Email From the Peanut Gallery: Bruce, You Are a Know-Nothing Idiot

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Here is an email I received from a man calling himself Rick Sones.

Dear Rick,

First, I doubt you read as much of my site as you allege. Had you done so, you might have learned a few things about me, such as the fact that I did not remain a Fundamentalist Baptist; that I left the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement in the late 1980s; that I do not continually boast about my understanding of the Biblical text.

Second, my life as a Fundamentalist Baptist was, all in all, quite happy. Again, had you done a bit more reading you might have learned that I have many good memories of my days as a pastor.

Third, I am not angry with God. You do realize I am an atheist, right? Being “angry” with God would be akin to being angry with Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Since the Christian God does not exist, it would be a colossal waste of time for me to be angry with said God.

Fourth, please put on your big boy pants and share with me the voluminous misquotations and errant interpretations you have found in my writings. Let’s mano a mano enter into a public discussion about your claims. Let’s see who is the ignorant idiot. I’m game, are you? Or are you just bullshitting, Evangelical-style?

Fifth, threatening me with judgment from the Big Kahuna has no effect on me. Again, you do know I am an atheist, right? Threatening me with judgment from a nonexistent God is similar to threatening me with judgment from Thor. I am not going to lose any sleep over your threats.

Finally, if you knew that other people had already told me what you said in your email, why write me anyway? What was your objective? Surely it couldn’t have been to witness or put in a good word for Jesus. Calling someone an idiot is a sure discussion stopper.

Rick, let me thank you for providing me yet another example of why I am so glad that I divorced Jesus. With people like you in the family, I am quite happy to be considered an Ex.

Bruce Gerencser

Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 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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18 responses to “Email From the Peanut Gallery: Bruce, You Are a Know-Nothing Idiot”

May 27, 2017

przxqgl

“It’s not his fault your an idiot.”

1) if you’re referring to God, it should be “His”, not “his”…

2) “you’re” not “your”…

with that level of the knowledge of grammar, in such a short period of time, how can you expect anybody to believe that you’re an expert on “God”? 8/

PLONK!

Reply
1. June 1, 2017
  
  Rick Sones
  
  Touché, I didn’t catch “you’re’… fast typing, perhaps.
  
  As for “His”, “His” is a pronoun, not a proper noun and as such is grammatically correct not capitalized. NKJV and NASB capitalize “His” when referring to God. Almost all other English translations do not. In the original Greek, nothing is capitalized.
  
  Only half a plonk…
  
  Reply
May 27, 2017

Neil

Not sure I agree with the capitalized ‘His’. It confers respectability and credibility on what is, after all, a meaningless concept.

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May 27, 2017

Steve

Great letter Bruce, you have shown that fool the back door.

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1. June 1, 2017
  
  Rick Sones
  
  “A fool has said in his heart: “There is no God”
  
  Reply
May 28, 2017

Trenton

The amount of projection this guy spews out is so high, I don’t even have to fire up the projector to see it.

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1. June 1, 2017
  
  Rick Sones
  
  No projection here. Everything said (though brief) is based on comments found on this web site.
  
  Reply
May 28, 2017

Melody

They do love their threats, don’t they? Then again, the Bible is full of them, so they learnt it from their very own God.

It’s a bit strange to me that he first says that you have every right to be angry and then says you’re an idiot in the sentence directly following that. It doesn’t make much sense to me. Either you have a right to be angry, and valid points for being so (at God or whomever) or you don’t, but saying you do and then calling you an idiot two seconds later…? A bit weird that.

I’m sure you have seen it already at some point, but it reminds me also of Dawkins reading his hatemail: so much threats. How on earth is that supposed to make you repent? Surely it won’t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZuowNcuGsc

The most ‘funny’ one: I hope you get hit by a church van. Not just a bus or a taxi or what not: no, a church van because that would be poetic justice of some sort, surely… Rolls eyes.

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1. June 1, 2017
  
  Rick Sones
  
  Read Bruce’s post on why he left the ministry. Then it won’t seem strange to you at all.
  
