Surveys have indicated that there is a group of people known as “nones”. That is, when asked if they hold to a particular church, denomination, or religion, they answer with “none”. Atheists cheer the belief that their hellish horde is growing, but that’s not necessarily the case. People who are in-between churches but still believe all the basic tenets of Christianity could still answer “none” [this is about as likely as creationism is true] but not be irreligious or anti-theistic.
Your typical village atheopath spends an inordinate amount of time and energy attacking the God that he or she claims does not exist. It is amazing to this child that many seek their identities in attacking the God they deny. These sidewinders along with other anti-creationists do not show knowledge of the biblical creation science claims that they misrepresent because they suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18-23). Indeed, they do not even show knowledge of rudimentary logic. When encountering atheists on social media (they frequently attack Christians and creationists) or in their anti-theist campaigns, we can easily see that they are typically joyless and angry. Such devotion to hatred of God is done religiously.
In the United States, Super Bowl Sunday is a big deal. People who rarely watch American football during the regular season will gather together to watch the Super Bowl Championship game. Companies pay millions of dollars to buy advertisement time during the broadcast, and many of the ads are quite clever, funny, or touching. The halftime show typically features A-list performers with advanced choreography, lighting, and showmanship.
This year, the performers were Latina entertainers Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. Both are women over 40 who are superstars in their respective genres. In addition to her career as a singer-dancer-entertainer, J. Lo is also an actress and a judge on the show “World of Dance”. Shakira is known for her dual Lebanese and Colombian heritage, incorporating belly dancing into her performances, and she was a voice character in the animated movie “Zootopia”. Both performers have won multiple awards during their careers.
It did not take long for the Evangelical Christian world to lose their minds over the halftime show. J. Lo and Shakira, along with their backup dancers, put on a dance-heavy performance in which many appeared to be scantily clad, though in photos it’s obvious that J. Lo’s base layer was a long flesh-colored bodysuit, and Shakira’s costumes were no more scanty than the outfits of the cheerleaders on the field. However, Evangelical Christian sensibilities were ruffled by the fact that these two women, both over the age of 40, were dancing and wearing costumes that showed some of their skin or what appeared to be skin.
Common in Evangelical Christianity is the concept of purity culture. Purity culture revolves around the way that Evangelical Christians believe their deity designed men and women. They teach that men were designed to be predatory, dominant, aggressive, and aroused by visual stimuli. Women, conversely, are designed to be passive, nurturing, submissive, and aroused by tactile stimuli, and are therefore the designated gatekeepers of all sexual activity. The belief is that if a man sees something that arouses him, he will be unable to control his urge to dominate and possess what he sees. As women supposedly are not aroused until they are touched, they have the ability to thwart sexual activity by not drawing attention to themselves and by saying no. The idea is that if a woman draws attention to herself by wearing clothing that shows her physique, by any motions that draw attention to her physique (such as dancing or swaying of her hips), even by making direct eye contact with a male or “flirting,” that means she is signaling that she welcomes sexual activity. She is therefore at least partially culpable in any sexual activity. In Evangelical Christian purity culture, I learned that it was important to be as silent and as invisible as possible in order to prevent sexual advances from men.
When J. Lo and Shakira sang and danced on stage, purity culture adherents viewed their activity as openly welcoming sexual activity. The performers were tempting upstanding Christian men and boys to desire sexual activity with them. Additionally, J. Lo and Shakira were demonstrating to girls and women how to draw the attention of men. The performers repudiated purity culture’s directive to be as silent and as invisible as possible. These two mature, successful, talented performers dominated the stage and made their voices heard. (I won’t even address the references they made to children singing in cages, the nods to Shakira’s Middle Eastern heritage, J. Lo’s use of the Puerto Rican and US flags or her daughter’s singing of “Born in the USA”, but those were all important elements in the show as well.)
I grew up in the 1980s with purity culture, but fortunately I was too old for the more slickly marketed purity culture that exploded during the 1990s and 2000s. It affected me as well to the point that I hated and was ashamed of my body and wore oversized clothing for several years. In the Fundamentalist Christian school I attended, we had a strict dress code that included rules about skirt length, sleeve length, and cleavage-covering. Prior to our senior trip, girls had to model their swimsuits in front of three female faculty members for approval. The message was that we were to be “feminine” but also well-covered so as not to draw too much attention from our male classmates and teachers. My mom did not know the extent of purity culture that I was taught at church and school, and she did not understand the source of my body hatred. When I was in my early 20s, my mom bought me a two-piece bathing suit and a suede miniskirt and told me that I should wear these types of clothes while I still “could” before the inevitable obesity that plagues females in our family set in. Eventually, I became accustomed to wearing age-appropriate and body-appropriate clothing, but the body image issues have never completely gone away.
I no longer see my body as a temptation to men, something to be covered and hidden. Life experiences taught me that people are responsible for their own actions, and I am not responsible for someone violating my consent. As I have grown older, I am a lot more vocal about what I will and will not tolerate from other people. As someone who has become an athlete later in life, I have learned a lot about what my body can and cannot do and about the signals it gives me when it is hungry, tired, or in need of care. I can still find plenty of things “wrong” with how my body looks, but I will no longer cover up just because of someone else’s rules about “modesty,” nor will I cover up because of my own insecurities, which are probably mostly in my head anyway. I wish I had known at age 18 what I now know at age 50, but I believe I have been successful in passing along to my own daughter that she should use her voice, own her space, and demand that others respect consent.
I will no longer be as silent and as invisible as possible in order to ward off actions that are the responsibility of someone else. Purity culture and all it entails can go to hell.
Originally written March 2015. Updated, expanded, and edited.
An anonymous commenter left the following comment (no longer publicly available) on the Galatians 4 blog:
if the Bible is not truth; the Word of God – then NO ONE can be saved. If we do not believe the Bible, we cannot be saved.
This comment was left on a post on a blog entry titled, The IFB Pastor Turned Atheist: Those Who Fall Away. The post is about my defection from Christianity. The author of the blog post agrees with the anonymous commenter’s view: that if we do not believe the Bible we cannot be saved. (Interestingly, the owner of the Galatians 4 website is now an unbeliever.)
Here’s the problem with this view:
First, it makes salvation dependent on reading the right words and believing the right things.
Second, the first-century Christian church had no Bible. They had the Old Testament, a text that makes no mention of Christian salvation and Christian oral traditions. Besides, most early Christians could not read or write.
Third, the gospels were not written until decades after Jesus Christ died and resurrected from the dead. The writings of the Apostle Paul were written first, and they are quite sparse when it comes mentioning Jesus and clearly articulating the Christian gospel. Paul’s writings need the gospels for the Christian/Pauline gospel to make sense.
Fourth, the printing press was invented 1500 years AFTER the death of Jesus. What Bible did people read before the invention of the printing press?
Fifth, illiteracy and the cost of a printed Bible meant that most Christians did not own a copy of the Bible. They relied on others to read the Bible to them or pass on the oral stories of Christianity.
Sixth, it took centuries to complete the canon of the Christian Bible. Prior to this, Christians had “incomplete” Bibles, often containing only a few books of the Bible.
