Editor’s Note: Dr. David Tee is a fake name used by Derrick Thomas Thiessen, a Christian Missionary and Alliance preacher who fled the United States/Canada twenty years ago and now lives in the Philippines. Thiessen has spent the past two years ripping off my writing, hurling sermons at me, and attacking my character. He has written over one-hundred posts about me. And at times, I respond. (Search for Dr. David Tee and Derrick Thomas Thiessen.) This series will take a look at things Thiessen doesn’t want anyone to know about. Once this series is completed, Tee/Thiessen will no longer be mentioned by me in my writing. You have my word on this subject.
Guest Post by W.W. Jacobs
“Your irrational ‘response’ has no evidence backing it up.” — Derrick Thiessen, 27 July 2022
“Make sure you’re not holding onto a monkey’s paw when you demand evidence be offered against you.” — “W.W. Jacobs”, 27 July 2022 (For an explanation of this comment click here.)
This exchange eventually escalated to Derrick threatening suits over libel and slander. Problem: accusing someone of libel and slander involves documenting that they knowingly and maliciously disseminated false information.
The information disseminated to date isn’t even false, let alone maliciously disseminated. And what is contained herein is just a portion of the information available to me.
I haven’t decided how far I’m going to dive into this – that will largely depend on my interest and the level of benevolence Bruce is willing to extend – but since the single biggest pet peeve Derrick seems to have is being addressed as “Derrick” and not “David” (which he has the audacity to compare to Saul being renamed Paul) I’ll start there.
The following is excerpted from a sworn deposition that Derrick sat for a number of years ago:
“(The deponent), having affirmed to state the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, testified as follows:
“Would you state your full, legal name please?”
“Derrick Thomas Thiessen.”
“And Derrick is spelled how?”
“D-E-R-R-I-C-K.”
“Your middle name is Thomas, T-H-O-M-A-S?”
“Yes.”
…
“Mr. Thiessen, do you have any other form of ID in any other name, or is Derrick, or David, the name?”
“No. Surname is David, I go by David. My immigration lawyer who filed the paperwork put David Thiessen down as the primary name, so I’ve gone by that instead of Derrick, so all my American ID is in David.”
(Incidentally, Derrick, the next time you’re hard up for money, you may well have a solid malpractice case against the attorney who advocated filling out paperwork listing a name other than the one on the identification issued to you by the Canadian government when you sought to enter the U.S., considering how far your detrimental reliance on that information has spun out of control.)
…
“Mr. Thiessen, have you ever used any other name other than Derrick Thiessen?”
“What?”
(His attorney) “We did discuss his name David Ford, I believe.”
[Ed.: he published a tract or pamphlet entitled “Abortion: Where Can We Turn?” under the pseudonym “John Ford” – not “David Ford” – in the mid-1980s, and testified to same in this deposition.]
“Fine. Did you have any other names, other than David Thiessen?”
“I don’t believe so.”
“What other name did you use?”
“David Ford.”
“Did you use any other names at all?”
(His attorney) “I’m sorry, are we remembering the fact that he also said that Derrick and David is, used those names recently? I just want to make it clear he doesn’t forget we’ve already discussed that.”
“We did discuss his name David Ford, I believe.”
“You testified that you used the name David Ford?”
“Yes.”
“You also testified you used the name David Thiessen?”
“It’s synonymous. I don’t differentiate between the two.”
“Your synonymous names are Derrick Thiessen and David?”
“I use D. David Thiessen, it’s on my American ID.”
“What about the name David Ford?”
“I haven’t used that in years.”
“Why did you use it?”
“I didn’t want my family to find me.”
“Who specifically in your family didn’t you want to find you?”
“My immediate family.”
“Why didn’t you want them to find you?”
“Personal reasons at the time.”
“What were the personal reasons at the time?”
“Just disagreements between the family and me.”
“What type of disagreements?”
“I just said I wasn’t coming back.
“Why did you want them not to find you?”
“Didn’t want anything to do with them.”
…
“So you used the name David Ford?”
“Yes.”
“It’s your testimony that you didn’t use any other false names?”
“Yes.”
“This was a false name, correct?”
“It wasn’t changed legally, but it –“
“That was not your name, correct?”
