I’m not sure I agree with this. There are times that someone’s conscience is so misguided that it would be wrong to follow it. For example, suppose the wife is pregnant with a disabled child and believes it is mercy to abort. Her conscience is telling her it is wrong to let the child have a difficult life. Yet her conscience is wrong. Very wrong. The husband would be right to tell her not to kill their child.
I think the husband is given authority to lead the family precisely to avoid the tyranny of the wife’s conscience. We can all get various ideas in our heads about what we should do, and we might even have a strong belief that this is the right thing. But if the wife goes by what she thinks is right all the time, how is her husband to lead her when they disagree? Essentially, any time they disagree, she can invoke conscience and, magically, she gets her way. God gave the husband authority over her conscience on purpose to avoid this problem.
Of course, I fully agree that in the vast majority of cases, when the wife has a conscientious objection, the husband should listen and take this into consideration. That’s wise leadership. If the husband commands his wife against her conscience, he will bear the blame if there is any sin. God will hold him responsible. So it’s a very serious matter. But I would definitely not say he should never require the wife to go against her conscience. God made the husband, not the wife’s conscience, the leader of the home.
When I told Polly about Alexander’s post, she became angry, said nothing, and flipped me off. Message received. 🙂 Harold speaks of the ” tyranny of the wife’s conscience,” yet fails to mention the tyranny of the husband’s conscience.” Why is that?
At this point we [True Christians] have no choice but to “build our own” everything. That starts by supporting those who are already building and share our values. It’s not about simply building our own social networking platforms anymore, it’s about building our own Christian economy. One without cancel culture. One that doesn’t embrace the demonic and degenerate cult religion of critical theory.
Critical theory (cultural marxism, the cult of social justice, etc) is a fraudulent, vapid, and pathetic subversion of well-meaning Christians, churches, and Christian values in general.
It lures decent God-fearing people into practicing a false and demonic pseudo-religion designed to accelerate their spiritual and literal demise. It preys on the malleable minds of our youth. It enslaves those who practice it and seeks to destroy those who do not.
It is a demonic imitation gospel and most certainly not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It must be mocked, shunned, and rebuked by all Christians. Now is not the time to sleepwalk through history on this subject. We must know the enemy’s fake gospel better than they know it themselves so we can lead others away from it and towards to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Talk to your kids about these things. Homeschool them if at all possible. Cut the cable cord. Delete the Big Tech apps from their phones and your own. We have a lot of work to do, but remember that we have the Creator of the Universe on our side. Through Him all things are possible.
I was talking about some of these things with a friend this morning and she used a term that made a lot of sense to me: “the silent secession.” At the moment this secession is largely digital and economic, not geographical, but perhaps that will change at some point in the future. I, for one, am in full support of Jesusland.
America is a Christian nation. The foundation of Western Civilization itself is built on Christianity and more specifically: on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ. The second that changed is the second the destruction began.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Yesterday, an Evangelical woman named Jessie Castleberry, stopped by to leave five comments on the post titled Southern Gospel Singer Kenny Bishop is Now a Gay United Church of Christ Pastor. This is the only post she read on this site. It is also clear that she either didn’t read or ignored the comment policy. Evidently, the only thing that mattered to Castleberry was putting a word in for her peculiar version of God.
What follows is the text of Castleberry’s comment. All spelling and grammar in the original.
Comment One
Bruce God don’t have to show up. He is every where and He has givin us his word to live by. I commend Bobby [a fellow Evangelical homophobe] for telling all these things that God has said about homosexuality and unclean living. God loves us each and everyone. He will open the gates of he’ll and all these that.defile themselves with this harlot into it. He’ll is very real and he is trying to get all that live this worldly life to except his word, the only real truth.
Comment Two
Dear sage I really real for you. Even though you spew out hatred for God and his people he still loves you and He commands all Christians to love you. I don’t know what or who has turned you from God so terribly bad but I pray before you leave this world that you will see Gods light and decide his love is so real. Us Christians are not perfect but we are forgiven be cause we have believed and we have asked God for forgiveness and professed.our sins to him. Like the their on the cross beside Jesus who ask Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into his kingdom. Jesus told him today thou shalt be with me in paradise.
Comment Three
Sage, could you for just a moment please try and realize we only appeal to you as Jesus did to see his truth. He is the one that sends us to you thru his love to try and convince you that he loves you. We can do nothing of and in our selves. Only he can change you and only if you believe in him. He does love you so much. Jesus gave his on life for that you might believe and receive him. He would rather you believe and except him so you might live with him in eternity but he won’t force you to. It hurts him and us to see people deny him and go to he’ll for eternity.
Comment Four
Zoe, we don’t have to worry about that. We know his word and his word is truth.
Comment Five
Cyndi, you’re reacting the wrong way. You don’t have to throw away his tapes. That doesn’t show him love. You do have to pray for him though.
Castleberry defended and supported comments by two fellow Evangelicals, Bobby and Pamela.
Bobby said:
1 Cor 6:9,10 states, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Gal 5:19 says, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Rev 21:8 says, “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur…”
Your issue [Bruce], as well as Kenny’s is not with Evangelicals, but rather with God! I am praying for the both of you right now.
Pamela added:
your comments cut me to the bone… how far people have strayed from God Almighty… all i can say is to be GAY is wrong.. to be proud of being an atheist , how low can one be .. it just hurts.. my prayers will always be for myself as a christian who sins daily but knows forgiveness is just a prayer away..and i strive to be better… my prayers are for the gays and atheists also…one day WE ALL WILL BOW before God… and answer for our sins..
There’s much I could say about Castleberry’s comments, but I want to focus on a comment left by Sage and Castleberry’s response.
Sage wrote:
All you have to do is go live your life and leave us to live ours. I don’t care if you are a christian and believe in god and you should not care who or what I am. Christians always want to change me, but all I want to do is coexist. Why is that so hard for you? Why does everyone have to live by your rules.
