due to prayer being taken out of schools, legalisation of abortion, and tolerance of anything hinting at LBGTQ. This is obviously nonsense but it highlights the morality claim. If these people can claim the wondrous moral nature of Christianity then it’s entirely reasonable that people who represent Christianity but act in such debased and debauched ways should be exposed. By defending them Mr Tee places a huge question mark as to his true motives, something I’ve long been suspicious of.
We need a group of people doing what you are with black collar crime so more will know what is going on with this problem. I do not know if any ethical Christians would work with this.
I am a retired computer programmer (this work is now called software development). I am not good at convincing anybody to do anything. My husband says I talk in a way too analytic manner like I am debugging a computer program.
Let’s find some people who can do some convincing so this burden is not yours alone.
I have given up trying to figure out what (if anything) goes on in “Tee”s head. I would, however, love to know what is going on with all of the folks he seems to have around him. How does the meanness and hatred he expresses do anything to convince people that his God is a loving being who wants to bring him into his fold–and that anyone who sees it for what it actually is deserves contempt in this life and damnation after it?
I mean, why would anybody want a God that punishes victims for not forgiving their victimizers? And why would anybody believe that such a God exists when there is no evidence for him?
Oh, wait, I believed in that God once, for a long time. I can only hope they are less broken than I was and will therefore come to the realization of their own worth, and lose their need for approval from a fictional character, more quickly than I did.
Dr. T doesn’t understand the reason for “Black Collar Crime”, it isn’t to insinuate that all Christian ministers or leaders are twisted perverts that will molest your kids. Rather it is to inform those who participate in religious social clubs not to trust your kids with them any more than you would any other stranger. If the old guy with his mass collection of porn wanted to watch your kids, any parent would balk at the notion, yet if you want to leave your kids with your parish priest many parents will fall for the mystique of the clergy and let their guard down. In fact the Catholics in particular have cultivated the mystique of the clergy. This is one reason why for years they’d move a sexual predator from parish to parish. If they out their monsters, then they are exposed as just people parading around in a black costume with a funny hat.
As for Dr. T stealing your stuff… I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s not like anyone reads Dr. T’s blog anyway. It reminds me of a People’s Court episode where someone sued for plagiarism. And they proved their case, but it turned out only 5 people had actually purchased what was plagiarized.