The anonymous commenter does what a lot of Christians do: he takes how things are now and reads it back into Christian Church history. You know, if the Oxford, Calf-Skinned KJV Scofield Bible was good enough for the Apostle Paul it is good enough for me.
Most Christians have little knowledge about the long, complex, and contradictory history of the Bible and the Christian church. This lack of historical knowledge allows them to make absurd statements like the anonymous commenter made on the Galatians 4 blog.
The bigger problem is the way Fundamentalists read the Bible. When they read the phrase “word of God” they assume it means “the Bible.” This, however, is not the case. Most of the instances in the Bible where we find the phrase “word of God” refer to spoken words or to Jesus Christ himself.
The phrase “word of God” appears 49 times in the Bible. As you can easily see, the phrase has several different meanings:
1 Samuel 9:27 And as they were going down to the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Bid the servant pass on before us, (and he passed on,) but stand thou still a while, that I may show thee the word of God.
1 Kings 12:22 But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
1 Chronicles17:3 And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,
Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Mark 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Luke 3:2 Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
Luke 4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
Luke 5:1 And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,
Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Luke 8:21 And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.
Luke 11:28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
John 10:35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Acts 6:2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.
Acts 6:7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
Acts 8:14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:
Acts 11:1 And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
Acts 12:24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.
Acts 13:5 And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister.
Acts 13:7 Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word ofGod.
Acts 13:44 And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.
Acts 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
Acts 17:13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people.
Acts 18:11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Acts 19:20 So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
Romans 9:6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
Romans 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
1Corinthians14:36 What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?
2 Corithians 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Colossians 1:25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
1 Timothy 4:5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
2 Timothy 2:9 Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.
Titus 2:5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Hebrews 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Hebrews 13:7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
2 Peter 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
1 John 2:14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.
Revelation 1:2 Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Revelation 1:9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 6:9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
Revelation19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
Revelation 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
The word “scripture” appears thirty-two times in the Bible. Most of the time, the word scripture refers to the Old Testament, a text that is devoid of any mention of the Christian gospel, or ANYTHING Christian, for that matter.
The Bible states in John 1:1-2 that Jesus was the Word:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. (The rest of John chapter 1 makes it clear that the “Word” John 1:1-2 is speaking of is Jesus, not the Bible.)
With this thought in mind, that Jesus is the Word, let’s look at Hebrews 4:12-14:
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
Raise your hand if you have heard Hebrews 4:12-13 quoted in reference to the Bible, the Word of God? Anyone raised in a Baptist church has heard this countless times. However, look closely at Hebrews 4:12-14. Is the word of God here the Bible or Jesus? Notice the male pronoun in the phrase manifest in HIS sight? Verse 14 makes the “who” of the text very clear when it says, “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God…”
The whole point of this exercise is to show that it is important to NOT read preconceived ideas and beliefs into the Biblical text. Pastors breed ignorance when they quote verses to “prove” a point and do not actually convey to the congregation what the text actually says. They also breed ignorance when they refuse to say, not “the Bible says” or “God says,” but “our Church says,” or “I say.” Far too many preachers are like Al Shannon, Jr, a fifty-year member of the Church of Christ. Shannon says about himself:
I adhere to the principle of speaking where the bible speaks, and remaining silent where the bible is silent. I do not add to or take from God’s Word nor do I go beyond that which was written. I prove all things by the scripture, and by no other source. This site is designed to preach the gospel and doctrine of [the Churches of] Christ unto all the world.
This kind of thinking is common in every sect that believes the Bible is an inerrant, infallible text. They think THEIR interpretation is the one, true, exact interpretation, and they alone are preaching the pure word of God. They are naïvely or deliberately ignorant about the influence of geography, culture, environment, and tribal affiliation on what one believes. (Please see Why Most Americans are Christian.) In their minds, they believe exactly what was written on parchment 2,000 years ago. In Shannon’s sect, many of the churches have a building cornerstone that says AD 33. That’s right, just like the Catholic and Landmark Baptist sect, they believe they are the one true church, established by Jesus to propagate the true gospel to the ends of the earth.
This kind of intransigence closes the mind off from any other belief or idea. Until people can dare to think that they might be wrong, that their sect might be wrong, or that the claims they make for the Bible might be untrue, there is no hope of reaching them. They are intellectually walled off from any voice but their own.
Want to know more? I encourage you to read several of Dr. Bart Ehrman’s books.
Bruce Gerencser, 62, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 41 years. He and his wife have six grown children and twelve 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. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.
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Appearing on a radio show hosted by New York Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan last week, Barr tore into church-state separation once more, this time blaming “militant secularists” for a host of problems.
“I feel today religion is being driven out of the marketplace of ideas, and there’s an organized, militant secular effort to drive religion out of our lives,” Barr said. “To me, the problem today is not that religious people are trying to impose their views on non-religious people. It’s the opposite. It’s that militant secularists are trying to impose their values on religious people, and they’re not accommodating the freedom of religion of people of faith.”
When you read something like this, you really can’t help but ask yourself a pertinent question: What planet does Barr live on?
For the past three years, the Trump administration has been laboring to turn religious freedom into an instrument of discrimination, a device to treat some people (LGBTQ folks, women, Muslims and other religious minorities, nonbelievers, etc.) as if they have second-class status.
This administration has repeatedly sought to deny people access to contraceptives because some bosses claim it offends their religious beliefs. It has backed religious discrimination in taxpayer-funded foster care and adoption programs. It has issued rules that put the most vulnerable members of our society – the poor, the homeless, those grappling with addictions – at risk by stripping away their protections in “faith-based” programs. It has traded in crude stereotypes against Muslims and undermined their right to travel to the U.S. It has argued that government has the right to display towering crosses, the central symbol of the Christian faith, on public property, and charge the taxpayer for it. It kicked transgender people out of the military because the Religious Right doesn’t like them. It supports immersing houses of worship in partisan politics. It has worked to end reproductive freedoms. It told the Supreme Court that taxpayers should be compelled to support religious groups and religious schools.
The administration did these things – yet we’re to believe that “militant secularists” are the problem? That “militant secularists” are the ones trying to force their views onto people?
Please.
Barr, like his boss Trump, is a master gaslighter. He repeatedly asserts that things are the opposite of the way they really are. In his strange world, up is down, black is white and you can’t believe the evidence of your own eyes.
Key to this is Barr’s use of words – and how he defines them. To Christian nationalists, “militant” is anyone who dares to stand up to them and expose their theocratic agenda for the freedom-crushing miasma that it is. And a “secularist” to Barr and his allies must be someone who hates religion.
Patti Williams, along with her husband Ron, founded Hephzibah House, an unlicensed Baptist girls group home in Winona Lake, Indiana. Williams died several years ago, but her husband still continues to operate Hephzibah House. Despite being investigated by the state numerous times, Hephzibah House remains in operation. Hephzibah House operates under the authority of Believers Baptist Church in Warsaw, Indiana. (Please read Who’s to Blame For the Tragic Death of IFB Missionary Charles Wesco?)