Is it really so hard to live your life and let others live theirs??
Sage has spent much of her life being judged, harassed, and ridiculed by Evangelicals. Her comment reflects her desire to just be left alone. You would think Evangelicals could respect Sage’s wish and leave her alone. How hard could that be? Kenny Bishop wishes the same for him and his husband. Why can’t Evangelicals do their thing and leave atheists, LGBTQ people, and non-Evangelicals to do theirs? Why are Evangelicals insistent on getting up in the grills of anyone and everyone different from them — earning them the label as one of the most hated religions in the United States?
Let’s take a look at Castleberry’s tone-deaf response to Sage:
Sage, could you for just a moment please try and realize we only appeal to you as Jesus did to see his truth. He is the one that sends us to you thru his love to try and convince you that he loves you. We can do nothing of and in our selves. Only he can change you and only if you believe in him. He does love you so much. Jesus gave his on life for that you might believe and receive him. He would rather you believe and except him so you might live with him in eternity but he won’t force you to. It hurts him and us to see people deny him and go to he’ll for eternity.
First, Castleberry is theologically and Biblically ignorant — as many Evangelicals are. Her theology is incoherent and reveals a lack of understanding about the nature and history of the Bible. How does she know what Jesus said about anything? All we know is what the anonymous authors of the gospels said Jesus said — maybe. We have no evidence that the words attributed to Jesus were uttered by him. Further, Jesus left no writings, and the red-letter words in the Bible don’t mention LBGTQ people one time. For all we know, Jesus himself was gay. After all, he traveled around Palestine with twelve men, most of whom were unmarried. Maybe J-zee and his merry band were a traveling group of LGBTQ magicians. Look at all the tricks they did: walking on water, “healing” blindness with spit and dirt, walking through walls, turning water into wine, making lame people walk, deaf people hear, and blind people see — just like Oral Roberts, Jesse Duplantis, and Leroy Jenkins would do centuries later.
Second, Castleberry thinks she is acting just like Jesus. Really? Where, in the Bible, do we find anything that says Jesus went on the Internet, searched for dirt on Southern Gospel singer Kenny Bishop or Ray Boltz (Evangelicals and the Gay Closet: Is Ray Boltz Still a Christian?), and told them to repent of their deviant, evil sexual perversion?
Third, Castleberry believes Jesus sent her to this site to share the “truth” with us. Bullshit. Castleberry was looking for dirt on Kenny Bishop (one of my favorite southern gospel singers). She consulted God (Google) and came upon this site. Unable to live and let live, Castleberry decided to expose her homophobia for all to see.
Fourth, Jesus is dead, so I doubt Sage’s sexual orientation hurts Jesus in any way. No, it’s Castleberry that is “hurt.” You see, Castleberry finds gay and lesbian sex repugnant. She thinks a man and a man or a woman and another woman or a non-binary person having sex with a man and a woman is icky. And because she thinks it’s “icky,” Castleberry uses her Bible-based moral code as a cudgel towards anyone who fucks differently from the way she does.
Castleberry concludes her comment with a threat: Sage, you are going to burn in Hell forever if you don’t repent of your sins and let Jesus feel you up. I’m sure Sage sarcastically thought, “wow, an Evangelical Christian threatening me with Hell. That’s a first.” I don’t know about Sage, but I am immune to such threats. Hell? Hell is being anywhere near Castleberry and her fellow homophobes. Why would I ever want to spend eternity in Heaven with the likes of her?
I hope Castleberry will reconsider her boorish behavior. I know, I know, not going to happen. But, sometimes it does. I once was a homophobe, and now I am not. What changed? I saw LGBTQ people as fellow humans with the same wants, needs, and desires I have. I came to see that LGBTQ people should have the same freedoms and equal protection under the law as I had. And most of all, I became friends, neighbors, and acquaintances with LGBTQ people. Castleberry sees LGBTQ people as prospects for Heaven, targets for her evangelistic efforts. Until she sees them as fellow citizens, worthy of her kindness, love, and respect, she will continue to be just another Asshole for Jesus.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Over the years, I have snarkily listed evidence that might change my mind about the existence of God. You know, like the Cincinnati Bengals winning the Super Bowl. I figured this ask would never come to pass. After all, the Bengals have been to the Super Bowl twice in franchise history and hadn’t won a playoff game in thirty years. What I didn’t count on is the Messiah showing up; his name is Joe Burrow.
Well, here we are. In two weeks, my Cincinnati Bengals will play the Los Angeles Rams for all the marbles! After Evan McPherson kicked the game-winning field goal, my granddaughter turned to me and said, “Grandpa, why are you crying?” Polly and my sons knew why I was crying — a seminal moment in my life, a moment I shall never forget. Win or lose the Super Bowl, these Bungles-turned-Bengals have warmed and thrilled this old man’s heart. Sure, it’s just a game, but there are moments in the life of a long-suffering fan, that the “game” is much more than just another game.
If the Bengals do indeed win the Super Bowl, I will keep my word and consider their win over the Rams as evidence for the existence of God. The problem, however, will be ascertaining WHICH God is a Bengals fan? Jesus? Allah? Jehovah? Apollo? Anu? Buddha? Or maybe Satan/Lucifer is behind the Bengals’ win, his way of thwarting the Rams?
Regardless, I will praise the football gods for the Bengals and their magical, thrilling 2022 season. And if it’s not too much to ask, God, it’s been over thirty years since the Cincinnati Reds have won the World Series. Pretty please? I really will “believe” if you deliver on this one. 🙂
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Snark Ahead! Easily offended Evangelicals should avoid reading this post. You’ve been warned!
