Democrats and an increasing number of Republicans are calling for the release of all the Jeffrey Epstein files. The self-righteousness is on display for all to see. How long have these documents been available to the U.S. Justice Department and various congressional committees? Were they available from 2021-2025 when Joe Biden controlled the government? Why were these documents not released then? What justice, exactly, did previous administrations give to Epstein’s victims — including the last two Democratic administrations?
Trump and his MAGA supporters in Congress are indeed as evil as Democrats portrayed, but something tells me that Democrats have plenty to give account for themselves. And do we really believe it was only Republicans who frequented Epstein’s island? I know I don’t.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Are we watching the beginning of the end of Donald Trump’s presidency? Maybe. One may certainly hope and pray, right? Thousands of emails have been released that clearly implicate Trump in the Jeffrey Epstein sex abuse scandal. There’s no question that Trump was a close friend of the late Epstein and knew that he was trafficking in underage girls. It is also without question that both men are disgusting perverts.
That said, I do wish people would quit calling Trump a pedophile. He’s not, and neither was Epstein. Unfortunately, the word pedophile is used colloquially to label anyone who has sex with a minor. This colloquial use of the word is unfortunate. A pedophile is someone who has an attraction to and has sex with prepubescent children. Trump, Epstein, disgraced ex-prince Andrew, and other well known men had sex with pubescent teens, and not young children. Their crimes are just as disgusting, but we do need to be accurate when describing their perversions. The same goes when we define the sex crimes of Catholic priests. While some of them are pedophiles, others are pederasts — those with a sexual attraction to adolescent boys. An interest in late-pubescents in men is called ephebophilia, although there is significant academic debate as to the term.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
What follows is a letter my mother wrote to the editor of the Bryan Times It was published May 7, 1969. I am hoping this letter will provide a glimpse of the type of home I grew up in. I was 11 years old when this letter was written. 12 days later, this letter was also published in the Toledo Blade.
Bryan Times:
In view of recent student uprisings, revolts, demonstrations, anarchy and lawlessness on college and university campuses in these United States — I, an American taxpayer and mother of three children, urge a PUBLIC Congressional Investigation into the colleges and universities that fit the above and an investigation into the SDS, its leaders, motives, and followers.
Either local authorities on campus or the government must stop this outrage or there should be a taxpayers’ revolt. I, for one, do not care to support such so-called institutions for a so-called higher education. Why don’t parents of these students cut off funds? Why doesn’t the government cut off funds to such institutions and cut off student loans to such students?
Now, summer approaches and Americans are wondering and waiting to see whether the riots in our cities will resume. Many of these same students will be taking to the streets this summer. Rioting has become a habit, a thrill. I have heard the remark, many riot all day and run home to watch themselves on the 6 o’clock news.
Many Americans are justifiably living in fear. I have heard remarked that only a dictator and a police state will be able to protect American citizens from anarchy and lawlessness. Is this what we want? I ask you to ask yourself, what can I do? What can or should our duly elected government officials do? What can or should our tax supported institutions do? Let your universities and government officials know how you feel. It is time to stand up and be counted.
I had thought that with a new administration (Richard Nixon) we might begin to enter into a period of law and justice and might once again go back to majority rule upon which this country was founded. How can a handful of 50 students completely subdue a college campus and its authorities?
I used to think a college education was an ideal goal for a youngster. Now I am very skeptical of sending my children to such an educational institution. Have you ever asked yourself why the students on the large and small campuses of Bible colleges and other religious institutions are not rioting, or are you trying not to think, period? (now that was one snarky line, Mom)
Did you ever stop to think that the students who do not like their teachers, courses, university rules and regulations have the freedom to go elsewhere? Perhaps a trip to Vietnam might give them the proper perspective. While our boys fight and die to preserve freedom, the students usurp the freedom and rights of others to an education in a tax supported institution. Teachers not going along with students are being intimidated as well as their families being threatened. Some even have had bomb threats in the name of freedom.
To all college and university authorities, to all judges and law enforcement officials and to all government officials: in regards to the students, I say Amnesty-NO, Prosecution, Expulsion-YES.
Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Barbara Gerencser Route 2, Hicksville
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
In 2000, I voted for a Democrat for the first time, and since then I have primarily voted for Democratic candidates, even when I had to hold my nose to do so. Neither Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden was my candidates of choice, but I voted for both because I was a loyal party member. Two years ago, I accepted a position on the executive committee of the local Democratic Party. Two weeks ago, I resigned my position, with nary a question from local party officials. No one asked me “why” or made any attempt to preserve the support of someone who has been one of the most vocal Democrats around. From signs in my yard — even for candidates I didn’t care for — to letters to the editor of the local newspaper, I was a loyal Democrat. I endured attacks in the newspaper from incensed, butthurt Republicans, and cleaned for more than a few bottles, cans, and bags of human shit (imagine a Republican taking the time to shit in a baggie just so he can show me his objection to something I said or wrote) from my front yard. I have repeatedly had my political yard signs stolen, and in all of this, not one party official has said to me, “Hey, Bruce, how ya doing?” Hey, but they did send me a card when I had major surgery on my spine fifteen months ago.
