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Category: Evangelicalism

Christians Say the Darnedest Things: Why Men Want Their Wives to Work

Bruce Gerencser 7 Comments

lori alexander

1. They’ve been brainwashed by decades of feminist social engineering into believing that a wife not working full time outside the home is a freeloader not contributing to the household.

2. Related to number 1, they realize that their own ability to adequately provide for a family on their income alone has been deliberately undermined and destroyed by the existing feminist order, which has saturated the workplace with women, thus driving wages downward to levels incapable of supporting a family. For this reason, they’re determined that their wives should “live the ‘feminist dream’” and work full time (“you and your feminist sisters have made your – and our – beds hard, now sleep in them!”).

3. They know how miserable, “unfulfilled,” and “oppressed” their wives will feel having to stay at home and raise the children they’ve spat out because they felt some vague societal obligation to do so (“I gave birth to them, isn’t that enough?! … What, you want me to RAISE them too??!! Are you nuts???!!!”). These men know that they’ll be in for nothing but misery, contentiousness, and marital strife if they “oppress” their wives by making them stay at home, so they make them go to work in the (vain and misplaced) hope of ensuring some domestic tranquility.

4. Sadly, most husbands today don’t seem to give significantly more thought or priority to their children’s long-term spiritual and emotional well-being than do their wives. Children, in the modern western world, and for both sexes, are a commodity, an abstraction, and ultimately a burden, not joys or treasures to be delighted in, cared for, and nurtured to grow up in God’s image. Making mom stay at home to raise them is just not an option for most dads, for all the reasons cited above.

— Lori Alexander, The Transformed Wife, Why Men Want Their Wives to Work, January 30, 2019

Christians Say the Darnedest Things: Donald Trump Chosen by God to be President

Bruce Gerencser 2 Comments

evangelicals and donald trump

I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president, and that’s why he’s there and I think he has done a tremendous job in supporting a lot of the things that people of faith really care about.

— Sarah Huckabee Sanders, CBN Interview, January 30, 2019

Charisma News Spins a Story to “Prove” a Miracle

Bruce Gerencser 5 Comments

david and toni espinoza

Charisma News, the go-to source for charismatic excess (and outright lunacy) within Evangelicalism, recently published a story pimping the Christian fantasy show, Godwinks @ PureFlix.  “Godwinks” are, according to Charisma News, miracles performed by the Christian deity. One such “Godwink” involves Toni and David Espinoza of McAllen, Texas:

Rushnell [the host of Godwinks], who tells many of these “godwinks” stories in PureFlix.com’s series “Godwinks at Pure Flix,” recently revealed the most amazing miracle story he’s ever encountered.

He told “The Pure Flix Podcast” about how Toni and David Espinoza of McAllen, Texas, were once given some truly devastating news: David, who was 50 years old at the time, suffered from a heart that was working at just 10 percent capacity, and he desperately needed a transplant.

The family turned to pray—and then something absolutely incredible happened. Listen to “The Pure Flix Podcast” at the 6-minute mark to hear Rushnell explain:

“Toni … said, ‘We are going to pray together as a family. We’re going to get our church praying, we’re going to get everybody praying,'” Rushnell recounted.

Toni soon found herself feeling convicted because she realized she was essentially praying for someone else to die in order for her husband to receive a new heart.

That’s when she totally changed her mindset and made a major adjustment to her prayer routine: She asked God to fully heal her husband.

“She had prayed that God would completely heal David [and] that he would confirm it by making it snow on McAllen, Texas, on Christmas Day,” Rushnell said.

There was only one logistical problem with Toni’s belief that God would confirm the healing with a snowfall on Christmas: it had reportedly never snowed on Christmas in McAllen, Texas. In fact, there hadn’t been snow in the area in 109 years.

But, on Christmas Eve at 11:45 p.m., Toni looked outside and saw a white coating in her backyard: it had snowed for the first time in McAllen, Texas. While some might call it a coincidence, David went back for a heart appointment three weeks later, and his physicians were stunned.

“The doctors looked at the reports, they shook their heads and said, ‘We can’t explain this, but David—you are going to live for a very long time,” Rushnell said. “It was the most amazing godwink that I think I had ever heard.”