Believer’s Baptist is pastored by Don Williams, the son of Ron and Patti Williams. Don assumed the pastorate of the church from his father — truly a family-owned and operated institution. Interestingly, Hephzibah House is not mentioned as a “ministry” on the church’s website. Girls at Hephzibah House are housed for a minimum of fifteen months, and during that time attend serviced at Believer’s Baptist three times a week. For the past thirty years, Dave Halyaman has served the assistant director of Hephzibah House and assistant pastor at Believers Baptist.
Three weeks ago, Dr. Phil featured Hephzibah House on his daily TV talk show. What follows are several video clips from the show.
After Dr. Phil’s exposé, Dave Halyaman publicly voiced his objections to the story. Here’s some of what he said:
When this thing aired, Wednesday morning guess who was at our door. CPS with Winona Lake’s police officer Joe Bumbaugh. I took them personally through every single room, downstairs, they wanted to see the storage area, the girls. Then they wanted to talk to the girls. I put Joe and the lady from CPS in a room and closed the door. They went through every single girl and talked to every single staff the day after it aired. And guess what??No problems whatsoever. The girls could have said anything. They could have said anything, they could have maligned us and bashed us, and all they did was praise us.
Sheriff Dukes has an open invitation anytime he wants, they don’t need a warrant, and same to Winona Lake police. If he [Ron Williams] was an abuser or a pedophile, I would know. I’ve known him for 30 years.
We’re helping parents get their kids back. Satan doesn’t want that. They’re [the accusations made on Dr. Phil] either blatant lies or complete distortions. Some of these very critics were there when I was here, and I counseled them. One of the critics who was on the Dr. Phil show, after she graduated and she left us, she invited all of us — the whole staff, months later — to her graduation party.
Would you want us to not do that [give pelvic exams] ? Would you want your girl to come and spend a year around other kids with STDs? It was done with written permission. It was discontinued because technology is so advanced, you can do blood work and figure out what’s going on. There was no way before. Wisdom says, maybe we should have just not done that.
I don’t hate anyone, because I know their influence is satan. The enemy here is not the critics of Ron Williams and Hephzibah House. I see it as an attack on Christianity.
Please take the time to read the Times Union article about Halyman’s response. Read carefully as he “explains” how Hephzibah House is operated and how the girls are and were treated. You can also read the FAQ for Hephzibah House here.
Years ago, Patti Williams wrote a pamphlet titled Schizophrenic Women. This pamphlet remains popular in some corners of the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) world. What follows is an excerpt from the pamphlet:
Spelling and grammar corrected.
We Have A Problem
One of the hottest issues today among women is the pants issue and other areas of clothing. Just the way a woman reacts to the whole subject of pants, modesty and dress reveals to me the seriousness of the situation. There are many problems in the church today and I think women constitute one of the main problems.
A woman who is causing problems in the body of Christ is either not dressed properly or not under submission to her husband. In some cases she is neither dressed in a proper manner nor under her husband. A woman greatly influences and brings out the Godly qualities of her man by her actions and words.
Just as important are the fruits of her marriage: the children. Her dress and character will bear fruit in her children. I work with the Hephzibah House girls on Saturday evenings. As I listen to their questions, handle their problems and study the Word for answers, I see that the Bible holds us responsible as mothers for our part in helping or harming our children.
Mother, we are producing the ungodly generation. They are our fruits. We are the fruits of the last generation and this must stop! Stopping a curse can be accomplished by obeying God’s Word. We must repent of what we have done. Repentance means to turn around, change, be different. You may now be thinking or wondering what she is getting at? The Schizophrenic Woman, what has that to do with me? She must be crazy or something.
My Personal Experience
I am going to use myself as the prime example. Perhaps you will identify or relate to what I have to say.
I grew up in a typical American home. We had pants, shorts, bathing suits, immodest clothing, television, movies, dancing lessons, circuses etc. As a small child I desired to be a beautiful movie star and practiced the role by prancing and dancing all around the house. I have a clear memory that goes back to my preschool years. Even then I wanted to be beautiful. For what reason? Money? Other girls? My pets? Of course not it was for men!
The Inner Desire Of Women
I dressed for men, I desired to be beautiful for men. I wanted them to notice me and I learned how to please them, resulting in the character qualities of the Biblical strange woman in Proverbs. I knew what I was doing, I was not innocent. And I do not think any woman is innocent in this area.
A woman has an inner desire to attract men. Yet I was an ERA type woman to the core. No man would control my life! I would control his! I soon learned that I could control men with my eyes, voice, body movements and dress. This resulted in many personalities. I was a different personality for specific occasions and my dress fit the occasion. As I have worked with women and teens for years I see the same character in each female. I am not so sure any of us are really deceived deep down inside. We know how we are but we hide behind a spiritual mask and a civilized veneer.
I am very sorry to say I won my own husband by my dress and actions. This resulted In many years of heartache for our lives. I was proud and haughty at my catch but filled with doubts and suspicions afterwards. We were not saved until we were in our late twenties. Those early years of our marriage were a nightmare! The Lord has done a marvelous work in our lives. But you Christian mothers, why are you allowing your daughter to be a strange woman, a schizophrenic woman?
A Christian Mother Has A Heavy Responsibility
Perhaps you live a decent Chrlstian life, but why are you allowing your daughter to live like a strange woman? She will suffer all the rest of her life. The Lord will forgive and forget but her body and mind will bear nonerasable scars. Mother, you can avoid this by rearing her properly, or perhaps cleaning up your own life first and then cleaning hers up.
What can you say about my husband? Doesn’t he have some responsibility in all of this? Yes of course he does. But let us look at ourselves Mother. The Lord has shown me the role of the woman in the home. A mother is the primary Influence on her daughter. She will be the person you molded her to be and Dad will glow. Dad will burst his buttons with praise over a pure virgin daughter filled with Godly character if you do it God’s way.
How We Dress Affects How We Live
Dress definitely affects our personality. When I wear my housedresses, I feel like working on floors that need scrubbing, cooking and digging in the garden. I do not mind if I get dirty, which I surely do when I really dig into a project. For church and special occasions or a precious date with my honey, I wear my finest. I want to look special for the Lord and my husband. When I go shopping I try to take real care concerning my looks because it reflects on my husband. I do not want him to be embarrassed at how his wife looks but to be proud of me. I want to be different from the dress of the world. I want to please the Lord not man.
How We Dress Reveals Character
We can be dowdy and stand out in a ridiculous way or we can be sloppy which reveals a sloppy character or be so fancy we appear proud and haughty. The Bible tells us in I Timothy 2:9 that a woman is to dress in a modest way. Our clothes should draw attention to the whole being and not certain areas of our body especially areas that may arouse a man sexually. Some think that women do not really make sense. For example some women have hairdos with no makeup. The combination does not really go together. Or similarly lots of makeup and a bland or unkempt hair style is equally awkward. We ought to balance out what we wear.
I know this will step on toes literally, but these new sandals with three and four inch heels are not simple. They draw a lot of attention to the feet, ankles and leg. Besides being very hard on the back, difficult to walk in, and cold on the feet in the winter when there is snow and ice. We have allowed the world to dictate our styles. However, common sense is laid aside for the sake of style! How ridiculous. I really admire the dress of the Amish and Mennonite women who live relatively close to our mission. They are very beautiful to me and communicate a sense of purity. They wear balanced, simple and modest clothing.