When the local party had a short discussion about Lifewise Academy, I bit my tongue as I heard well-intentioned Democrats wrongly “explain” the Lifewise program and why it should be opposed. They could have asked the expert in the room on Evangelicalism and Lifewise Academy to explain the program, but he went unasked. Outside of one man and his wife — whom are wonderful people I have known for years — not one party member engaged in meaningful discussion with me. I concluded that as a socialist and pacifist, I was too far to the left for the liking of most local Democrats. When I made known I was an atheist, that further alienated me from religious Democrats. I tried to Facebook friend several senior party leaders, without success. I offered to run for local office, and what I got was a polite “Thank you. We will get back with you.” As you might imagine, I am still waiting. It’s hard not to feel not wanted, so both my partner and I decided we would invest our time and money in political endeavors that better reflect our political, religious, moral, and ethical values.
We are done voting for the lesser of two evils. We are done supporting candidates who ignore rural Americans while pretending that they are the only people looking out for us. We are done with thinking that third parties will NEVER work in our country. We are done with being told that a vote for a third party candidate is a throwaway vote, serving no purpose besides enabling the “enemy.” We are done holding our tongues while self-righteous Democrats shame and castigate us for daring to even consider voting for someone other than a Democrat. “What, do you want to be responsible for reelecting Donald Trump to a fourth term?” To those who want to try this approach with me, let me un-politely tell you to “fuck off.” Polite Polly won’t tell you to do the same, but trust me when I say that my angry, enraged wife — who is more enraged than I have ever seen her in forty-seven years of marriage — approves of this message.
And let me be clear, our anger is primarily reserved for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and senior elected party officials. Our anger first started percolating when the DNC behind the scenes rigged the primary election for Hillary Clinton, not wanting the better candidate, Bernie Sanders, to be their standard bearer. And yes, I know it can be debated whether Sanders could have won, but the DNC had no business stacking the deck for Clinton — who, in my opinion, was an awful candidate.
In 2024, the DNC and senior elected officials should have stepped in and stopped Joe Biden from running a second term. Instead, they loyally chose party seniority over the American people, saddling Democrats with a candidate who likely couldn’t win. And when they finally figured this out, it was too late. The Kamala Harris debacle paved the way for Donald Trump’s reelection. Making matters worse were the Republican friendly political ads repeatedly run by Sherrod Brown and Marcy Kaptur on local TV. I wanted to scream every time one of their ads popped up on the screen. I thought these two were pillars of liberalism? Brown lost, and Kaptur won by a thousand or so votes. Both plan to run for office again, but Kaptur’s district has been gerrymandered — making it more Republican friendly (adding two counties that voted 80 percent for Trump) — and Brown no longer has the star power he once had. Will I vote for either of them again? Sure, but I do so out of anti-MAGA sentiment and not because I think Brown or Kaptur will actually represent me in congress.
Earlier this year, DNC operatives forced David Hogg — a Democratic firebrand and party reformer — out of his position with them, making it clear that coloring outside the lines would not be tolerated. It became clear to us that the DNC was bought and paid for by pro-business, pro-capitalism, centrist Democrats.
This brings me to the final nail in the proverbial coffin: the Democratic capitulation to Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans. The U.S. government has been shut down for forty-one days. Until yesterday, Democrats stood firm on their demands of funding Obamacare subsidies and restoring Medicaid funding to the states. And then, just like that, the shutdown was over (or will be over soon). Eight Democratic senators voted with Republicans to end the shutdown. I should note that two of these feckless, cowardly Democrats are retiring and six others are not up for election. And does anyone seriously think that these eight cowards would have voted with Republicans without the express permission of Senator Chuck Schumer? Schumer, a centrist corporate Democrat, has time and time again feigned support for the needs of the American people while, behind the scenes, burned their houses to the ground.
What did Democrats get for surrender? The promise of a vote on the subsidies in December. That’s it, boys and girls. Remember, Democrats KNOW that the subsidy funding bill must get sixty votes in the Senate, a majority vote in a Republican held House, and then have Trump sign it. Does anyone who is not high think that this is going to happen? Hell, I’m high as I write this, and I know that this ain’t going to happen — ever. Democratic leaders have lost their will; the willingness to roll up their sleeves and FIGHT for the American people. And by not doing so, they have sided with vile people who have no problem with taking food away from hungry people and taking healthcare away from sick Americans. Democrats sided with a party that literally forced the closure of Head Start programs, national parks, airports, and vast swaths of the federal government, all the while Gestapo agents roam the streets of our major cities looking for “undesirables.” The Democratic Party has lost its way, and I no longer believe it can be saved. So, it is for that reason that I am no longer a Democrat, and neither is my partner.