Yes, it did snow on December 24-25 2004. However, not only did it snow in McAllen, it snowed across much of Southern Texas. According to Wikipedia:

The most noticeable, and unusual, event associated with the storm was the snowfall it produced. Much of the snow fell in southern Texas, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, but some snow, albeit less deep, fell across southwestern and southeastern Louisiana. Any snowfall in these areas is extremely unusual, perhaps occurring once every twenty years, and these events are usually airborne flurries which melt on contact with the ground. In many places the snow stuck to the ground and accumulated to an appreciable depth. In Brownsville, Texas, snow fell to a depth of 1.5 inches (3.8 cm), the first measurable snowfall at the city in years, since the Great Blizzard of 1899.The fact that the snow accumulated overnight on Christmas Eve led to a White Christmas the next morning, something completely foreign to the region. Across all of southern Texas and in southwestern Louisiana, snow fell in places where it had not for anywhere from 15 to 120 years. Near the coast, in Corpus Christi, Texas, 5.2 inches (13 cm) of snow fell, more snow than in all previous recorded years combined. This was also the case in Victoria, Texas, where a significant 13.0 inches (33 cm) fell. New Orleans, Louisiana had its first white Christmas in 50 years. In addition to the unusual occurrence of snow inland, moderate to heavy snow was also reported over the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This is the first significant snow fall in Houston since February 12, 1960, when a snowstorm hit central and south Texas with eight to 10 inches of snow

This was a WEATHER event, not a “Godwink.” Science, people, science. It snowed in McAllen, Texas because atmospheric conditions were such that it snowed — no deity needed. As with most Bible-blinded Evangelicals, Toni and David Espinoza saw a miracle where there was none.

December 8, 2017, The McAllen Monitor reported yet another “blizzard,” one that left so little snowfall that weather officials could not measure it. Yes, it technically “snowed,” but here in the upper Midwest, such snowfalls don’t count. Yet, using Toni Espinoza’s logic, a McAllen resident somewhere could have claimed it as a “miracle”; that is if they had demanded God to whip out his divine penis and show it just for them on December 8, 2017.

According to the Charisma News story, it hadn’t snowed in McAllen, Texas in 109 years. I searched high and low for evidence for this claim, and all I found was the following on the National Weather Service website. It tells the WHY of the 2004 snow event:

The Rio Grande Valley of Deep South Texas experienced one of its most memorable Christmas Holidays ever. A rare combination of weather events developed in late December that produced several inches of snowfall, which in itself is quite rare in this region. However, to have snow fall on Christmas Eve and morning is a historical first according to the more than 150 years of weather data. This White Christmas is certainly one for the record books.

….

The freezing temperatures and snowfall were expected in South Texas and National Weather Service Offices were talking about the arrival of unseasonably cold temperatures prior to the holiday. Snowfall was mentioned as a possibility and as Christmas drew closer, snowfall became more likely as the weather forecast became more focused.

We need to look back to the week before Christmas in order to recap the details of this historic event. Signals from the numerical weather forecast models suggested a strong cold front and arctic air mass would move southward along the Rocky Mountains into Texas and eventually over the Lower Texas Coast. This cold front moved through Brownsville, Wednesday afternoon (12/22/2004). A second reinforcing surge of arctic air followed the initial front, dropping temperatures into the 30s and low 40s late Thursday (12/23/2004). Maximum temperatures on Friday (12/24/2004) were in the upper 30s to low 40s across the Rio Grande Valley. Widespread moderate rain covered much of the area with most locations reporting one half of an inch to nearly one inch of liquid precipitation (Figure 1, below). The cold rain began to taper off on Christmas Eve as temperatures began to fall below freezing

…

As the event began to unfold, the meteorologists at NWS Brownsville refined the precipitation forecast to account for rainfall changing to sleet or a rain/snow mix, and eventually changing to all snow for the overnight hours between December 24th and 25th. The first in a series of winter weather warnings and advisories – Freeze Warnings – were issued by the National Weather Service at 230 AM December 23rd. Around noon on Christmas Eve, the Freeze Warnings were upgraded to Winter Weather Advisories, which were subsequently upgraded to Winter Storm Warnings later that evening for Heavy Snow, continuing until the morning of December 25th when the snowfall finally ended.