Does it make sense for a Christian woman to cover her body with modest Godly clothing then take these clothes off to go in for mixed swimming? That is an absolute contradiction of standards and another aspect of a feminine schizophrenic personality. If a man’s eyes are filled with lust (Matthew 5:28 Proverbs 27:20), then how can we justify the wearing of swimming apparel in mixed swimming? You may say, “Well I am too old to make any difference. I have huge bulges, varicose veins, fat pockets. etc.” Dear lady, you are then gross in a bathing suit! If you still have retained your figure then you are attractive and you are defrauding men and you will stand in judgement before the Lord for causing a man to stumble (11 Corinthians 5:10). If you do not care then you are In severe rebellion and rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft (I Samuel 15:23).
What Does God Say?
Deuteronomy 22:5 says you are an abomination to God if you wear the clothing of a man. Well you say we are in different times, they wore different clothing and besides they both wore robes. I personally believe obedient saints have always maintained the sharp distinction between the sexes God ordered in this verse whether in New Testament Palestine or In the modern era.
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Our Thinking As Women Is Not Consistent
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I tried something several years ago to see what would happen. The whole ministry was gone and I was alone in the house. So I dug out my pants and wore them for one entire day. I could not believe myself. Soon I felt bold, hard, haughty and unfeminine. I was very unsubmissive and I grew worse as the day progressed. As soon as I took them off I changed my personality inasmuch as I felt softer, meeker, feminine and gentle. I was conscious of how I walked and sat. That same year I tried something else. Those were the days of the ungodly provocative let’s-go-to-bed-look fashions. These fashions included the mini skirt.
I again pulled out one of my mini skirts and my shiny black boots and immediately I felt like a strange woman and I desired to dance and prance. Perhaps you have worn these and did not desire these things. That is wonderful but you were just as guilty because you caused a man to lust or to attempt control over his vision.
I also see this change in children. My daughter Naomi has never worn pants unless under a maxi and that is rare. She is so feminine. The girls call her a Holly Hobbie doll. Heather wore pants until she was five when we got saved. It is hard to imagine now but she was a real tomboy. Naomi is not a tomboy and I think it is because she has been in dresses and feminine styles from her birth. I put a dress on her within two hours after she was born over her stretch sleepers and she has had dresses on ever since. Our daughters are virtuous women because we have obeyed the Lord’s commands.
A woman is not submissive in a pair of pants. She becomes either bold or sloppy perhaps slobby. A woman is either attractive and causing a man to stumble or she is a slob and gross in appearance when she wears men’s clothes. Neither characteristic is a Godly one.
Perhaps you are wondering how you can have freedom of movement in a dress. Then you say women have been bound for thousands of years and they ought to be allowed more freedom. Perhaps we need to be bound up? ERA has definitely won a battle among Christian women. Our ungodly dress has resulted In our unsubmissive, bold, masculine spirits.
Anita Bryant is a prime example of what the Bible condemns. Many times I warned my husband about this woman and could not understand why Godly men across this nation followed her. The role she played was not and is not the role of a woman who is a keeper at home. Titus 2:5 says we are to be keepers at home. How can you be a keeper at home rearing your children loving your children, and your husband and at the same time leading a movement across the nation?
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You Can Dress Feminine
Some say your job requires pants. If you are convicted and truly believe pants are a sin, then you are sinning against God by working at a job that requires you to compromise your convictions. I would suggest that you wear feminine culottes. These are easy to make or to have made. Have them made mid-length then wear long underwear or tights with boots if you are cold. We use a pattern that makes a culotte that looks exactly like a pleated skirt yet has plenty of room for movement. You can have them made for most jobs at which you work. Culottes can be worn for recreation.
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There Are Problems We Must Face
A woman that wears pants is either rebellious or ignorant. Whichever is true, both will give an account to the Lord.
It is interesting to note that as far as I can tell, we have never had a girl or woman come into our program at Hephzibah House that did not wear pants. One of the greatest shocks our girls go through is to have their pants taken away! They do not know how to walk sit or act. We have noticed that after a few weeks their outward appearance changes. They are softer, sweeter and submissive. Yet inwardly they are not changed and would wear pants at the first opportunity. Just getting a girl out of pants changes their personality and they are not even aware of the change.
What effect do pants have on our children? Our children are being molded by our character whether we like it or not. They do an excellent job of imitating our bad qualities. A woman who wears pants or immodest dress will produce a daughter that will have either masculine character or rebellious character or the qualities of a strange woman. That daughter will reveal this in her marriage.
Lesbianism among teenagers is common and routine. Being bisexual is common. Because we are disobeying the Lord a mother who wears pants will produce a daughter that may not have a servant spirit to men or her husband unless she wants something special from him.
The effects of a pants-wearing mother is just as devastating on a boy. He does not know how to treat a woman. His role becomes more confusing with relation to a girl.
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Change Is Difficult But Possible
Ladies it was and is hard for me to change. I had a lot to crucify in my life. It was not easy and I am still running the race striving to be like Jesus. Oh to be like Him! I genuinely desire to be like my precious Saviour. The position we have taken is hated not necessarily by the world as much as it is by fellow Christians. Our position does not win friends and influence people to love us. But the most important position in my life is to obey the Lord in all areas of my life and leave the results to Jesus.
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Look At Our Responsibility
Mothers and single adult women, you are responsible for the molding of young girls and children. I have heard many mothers say they do not wear pants and do not believe in them but you know how it Is! Peer pressure forces us to allow our girls to wear them. No, I do not know how it is! If God tells me pants are sin (and He does) then my children are not wearing them whether they do at Christian Camp Youth Group Church or Christian School. Your children need to obey; you and your husband need to let these groups know where you stand on this issue. If he does not desire to speak out then do not speak out either but pray the Lord protect your child.
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My dear Sister in Christ, look around our daughters are no longer pure. Oh how I pray some will stand for Jesus! I pray that some will stand for His sake and not let the world control our dress and our lives. Do not be a schizophrenic woman but a virtuous woman! Be willing to resist the pressures of the world and disobedient Christians. You will stand alone but then so has every earnest Christian since the first century.
Schizophrenic Women should give you a good idea of how Hephzibah House was operated and how incarcerated girls were treated by the Williamses. That Hephzibah House remains open till this day is nothing short of scandalous. I hope after the Dr. Phil exposé that Indiana officials will finally bring to bear on Hephzibah House the full weight of Indiana law. The Williamses and their lackeys have engaged in criminal behavior for decades. While it is unlikely they will ever be arrested and prosecuted, surely Indiana law enforcement and child protective services can find ways to eradicate the stench coming from Hephzibah House. (Though after reading comments from local law enforcement, it’s evident that any action against Hephzibah House and the Williamses will NOT come from local authorities.)
This story has an eerily similar feel to those told by the girls that were incarcerated at Mack Ford’s New Bethany Home for Girls. For further information on their stories, please read the following posts:
Bruce Gerencser, 62, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 41 years. He and his wife have six grown children and twelve 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. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.