We plan to register as Independents. While this will limit our ability to vote for candidates in primary elections, it is one way we can show our disapproval of party politics and the two-party system. It is likely we will continue to vote for Democratic candidates, but we will no longer be bound by party loyalty. We will likely vote third party (unless Democrats rise to the occasion and run true progressive candidates) in primaries, and do what’s best for our country in general elections. We will no longer put Democratic signs in our front yard unless we actually support the candidates. Same goes for political donations.
I’m not sure where this path leads, but here’s to hoping for a better tomorrow. Our republic is worth saving, though I no longer believe the people running the show want to save it. A warmongering fascist sits in the White House and his court of clowns want to turn our country into an Evangelical theocracy. The courts seem unwilling to rein in the Clown-in-Chief, so the battle is left to congress — who shows no appetite or desire to turn back Trump’s, the Supreme Court’s, and even congress’s support for undemocratic, unconstitutional behaviors, policies, and practices. We are left to wonder if we have crossed a Rubicon of sorts, and it too late for us as a nation. I hope not, and I intend to fight until I can no longer do so.
Let me conclude with Jon Stewart’s take on the health of the Democratic Party.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
One day in March 2015, surveillance cameras at a thousand-year-old Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Tokyo captured a man wearing a hooded windbreaker, a white collared shirt and black shoes, dabbing at wooden pillars with oil on his fingertip.
Less than an hour later and 17 miles away, Japanese authorities said, a man with a similar build and clothing was caught on video anointing an offerings box at another site, a Shinto shrine founded in 643 B.C. during the reign of Japan’s first emperor.
The faiths predate Christianity by centuries, and the sites draw 12 million pilgrims and tourists each year. They venerate the Buddha and the Shinto kami, the spirits that the faithful believe animate natural forces and inhabit the land. The smears of oil, as the authorities saw them, despoiled Japan’s religious heritage.
The authorities found their suspect in New York, roughly 7,000 miles away, and issued arrest warrants for him on two counts of vandalism.
He is Masahide Kanayama, 63, a single, childless doctor who had devoted his life to helping women bear children; a man whose Christian faith was inseparable from his work. He has practiced in Manhattan for nearly three decades and is an expert in endometriosis, a condition in which cells similar to the uterine lining grow outside the uterus. His patients describe how his surgeries ended years of crippling pain and, in some cases, allowed them to have children.
“I believe the Holy Spirit works through me by giving me an ability to perform my unique surgical technique,” Dr. Kanayama said. “When guided by faith, medicine becomes a way to serve God by serving others. My goal is to let God’s love be reflected through my actions and services.”
Now, a decade after the hooded man was seen at the holy sites, that work may soon become impossible. The Japanese authorities say they found YouTube videos from 2012 in which Dr. Kanayama discussed anointing shrines with oil for religious purposes. They are seeking to bring him back to Japan for trial.
Dr. Kanayama’s lawyers said in a statement that he did not damage any sites, and added that “even if true, his actions damaged nothing.”
….
The charges could bring five years of hard labor in a Japanese prison.
….
One Sunday morning in mid-October, Dr. Kanayama entered the Times Square Church on West 51st Street near Broadway. The nondenominational church, a former theater, welcomes thousands of worshipers in person and online to services that draw on the Pentecostal tradition. There is a live band and gospel singing, and congregants approach the pulpit seeking healing. He closed his eyes as he prayed, sang and swayed to the music.
….
Dr. Kanayama, whose ethnic Korean heritage already makes him an outlier in Japanese society, came to his faith at 17 when his mother took him to an evangelical missionary church in Tokyo. There, he had a spiritual awakening that he says led him to become a Christian and move to the United States.
“I will show my healing power through your hands,” he said God had told him.
….
Throughout much of the two-hour service that day at the Times Square Church, Dr. Kanayama stood in the packed rows, his left hand gripping a Japanese-language Bible and his right arm raised in the air.
He often carries that Bible, with its dog-eared pages and underlined verses. “I underline everywhere,” he said.
….
At the ancient Naritasan Shinsho-ji Temple in the city of Narita, the Japanese authorities said Dr. Kanayama had left oil on pillars that were part of the main gate used to enter the sanctuary.
The gate was built in a traditional Japanese architectural style and is itself an object of worship, a temple official said in a declaration filed with the court. The oil had left blackish stains, the official wrote.
….
At the Katori Jingu Shrine in nearby Katori, oily liquid was left on wooden poles on both sides of the front stairs, on the stairs themselves and on the box where worshipers can make donations, a shrine official said in another declaration. The oil left stains, although over time they became almost invisible unless observed up close, the official said
….
Dr. Kanayama said he had been targeted because he was a Christian in a country where members of the faith had suffered repression for hundreds of years and today represent only about 1 percent of the population.
“This is a religious persecution,” Mr. Kanayama’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said. “Why else would they be so enthusiastic about destroying not only this man’s life, but ending his ability to help thousands of women who suffer from a very serious medical malady?”