All in all, the snowfall was greeted with joy and excitement since it has been almost 110 years since the last measurable snow fell in the city of Brownsville – and for that matter, much of the Valley.

Yes, snowfall in McAllen is a rare occurrence. Yes, it snowed on Christmas Day 2004. Yes, it has snowed since then, though not in measurable amounts. Thus, the best that can be said is that there had not been MEASURABLE snowfall amounts in McAllen in 109 years, and that this is due to climate and weather patterns, not God. I am confident in saying that there have likely been other “snowfalls” to hit McAllen besides the “blizzard” of 2017. Meteorological records only go back for 150 or so years, so it is an argument from silence to say that it has never snowed in McAllen before 2004. This story is just another example of Evangelicals desperately looking for a miracle where there is none. And as far as David Espinoza’s miraculous healing is concerned, neither Charisma News, God Winks @Pure Flix, or the Espinozas provided any evidence for the claim that David was miraculously “healed.”  People are just expected to, by irrational faith, BELIEVE. When asked on the TODAY show about whether the chain of events was mere coincidence or divine intervention, God Winks host, Squire Rushnell, replied “You know what that shows? It shows that if you have faith and pray, Godwinks happen.” What it shows is that with faith people can and will believe almost anything. If Evangelicals want rationalists and skeptics to “believe,” they are going to have to cough up a lot more evidence than the aforementioned story.

About Bruce Gerencser

Bruce Gerencser, 61, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 40 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.

Bruce is a local photography business owner, operating Defiance County Photo out of his home. If you live in Northwest Ohio and would like to hire Bruce, please email him.

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.

A Longer Statute Of Limitations for Reporting Sexual Abuse: Why It’s Necessary — And Not Enough

Bruce Gerencser 1 Comment

statute of limitations

Guest post by by MJ Lisbeth

New York City and State are often seen as liberal, progressive bastions in a conservative nation. Indeed, The Big Apple was a leader in passing laws to protect the rights of tenants, workers and LGBT people, and The Empire State legalized abortion and same-sex marriage before other states and the Federal Government got around to doing the same.

Even so, the city and state have other statutes that seem retrograde and even racist compared to other states. An example of racism is in voting: It’s more difficult to do than in just about any other city or state. And the things that make voting difficult almost invariably place the greatest burdens on the poor, and on ethnic and racial minorities.

Among the laws that are simply retrograde are the ones that governed the reporting of child sexual abuse. Currently, criminal or civil charges can be brought against an abuser until the victim’s 23rd birthday. Only Alabama and Mississippi have more restrictive regulations, while nine other states have no statute of limitations at all.

So why does one of the “blue” islands in a sea of “red” have laws that, frankly, do more to protect the perpetrators than the survivors? One could argue that New York passed such legislation a long time ago, when it didn’t seem quite so restrictive, and simply didn’t bother to change. That could be said about the state’s abortion laws, which allow the procedure up to 24 weeks into the pregnancy. When the law was passed, three years before Roe vs Wade, most states still didn’t allow abortion at all. But, after Roe vs Wade, the relative strength or weakness of New York law didn’t matter, because Federal rulings supersede state statutes.

Likewise, when the state’s current regulations about reporting child abuse were enacted, they may well have been more progressive than those of other states—if, indeed those states had them. Indeed, there was little or no discussion of the issue, and there was a common belief that the victim was somehow at fault—or, at least, should just “move on.” But now the time is long past to acknowledge the pain and suffering too many of us have carried—in some cases, for decades, or even to our graves—and to allow us to achieve whatever measure of justice may be available to us.

On Monday, the New York State Assembly passed, by a vote of 130-3, a bill that would allow prosecutors to bring criminal charges against a perpetrator until the victim’s 28th birthday. It would also give victims the right to sue until they turn 55. In the Senate, every single senator, Democrat and Republican, voted in favor of that same bill, which Governor Andrew Cuomo has promised to sign into law.

If you want to know why this law is so necessary, all you had to do was watch—and, more important, listen—to the press conference that followed the vote in the state Capitol. It included testimony from survivors, some of whom were the very legislators who voted for the bill. A few of them were talking about their abuse for the very first time.