One way Evangelical preachers shame complaining congregants into silence is to remind them of Jesus’ suffering on the cross for sin. One such example of this kind of thinking was posted on the Seeking His Kingdom blog (now defunct). In a July 18, 2016 post titled Why Do You Make Me Suffer?, Andi Garcia — a woman who believes she is “supposed to share His [God’s] message and to let others know that we are to seek Him at all times” — had this to say about those who complain:
I said to a coworker who are we to question God about anything? Like when will He answer our prayer or ask Him why do we suffer? Why this or that?..I said did any of you ever think that our little problems, the problems our kids give us, are nothing compared to what He suffered for us all. I continued on and said I have 3 kids plus myself and yes worry for them and the problems they may have or situations they may put me through and it hurts me, of course, I’m their mother…BUT..He..He carries all of our sins …ALL OF OUR SINS for us. Can you imagine that suffering?? I said so whatever problems we have or our kids put us through aren’t problems..we shouldn’t worry, we shouldn’t complain, we shouldn’t ask WHY DO YOU MAKE ME SUFFER? See, 2 weeks ago I was going through some things with my 2 older children, 19 and 23, and I actually asked Him, I said it out loud, God why do you make me suffer? As soon as it came out, I slapped my hand to my mouth and legit, heard this in my thoughts, You are suffering? I felt ashamed. So I took some inventory and thought I’m alive, I wake up with no pain, I have a home, I have my 3 kids with or without problems, I have a job, food to eat, a car, the list goes on. I sat back that night and said I’m sorry about a million times because I thought to myself, if I hurt for my 3 kids when something or someone hurts them or their behavior is less than acceptable, can we imagine what He feels for every single one of us who sin? We will never know that pain.
I told myself, I will never complain or think that I suffer. I also will always remember the immense love He has for us, His children. Amen? Amen!!!
Now, Garcia is not a preacher, but her post reflects that she has been taught to never, ever voice complaints about whatever difficulty she might be facing. Just remember what Jesus suffered on our behalf, Evangelical preachers say, as if saying this is supposed to magically take away pain, suffering, heartache, and emotional distress. This thinking flows from the belief that Jesus is the answer for every question and he is cure for every ailment. As former Evangelicals well know, the curative power of thinking about a man being beaten and executed is grossly overrated.
According to the Bible, a man by the name of Jesus was beaten and executed for crimes against the Jewish people. Jesus’ suffering took place over a short period of time. Yes, if the Bible account is accurate, Jesus suffered greatly before he was executed. I certainly don’t want to minimize his pain and agony, though I have to wonder if Jesus, being God in the flesh, perhaps made it look like he was horrifically suffering, but in reality he actually turned off all his pain receptors and felt nothing. I know that’s what I would do TODAY, if I could. No more pain! Regardless, his suffering was short-lived. After he was taken down from the cross and placed in a borrowed tomb, the Bible tells us he went to Hell to preach the gospel to its captives. (Ephesians 4:7-10, Luke 23:39-43, Luke 16:19-31, 1 Peter 3:18-20) The traditional English version of the Apostles’ Creed states:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic* Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.
Amen.
According to God’s inspired, inerrant, infallible Word and the Apostles’ Creed, after his evidently fake death, Jesus took a vacation to Hades/Paradise to do some soul-saving preaching. And then, several days later, on a Sunday, Jesus — in Arnold Schwarzenegger-like fashion — walked out of the grave and said I’m back! Time to start a new religion! His body should have shown the marks of a man brutally beaten, but all that remained for people to see were the holes in his hands, feet, and abdomen — reminders of his recent crucifixion. Evidently, no plastic surgeon was available, so Jesus had to go through his last forty days on earth with ugly-looking hands and feet. I wonder if he wore socks with his sandals to cover the holes in his feet?
Was Jesus’ suffering worse than any human has ever experienced? Of course not. Only those who are religiously blinded to reality dare to make such false assumptions. Having watched numerous people die, I can tell you that some of them suffered far greater agony and pain than Jesus. Think of all the horrific things you have watched people experience or you have gone through. Are all of these experiences, to quote Garcia, “little problems” and “nothing compared to what He suffered for us all”? Are Garcia and others like her diminishing the suffering of others, treating their agony as little more than inconveniences?
This kind of thinking finds its roots in Evangelical belief about the purpose of this life. Most Evangelicals think that their present life is little more than preparation for the life to come — eternal life. According to Amos 4:12, Hebrews 9:27, Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14, and other verses, life is all about preparing to meet God. Through frequent reminders from pastors that this life is temporary and transitory, Evangelicals are conditioned to believe that in this life comes suffering and loss and in the next life God will reward them with perfect, pain-free existences for being his faithful servants. This is why Garcia can so easily dismiss the suffering of billions of people. With a wave of the Bible Wand®, Garcia declares that all of humanity’s sickness, diseases, and sufferings are little more than minor inconveniences. In Garcia’s mind, Jesus was biggest bad-ass sufferer of all time. No one can kick Jesus off the Throne of Suffering!
Thinking this way causes Evangelicals to be callously indifferent towards the suffering of others. Hungry? Thirsty? Have AIDS? Infected with the Zika virus? On a respirator with COVID-19? Have cancer? Carrying a severely deformed fetus? Unrelenting pain? Homeless? Mentally ill? Victim of sexual abuse? Victim of domestic violence? Stroke? Alzheimer disease? Dementia? Ebola? S-h-i-t, such suffering is a walk in the park when compared to Jesus’ 24-hour beat down and death, says Evangelicals. Don’t sweat it! Get saved, and then when you die a horrible, miserable death you will get to go to Heaven. This is why Evangelicals can oppose universal healthcare, birth control, and any other program meant to ease human suffering. Better to go to Heaven with an empty stomach than to Hell with a full one, Evangelical preachers say. Life is all about getting saved, not getting healthy, and living a better life. Sure, if Jesus wants to give Evangelicals fancy cars, expensive clothes, organic food, private schools for their children, health, eye, and dental coverage, and vacations to Fiji, they will take it, but those who are left groveling in the dirt of human existence, why they should get saved, thank Jesus for being worthy of such suffering, and quickly die so Evangelicals don’t have to pay for their care.