Is Dr. Kanayama being persecuted for his faith? Of course not, Regardless of his intentions, Kanayama broke Japanese law. He damaged public property. Why? Cuz Gawd told him to. Do I think Kanayama should spend five years in prison for his crimes? No, but he should be punished harshly enough to deter delusional — and people who say Gawd talks to them are delusional — Evangelicals from breaking the law. If I “anointed” local Evangelical churches with atheist oil that caused physical harm to their buildings, should I be arrested for property crimes? Absolutely. The law applies to everyone, including Evangelicals who hear voices in their heads.
Stop with the claims of persecution. When Evangelicals turn every bit of pushback into cries of Satanic persecution, they diminish real persecution that is happening in places like Darfur and Nigeria. Dr. Kanayama is not being persecuted. He’s the latest person to learn the hard way that listening to the Holy Ghost talk to you in your heard and acting upon his direction may lead to prison. Kanayma is just another Evangelical who became convinced that rubbing “holy oil” on shit affects outcomes or brings supernatural intervention. In any other setting, such behavior would earn you a psych evaluation. In American Evangelical churches, however, you will be lauded as a hero, a defender of the one true faith.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Originally published in 1896. Written by Tom Mann, a nineteenth century socialist.As thoughtful readers will quickly see, this essay still applies today.Used with permission from marxists.org.
I MAKE no apology for writing this chapter upon Preachers and Churches. In our day every institution is open to criticism, and rightly and necessarily so; and although—if this should meet the eyes of preachers—many of them will doubtless consider it presumption on my part to attempt even to deal with such a subject, let it be so. We live in England, and not in Russia—plutocratic England, it is true, but with Democracy getting a good grip. And if by writing this I simply lay myself open to criticism, it may still be the case that I shall have served some small purpose by helping to make clear what it is we object to in orthodox preachers, with their orthodox doctrines and congregations. It cannot be that I am wholly correct—it may be I am very wrong; but feeling strongly upon the subject, and often indulging on Labour platforms in sentiments identical with those I have here given expression to, I now venture (upon invitation) to place before another audience the views I hold, as well as those I condemn.
At the outset, I desire to say that I am fully alive to the fact that there are CLERGYMEN, MINISTERS, SUNDAY-SCHOOL AND BIBLE-CLASS TEACHERS, who cannot be covered by the general terms of censure I have made use of in what follows. I am happy in possessing the close friendship of not a few who, I am quite sure, are not merely as devoted as any men and women on earth to the cause of truth and righteousness, but strive continuously to make right-doing prevail in every sphere of life. But it is just these who, more than others, feel and know what a terrible responsibility rests upon preachers and teachers as a whole; and who also know, to their sorrow, how shamefully deficient the Churches are in supplying the much-needed correction, and stimulus, and light.
The Churches set up a claim to be the moral and spiritual guides of humanity, to whom all men should look for guidance as to their conduct in this life, and qualifications for life hereafter. The question I propose to examine is: Do they fulfil these functions?
In a complex society like ours, where the average person, on reaching girlhood or boyhood, must perforce begin work of some kind to obtain a maintenance, a very large share of one’s time, thought, and energy must of necessity, under present conditions, be devoted to the mere work of obtaining a living. Indeed, it is the paramount question, by the side of which all others fall into comparative insignificance. Consequently, if guidance is needed anywhere, it is in connection with the means whereby a livelihood is to be obtained. The virtues—including honesty, sobriety, and obedience to superiors—are all emphasized in the Sunday schools, Bible classes, and churches; exactly how to apply them being, of course, too great a task.
A GENERAL CONDEMNATION OF “SIN,” and urgent advice to “flee from the wrath to come,” and find salvation by reliance upon the sacrifice in the crucifixion of Jesus, sums up the teaching of the average school, church, and chapel. Where does this land a man? Judging by a lengthened experience, I unhesitatingly declare that I find that the average church or chapel goer, who is influenced primarily by what he obtains from its functions, becomes a narrow, saving, squeezing creature, taking little or no part in the vigorous life of the community, but very commonly becoming, by his isolated action, a source of weakness in any real democratic movement. If he takes part in municipal or political life, he usually does so on the flimsiest party lines. He generally attributes the cause of the poverty of the poor to their utter degradation, caused by their dissolute habits, brought about by their unchecked evil tendencies, the human heart being desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. Very rarely is he connected with a trade union. As a rule, he is most loyal to the injunction, “Servants, obey your masters,” and will side with his kindred “brethren” to blackleg against his fellows.
The tricks of trade he necessarily becomes familiar with; and, like a business man, he not only indulges in them, but becomes an expert thereat. He will attend a prayer-meeting and bless God for the good things of life, and pray for the salvation of the poor sinners in the slums, and will take, as evidences of God’s blessing in return, the possession of a few more shares that will pay ten per cent.; and if fifteen per cent.—why, the more cause for thankfulness, of course! Let none tell me I am concocting a case; such men can be counted by thousands. And why? Because that upon which they have been fed is devoid of real vitalising force. Instead of giving moral discernment to enable a man to understand how, where, and when moral or, if you will, religious principles should be applied, the preachers land him in a complete fog. Beholding those who are held in high esteem in the Churches, that they include the bankers and stock-jobbers, and the company promoters and capitalists and landlords, he follows them rather than the simple carpenter’s Son. Between such select and exalted personages and mere Labour agitators, trade unionists, Socialists, &c., there is, as surely there ought to be, he concludes, a great gulf.
