Submitted to the editor of the Defiance Crescent-News.
Dear Editor:
I am troubled by the increasing hostility of Evangelicals towards those who hold opinions and beliefs different from theirs. It seems that every issue, no matter how insignificant, is a hill to die on. Thus, my recent letter about Lifewise Academy was seen as a personal attack. This was not my intent. Unlike some folks, I understand the difference between critique and personal attack. When people don’t understand the difference, they attack the person, not the idea.
Over the past twenty years, I’ve had countless Evangelicals personally attack me for something I’ve written or said. Most often, I am threatened with hellfire and brimstone, though I have received death threats too. Worse, I have had Evangelicals attack my partner, children, and grandchildren. One fine Christian even suggested that our daughter with Down syndrome deserved to be assaulted.
I know more than a few local school administrators and teachers read my letters to the newspaper. I know this because my grandchildren tell me that administrators and teachers call on them, both privately and in class, to defend what I have written. My children have experienced similar behavior at Northwest State Community College and their places of employment. In what world is it proper to question and berate grandchildren over something their grandfather said or did? I stand on my own two feet. My words are my own. My family knows I don’t expect them to defend me. In fact, I have let them know it is okay for them to disown me if it makes life easier for them. So far, none of them has done so.
I told my children and grandchildren to tell their interlocutors to contact me directly if they have questions or want to challenge something I have said. I am a public figure; well-known, and easy to find. If school administrators and teachers want to put me in my place, I suggest they not use children to passive-aggressively make a point. I am more than happy to respond to any questions people have. I told my one granddaughter to tell her high school teacher that I would be more than happy to speak to his class or engage him in a formal debate. He, of course, refused to engage. It’s easy to berate kids lacking theological, philosophical, and historical foundations. Not so with someone like me, and I suspect that’s why he ignored my challenge.
Bruce Gerencser
Ney, Ohio
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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