  Reply
May 30, 2017

Troy

Might be this guy here:
http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/opinion/columnists/2015/07/11/rick-sones-christian-concerns-about-supreme-courts-same/71941284/

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1. June 1, 2017
  
  Bruce Gerencser
  
  Could be. If so, the fact that he is old, a Baptist preacher, and retired military explains his approach to me.
  
  Reply
June 1, 2017

Rick Sones

I’m surprised you responded.
I also think it interesting that you demand real functioning emails, but you respond with a junk email.
1 & 2) What you allege about me is neither here nor there. I was being truthful. If you choose not to believe me, so what. You didn’t reply with anything I have not already read on your site. I was referring to your ‘testimony’ of why you left the ministry. I sensed you felt let down, betrayed, and burned out. Anger is a normal response to a sick heart (as explained in Proverbs – – expectations unfulfilled make the heart sick). However, you said in that post that you couldn’t find a single verse that directed you to rest. There are actually many. Too bad you didn’t know about them during your ministry. Jesus also set an example by resting when he was tired. BTW, Peter, in his first letter tells us to follow Jesus’ example.
3) Anger is the natural reaction one has when a perceived right has been violated. In more than one post you expressed your expectations as a Christian and the fact that God didn’t fulfill his end of the bargain. Though you presently rationalize that God couldn’t possibly do so because it doesn’t exist. Interesting jump in logic. You must be right and God is wrong. God does not exist because you say so. Right. Let’s take a poll. I read somewhere that you have no formal education in theology. No matter. The classical, philosophical reasons for the existence of God are things that Dawkins argues against. His conclusion: God doesn’t exist because man doesn’t need him. (I don’t need you or Dawkins, haven’t seen either of you, but I’m not so foolish to believe that neither of you exist.) Your arguments against the existence of God are more existential. Well great, form a club and get a lot of people to agree with you (and please, show me the back door). I have plenty of evidence that God does exist, and I have no need to convince you one way or the other. It’s your life, your responsibility.
4) Nearly every time you wander off into scriptural proofs you err. One example: you have laid out the doctrine of ‘soul sleep’ in one of your posts. You don’t offer a single verse, but you are quite adamant that (based on the word of someone else) that scripture clearly teaches it. WRONG. ‘Soul sleep’ is a heresy introduced to the Christian church by the Russellites AKA Jehovah Witnesses. It is not a Christian doctrine, is not supported by scripture, in fact the opposite is true. If you’re interested, I can give you a list of passages. If you don’t care, neither do I.
Just because a doctrine is popular and shouted from the rooftops does not make it correct. For example… a pre-tribulation rapture. Not there. Absolutely wrong, though most folks you call ‘evangelicals’ believe it.
5) You caught the reference. Although I was not threatening you. I have not interest in arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
I noticed that you offer to ‘help’ Christians that are struggling with there faith. You do realize that it is their faith they are struggling with. You are an atheist. How are you going to possibly help someone struggling with something you don’t have or believe in. You do realize that would be like throwing an imaginary life preserver to someone calling for a lifeguard’s help. Pretending to be a lifeguard is not the same as actually being one.
I have actually contemplated writing you on several occasions. I decided not to several times. Perhaps your arrogance finally convinced me to drop you a short line. You want to go ‘mano a mano’ with me, fine. I’ve had my big boy pants on longer than you were a pastor. I’m also older than you and can relate to everything you’re going through. I’ve lived all over the world, have experienced many cultures, and you’re not the first atheist I’ve talked to.
But then again, I don’t need to judge you. You’re one man among billions with an opinion. When it comes to faith and guidance, I look to something deeper than opinion no matter how big the club is. Your ex was right. The path to destruction is broad and popular.

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1. June 1, 2017
  
  Bruce Gerencser
  
  Actually, I do have formal theological training, along with thousands of hours spent studying the Bible. Funny how you missed that after reading so much of my blog.
  