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What follows is a record of several emails I traded with Greg, a former church member at Somerset Baptist Church in Mt. Perry, Ohio, over the past three years. I was Greg’s pastor for several years. He was quite active in our church, teaching Sunday school, going out on visitation, and occasionally filling the pulpit. As you will note from the emails, Greg and I had some social interaction outside of the church. There is lots to this story, but for Greg’s sake and that of his wife and children, I will just stick to responding to his latest email to me.
Some spelling and grammar corrected.
In March 2017, Greg wrote:
Dear Bruce,
Yesterday I was reading some about Jack Hyles and saw an article (s) by you and have done some reading by you.
I hear you have had some bad health. Hope your health is improving and hope your family is doing well. I imagine if you and I went and played basketball, we better play half-court, and slow tempo. And with my arthritis, I don’t move too well.
Nowadays, my best game is chess, which I play on the internet, against people from all over the world.
I had to have colon cancer surgery back in June 2013. I am doing well now and take Essiac now that I know about it. It has healed many people of cancer.
Planning on going to Athens tomorrow to see some regional basketball games.
Well, It was good to hear from you.
Well in closing, take care and tell your family I say hello.
Your Friend,
Greg ******
In April 2017, I responded:
Good to hear from you. Boy, it has been a long time, hasn’t it? You have gotten old. ? I turn 60 in June. It’s been 23 years since I pastored the Somerset church, almost 34 years since we started the church. Time marches on.
Sorry to hear you had cancer, but I am glad you have recovered. Getting old is not what it is cracked up to be. My health struggles are many, but I try to live each day to its fullest. I know I will die sooner, and not later, so I need to do what I can while I am still among the living.
Our family is doing well. Polly and I will soon celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary. Our six children live within 20 minutes of our home. We have 11 grandchildren — 10 girls, one boy. Polly works for Sauder Woodworking. She is a manager there, as is Jason.
Nice to hear you are still going to tournament games. I attended several district and regional games this year. My oldest granddaughter plays on the Stryker High School JV team (volleyball too). I have a cousin who plays for nearby Swanton High School. I got to see a lot of girls’ basketball games this year. Several grandchildren are playing baseball/softball this summer, so I will be busy attending games.
Write when you can. I would love to hear more about how things are with you. If you are on Facebook, I would love to connect with you there. Just send me a friend request.
Have a great week.
Bruce
In August 2018, Greg wrote:
Dear Bruce,
How are you and Polly and the children doing? Fine, I hope.
How has your health been?
What are your children doing nowadays and do they live near you?
My wife ****** is doing ok, she has some trouble with diabetes, and has to put up with me. ( That’s a challenge)
My oldest daughter ****** is 27 now. She is living in Greenville Ohio, and working at the Whirlpool plant there. She makes decent money there and lives with some guy there, who is like 6’9″ or so. Man if I could have had that height when I use to play basketball.
Now my favorite sport to play is chess, on the internet.
My youngest daughter ***** is 25 and is still single, and living at Cambridge. She does home health care.
Back in February this year, after living going on eighteen years, near New Concord, ***** and I had to move because of our landlord selling the property.
We now live in a senior apartment in Cambridge, which we like. There are some benefits to being old.
I don’t know for sure if you cheer for any specific professional team, but I have seen you with Bengals apparel on. Have you or are you a Browns fan? With that new quarterback that WE have from Oklahoma, we are ready for great things NOW, AS IN NOW.
Bruce, you are, and will always be my friend. Yes nowadays there would be a lot of differences we would have, but you are still my friend and always will be. Even if you don’t like the Cowboys and Yankees.
In closing, I just have one church, not Bible question for you. Where can a man that is KJV, post-tribulational, amillennial, non-eternal torment believer, non-Calvinistic, who wants to preach, and is married to a lady who was married once before find a church that would let him preach, and where he would be in one accord?
And that man would be me. And in all of my searching, talking about trying to find a needle in a haystack, even if you could locate the haystack.
May you and your family have a wonderful rest of the year.
Your FRIEND,
Greg ****
In October 2018, I responded:
Hey Greg,
It was a delight to hear from you. Thank you for updating me on the coming and goings of you and your family.
Our six children all live within 20 minutes of our home. We have twelve grandchildren — ages three months to seventeen. We see them often. Now that the NFL season is in full swing, some of the boys are here almost every Sunday to watch the Bengals with me. Polly cooks a nice meal and we sit around and yell at the TV.
Browns fans, eternal sufferers to be sure. Nice to see them win a couple of games. I think Mayfield is the man for them going forward.
Health-wise, things remain the same for me. I am slowly losing functionality and strength. I do what I can, but I have resigned myself to the fact that I can no longer do many of the things I once did with ease. Fortunately, my children are quite helpful. Polly was in the hospital twice this year: once for a heart problem and once for a bleeding problem. We are getting old, falling apart. That said, we celebrated forty years of marriage this year, and next week we will celebrate Polly’s sixtieth birthday (I am two years older than she).
I hope you will keep in touch. If you have some family photos, I would love to see them.
Have a good weekend.
Bruce
Up to this point, you will likely have noticed that Greg considers me a friend, and that he, much like he did when I was his pastor, has exacting theological beliefs. You will also note that I did not respond to his theologically oriented questions. I am no longer his pastor, and neither am I a Christian. When contacted by people from my ministerial past, I make sure they understand that I am quite happy to correspond with them and even renew our friendship, but I am not interested in arguing with them about theology or atheism. Over the course of the twenty-five years I spent in the ministry, I had a handful of relationships that transcended the pastor-congregant connection. Greg was one such person. At the time, I considered him a friend, even though he left the church several times over a doctrinal differences with me. In particular, Greg objected to my Calvinism.
After my response to Greg in October 2018, I did not hear from him again until yesterday:
Dear Bruce, in the past after hearing about how you left the ministry, etc., I never responded with preaching or anything like that.
I just wrote to you as a friend, which I still am.
But after reading some more, let me talk some.
I don’t know if you will listen, seeing it seems like you want to talk, but maybe not listen to anything you don’t want to hear.
I guess you always win when you don’t let the other team have the ball.
Does that mean that you are the player and REFEREE?
It is easy to say that God loves Tim Tebow more than a Ethiopian when your a Calvinist or Robot (no difference).
Tell me, did John Calvin make you one of the non-elect. Or were you with Job, trying to give God advice during the creation?
Tell me, if you don’t believe that Jesus exists, why do you hate Him?
But The Lord Jesus does exist, and you will now your knee to Him.
WOW, just imagine if you are wrong?
AND YOU ARE!!
How shall we escape, if we neglect, so great salvation?
Dear Greg,
Having not heard from you for almost seventeen months, I was surprised to receive an email from you. I was even more surprised (and saddened) to see that you decided in this email to take an adversarial, preachy, judgmental approach to me. What changed? Couldn’t we just be friends, revel in our past experiences, and share the things we have in common — family, sports, and memories from southeast Ohio? Instead, you decided to be Greg, the Fundamentalist Baptist preacher. What did you hope to accomplish by taking this approach with me? You say you still consider me a friend, but I find little friendliness in your words.