The Church is in a helpless backwash having lost the true courage, mental and moral vigour, power of discernment, and hence capacity, to apply what humanity now demands. The parsons, clergymen, and ministers are, for the most part, a feeble folk, who, daring not to lead, are therefore bound to follow.
Other men labour, and in the course of years the Church slowly is dragged along; for the pioneers of righteousness we must look elsewhere than to so-called Christians. The man who is truly religious wants no driving to do his duty. He does not try to make all manner of excuses for the exploiters of the industrious community, and pile up the trifling misdeeds of an unfairly handicapped proletariat. A TRULY RELIGIOUS BODY OF MEN, whose religion enabled them to understand between right-doing and wrong-doing, and furnished them with the requisite courage to face all foes, would never be content with the sunny complacency of the average parson in the midst of the life-destroying conditions of our industrial centres.
Shame, say I, and a thousand times shame, upon so feeble a religion as that which can tolerate the awful social life which exists in London at this very time. There are not less than four hundred thousand persons in London alone in a state of semi or actual starvation. There are among these at least a hundred thousand adult males out of work; tens of thousands of women, having no one to rely upon to support them, but in multitudes of instances being responsible for children (or aged or crippled relatives) in addition to themselves, who, over and over again in the course of a year, are deprived of the means of obtaining a livelihood; tens of thousands of children setting off to the Board schools every morning with less than a tenth part of that which is necessary for physical sustenance. Scores of miles of streets, with wretched dens in the background, furnish enormous rents—to whom? To the men of the world? No; to the rich members of your congregations, the great subscribers of your salaries O preachers! who turn up at your church or chapel service and follow you in praying, “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, as in heaven, so upon the earth.” Can they, do you think, believe that there is anything in heaven corresponding to the wretched slum-dwellers of Whitechapel or Spitalfields? Are there any in heaven corresponding to these Christian rent-takers, who wax fat at the expense of the downtrodden? What are you ministers and plutocratic members of the rich churches and chapels doing to make earth like heaven? Why, it would need an entire change in the basis of society, and the means whereby incomes are obtained. Are these religious plutocrats and preachers trying to change the basis of society, so that better conditions shall prevail? Assuredly not. On the contrary, they are determined opponents of those who do try to make such changes.
The fact is, preachers and congregation are bound hard and fast in a system that is grossly materialistic, utterly soulless in good, and without a single noble aspiration. The Hobbs and Co. Liberator phenomenon indicates how completely swamped is the average Nonconformist soul. Not only did it make haste to get rich, but by the most damnable means that the most cunning Jews and Gentiles combined could devise. Morality! Religion! Where is the religion or the morality in taking ten per cent. usury? Yet who among the orthodox in faith and practice objects to ten or more per cent.? Honesty! Righteousness! Who that believes in the doctrines of Jesus can uphold an industrial system whose very basis from top to toe is ten per cent.?
“THE MAN THAT WILL NOT WORK, NEITHER SHALL HE EAT,” is an apostolic injunction; but how many ministers or members of our swell churches and chapels believe it? “Yes, but even Hobbs and Wright worked,” some will say. Ah, so they did; as did also Mr. Charles Peace of burglar notoriety—the latter with less scoundrelism than the former.
The average preacher or church-goer does distinctly believe, not only that it is right to eat without working, but to get fed, clothed, housed, insured, and buried into the bargain. Who among them condemns as a religious duty the taking of interest and rent? And if these are defended, and I can get sufficient interest or rent to keep me and mine without working, what religious principle comes in after that to say I must work?, Or, am I to work like the Yankee millionaire—on six days a week endeavouring to amass the biggest fortune on record, entirely irrespective of how many will be ruined; and on Sunday attending church, receiving the blessing of the minister, and helping to carry the collecting-plate to show how godly I am? If ever Deity was insulted, it is by these devourers of widows’ houses, who receive direct sanction and approval from orthodox exponents of orthodox religion. Let none rise to say, “Oh, but we would never endorse the enormities of the Liberator Company.” If not, where, then, would you stop? The whole shoal of interest-takers and stockbroking gamblers are specimens of the same type in embryo. Not so successful as the millionaire, perhaps—why? Because they lacked opportunity. Never had the brains to scheme like the others, and the courage to come down a resounding crash at the end. Why? Because they hadn’t had time to go far enough. The difference isn’t in kind; it is only in degree. As in the time: of Nahum, so now, to describe London we must indeed say, Woe to the bloody city! it is full of lies and robbery.”