That grown men and women were breaking the silence around sexual abuse they experienced as children and teenagers is a measure of how the law is necessary—yet still inadequate. There are still many of us who grew up in places and times where such abuse wasn’t discussed because the authority of abusers wasn’t questioned. Moreover, whatever education we received included no lessons about our bodies: As I recounted in an earlier essay, when a priest molested me, I didn’t even know the names of the parts of my body he touched.

The incidents I can recall most vividly and terrifyingly happened between my ninth and tenth birthdays. I did not talk about them with anybody for nearly half a century. So, even with the new law, I would not be eligible to sue. Many other people my age, or older, are in similar situations.

If some lawyer for the Diocese of Brooklyn (where I was abused) is reading this, he or she is breathing a sigh of relief. There are surely many others like me (I’ve talked to a few), and the Diocese and Roman Catholic Church know it. So, I am sure, do many other religious organizations as well as insurance companies and the Boy Scouts of America.

Those organizations are the chief reasons why New York has taken so long to pass legislation to widen the statute of limitations for reporting child abuse. One thing about New York’s “liberalness” is that it allows freedom not only to racial, ethnic and sexual minorities, but also to reactionary religious sects. That is why, for example, ultra-Orthodox Jews can influence New York’s elections and public policy in ways they never could anywhere else in the United States. It has also, for nearly two centuries, given the Catholic Church influence it has never enjoyed anyplace else in the nation, save perhaps in Boston, Rhode Island and Louisiana.

Those religious organizations are also the reasons why the bill isn’t as strong as it could be. Lawsuits from survivors are already bankrupting dioceses in other parts of the country; the Archdiocese of New York and the Dioceses of Brooklyn and Buffalo surely know that they could suffer the same fate. I am sure that other religious governing bodies came to the same realization. Just two weeks before the bill’s passage, Cardinal Dolan wrote an opinion piece declaring that he had to protect the church from Governor Cuomo’s efforts to “single out the church and weaken its ministry.”

But the state’s bishops realized they were fighting a losing battle. They said they would support the bill as long as it applied equally to public and private institutions. Then Dennis Poust, one of their spokesmen, said the bishops would call for even stronger protections than the ones provided in the new Child Victims Act.

Those bishops, along with other religious leaders in the State, did everything they could to stop the bill from passing until they knew it was going to pass. But, just as Roe vs Wade galvanized anti-abortion activists, I believe that passage of the law—as welcome as it is, at least in comparison to what it’s replacing—will cause those bishops, as well as the clerical and lay leaders of other religious organizations, to do whatever they can to keep victims from exercising their rights under the law. That is why we, the ones who were abused by priests and other religious leaders, need to be as vigilant as pro-choice activists have had to be in the 46 years since Roe vs. Wade. Especially in “deep blue” New York.

Other posts by MJ Lisbeth

Sexual Abuse Victims Have the Right To Be Heard — Whenever They Are Ready

Forgiveness is Not Enough, When it Comes to Healing for Sexual Abuse Victims

Abuse and Alienation: In The Church, Away From Yourself

Why We Didn’t Tell

Off My Knees: A Victim Remembers

But He’s a Good Person

His Hunger for the Church

Everybody But the Church Understands

Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: Eternally Shielded in Rome

Pastor Thaddeus Matthews Promotes Twerking for Jesus

Bruce Gerencser 4 Comments

thaddeus matthews

Thaddeus Matthews, pastor of Liberation and Empowerment Ministries in Memphis, Tennessee, recently held a twerking contest at his church. Known as the “cussing pastor,” Matthews seems to have no problem with women shaking their assess for Jesus. Here’s video evidence:

Video Link

Sweet baby Jesus!

In 2012, Matthews was arrested on child pornography charges. In 2015, he was sentenced to five years of probation.

Matthews’ YouTube channel

Matthews’ Facebook page

Matthews’ Instagram page

Matthews’ Twitter account is currently suspended.