You mention reading more of my blog, but as I looked at the site server logs, I found that you only read two posts: Why I Hate Jesus and Dear Evangelical. Let me suggest it might be helpful for your understanding of my journey to read the posts listed on the WHY? page. Instead of looking for and focusing on doctrinal deviancy, try to enter into my story, and hopefully this will help you understand why I am an atheist today. I don’t expect you to join the ranks of the godless, but at the very least I expect you to make a good faith effort to understand my past and present life (as I have understood yours through our conversations and counseling sessions).
I have been blogging for over twelve years now. On this iteration of my blog, I have written over 3,600 posts. If you are willing to do your homework, you will likely find most, if not all, of your questions answered somewhere in my writing. It’s not that I don’t want to hear what people have to say, but when it comes to Evangelicals (and I know you may object to me calling you an Evangelical) such as yourself, I have heard the same stuff over, and over, and over again. No new evidence; no new arguments; same shit, new day. And it is for this reason, I wrote the Dear Evangelical post. Ask yourself, did you say anything in your email to me that I likely haven’t heard countless times before? Why would I need to hear it yet again?
I originally responded to you because I hoped we could have some semblance of a friendship outside of our differences about God, Jesus, and the Bible. Silly me, to think that an Evangelical can set his dogma aside for the sake of maintaining or nurturing a friendship. For people such as yourself to be friends with me, they must be willing to let me go to Hell in peace. They must agree not to preach at me or attempt to sneak apologetical arguments into discussions. And I will do the same. I am quite happy to set aside my atheism and humanist beliefs and, instead, focus on the things we have in common. Sadly, I have yet to have a former congregant, friend, or colleague in the ministry do that. Eventually, they always bring things back around to the BLOOD, the BOOK, and the BLESSED HOPE.
As an atheist, Greg, I have no truck with arguments from the Bible. Threats, imprecations, passive-aggressive attacks — none of them are effective in reaching me. Consider me, from your theological perspective, an apostate or reprobate. I don’t think the Christian God exists, and that includes Jesus. I do believe that Jesus, the man, lived and died 2,000 years ago, but Jesus, the son of God, the miracle-worker, the savior of the world (or the elect)? That God-man does not exist. So telling me that I am WRONG and one day I WILL bow my knee to Jesus has no effect on me. Surely, you are aware of how much I know about Christianity and the Bible. Do you really think that bald assertions typed in caps will somehow magically change my mind? You know me better than that, Greg. Not going to happen . . .
If your intent is to continue to preach to me and attempt to evangelize me, please don’t. I am more than willing to continue to be friends with you, sans religion. If you can keep Jesus out of the relationship, I am confident we can find plenty of things to share and talk about. If not, let this be our last correspondence. Let’s bury our relationship here, letting the good times we spent together cover our gravestones.
Sincerely,
Bruce
About Bruce Gerencser
Bruce Gerencser, 62, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 41 years. He and his wife have six grown children and twelve 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. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.
Are you on Social Media? Follow Bruce on Facebook and Twitter.
Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section. If you are a first-time commenter, please read the commenting policy before wowing readers with your words. All first-time comments are moderated. If you would like to contact Bruce directly, please use the contact form to do so.
Donations are always appreciated. Donations on a monthly basis can be made through Patreon. One-time donations can be made through PayPal.
Thirty-five years ago this month, Paramount Pictures released Witness.
It was tailor-made for the Reagan administration, and for the religious right, in that it depicts the hardworking, pious Amish as virtuous and anyone associated with The City (in this case, Philadelphia) as depraved and corrupt. That said, I will admit that I saw the movie twice and enjoyed it, mainly for some of the acting performances (which were charming or engaging, if not incisive) as well as individual scenes.
One scene that sticks out, in my mind, takes place in the 30th Street station, where Samuel Lapp, an 8-year-old Amish boy and Rachel Lapp, his recently-widowed mother, are transferring from one train to another. Moments before he witnesses a brutal murder, he sees an elderly man wearing a black coat and hat. The boy believes, for a moment, that he’s met a member of his own community; the man’s face quickly turns into a frown of rejection, which the boy mirrors. That man, it turned out, was a Chasidic Jew.
The scene was inserted mainly as a visual comic relief. Were the writing and direction of Witness more sensitive, or simply more conscious, that scene could have highlighted the “so close and yet so far” relationship between the two religious communities and cultures: While the Amish are farmers and most Chasidic Jews live in or near large cities, both reject modern secular society in nearly all of its manifestations, right down to the way people dress.
Oh, and there’s another similarity between them. It came to light only recently, but I’d had an inkling of it for some time.
During my childhood, my family visited an Amish family every summer. Although I enjoyed seeing the countryside and animals, and learning about a different way of life, I was always glad to return home, even with the emotionally unsupportive family I had: I am a city girl at heart. (All right, I was living as a boy in those days.) But I don’t think that I would have liked spending any more time than I did in that bucolic setting for another reason: Even though the people were friendly and generous, something I couldn’t articulate troubled me.
Ironically, it became a bit clearer to me when I was teaching at an Orthodox yeshiva many years later. Of course, my relationship with the pupils was very different from my experience with the Amish children I met. My family’s visits to the Amish farm were “fun” for the kids—and us—in the same way as time spent with cousins or other peers whose company you have, and enjoy, only on holidays and other occasions. While I had to be the literal and proverbial “adult in the room” for Jewish boys I taught, we didn’t have to live with each other: Their expressions of vulnerability were momentary, and we went back to our lives afterward. Still, it was hard not to see that both the Jewish and Amish boys were more vulnerable and felt more like they were failing, in one way or another, than their parents and other adults in their lives might have realized.
I also couldn’t help but notice that in both communities, the women and girls didn’t seem happy. Rather, they seemed dutifully resigned to their fate. Perhaps some even found a way to “make peace” with it, or to find some sort of fulfillment in conforming to the roles their cultures and religions prescribed for them. Even the boys—who, like their counterparts almost everywhere else, enjoyed more freedom than their sisters, mothers, aunts or grandmothers—seemed to be living in a fear that ran deeper than that of simply displeasing, and incurring scorn from, their elders.
A year ago, I wrote about a yeshiva student of mine who was sexually exploited by a rabbi at his synagogue. Around that time, the media were reporting sexual abuse of children in ultra-Orthodox communities. Those revelations came not long after a wave of stories about clergy members and others in positions of authority who took advantage of altar boys and other children in various churches, including the Roman Catholic and Mormon, as well as evangelical sects. Around the same time, the “Me-Too” movement was spreading.
None of those developments surprised me, as I had just recently “come out,” if you will, about my own experiences of sexual abuse by a priest. It was the first time I’d talked about them with anyone besides a therapist or a former partner of mine. Some might say I am “projecting,” but any subsequent revelation of sexual abuse in a religious organization or community has not caught me by surprise. I include one of the most recent, namely, the horrors of sexual abuse recounted by people who grew up in Amish communities.
Although there is much I respect about the Amish way of life, in particular, their rejection of war, it is as rigidly hierarchical — specifically, patriarchal — as just about any other highly-organized orthodox religion. The perceived proximity of the elders, priests, rabbis, ministers — or, in some cases, even the family patriarchs — to God gives them power and authority that is rarely questioned. Challenging the position of such a leader can lead to the loss of a person’s entire way of life, not to mention his or her family and friends. That, along with the suppression of knowledge about sexuality and people’s (especially women’s and girls’) bodies and the insularity of such communities, all but ensures not only that the vulnerable will be victimized, but also that victims will not have the language to express their experiences or the means to escape from the aftermath of their trauma.