I do not state or imply that all this is done hypocritically; what I do say is “that the truth is not in them.” Christians need to be “born again.” Orthodox religion is acquiescing in an irreligious condition of Society. Christianity is made part and parcel of the national commercialism, and wholly subservient to the individualistic acquisitiveness of the age. The Fatherhood of God and Brotherhood of Man have come to be mere threadbare phrases when used by an ordinary religionist. Church or chapel is regularly attended, not indeed to obtain guidance out of the industrial and social wilderness, but to maintain tradition and keep up appearances. Some Christians positively believe, doubtless, that religion consists in church-going, hymn-singing, and muttering over the words found in the Prayer Book, or offered up by the minister; failing to realise that these are but the means to an end. If they are used as the end itself, then indeed does moral darkness assert itself.
It does appear to be the case that with industrial England, as with pastoral Israel, in the time of Amos, the outward ritual is made the chief concern. At that time the Mosaic ritual was jealously attended to, but the message was “I HATE, I DESPISE YOUR FEAST-DAYS, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer Me burnt offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let justice run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos v. 21-24). This is a sweeping condemnation of fashionable church-going whilst the state of Society is unsound. See verse 11 of the same chapter: “Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses,” &c.
Now, it was not the custom even in brutal Israel for one man to literally knock another down in order to take his wheat from him. There were more refined methods of exploitation then as now—though, doubtless, modern civilisation even in Christian England, could give the old Jews many points, and beat them at legalised robbery; and it is this legal robbery that is here condemned as much as any other kind.
But nothing puts the case more clearly than the condemnation by Jesus of the orthodox professors of religion of His time (see St. Matt. xxiii. 13, 14):
“But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”
No language could be stronger, and yet this was directed against the respectably religious of that day. These Pharisees have their exact counterpart to-day in England.
I know the risk I run by any attempt to deal with the subject of future salvation. But with a keen remembrance of the influence orthodoxy exercised over me—of the years of unrest, of the flimsiness and mimicry, with its pretences of solemnity and make-believe solidity,—I feel bound to deal with the subject. I know many young men who have striven hard to find “salvation”; and with blind guides to lead them, many years were spent in finding what ought to have been reached in a few months. The talk about the one thing needful under orthodoxy (it will be noted that I continually guard myself by referring to “orthodoxy”) means nothing more than fixing attention upon Jesus as the Saviour, He having been sacrificed to reconcile mankind to the Father. I make no comment upon this doctrinal point. What I want to expose is the demoralising effect produced by the individual being taught that salvation for him consists in reflecting upon and believing in his acceptance with God, because of Christ’s sacrifice, irrespective of the life he leads. “No one says this,” some will cry. Yes; but, indeed, IT IS SAID AND TAUGHT IN NINETEEN CHURCHES OUT OF TWENTY, and the effect is to cause the individual to think of himself or herself, and to value, out of all proper proportion, his or her own personal salvation. Selfishness begins this, and with selfishness it usually ends. Whilst one can admire the energy put forth and the trouble taken in the voluntary street-corner preachers and singers, one can only pity those who speak, as well as those who may in any way be influenced by what is said. A million times over is the same story told—personal salvation by faith in Christ. It seems to me it would be a truly religious act if all such received a severe castigation for wasting so much time trying to assuage the sorrows primarily brought about by a vicious industrial system, instead of boldly tackling that industrial system itself.
Salvation surely consists in living in accordance with Divine harmony,—in loving order and living it,—in hating disorder here on earth, and striving might and main to remove it so that earth may be more like heaven. Oh, the unworthiness of followers of Jesus being primarily concerned about their poor little souls! He that seeks to save his soul on these lines will lose it; but he that will lose his own life by working for the salvation of the community—all such must be saved. Up! off your knees, young men! Let us have more effort directed to the removal of evil! Don’t go continually begging of God to do that which you ought to do! This world is wrong, and wants righting, and you and I are responsible for doing our share towards righting it. What horrible villainy have you been guilty of, that half your time needs be taken up in praying for forgiveness? The man that loves righteousness will seek to live righteously, and all such are already saved. His duty is to be at work removing the cause of wrong-doing.
A little less time spent at orthodox mission meetings, and more time spent in helping on effective industrial organisation, to ensure right-doing in the business of life, is sadly needed just now. This orthodox mission work is exactly what our exploiting plutocrats rejoice in. It is so gracious of them to give an occasional ten pounds to keep a mission going, that they may with reasonable safety exploit an additional twenty from their employes, and still receive the praise and blessings of the faithful.
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth” (St. James v. 1-4).
What have our LANDED ARISTOCRATS AND CAPITALISTIC PLUTOCRATS who go to church and chapel regularly, to say to St. James? Dare they claim to be better than those whom James condemned? If so, in what way? And if not, are they not condemned by the book in which they pretend to believe? Not that I am affirming that every rich man is necessarily a candidate for hell. What I do contend is that, be we rich or poor, if our mental and moral standard is such that we continue to support the present hellish system,—which the ordinary capitalist upholds, and is sanctioned in upholding by the average Church,—then we are violating every genuinely religious principle.