Did you, at one time, view life and suffering as Andi Garcia does? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Several years ago, a two-year-old boy (some reports say the child was three) died after his parents left him in the car while they attended an afternoon worship service at Rehoboth Praise Assembly in East Dallas, Texas. Forty-five minutes into the worship service, the boy’s parents realized that they had left him in the car. Sadly, it was too late. The one hundred-degree Texas heat had rendered the boy unconscious. He was pronounced dead later that night at a local hospital.
The parents of the boy have four other children. Polly and I know firsthand the horror of leaving your children behind in an unsafe environment. One time we left our second-oldest son asleep on the front pew of the church. It was not until we arrived home — fifteen miles away — that we realized we had left him behind. I vividly remember driving as fast as I could, praying to God that my son would be safe. Fortunately, he was still asleep when I opened the doors to the pitch-dark church sanctuary. At the time, I praised God for his providential protection of my son. I now know that we were lucky. I can only imagine what might have happened if Nathan had awakened and found out that he was the star in the Baptist version of Home Alone. Several years later, we had another incident where we left our son Jaime sleeping in the car after arriving home from church. An hour or so later, much to our shock and horror, Jaime sleepily came walking in the door. Again, I praised God for protecting my son.
Polly and I were quite busy on Sundays, so we drove separately to the church. Driving two cars and not paying attention to who had what kids led to the events mentioned above. After the Jaime incident, we made a hard and fast rule that neither of us could leave the church for home without making sure all six children were accounted for. I can report that all of our children, from that day forward, safely made it home.
What if something tragic — say injury or death — had happened to our forgotten sons? Would I have still been praising the wonderful love, grace, mercy, and kindness of Jesus? Probably, even going so far as to say that their injury/death was all part of God’s supercalifragilisticexpialidocious plan for our lives. I am sure the church and parents of the dead 3-year-old went through similar irrational theological machinations.
The question that is rarely asked is this: Where is God? If the third part of the Trinity — the Holy Spirit — lives inside of each and every believer, why didn’t he — with that still small voice of his — whisper in the ears of the two-year-old’s parents, telling them, Hey your little boy is asleep. Go get him before he dies from exposure to extreme Texas summer temperatures. Remember these song lyrics?
Jesus loves the little children All the children of the world Black and yellow, red and white They’re all precious in His sight Jesus loves the little children of the world
Or these lyrics?
Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so; Little ones to Him belong; They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.
Where was the strong Jesus when the weak little boy was being baked to death? Can it really be said that Jesus loves the little children when he idly stands by and does n-o-t-h-i-n-g as a boy is suffocated to death? If God can, but doesn’t, what does that tell us about God?
According to the defenders of Yahweh, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost, their God’s ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. I should hope not! Most people, when finding out a child is dying in the suffocating heat of a closed-up car, would do everything in their power to rescue the child. Not God. He has some sort of unspoken reason for letting the child die. Or perhaps the child’s parents were living in sin or needed to be taught a “life” lesson. Who knows, right? God is always given a free pass when it comes to the suffering and death of children. God knows best, Christians say. Pray tell, how is letting a child die alone in a car in any way “best”?
I am sure the dead boy’s parents are grieving over the loss of their son, knowing that they are the cause of his death. Just now, I viewed a TV advertisement reminding parents to always check the backseat of their cars for children. It’s hot out there, the ad said. Way too many busy parents forget to make sure all of their children are accounted for. Thirty-six years ago, Polly and I could have caused the deaths of our children. Luck, not God, saved our children. Sadly, for the Dallas parents, their inattention cost their son his life.
Parents are responsible for caring for their children. When bad things happen such as this boy’s death, most often parents or others adults are responsible. Years ago, we delivered newspapers for the Zanesville Times-Recorder. One day, Polly was in Shawnee, Ohio making collections. Shawnee is quite hilly, as is most of Southeast Ohio. Polly drove up a steep hill to our customer’s home, got out of the car, leaving our toddler son, Jaime, secured with a seat belt (no car seats back in those days). Polly, thinking she would only be gone for a minute, left the keys in the ignition, not knowing that Jaime had figured out how to unbuckle his seat belt. Mimicking what he had seen his parents do countless times before, Jaime reached up, turned the ignition, and pulled down on the drive shift. The car, much to Polly’s horror, began rolling backward down the steep hill — 400 feet in all — launching the car into the air before it landed in a creek bed. Fortunately, Jaime was not injured. It took two wreckers to extricate the totaled car from the bottom of the hill.
During Jaime’s younger years, I painted the front doors of the church red. I didn’t have any paint thinner to clean the brush, so I waited until got home to do so. I put the brush in a pint jar of thinner to soak. Knowing that mischievous Jaime was nearby, I put the jar on the back of the counter, safe from his little hands — or so I thought. I went on to do other things, only to find out that Jaime had pushed a chair up to the counter and climbed up so he could reach the red “Kool-aid” that was on the back of the counter. Fortunately, one drink was all that was needed to teach Jaime that all red liquids are NOT Kool-aid.
In both of these stories, Jaime’s parents were culpable for what happened. Lessons learned: never leave a child unattended, never leave keys in the car, always set the parking brake when parked on steep inclines, and never, ever put dangerous things where children can get a hold of them.