So, perhaps, the Amish and ultra-Orthodox communities have even more in common than Witness suggested, though it might not have been what the movie’s makers had in mind.
It’s not hard to find out who I am. Sixty seconds with God — also known as Google — or any of the lesser search engine deities, will reveal everything you would ever want or need to know about Bruce Gerencser. Out of seven billion people on planet Earth, I am the only Bruce Gerencser. Ain’t I special, right? Anyone bothering to exercise a modicum of curiosity will quickly find out that I was part of the Christian church for fifty years; that I attended an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) college and married the daughter of an IFB preacher; that I pastored Evangelical churches in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan for twenty-five years; that I left the ministry in 2005; that I left Christianity in 2008. Since 2008, I have worn the atheist moniker. I have not hidden who or what I am. Yet, countless Evangelicals who send me emails, contact me on social media, or comment on this blog are clueless about my background and journey from Evangelicalism to atheism. Having about as much curiosity as smushed raccoon on an Ohio country road, these deliberately uninformed followers of Jesus say all sorts of things to me; absurd things, in light of my past and present unbelief. What follows is a brief Facebook discussion with one such person.
By way of background, the woman who contacted me on Facebook took issue with what I have written about IFB evangelist and pastor CT Townsend. Townsend is the new pastor of Victory Baptist Church in North Augusta, South Carolina. The woman who contacted me is a long-time member of Victory Baptist. You can read what I wrote about Townsend here:
VBC Member: If all you do is sit around talking about what others are or are doing or not doing….I believe you have missed the point of life.
Bruce: Well, it’s a good thing, then, that’s not all I am doing. As if you would know what I am doing since you don’t know me.
You might want to ponder this verse: “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him” before sitting in judgment over people you have never met and know nothing about.
Now, let me get back to what I’m doing: photographing a high school Basketball ? game.
VBC Member: But you don’t believe the Bible ? …. yet you quote scripture. I guess it works for when it suits you. So, let me remind you to be mindful of speaking against a man of God. I was just sending you a word to ponder. You are in my prayers.
Bruce:I’m reminding you that you are a hypocrite. As far as “speaking” against a man of God, (I have no idea which preacher you are talking about.) preachers aren’t any different from the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the “world.” I was a pastor for 25 years. I know what goes on behind closed doors; where the bodies are buried. Sorry, just because someone is a pastor doesn’t mean they deserve deference/respect. Such things are earned, in my book.
VBC Member: But, are you not doing the same things when you give your opinion of a man of God. In my opinion if you do not believe in God and denounce him. Then why do you care what any man of God does? Does that not make you the same as you say I am being? I read recently one of your blogs. I do not understand how you can speak such nonsense? That is just your opinion on how you perceive someone based on what you have been through. I truly believe that whatever it is that you have experienced while you were a pastor was very hurtful. Perhaps you feel let down by God or, the ministry. I do not believe that you really denounce everything to do with Christ. Bc, in my opinion, you would not try so hard to tear down everything you once believed in. I believe when you watch a pastor preach you perhaps feel conviction, bc deep down you know the truth they speak. So, the devil is able to discourage you reflect on others what you went through. My heart truly breaks for you. If you no longer want to believe in HIM then be done with it. That is your choice but you are trying too hard to attack others that believe in God. The God I am speaking of is the one who died on the cross to save us all. By doing that we were given a choice to accept HIM. God does not force us to believe in Him. I hope you remember no man is perfect but HIM. We are all human and we make mistakes and fail daily. That is why we as Christians need HIM. I was not meaning to attack you or put you down. I knew you would think I was judging you but, that is what you were doing in your blog post when speaking against my friend and pastor. I respectfully say to you, to be mindful in speaking against a man of God in such a way as you did. I am going to be praying for your heart to soften and heal from what hurt you. You have all the head knowledge and truly know the ins and outs of what may or may not be going on in churches. I pray that starting at this very moment as you read this that you are reminded of the goodness and love God has for you. I assure you my pastor/ friend has earned the favor of God and is humbled by what God has done for him and continues to do in his life. The devil wants nothing more than for you to denounce God and put down others that believe as you once did. God is a sovereign Savior. He knows all. My prayer for you is that you remember why you were called and once believed. I am so sorry that you were hurt. Take care and I wish you the best.
Bruce: Who, specifically, are you defending?
VBC Member: When I read your blog I had a different feeling about you. I saw deep hurt. My reaching out to you was not to bash you or, disrespect you. My heart hurt for you. I didn’t feel the need to protect my Pastor’s heart or intentions bc God knows his, mine and yours and HE knows our intentions. I can say as a human being there have been times in my life I did not understand GOD myself or his plans concerning my life. So, I get why some people turn their backs on anything to do with GOD. I have had my dark days too. I am not defending my Pastor. I was more so trying to open up and tell you I get it and understand. I do not look down on you at all. I wanted to say, “ I understand and I am sorry. “ ….. we can not try and deflect on others our pain and disappointment. Religious beliefs or not what purpose does that really get us. Maybe, instant gratification but only last for so long.. How we live our life reflects our heart. Dr. R Larry Brown was my Pastor for 39 years. Now we have a wonderful new Pastor C.T. Townsend. I can not change your opinions or beliefs. I can pray for you. Bc where others lash out bc of your blog. I see a man that was deeply hurt and sad, and angry and bitter at the way things went while you were a pastor. Just maybe you have a right to those feelings and emotions. You are right Sir, I don’t know you. I have experienced hurt and all of the above . Maybe your right there is no God or the Devil . So, when we die those that believe and are Christians have not lost a thing, but if it is all true how terrible would that be?
You can research a man all day and size them up. Sometimes, you can be right, but who are we to judge? You felt attacked and judged by me and was quick to quote the Bible or say it was not very Christian of me to do so. However, you claim you are atheist just so you can tear down anything to do with other people’s faith. How are you different? No one is perfect I am certainly not. Let people believe what they want. In the end we all will see who was right. I wish I could share my story with you but I don’t want to bore you or intrude on your time any longer. Just know this was not an attack on you or your character. I saw deeper than your blog post and felt compelled to reach out. I wish you the very best and hope you find that enter peace between you and God.
[end of Facebook discussion]
Most of what this woman writes, I have heard countless times before. I am angry, bitter, or hurt. I am out to attack God and the Christian church. Deep down, I know what preachers such as CT Townsend are saying is the T-R-U-T-H! Gotta throw in Pascal’s Wager too. No email from a Fundamentalist Baptist is complete without them sharing some version of Blaise Pascal’s “what if” argument (even though most letter writers have never heard of Pascal’s Wager).
Instead of giving these comments the Bruce Gerencser Line-by-Line Evisceration Treatment®, I want to address the issues of judging others and whether preachers are exempt from judgment.