I am not condemning religion, but the lack of it. Religion to me consists of those ethical principles that serve as a guide in all matters of conduct—social, political, and industrial alike; and the essence of the whole thing is this: the choice between a life whose actuating motive shall be self, either in acquiring wealth, renown, prestige, or power, and a life which shall have primary regard for the well-being of the community as a whole. To do this is to engage in making it possible for “His kingdom to obtain on earth as in heaven.” If I am asked, “Do I think that all that is necessary is a perfected industrial machinery on Socialistic lines?” I say emphatically, “No! I don’t think that is all.”
I do distinctly believe in the necessity for Socialism out and out, and that it is my duty to work for its realisation. But I know also that something more than good machinery is necessary, if really good results are to be obtained. I desire to see every person fired with a holy enthusiasm to put a stop to wrong-doing. Before this is possible, individuals must submit themselves to much and severe discipline. The baser sides of our nature must be beaten down that the higher and nobler side may develop. Regard for the brethren (brethren meaning all) must be the mainspring of our action; the development of the highest possible qualities in ourselves is undoubtedly a religious duty, but for this chief reason—that we may be of the greater service.
“He that would be greatest among you, let him be servant of all.”
This to me is the ideal test and standard. As Jesus was the servant of mankind, so I, as follower of Jesus, must learn to be of use. The irreligious man is not the only deliberate maker of mischief, but equally so the indolent and useless man. Swedenborg has well said—
“All religion has relation to life, and the life of religion is to do good.” Further: “Heaven consists of those of all nations who love God supremely, and their neighbours as themselves. Hell is the assembly of the selfish—of all who love themselves supremely and gratify their lusts at any cost to others.”
The astounding anomaly of our time is the complete separation of religious principles from every-day industrial life. Spiritual pastors teach the young to regard God as the common Father; and when the young become of age to reflect upon the shameful inequalities created and maintained by our social system, they are discouraged by their elders from trying to alter it, and are treated as agitators and destroyers of the peace.
Honesty demands a frank statement that the so-called religious of our time are AFRAID TO APPLY THE PRINCIPLES OF JESUS. They make a pretence of championing His cause; but in reality the Socialist agitator and the Trade Union organiser is doing far more than the preachers and the Christians, the Missionary Societies and the Bible Societies to make Christ’s gospel prevail. The Churches are afraid of Socialism. Why? Because the wealthy in their congregations are anti-Socialists. If any say this is not so, then it will not be difficult to give an effectual reply by quoting instances where the minister has seen the light and dared to proclaim the truth, and where the men who “have great possessions” (relatively) have very soon taken their departure. I have heard of complaints from one or two such ministers that they not only lost the employer class by their boldness, but that they did not succeed in securing the adhesion of any counteracting proportion among the workers. There is less to be surprised at in this than some seem to think. The Churches having gone astray worse than lost sheep; are not likely very easily to win back Democracy. Whether they will ever do it or not is an open question.
The clergyman is undoubtedly at a serious discount as an adviser. “Serve him right,” say I. Nor will he ever redeem his position except by honest effort on behalf of Democracy. Not that Democracy will suffer materially if this is not done. The greatest trouble is past. Democracy is learning how to provide for itself, and never was the Democracy so truly religious as now. And it is gradually getting more so. This religious evolution will increase as the bad environment is altered on one side, and the ethical gospel is lifted up and followed truthfully on the other.
I know that many preachers contend that industrial and economic matters are nothing to them; theirs is a religious work, and men must be left to themselves to find out how to apply religious truths. “If they were to take sides, it would mean the break-up of the Church,” and so on. To endorse a religion apart from principles that are to guide our every-day behaviour is monstrous. If one’s religion does not compel one to take sides in favour of a righteous basis of society, the sooner it ceases to encumber the earth the better for all concerned. A minister who can’t find time to make up his mind as to the direction in which he should travel on industrial and economic matters, will probably not find time to be of any practical use to the world, nor yet to the denomination to which he may belong. I am fully aware of the fact that by DECLARING IN FAVOUR OF SOCIALISM, many who might have been disposed to consider the possibility of some mild action favourable to Democracy, now stand off. To such let me say: I have purposely avowed myself a Socialist here, so that those who read this may know what to expect from those on whose behalf I can speak. We do not want, and will not have a parson’s patronage, or goody-goody advice. If there is to be a rapprochement it can only be by the parson getting off his high horse, stopping his goodyism, and meeting men and women frankly as such. If he doesn’t, he’ll get left high and dry for a certainty.
I am not here demanding that every parson who is to be of use shall be an out-and-out Socialist right off. I aim telling him that we workmen who happen to be Socialists are adding largely to our numbers every month, that the whole trend of modern effort in our Trade Unions, Co-operative Societies, Town and County Councils, and Parliament is distinctly socialistic, and if parsons and ministers want to stop it, they had better refurbish their weapons. I can easily understand that some genuine men among the clergy will be disquieted by wondering whether the Socialists are coming round their way for a general sharing-out arrangement, and so they are slow to make a move. Such is the enlightenment that exists in these quarters! Let me hasten to reassure all such that if they are able to subscribe to the following very mild statement of John Ruskin, they need not be seriously alarmed:—
“So far am I from invalidating the security of property, that the whole gist of my contention will be found to aim at an extension in its range, and whereas it has long been known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no right to the property of the poor” (“Unto this Last”).