I am not suggesting that parents can protect their children from every possible danger. We can’t. Children love to test boundaries and get into things. It is a wonder that any of them survive to adulthood. Risk is all around us, and one of the lessons parents must teach their children is to measure risk and danger. But, despite training them and keeping them under our watchful eyes, children can do things that could kill them. And sometimes parents can, either through carelessness or inattention, do things that harm their children. Regardless of to whom blame is assessed, one thing is for certain: God will be nowhere to found. He is the do-nothing God, a deity who can’t be bothered with rescuing an innocent child on a hot summer day in Dallas, Texas.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
A few years ago, a former Jehovah’s Witness sent me an email detailing how he had found Biblical “truths” that he was certain that I have never seen before. He wants to “share” these truths with me. No thanks. Having been mined for over 2,000 years for the minutest of truths, the bible holds no more “new” truths. This man, once a card-carrying member of a Christian sect, supposedly reset his beliefs to zero and read the Bible in such a way that none of his past beliefs and biases played a part in his finding these “new” truths. Unless this man had a lobotomy or had his mind wiped in Men in Black fashion, I am quite sure he was unable to jettison past beliefs, biases, and hermeneutics. All of us are products of our environments, tribal influences, and pasts. While I am now an atheist, I know that my Evangelical past, to some degree, still informs my thinking about the Bible, religion, and morality. While I now have other tools at my disposal as I “think” about the world and my place in it, it would be less than honest for me to say that my mind is now free of everything that I was taught and experienced over the course of fifty years in the Christian church.
I am sure this man “thinks” his mind is a clean slate, but it’s not. The “new” truths that he thinks he has found are in a book written, collated, and ordered by men. From translations to verse numberings, the Bible is a monument to the works of men. It is evident that this man thinks the Bible is some sort of divine book. He says that his path to “truth” began with Proverbs 2:2-6:
So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
Saying that he is allowing GOD alone to teach him, this man is rereading the Bible. Shouldn’t he, first, determine if this God even exists? How about starting in Genesis 1-3 with its plurality of Gods? Regardless of how much mind-washing has been done, it is impossible to read the Bible and come to some sort of cohesive, unified “truth.” Christian sects have been trying to do so for two thousand years. Their work has resulted in the birth of thousands of Christian sects, each believing that their “truth” is THE truth.
Here’s an excerpt from this man’s email:
this may be a big god damn waste of time…but i feel compelled to reach out to you anyway.
i have similar background as you in that i spent a shitload of my lifetime wrapped up in an organized ‘christian’ religion where the mantra basically was, we’re right, everyone else is wrong. go out there and bring in those lost sheep to increase our numbers!
i was fully BRAINWASHED into their mode of thinking – and i was a ‘company man’ – staunch, exemplary and unmoving in its doctrines, so near their top ranking status of ELDER – my elderhood was imminent at any time.
but…then it happened…without going into all the gory details – my eyes were opened to the filth and corruption that made up this organization…full well knowing that if THIS organization had as much crap and outright debauchery contained within it, there is no fucking truth, there is no fucking right religion it’s all a fucking big load of stinking garbage in EVERY religion EVERYWHERE..
my wife and my kids walked away from it and anything else that smelled like IT or even slightly resembled IT. i was in IT as an adult for 22 years and i actually came to be within IT via my parent’s decision to do so – thought I bounced around doing everything BUT IT until i got married and started having kids.
the kicker is…there was something about the BOOK that I could not let go of. to me, it just seemed there was something WAY deeper than what any ‘christian’ religion had their wits of understanding around…and, it was surely EASY to see that no one religion was practicing what it truly said. because if one DID? well…for example, christ said unequivocally without exception – to: LOVE YOUR ENEMIES.
that bit right there? disqualifies EVERY FUCKING organized ‘CHRISTIAN’ religion out there. Every one of them. Period,
but – like I said – as I read it by myself or when I was in IT during a meeting (of course always seeing the way THEY would twist and take shit out of context to fit THEIR doctrine)…there was stuff that I could not just throw away.
i basically did a last-ditch ultimatum…and I did it to GOD, right to his FUCKING FACE…I said as I was in my office – sometime after the official denunciation and leaving of IT (Jehovah’s Witnesses by the way)…
i am going to start from scratch and read this one more time…one more time…and if i cannot get out of it anything that i can sink my life into? i am DONE. you WILL hate my guts. I WILL be a BAD nightmare and I will TRASH ANYTHING/EVERYTHING remotely resembling what is called ‘christian’…as to me IT WAS ALL BULLSHIT.
bible in hand..at my desk…with tears flowing from my eyes…I read Proverbs 2, honing in on verses 3 -6…
i said – i am starting from SCRATCH. I am coming into this book like i have never read it before. i will not take with me ANY of the doctrines/teachings/festerings of any religion i have leaned an ear to. i will do what it says…i will let GOD give me the understanding. I will NOT ask any pastor, preacher, commentary, book, scholar dipshit, fuckhead…i am going in ALONE…beliefs reset to…
ZERO.
I KNOW NOTHING.
well Bruce – in your website somewhere – I found this:
“Whatever you think God wants you to tell me, I have already heard it.”
I can fully guarantee – that what I have been shown – will line up with NOTHING you have ever heard. some of it is like hiding in plain sight – and upon going into the seeking of it as to hid treasure and found gold…well, that is what it is – i did have to do some work to pull things together … thing is Bruce…there is SO MUCH of it (and I mean NEW STUFF you will not have been exposed to)…I’ll have a hard time figuring where to start.
Here I am, six years later, still unconvinced. Maybe today will be the day a Christian brings new facts that will challenge my unbelief. So far, color me unimpressed.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Evangelicals are fond of saying that prayer is “me talking to God and God talking to me. ” Some Evangelicals believe that God audibly talks to them, while others believe he speaks to their “hearts” with an inaudible, still small voice. Some Evangelicals — particularly Calvinists — believe that God speaks to them through the words of the Bible. Regardless of how God speaks to me is described or explained, Evangelicals of every stripe believe God speaks to them.
That Evangelicals believe God speaks to them should not come as a surprise to non-Evangelicals. Evangelicals believe that the third part of the Trinity — the Holy Ghost/Spirit — lives somewhere inside their mind/body. If God lives inside people, it is not too far a stretch to assume that the indwelling Holy Spirit “talks” to Evangelicals.
Consider the lyrics of the hymn, In the Garden:
I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses, and the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses.