  I have not mentioned soul sleep one time in the eight plus years I’ve been blogging. Based on what you have written here, I see that you are a careless reader who then jumps to ill-informed conclusions. You are so certain you are right that any other belief that does not line up with your beliefs is false, wrong, heresy. Every Christian sect, church, pastor, and congregant thinks the Bible “proves” that they are right. You are just one in a billion Christians with an opinion.
  
  Regardless of how you view my work here, it is working. And you, thanks to your email and response, have helped me continue helping doubting Christians.
  
  As far as the email address thing? Lesson learned the hard way — never send Christian assholes your actual email address.
  
  Bruce
  
  Reply
  1. June 1, 2017
    
    Rick Sones
    
    May 23rd of this year: “Death and the afterlife: Things Christians say that aren’t in the Bible. You did not expressly call it ‘soul sleep’ but you described the doctrine and attribute it to orthodox Christianity. In fact, it is what you call orthodox that is not in the Bible.
    And talk about the pot calling the kettle black, You know nothing about me and yet you have no problem jumping to ill-informed conclusions. I have only mentioned a couple of beliefs, and yet you (oh omniscient one) now know everything I believe and how I feel about those beliefs. That is classic prejudice. Are you racist too?
    No wonder you don’t believe in God. You think you are God. And you think that anecdotal evidence will stand up in the face of an alternate reality.
    What initially landed me on your site was an article in your ‘black collar crime’ section. (Which I take as some kind of attempt to prove that there is no God, when in fact all it proves is that man is base. It doesn’t even prove that any of your ‘examples’ are Christ followers.) And your examples of priests and pastors committing crime and wallowing in sexual sin proves nothing about the hundreds of thousands of other priests and pastors. (I know, you have acknowledged that here on your site.)
    In your Sept 28, 2016 post – “Southern Baptist David Platt Says Missionaries Raised Man From the Dead — Maybe”, you say “Perhaps David Platt and his fellow stone-age Southern Baptists should spent some time learning that correlation does not necessarily imply causation.” Perhaps you should spend some time learning what you deride others for not knowing.
    By the way, anecdotal disproof of one piece of evidence does not disprove all other evidence. If seven witnesses testify they saw Joe Bloe murder his wife and one of them turns out to have been a hundred miles away at the time of the murder, that does not invalidate the testimony of the other six. (though it may call for closer scrutiny of their testimony as well)
    I happened to be on staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in the Spring of 2004. Landstuhl is the largest American hospital outside the physical U.S. It had just replaced the hospital at Wiesbaden Air Base as the premier American hospital. At the time we had approx. 900 patients, most of them medical evacuations from Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Africa.
    A dependent wife came in for a routine OB/GYN check-up. In the middle of her exam, she had a heart attack, and I mean she crashed hard. She was overweight, diabetic, and not taking care of herself. (I have no idea if she had any faith.) It took the doctors 2 hours to stabilize her enough to wheel her to the elevator and one floor up to the intensive care unit. While she was in ICU she coded again. A cardiologist, neurologist, OB/GYN, and pediatrician were all working on her. After a couple of hours, the neurologist told the others that she had no brain activity. She was medically dead. The staff decided to keep her on the machines until her family could be flown in from the U. S. to say goodbye. Afterward, she would be removed from life support and pronounced legally dead.
    For several days, I went to her bedside and prayed for her. I did not pray to bring her back to life, I didn’t even know if she was a believer. But in such circumstances, we go with what we have. Three days later, a nurses aide, in the course of taking care of the body, noticed the woman’s little finger was twitching. The aide ran to the nurses station and asked “is that supposed to be doing that?” “No,” was the emphatic reply and nurses and doctors rushed in to the room. They resuscitated the woman.
    I am not saying I had anything to do with it. I have prayed for many comatose pastors who never regained consciousness. But that crowd will not invalidate what I saw with my own eyes.
    Within a week, the woman was discharged from the hospital. I just happened to be in front of the hospital when she walked out. I had many questions, but I couldn’t use my professional position to satisfy my own curiosity. I did ask her, however, what it felt like to come back from the dead. She asked me if I was familiar with the painful tingling sensation one has when their foot or arm goes to sleep and then wakes up. “I have that from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head,” she told me.
    Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the only unforgivable sin, is the perversion of the mind to the extent that good is interpreted as evil and evil is interpreted as good. I’m not saying you’re there. I have absolutely no idea what is in your heart or what you really believe.
    Being a Christian is easy. Really, really easy. It’s not a collection of dos and don’ts, and you can’t figure it out ahead of time.
    I don’t need to prove anything to you, and frankly, I couldn’t care less whether you believe or not.
    But I have enjoyed the conversation.
    