Christians Say the Darnedest Things: Michelle Lesley Says It’s a Sin to Attend a Gay Wedding

Bruce Gerencser 12 Comments

michelle lesley

Sexuality in Western culture is a mess. Within the last hundred years or so, we’ve devolved from a society that had, broadly speaking, a general understanding of, and compliance with, the Bible’s parameters for sex to today’s sexual mores that barely stop short of child molestation and bestiality, and permits – even encourages – nearly every other form of perversion.

It can be difficult to know how to approach these issues which have been suddenly thrust upon us, and with which the average person – Christian or not – has very little experience. How are Christians to think about, believe, and address these issues in our families, churches, and communities? Do we just go with the “live and let live” flow of modern society? No. As with every other issue in life, our thinking, our words, and our actions must be shaped by and in submission to the authority of Scripture. Not public opinion. Not political agendas. Not our own personal feelings, opinions, and experiences. Scripture.

The Bible makes sexuality and gender identity very simple for us. God created two sexes of people– male and female¹. God created marriage to be between one man and one woman. God created human sexuality and confined its use to a man and a woman who are married to each other. Every form of gender identity or human sexuality that falls outside these parameters is sin.

….

Christians should not attend same sex weddings (or receptions, showers, bachelor parties, housewarmings, etc.) for any reason. (When it becomes legal, this will also apply to plural marriages and other unbiblical forms of “marriage”.) Regardless of your motives for attending, it appears to others and to the same sex couple as though you approve of their sin.

Often, the reason Christians will give for feeling they should attend a same sex wedding is that they are afraid declining to attend will cause the couple to cut off the relationship with them, closing the door to any future opportunity to share the gospel. But if you’re close enough to the couple to be invited to the wedding, shouldn’t you have already shared the gospel with them? Do you not trust that God can save someone, either immediately or in the future, from one instance of sharing the gospel? This person’s salvation does not rest on your shoulders. It can only be accomplished by the Holy Spirit, and only in His timing. And whether you have or haven’t yet shared the gospel with the couple, what could your attendance at the wedding accomplish other than creating confusion? How can you support their “marriage” by attending the wedding and then turn around later and tell them they need to repent of this sin?

Additionally, attending the wedding sends the message to your children, family, church, friends, co-workers and others that you approve of the sin of homosexuality. We all have people watching us to see whether we stand with Christ or with the world. It’s imperative that we set a godly example.

Yes, if you decline to attend the wedding, you might lose your relationship with that homosexual friend or loved one. But Christ calls us to separate ourselves from the world and be loyal to Him even if it costs us everything — including those we love the most.

— michelle Lesley, Discipleship for Christian Women, Throwback Thursday ~ Basic Training: Homosexuality, Gender Identity, and Other Sexual Immorality, January 24, 2019

Christians Say the Darnedest Things: Stop Making an Idol Out of Sickness

Bruce Gerencser 11 Comments

becky dvorak

Have we idolized the sickness? Has it become all-powerful to us? Has it become the center of our lives? Is it the controller of all we say and do? It is the center of every message we give? Do our words glorify Jesus as the healer of all, including this sickness, or do they insinuate this sickness is more powerful than Jesus? I know these are hard questions to ask ourselves, but in order to dethrone this sickness we need to know what we are glorifying.

Have we become a walking billboard for advertising the disease? Are we its new poster child? Are we walking down the catwalk modeling the disease for the world to see? Have we turned the spotlight onto the sickness? Are we highlighting the strength of this disease with every breath that we breathe?

I don’t think we set out to idolize the sickness. I think it sneaks into position, and before we know it, we bow down to it and comply to its every demand. Instead, we should take our stand and by a faith-filled command, curse it and bind it back to the land from where it came: the pit of hell. Take hold of our spiritual claim, the redemptive power of the blood to deliver and heal us from these filthy chains that try to bind us. It’s time to set ourselves free from this golden calf of sickness and disease.

We need to stop promulgating a false doctrine that says God gave this disease to us. This message goes against the Word of God, and devalues the blood that Jesus shed for us at the whipping post so that we could be healed from sickness and disease. With every fiber of His precious being He shed His blood for our healing.

….

Again we have a choice to make. Are we willing to admit and repent of all our doubt and unbelief to our Healer, Jesus? Or will we hold onto our right to a false doctrine and glorify this sickness? Are we ready to dethrone this disease in our lives? And are we going to lift up Jesus higher and place Him, our healer on the throne of our hearts, and cleanse our temples from the filth of this disease?