First, should Christians or any of us, for that matter, judge other people? I love how this woman tells me I shouldn’t judge, yet her comments are filled with her judgments of me as a person and my past experiences. As a public figure, I know that people will judge me and write all sorts of things about my life — past and present. All I ask, as I did of this woman, is that people at least make an honest effort to get to know me. At the very least, I ask that they invest some time in reading the posts on the WHY? page and the information found on the ABOUT page. Maybe read Dear Jesus and Why I Hate Jesus too.
As far as the Bible saying we shouldn’t judge others, the Good Book doesn’t actually say that. Please read (Does the Bible Say Thou Shalt Not Judge?) Besides, even if the Bible DID say THOU SHALT JUDGE as many Evangelicals allege, my experiences both in and outside of Christianity tell me that “Bible-believers” are some of the most judgmental people I know. In fact, many Evangelical preachers are top-shelf judgmental assholes.
Second, I want to address the notion that preachers are exempt from being judged by others. Twice, the woman tells me “to be mindful of speaking against a man of God.” Those of us raised in the Evangelical church know that what this woman writes is actually a passive-aggressive threat that says “God hurts, maims, and kills people who dare to speak against those he has chosen to be preachers. If you don’t stop speaking against CT Townsend, God is going to get you!” Boy, I am scared now! A Christian has sicced her God on me, and if I don’t stop writing against this or that preacher or True Christianity® in general, God is going to strike me dead. Well, here I am, bring it on, Jesus. Surely, even a hardcore Fundamentalist Baptist knows that threatening an atheist with judgment from God is a waste of time. Now, if this woman had threatened me with my wife holding a cast-iron skillet over my head, then I might quake in my boots. But, God; the Christian God; the Evangelical God; the IFB God; this woman’s God? I am not worried in the least. I am far more worried about a deranged Bible-thumper showing up at my house one day and killing me in the name of a dead man named Jesus than I am a mythical deity raining fire and brimstone on my head or afflicting me with Job-like boils and hemorrhoids.
Preachers are made of flesh and blood just like the rest of us. I can’t think of any reason I should defer judgment on their words and works. CT Townsend, in particular, lives a very public life. His actions and beliefs are not beyond scrutiny and judgment. Instead of hurling meaningless warnings of judgment my way, how about considering whether my observations and critiques have merit? As long as preachers such as Townsend say they speak for God and publicly judge and condemn the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the “world” for their way of life, I plan on challenging them. As long as such men continue to demand that their peculiar brand of Christianity be given preferential treatment in the public square, and demand that government at every level follow, obey, and enforce the laws, precepts, and commands of the Bible, I will vociferously object. The day Evangelicals retreat to the privacy of their houses of worship and content themselves with personal piety, then, and only then, will I shutter this blog, having nothing more to say. Of course, that ain’t ever going to happen. The Evangelical goal remains what it has always been: to reclaim the United States for God. And that, my friend, must never happen. Once Evangelicals and their fellow Mormon and Catholic extremists gain the power of the state, freedoms will be lost and people will die. The unholy mixing of church and state always yields the same fruit, and as long as I am breathing, I plan to be on the battlefield with Roundup in hand. Theocratic thinking, wherever it is found, is a disease that kills all that it touches. If I love my children and grandchildren and care about what the future holds for them, how can I be silent?
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.
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.
Bramwell Retana, pastor of Iglesia Cristiana Oasis De Paz in Las Vegas, Nevada, was arrested on December 20, 2019 on sexual abuse charges. Since then, Retana has been charged with forty felony counts, including lewdness with a child younger than fourteen, first-degree kidnapping, child abuse and luring a child with a computer to engage in a sexual act.
While investigating new claims that led to a third criminal case against a local pastor facing a growing list of sexual abuse allegations, Las Vegas police apparently discovered that the pastor sometimes left pornography up on his church computer, which he often allowed the children to use.
An adult church member who spoke to police in early January said she once witnessed a child using 44-year-old Bramwell Retana’s computer, which had “pornographic materials” on the screen, according to his most recent arrest report released Monday. Another churchgoer, asked by Retana to take a look at an issue on the computer, opened the internet browser and also found “numerous open pages of pornography.”
When he confronted Retana about the porn, according to the report, the pastor suggested that one of children had opened the pages.
Retana, who was arrested Dec. 20, remains held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center. The Metropolitan Police Department began investigating him last year after a girl told her parents that the pastor of Iglesia Cristiana Oasis De Paz had been sexually abusing her for more than a year.
The most recent criminal case against Retana, charging him with five felony counts of lewdness with a child younger than 14, was opened Jan. 15, after Metro detectives identified two more potential victims, bringing the total number of accusers to at least six.
Bramwell Rentana, 44, was originally arrested on child abuse and kidnapping charges concerning one alleged victim on December 20. Four more girls have since come forward to tell police in Las Vegas about twisted abusive roleplay said to have taken place at Rentana’s church, Iglesia Cristiana Oasis De Paz. According to police reports, Rentana took one girl who was ‘eight or nine years old’ and her friend to his home because he wanted to play a ‘role playing’ game where he acted like a dog or a horse. One detective wrote: ‘It should be noted, during Retana’s post-Miranda interview he explained he has a fetish and likes to be dominated and treated like a dog for sexual gratification.’
The parent of one victim spoke to her children after learning of Retana’s arrest. The children reportedly told their parent that ‘Rentana would play a game with them that they did not think was bad however, Rentana would tell them not to tell anyone,’ police wrote, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Days before Retana’s arrest, one parent overheard her daughter speaking with Retana’s wife on the phone. In police reports, Retana’s wife is referred to as ‘Gabby.’ ‘(Redacted alleged victim’s name) overheard Gabby say “sorry for talking to you that way, I thought you were trying to steal my husband.”‘
The girl later told investigators that Retana began abusing her over a year ago, when he ‘began kissing and licking her bare feet’ in his office while another child was in the room. She also said that the pastor once sent her a pornographic image. During a police interview, Retana’s wife said that she learned in May 2019 that her husband had kissed the girl and she knew they talked on the phone every day, but she never reported the incidents because she did not have proof.
Authorities say the abuse had been happening since 2016 and his alleged victims and their families believe there are more victims. One woman told investigators that she ‘believes they are afraid to come forward in fear of retaliation or immigration issues.’ An alleged victim said the abuse began when she was ‘six or seven’ years old. The four alleged victims that recently came forward said the abuse happened in Retana’s office at the church and at a home on the church’s property. One girl reportedly told police that Rentana had forced her into his office multiple times and once scratched her, leaving a scar.
How is the royal bloodline of the [British] crown being poisoned? Is there something special about this commoner who has married into the royalty?
She’s half black. When [Harry and Meghan] step back, what is going to be at the heart of why she did it? What are they going to say? Come on. Wake up here. What are they going to say? … Racism! She never felt comfortable. She felt like she was below everybody else.
The royal family is the seat of Christianity. We cannot deny the impact the royal family has had on the WASP-y culture; the White Anglo Saxon Protestant culture is a result of what has happened within the crown. And the crown has now, for the first time, been infiltrated with a bloodline … oh my goodness, that sounds racist, doesn’t it?
Don’s miss what’s going on. This infiltrator comes in, proud of her infiltration, proud of her multiculturalism. And what is that demon doing? Destroying and upsetting everything, every tradition in that royal family.