“For ten years it was, yes.”
“But not your legal name, correct?”
“Not my legal name.”
“Where did you come up with Ford?”
“Came to me. I just picked a name out of the hat.”
(There are other names he acknowledged previously using, including Peter, elsewhere in this deposition.)
So, let’s recap:
Neither “David” nor “Tee” are part of his legal name.
“Derrick Thomas Thiessen” is his legal name.
His legal name has apparently never been changed – through deed poll, civil action, or similar – from “Derrick Thomas Thiessen.”
He did not start calling himself “David” to commemorate some “road to Damascus” moment, but because he wanted to go “no contact” with his family.
In this same deposition, he identifies his parents as “Frank” and “Eleanor.” The cemetery where they are buried records their names as “Franz” and “Elnora.”
As best I’ve been able to determine, they were either first- or second-generation Canadians of German descent. It is certainly understandable why people living in North America in the 1940s might want to downplay their German heritage, thus understandable why they started calling themselves Frank and Eleanor, just as Derrick’s uncle Heinrich started going by Henry. But none of them ever legally changed their names. They also never disclaimed Franz / Heinrich / Elnora as their legal names, they simply started identifying themselves by Anglicized versions of those names.
Derrick is definitively a name of Germanic origin. I gave Derrick the benefit of the doubt and looked into whether “David” (or even “Thomas”) might be an Anglicization of “Derrick.” It is not.
However, “David” is the name he reverted to once he left the company of anyone who was aware of his second marriage. (Yes, his current marriage is at least #3 … what is it Paul instructed Timothy about church leaders being “the husband of one wife”?) He also left the purview of people aware of the child his second marriage produced – including child-support enforcement authorities, who had the name “Derrick Thiessen” flagged for wage garnishment if the name was ever listed on an I-9 form.
But I’m sure Derrick will be happy to explain that it is a complete coincidence that the beginning of his child-support obligations approximately coincide with when he started abbreviating his last name to his college nickname. Just as I’m sure the increased scrutiny of identification and immigration records after 9/11 merely happened to coincide with his “call” to Korea.
One other issue needs to be pointed out. To reiterate, this is Derrick’s sworn testimony under oath. This leaves only a couple of possibilities:
- He told the truth in this deposition and has been misrepresenting the truth since then, such as when repeatedly denouncing Bruce’s use of a “wrong name” to identify him. (Even the one admission he made in his own blog implied that he had legally changed his last name, and still paired it with the first name “David.”)
- He lied in this deposition, in which case he committed perjury.
- Just kidding. There is no third possibility.
Neither lying under oath nor lying in the years since is a good look for a man who claims to lead a broad and far-reaching ministry.
Next time if Bruce’s magnanimity and my schedule permit: why the curriculum at Canadian Bible College [now called Canadian Theological Seminary] apparently does not involve studying Romans 13 or any portion of 1 Timothy. We’ll also discuss the odds of a man with Derrick’s level of arrogance opting not to acknowledge holding a degree more advanced than a bachelor’s in theology when under oath.
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.
Connect with me on social media:
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.
All those names. No wonder he refers to himself as we: he probably can’t remember his real name he’s used so many! Perhaps ‘doctor’ was one of his name changes, because he certainly didn’t earn the title.
Can you imagine the fucked up life a child would have with this POS as their father?
He’s a loser, but at least he’s out of their lives.
As the offspring of a man who paid child support for 18 months of the 13 years he was ordered by court to pay and who chose to hide in another’s state and have no contact with me from the time I was 7 until I had safely turned 18, I have no respect for men like whatever-his-name-is. My biological father eventually settled in New Mexico with a woman he never married and produced 6 more offspring whom he emotionally, psychologically, and physically abused. His 2 oldest daughters after me threatened their mother that if she didn’t kick him out of the house, they’d shoot him with an illegally-obtained gun. She kicked him out. He died alone in his hoarding addiction-addled filth. Not a single of his children cared – we all said “good riddance”. There may be other offspring that we don’t know about…..he was that type of person. My half-siblings told me I was the lucky one because I didn’t grow up with him. They’re right. Maybe Mr Whatever-his-name’s children are too? I hope they have a better life without him.