— Becky Dvorak, Charisma News, Stop Making This an Idol, December 31, 2018

BTW, Dvorak, a faith-healing evangelist, believes if you just speak that “right words” Jesus will heal you.

Quote of the Day: Religion is the Greatest Bullshit Story Ever Told

Bruce Gerencser 4 Comments

george carlin

When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims: religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time!

But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!…. There is no God. None, not one, no God, never was.

— George Carlin, Daylight Atheism, Slashed by Occam’s Razor, January 9, 2018

God Protects Baptists in Vidor But Lets Them Die in Sutherland Springs

Bruce Gerencser 8 Comments

god keeps us safe

When it comes to protecting and caring for his chosen ones, God is quite schizophrenic. You would think the Almighty would be consistent in his care of Christians, but that’s not the case. Tony Dwayne Albert II, dressed in tactical gear and carrying a loaded firearm, was headed to First Baptist Church in Vidor, Texas to do some killing when police thwarted and arrested him. Mass shooting averted. Amen, right? Amen. Afterward, Terry Wright, the pastor of First Baptist, said: “There is an overwhelming recognition that the Lord protected us and provided for us.” According to Wright, God stopped Albert from killing anyone. Most of us would say to God, Good job. Way to go protecting your followers. Of course, knowing that God has a hard time staying on task, we might also say, keep up the good work, Jesus. There will be other churches that need protecting from homicidal maniacs. Surely they deserve protection too, right?

Well, evidently not. You see God is quite hit-and-miss when it comes to stopping things such as rape, sexual assault, murder, violence, and, well, just about anything that negatively affects the human race. So, Jesus steps up in Vidor, Texas, and everyone pats him on the back. But what about what happened at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Spring, Texas? Devin Patrick Kelley entered the church and killed twenty-six people and wounded twenty others. If God was so loving and caring when it came to the people in Vidor, what does the series of events in Sutherland Springs say about his indifference towards the people there?  Why is God Johnny-on-the-spot in Vidor but on an extended vacation in Sutherland Springs? Why intervene in one church, yet leave the other to suffer untold horrors?

That’s God, for ya. He’s been on the job for 6,023 years. You would think that he would have learned to do his job right by now. How hard can it be to stop a crazed gunman from shooting up a Baptist church? God is all-powerful, right? If God can protect the people in Vidor, surely he can do the same for the people in Sutherland Springs, and every other community that will have to deal with an attempted mass shooting in the future.

It seems, at least to me anyway, that God favors certain Christians. What other explanation is there for God’s behavior? I know if I lived in Sutherland Springs, I would be upset with God. Hey God, what did we do to piss you off?  You “saved” the people in Vidor from harm. Why did you turn your back on us? Why did you encourage us to pray, knowing that you had no intention of answering our prayers?

I am sure a Christian commenter will attempt to explain me the sovereignty of God, and how God doesn’t owe anyone anything.  But I thought God was the FATHER of his children? I know, as a human father, I want to ALWAYS protect my family from harm; and there’s never a time when I wouldn’t do everything in my power to keep them from being hurt. That’s what loving, caring fathers do. Yet, in the Christian family, God the Father plays favorites, choosing to love and care for some of his children, but not others. Don’t tell me how awesome God is, knowing that he stands on the sideline and passively watches as Christians are mowed down by crazed gunmen. A kind, loving father would go to the ends of the earth to protect his children from harm. Evidently the ends of God’s earth don’t extend to Sutherland Springs.

About Bruce Gerencser

Bruce Gerencser, 61, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 40 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.

Bruce is a local photography business owner, operating Defiance County Photo out of his home. If you live in Northwest Ohio and would like to hire Bruce, please email him.

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.

Steven Anderson’s “New” IFB Movement Erupts Into a Food Fight Over Donnie Romero

Bruce Gerencser 18 Comments
steven anderson

I recently wrote a post detailing the resignation of Donnie Romero from Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. Romero’s wife had called Steven Anderson, pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona to come to Fort Worth and help deal with her husband and his sinful behavior. According to Anderson, his wife accused him of cavorting with prostitutes, smoking weed, and gambling. Romero admitted his sins and duly resigned from the church, telling them that he and his wife planned to stay on as members.