Refrain:
And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own; and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of his voice is so sweet the birds hush their singing, and the melody that he gave to me within my heart is ringing.
(Refrain)
I’d stay in the garden with him though the night around me be falling, but he bids me go; thru the voice of woe his voice to me is calling.
(Refrain)
Jesus Speaks to Me, a song by contemporary Christian group FFH, perhaps states it best:
Can I talk to You a while Can I lay my weary head On Your shoulder again Can I rest beneath Your smile Will You whisper to me As I kneel beside my bed
I’ve been walkin’ in the desert I need to hear from You
I need Your touch, I need Your love Oh Jesus, speak to me, yeah I need to hold You, oh, so close Oh Jesus, speak to me, yeah Oh Jesus, speak to me
It feels like I’ve walked a thousand miles Just to see the mountaintop To be above the clouds But it only takes a while Until my feet just seem to stop And I make my way back down
I’ve been so long in the valley I need to hear from You
I need Your touch, I need Your love Oh Jesus, speak to me, yeah I need to hold You, oh, so close Oh Jesus, speak to me, yeah Oh Jesus, speak to me
Feels like I’m losing my mind Going crazy Feels like I’m running out of time Come and save me Just wipe the tears from my eyes Say it’s alright, alright
I need Your touch, I need Your love Oh Jesus, speak to me, yeah I need to hold You, oh, so close Oh Jesus, speak to me, yeah Oh Jesus, speak to me, yeah Oh Jesus, speak to me, yeah Oh Jesus, speak to me
FFH opines that they are going crazy as they desperately seek to hear the voice of God. I suspect many Evangelicals have similar sentiments. I know Polly and I did. Sadly, Evangelicals will rarely consider that perhaps the reason they are going crazy is that the voice they are seeking to hear doesn’t exist.
Evangelicals who hear the voice of God are certain that what they are hearing is from the Christian God. Attempts to challenge such assertions are almost always rejected. I know what I know, Evangelicals say. I KNOW God speaks to me! How do they KNOW for sure God speaks to them? Why, they heard his voice! Suggesting that such an argument is circular reasoning will also be rejected. God’s ways are not our ways, Evangelicals say. As with most discussions with Evangelicals, attempts to appeal to reason and objectivity will be turned away with statements such as, by FAITH, I believe God speaks to me. Once Evangelicals appeal to faith, there is not much more skeptics and rationalists can say or do. Subjective metaphysical claims are beyond the realm of reason. Facts, evidence, and science don’t matter when Evangelicals appeal to faith. As the old Evangelical canard goes, God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me.
Several years ago, a woman who called herself Bible Believer had this to say about listening to the voice of God:
We are entering the days where things are getting more and more spiritually darker. Every Christian here feels it. We are seeing massive changes even within the last few years. We have to learn to listen to God in prayer. More and more it is important to listen to God’s warnings for protection. Some time ago, I had met a new person and on my second meeting with them where I was not in a larger group of people. I had this thought flash across my mind, “This person is wicked and an insider.” This came out of nowhere. I did listen but I proceeded with caution but still erred on the side of not taking actions sooner. My warning about this seared person are so intense, I will leave a room or other place if I ever see them in it.
I am learning to listen to warnings like that faster and more immediately. Yes as a human being, I can err but I believe we all need to be listening when God is warning us of something. This may sound odd, but I had the thought too this person had some involvement with occultism. On the surface they are in a false church, and I met them in a community context.
I found out via public information on the internet someone closely related to this person is basically a Satanist. And I am not talking teen “Goth” or “Wicca” dabbler or a few bouts of yoga or rekki [sic] but a well into adulthood HARD CORE Satanist. Think “OTO” temple one with Silver in the name and interest in esoteric “magic”, some with names I am sure no one ever heard of but I have from my younger days. And it went even further then that. Some may say it is unfair to judge a relative on what another relative is doing. And on that they would be right. Many good Christians come out of wicked families, but this specific person on a public Facebook page, drew pictures of themselves surrounded by demons. They praised their Satanic family member to me when I first met them.
I believe God is helping to protect me from future betrayals. I hope people do not think I have lost it or gone “paranoid”. I didn’t act on a lot of warnings that came early when dealing with two major betrayals. I paid for not listening sooner. With one person, who was a deceiver, I had dreams about them for a long time. I “knew inside” but was afraid to act. The dreams told me over and over they were not what they appeared to be. Here is a place where a Christian will want to go with your gut. If all your “instincts” tell you something is wrong, the message is coming from somewhere. Listen to the small voice of the Holy Spirit! I hope with time I have grown stronger. Some will tell you everything you want to hear. Some will even pretend to be Christians. Some will pretend to even be a fellow new world order aware Christians.
Bible Believer’s hearing from God is not, in any way, unique. (BTW, Bible Believer deconverted a couple of years ago and is no longer a Christian.) Every day, I peruse over one hundred Evangelical blogs and websites. Rare is the day that I don’t read articles and blog posts about God speaking to the authors. Those of us raised in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement are quite familiar with phrases such as: God said, God told me, and God is leading me. IFB preachers can easily justify almost anything by speaking these magic words: God spoke to my heart and told me to do ____________. During my preaching days, I often told congregants that God told me that the church needed to do _________________. Believing I was the man of God — one chosen by God to lead the church — churches members believed God and I were on a first-name basis.
Of course, God and I weren’t BFFs. The “voice” I heard in my “heart” was my own. God’s will always aligned with my own wants, needs, and desires. I wish Evangelical preachers would be honest with congregants, telling them that what they want to do is premised on their wants and not the voice of God.