    Reply
    1. June 1, 2017
      
      Bruce Gerencser
      
      In other words, I never mentioned soul sleep. What I did mention is the historic, orthodox belief on death and resurrection from the dead. Read N.T. Wright’s book on the subject.
      
      The Black Collar Crime series is meant to show that Evangelicalism has a big problem with sexual abuse and clergy misconduct. Of course, in your view, these men weren’t/aren’t Christians.
      
      Trust me, I have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, and if you can’t figure out what I believe you haven’t read as much of this blog as you say you have.
      
      With that, I’ll leave it to others to interact with you if they choose to do so.
      
      Bruce
      
      Reply
    2. June 2, 2017
      
      Geoff
      
      Rick, I’d say a few of things about this.
      
      In some ways, you are right in your reference to witnesses to a crime, but then you falsely use it as an analogy for religious belief. Of course in cases involving physically understood matters of causation, in this instance crime, we can take an empirical view. Who saw the crime? How credible are they? Witness number seven says he saw it but couldn’t have done?
      
      That’s normal, it fits in with our understanding of the world and we can all see this. When it comes to ‘evidence’ that is outside our normal range of senses then it becomes much more difficult. To quote Carl Sagan ‘extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’, and the trouble is that ‘extraordinary evidence’ never gets presented. It’s not even evidence that’s as good as the criminal evidence we’re referring to.
      
      Your example of the lady in the hospital isn’t anything other than personal, anecdotal, feeling. It is, I suppose, evidence in a sort of way (to others) but only in a very insignificant way. The lady got better. She doesn’t sound like she was the picture of health to begin with, so perhaps the doctors gave up on her prematurely? Or perhaps the instruments couldn’t measure her internals properly? I’ve no idea, but I’m quite sure the recovery was normal, bodily spontaneity, examples of which are happening round the world every single day. Scientific studies of prayer have been carried out (though they are very difficult to conduct; take note) and not one has shown any beneficial effect on prognosis.
      
      Lastly, you didn’t say what your role was, though you imply you were part of medical care. If so, as opposed to being a pastor (for example) why were you able to give so much time to this one, ‘hopeless’ patient, when others surely more warranted your attention? It’s not impossible, I suppose, that sitting with her helped her recover, but I can’t help but think you were neglecting others.
      
      Reply
June 1, 2017

Becky Wiren

It’s tiring how a certain type of Christian has to attack Bruce with regularity. And funnily enough, they have to be rude and overbearing and accusatory. Not ONE TIME does such a Christian feel inclined to listen and care about Bruce and his life. Instead, these types of Christians have to prove their superiority. All that this dude is showing to us, your readership, is that he doesn’t worship a god of love. Instead, it’s all about being better than another person, about triumphing over another person. And I bet after this is published Rick will claim he did all this out of “love.” Guess what? It’s not love. 1 Corinthians 13:4-13.

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June 2, 2017

John Arthur

Hi Rick,

Calling someone an ‘idiot’ who shows obvious intelligence is hardly treating that person with respect and dignity. You are supposed to be a Christian. So are you letting your ‘light so shine before human beings that they may see your good works…”? Do you love your ‘enemies’? Do you show compassion and kindness towards those whom you consider to be the “ungrateful and the wicked”? Where does Jesus say that you should let your light so shine that they may see your pure doctrine?

If you want to know why many people are leaving Christianity in droves, all you have to do is to look at how many so-called Christians treat others. Perhaps you should take a good, hard look at yourself.

John Arthur

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