Anderson and Romero are part of a group they call the “New” IFB (Independent Fundamentalist Baptist). Founded and controlled by Anderson, the ‘New” IFB church movement believes that the “old” IFB church movement has moved away from its core beliefs and practices. While this is true is some instances, there is very little difference between the churches of these groups. Both groups are cultic; both are Evangelical in doctrine; both are conservative politically; both practice personal separation (from the world) and many of the churches practice secondary separation (refusing to fellowship with churches/pastors who have connections with compromising churches/pastors/colleges); both are evangelistic; both believe the Bible is inerrant (and many use only the King James Bible); both believe they alone are True Christians®. One thing is for certain, Steven Anderson is the de facto pope of the “New” IFB church movement.

Anderson quickly made his way to Stedfast Baptist and just as quickly appointed a new pastor by the name of Jonathan Shelley. Shelley currently pastors Pure Words Baptist Church in Houston, Texas — a “New” IFB church. Shelly’s bio page states:

Pure Words Baptist Church is an independent fundamental King James only baptist church pastored by Jonathan Shelley. Jonathan married his wife, ****, in 2009 and they have three children, ****, ****, and ****.

Jonathan was raised in a Christian home and saved at age five and baptized at age 14. He grew up in large non-denominational churches and had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge. Before his first son was born, Jonathan began to diligently study the Bible and realized he needed to make some changes. He soon became King James only and eventually started to attend an independent fundamental baptist (KJV Only) church in his area. Jonathan was rebaptized in 2015 at Arden Road Baptist Church. In 2016, Jonathan moved to Faithful Word Baptist Church to train to be a pastor. During this transition Jonathan has been blessed to have had the opportunity to preach over 150 sermons, lead soulwinning marathons, go on mission trips to Jamaica and Mexico, and memorize dozens of chapters of the Bible.

Jonathan’s vision is to reach the entire Houston area with the gospel, train soulwinners, develop and send out evangelists and pastors, and reach foreign countries with the gospel.

Anderson will argue that Shelley was appointed by the church, not him, but it’s clear that Anderson wanted his man to be pastor, and he persuaded the men of the church to ordain Shelley and make him their pastor. I say the men of the church, because the women of the church had no say in the matter. Anderson held a three-hour meeting with the men of Stedfast Baptist, a meeting women and children were not permitted to attend.

The choice of Shelly as pastor has caused a bit of controversy among “New” IFB churches. Unbeknownest to me until yesterday was the fact that Donnie Romero was also the pastor of a mission church in Jacksonville, Florida called Stedfast Baptist Church of Jacksonville, and of Stedfast Baptist Church of Oklahoma City. According to Anderson, most of Romero’s “sinful” behavior took place in while he was visiting the church in Jacksonville. Anderson also alleges that money is missing from one or more of the churches.

adam fannin
Adam Fannin

Into this junior-high lunch room food fight comes a man by the name of Adam Fannin. Fannin leads the congregation in Jacksonville, and according to Anderson is best buddies with Donnie Romero. Anderson subtly implies in one video that Fannin may have involved himself in Romero’s sinful behaviors. What’s hilarious about this mess is that the various parties have taken to calling each other out with YouTube videos. 

Video Link

These videos clearly show that the “New” IFB church movement is no different from the old one. Bickering children, they are. The good news is that the women won’t be blamed for what’s happening. Oh wait, the latest rumor is that Romero’s wife is culpable in his “sinful” behavior. True IFB behavior: let a preacher get caught in sexual sin and there will always be someone who will blame his spouse or the person he had sex with. According to many of the YouTube comments, Romero is a true hero, a man of character for admitting his “sins.” Gag me with a spoon, will ya? There is nothing noble about Romero’s post-scandal behavior. He got caught. End of story.

Anderson preached at Stedfast Baptist Church today, solidifying his position as pope of the “New” IFB. In his sermon he called the church in Jacksonville trash; trash that needed to be taken out. What a man of God, right? 

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.

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Bruce Gerencser