If God really does speak to Evangelicals, why do Christians have conflicting ideas about what God had said? I have participated in countless church business meetings, meetings that were always “bathed” in prayer, with members seeking to hear the voice of God. The goal, of course, was to gather up a majority of yes votes so the preacher’s wants/needs/desires could be fulfilled. Most business meetings are little more than rubber-stamp approvals of whatever tickles pastors’ fancies. Every once in a while, a congregant or two will “hear” a different voice and object to the topic under discussion. What are we to make of such contrary views? Surely, if all Evangelicals have the same Holy Spirit living inside of them, shouldn’t they be of one mind — as was the early church? Despite all the praying and seeking to hear the voice of God, church business is decided by good old-fashioned American majority rules.
Most Evangelicals who have conversations with God are good people. We humans are prone to irrationality, and in the case of people hearing God’s voice, this irrationality is on a massive scale. Where this becomes a problem is when hearing God’s voice causes people to harm themselves or other people. Countless people have been murdered by Christians who believed that God was telling them to commit homicide. The Bible recounts the story of God telling Abraham to murder his son Isaac. While God was just fucking with (“testing”) Abraham, is there any doubt that the father of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam would have slit his son’s throat had God not intervened? This story is preached as a great example of faith — obediently doing whatever God commands. Why then, should the stories of modern-day Abrahams be discounted or rejected out of hand?
The answer, of course, is that such behavior is a sign of mental illness. Evangelicals who believe God is speaking to them and saying that they should harm or kill other people are mentally disturbed. While I am not suggesting that every Evangelical has a screw loose, many of them do, especially those who are sucked into depths of paranoid, delusional, and conspiratorial thinking. (Perhaps, this is a chicken/egg issue. Do people become mentally ill as a result of Evangelical teachings or are people who are already mentally ill attracted to Evangelical churches?)
I am sure Evangelicals will gnash their teeth and wail over the claim that “hearing the voice of God” is often a sign of mental illness. I suggest that such gnashers and wailers attempt to see how this looks from the outside. In any other setting, someone hearing voices would be a cause for concern. Numerous mental health problems can give rise to hearing voices in one’s head. Why should voice-hearing Evangelicals be given a pass when it comes to their mental acuity? Does the fact that someone is religious exempt them from normal standards of psychological fitness? I think not.
Nothing I have written in this post will change the minds of people who are convinced that God is their best friend, one who frequently “talks” to them. All we can do is make sure such irrational beliefs don’t harm others. Behind much of the political machinations of the Republican Party are Evangelicals who believe God is telling them to oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, gun restrictions, LGBTQ people, and to blindly support Donald Trump — the most unqualified (and vile) president in U.S. history. God is also telling them to build a wall on our border with Mexico, stop transgenders from using “wrong” restrooms, and, most of all, take back America. What’s next? Arresting and incarcerating atheists, agnostics, humanists, and secularists, along with anyone else that opposes the establishment of an American Christian theocracy? Perhaps it is time to put Prozac in Bible Belt water supplies.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Yesterday, I received the following email from an Evangelical man named Ansen (who read all of three posts):
Hi dear brother. My name is Ansen. I’m nothing important. I’ve been under spiritual attack by alot of evil in the world. I’ve been given a gift by God to see a small glimpse of spiritual things.
I was reading your blog and I was inspired [he read one of my posts on street preaching] until I read the part of you becoming an atheist.
I thought to myself that a man who pastored churches for 25 years gives all of that up for worldly pleasures. I thought this is insane.
You being a pastor for 25 years should have understood that we are at war with principalities and powers.
Dear brother. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming back soon.
I can’t impart the things I’ve seen to be given to you. I can’t physically let you see the things I can see because I don’t know how.
In any case. I wouldn’t want you to experience the pain that I have.
But I can tell you that Jesus is definitely real. There is indeed a devil that is trying to take us away from God.
I want you to do a spiritual test with yourself.
Ask yourself what would happen if you tried to believe in Jesus again?
Then try and attempt to believe in Jesus.
If you can’t bring yourself to believing in Jesus it’s because something Evil(The Antichrist) is trying to stop you.
Spend at least 5 minutes trying to believe in Jesus.
If you’ve found difficulty doing it. Then you need to keep doing it.
There is something trying to stop you Bruce.
Carolyn, my esteemed editor and friend, sent Ansen the following response:
Mr. Hatcher,
I write on behalf of Bruce Gerencser. I sometimes answer his emails when he is behind on them. That said . . .
Regarding your importance or lack thereof, it is your god who makes you feel unimportant, like a worm, like a sin-filled creature. Bruce is no longer having any of that.
I wonder how the evil in the world attacks you. I don’t think Bruce believes in the personification of evil. That is, people are evil, but there is no evil force outside of people that can attack other people. Bruce doesn’t believe in gods – not yours, not anyone else’s – so he has no belief in your “gift” or your “small glimpse of spiritual things”; especially where they involve Bruce himself.
Bruce did not give up his faith for “worldly pleasures.” Indeed, about the only “worldly pleasure” he indulges in is occasional strong spirits. He gave up his faith because he sought a church where the congregants served Jesus, and could find no such church after attending more than 100 churches of various denominations. Discouraged, he began to read the bible again (for the 5th or 6th time, at least) and saw the multiple gods of Genesis, the two separate creation stories, the fallacy of Adam and Eve being the first people on earth (where did Cain’s wife come from? Cain “builded a city” – who populated the city?). He saw the malignancy of a god who caused his people to destroy armies, then kill the men and take the women as their own. He saw the dastardliness of a god who caused men, women, innocent children and even unborn babies to be drowned in his flood. The logistics of Noah taking two of every living creature aboard a huge boat are insurmountable, and there is no physical historical evidence for such a great flood.
He continued into the new testament, and saw the conflicting narratives of the gospels regarding the birth of Jesus. He realized that he could no longer believe in a virgin birth, a man who walked on water, walked through walls, or who died and came back to life.
I am not sure who would be at war with “principalities and powers.” Bruce is not your dear brother.
The promise of the return of someone named Jesus has been passed on for more than 2,000 years. It will go on as an empty promise until such time as Christianity dies out.
