I listened to or preached over 6,000 sermons in my lifetime. By the time I was eighteen, I had heard almost 2,000 sermons. I spent the first thirty years of my life in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement. As I thought about all the sermons that pummeled my mind for decades, I considered the lies I heard preachers tell from their pulpits. Bold lies. Little white lies. Half truths. Sermon illustrations delivered as true but obviously a lie. Why let the truth get in the way the way of a good story, right? Preachers lie. ALL preachers lie, including yours. Yes, you preacher man. You know you lie, whether lies of commission or omission. So, Bruce, did you ever lie from the pulpit? I did say ALL preachers, so yes I lied, most often by under- or over- statements or omitting pertinent information necessary to make a fully informed decision. I am primarily talking about my preaching. It is easy to massage a sermon to advance one’s agenda, whether it is saving souls or paving the church parking lot. Any preacher worth his salt knows how to use the Bible to manipulate people. Throw in the ways preachers use their voices and music to “speak” to people, and it should come as no surprise that trusting congregants believe their pastors’ lies. I believed the five lies below for a lot longer than I care to admit.
Here’s a brief summary of five silly lies IFB preachers told me from the pulpit.
- Masturbation will make you blind.
- Losing your virginity before marriage will turn you into dirty, filthy rag no man wants.
- Holding hands/kissing the opposite sex leads to fornication.
- Rock and roll is the Devil’s music, and will cause you to commit sin –especially sexual sin.
- Dancing with the opposite sex will stir your sexual passions and lead to fornication.
Did church teenagers comply with these silly lies? Outwardly or around church people most of us complied, but out of sight from parents, preachers, and adult narcs, we indulged in the “sins” of the age (60s and 70s). Some went farther than others. I remained a virgin until my wedding day, but many of my churchmates did not. I tried my best to play by the rules, but, damn, have you seen Polly? As a young woman she was an irresistible beauty — at least to me. Both of us were committed to sexual purity, but we were a young Baptist couple with raging hormones. So we spent the two years before we married guiltily holding hands, embracing, and kissing — tongues included.
Did your pastors ever lie from the pulpit? Please share your favorite memories and how these lies affected you.
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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