Bruce has no belief in your dreams, visions, or hallucinations, so it does not matter that you cannot “impart the things” you’ve seen to be given to him.
Bruce has experienced far greater pain than have you. Bruce lives with fibromyalgia, raging osteoarthritis, gastroparesis, and peripheral neuropathy, the combination of which makes him hurt from the crown of his head to the bottom of his feet. He has no pain-free days, just manageable-pain days. Bruce would not want you or anyone else to experience the pain he has. And your pain is . . . what??
Bruce can no more believe in Jesus than he can believe in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, leprechauns, or any of the myriad other mythical creatures out there in the world. When you can show some hard, tangible evidence of the existence of a god, then Bruce might be willing to expend some effort examining the evidence to determine whether he believes the evidence is real. Only then would he consider belief in such a god. Until that time, Jesus is just a man who may or may not have lived a long time ago, but is not alive today and is not worthy of worship.
Bruce put himself through spiritual testing every day as he began to lose his faith. He did not want to lose his faith, but the more he examined, the more he realized he could not believe. There is no point in any such spiritual test at this point.
Now fuck off.
Carolyn Patrick, editor for Bruce Gerencser
Well said, Carolyn, well said. Except that “now fuck off” line. I would never say such a thing to a proselytizing Evangelical Christian. 🙂 Well . . . actually I would. You see, I have a statement on my contact page that specifically asks Evangelicals to NOT send me emails such as the one Ansen sent me. Much like Fake Dr. David Tee, Father John, and countless other Evangelical zealots, Ansen has no regard for what I want nor respect for me as a person. In his mind, all that matters is getting a word in for Jesus. That’s why I do not respond kindly to such people. Sometimes, a “fuck off” is warranted. Last week, after an onslaught of emails from the Fake Dr., I emailed him and said:
And I suggest you take a 12 inch dildo and shove it up your ass. I’m sure there’s one in your nightstand. Now fuck off you piece of shit.
After several more back and forths, I said:
I’m not being funny. You are a despicable human being. Fundamentalism has so rotted your mind that you are unable to be a decent person. You are a bully who loves to gaslight people. Not just my opinion either, asshole. Ask around. You will find that my opinion of you is held by many. You have spent years attacking people, getting banned at numerous sites, yet you accept no responsibility for your vile behavior.
You need professional help, David.
I always politely respond to Evangelicals who have sincere, thoughtful questions about my story or something I have written. However, when Evangelicals show no regard for me as a person and are only interested in advancing their agenda, I am going to let them know what I think about their boorish behavior. When necessary, I am quite happy to give proselytizing Evangelicals the Bruce Gerencser Treatment®.
— Bruce pauses for five minutes to try to [savingly] believe in Jesus —
Nope, it didn’t work . . .
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Kelsey Wilson, a first-grade teacher at Dayspring Christian School in Springfield, Missouri, and her husband Zachary, were sentenced yesterday to home detention for their role in the January 6 Insurrection.
The Kansas City Star reports:
A former Missouri Christian school teacher and her husband who said former President Donald Trump and the crowd contributed to the environment that led to the Capitol riot were sentenced Thursday to home detention and two years’ probation. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Zachary Wilson to 45 days of home detention and Kelsey Wilson to 30 days, along with 60 hours of community service. They also must each pay $500 in restitution for damage done to the Capitol during the insurrection, which prosecutors say totaled $1.5 million. “It’s hard to avoid getting on a soap box in these cases, and I’m trying to resist doing that,” Mehta said. “But I don’t think it would be appropriate to at least not let any sentencing pass without reflecting on the magnitude of what occurred on January the sixth and how you all contributed to it.”
Mehta said Jan. 6 was a day in which the country was to transition power peacefully from one president to the next. “Regrettably, you all made the decision to do something that contributed to a transition of power that ultimately was marred by violence, destruction and death,” he told the Wilsons. “And that’s not something that anybody ought to downplay or suggest was not significant or could be justified by events earlier in the summer. It’s really not justifiable.”
….
“I cannot apologize enough or express remorse that I have for the actions that day,” Zachary Wilson said. “My wife and I went to Washington, D.C., to hear former President Trump and the guest speakers. We had no intention of interfering with the Congressional proceedings. We saw the crowd and got caught up and followed them up to the building. “I’m incredibly sorry for my part in what has now put a stain on American history.” Mehta asked him why he thought it was permissible to breach the Capitol that day.
“I was caught up in President Trump telling everybody that this election got stolen and he had kind of everybody enraged,” Zachary Wilson said. “We didn’t even have any idea that we were gonna do a march. We thought we were just there for the speech. And then when he said, ‘Yeah, turn around and march,’ and everybody’s like, ‘Yeah, march.’ And he’d already had everybody so worked up that when we got up there I just reacted wrongly. I really feel stupid, to be honest.”
A tearful Kelsey Wilson told the judge that her arrest “will undoubtedly be one of the most life-changing things that I will ever go through.” “I know what I did on January sixth was wrong,” she said. “We got caught up in everything that had been happening over the last year and we got swept up in the crowd. And I’m deeply and truly sorry and embarrassed for my actions that day.”
….
“I’ve already lost not one but two jobs because of my actions that day and my family is struggling,” she said. “My family is truly sorry for the embarrassment that we brought on our country, and we will definitely pay for this for the rest of our lives.” Kelsey Wilson had been employed as a first grade teacher by Dayspring Christian School in Springfield for about a month at the time of her arrest last August. When asked why she went into the Capitol building, she told the judge that “I think a lot of it just had to do with seeing everything over the summer…seeing cities burn and people divided for the last several years and then getting there and getting caught up in the crowd. It was a stupid mistake.” Mehta told the couple that in many ways, they were “victimized” themselves. “You were told lies about election fraud, about your country being taken from you,” he said. “They were lies. And regrettably, you believed them. And you acted on that.”
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