That surely should be a self-evident proposition to the mind of a moralist, but it goes rather a long way, as it would mean nothing less than a righteous distribution of wealth. It is to be hoped that no preacher will ask what business is this to him. Surely “Thou shalt not steal” is emphatic enough, and when we add Carlyle’s trifle to it, “Thou shalt not be stolen from,” it gains a little in clearness. The Church will doubtless concern itself in a few generations to come about such an elementary subject as the enforcement of honesty. We workmen contend that honesty of distribution should become a fact. Forty-nine-fiftieths of present-day poverty, and the bulk of the crime and villainy that now disgrace our country, would disappear, if the Society thieves were to disappear.
But timid Christians and their preachers are likely to reply that, “to bring about such a change is impossible; human nature won’t admit of it.” If not, what becomes of the Lord’s Prayer: “Thy kingdom come … as in heaven so upon the earth”? IF THIS IS A PIOUS FRAUD, please be frank enough to say so. Some of us, when we say the Lord’s Prayer, do indeed mean it, amongst whom I am glad to be one. I am not willing to be included with those cowards who say it is impossible of realisation. Whatever is right we are bound to work for, even if its fruit is in the dire and distant future. We believe that the Lord’s Prayer is not only realisable, but we are of those disciples who will make it so. This done, the question of a “living wage” will be settled.
As yet in this Christian land we haven’t been able to establish a living wage, even when it means nothing more than a sufficiency of material necessities to maintain life. Many in connection with the Churches have recently said that a living wage is impossible, i.e., that it is impossible in this “religious” country to see that each of God’s children, our own brothers and sisters, shall be as well fed as a horse. Let Carlyle again be heard:—
“There is not a horse in England, able and willing to work, but has due food and lodging, and goes about sleek-coated, satisfied in heart. And you say, ‘It is impossible.’ Brothers, I answer, if for you it be impossible, what is to become of you? It is impossible for us to believe it to be impossible. The human brain, looking at these sleek English horses, refuses to believe in such impossibility for Englishmen. Do you depart quickly; clear the ways soon, lest worse befall. We for our share do purpose, with full view of the enormous difficulty, with total disbelief in the impossibility, to endeavour while life is in us, and to die endeavouring, we and our sons, til we attain it, or have all died and ended!” (“Past and Present”).
This is the correct spirit in which the modern crusade against our social villainies is to be conducted. It is especially the work of the Church to set the pace. It ought, but we don’t expect it will; and yet, I feel sure that those young men and women who are certain to be touched by the devotion and fervour of our modern crusaders, will not require much converting to our side. They are too noble to remain in the ranks of the inactive and selfish. They, too, will come forth to join in the noble work of social reconstruction. We have a glorious and an inspiriting work in hand—nothing less than the purifying of the industrial and social life of our country and the making of true individuality. For, let it be clearly understood, we Labour men are thoroughly in favour of the highest possible development of each individual. We seek no dead level of uniformity, and never did. Our ideal is: “From each according to his capacity, to each according to his needs.” We can’t reach that right off; but when we have done so, we shall not be “far from the kingdom.”
To engage in this work is to be occupied in the noblest work the earth affords; to do it well, we want not only men and women of good intention—the Churches have these now—we shall want men and women of sound sense who will understand the science of industrial economics, as well as of the highest standard of ethics. To mean well is one thing, to be able to do well is a better thing, and we cannot do well except by accident, unless we know something of the laws that underlie and control the forces with which we shall have to deal. By way of indicating what we hope to reach, it may prevent fear and trembling if I say it is neither more nor less than that set forth byJOHN STUART MILL,
in his “Autobiography,” where he says:—
“The Social Problem of the future we considered to be, how to unite the greatest individual liberty of action with a common ownership in the raw material of the globe, and an equal participation for all in the benefits of combined labour.”
Nothing very awful in that surely, and yet there is sufficient to revolutionise modern Society! What does a really religious man care how far it goes? To him the one important question is, “Is it right?” Does duty demand that he shall endorse it and work for its realisation? To me all other duties sink into comparative insignificance. I will yield to none if I know it in facing the straight path, and honestly endeavouring to walk in it, and therefore I dare not take my eyes off this big problem.
Much has already been done in removing barriers. The work of the Trade Unionists for the last sixty years has borne good fruit. In the early years of the present century, Capital had complete sway. Unrestricted industrial competition was the accepted gospel universally applied in Great Britain. In Parliament the landed aristocracy had complete power. In industrial life, the then infantile but now powerful plutocracy had undisputed control. The law was against combination, consequently there were few Trade Unions. Neither was there anything in the nature of Factory Acts. And what was the result? Our industrial history of that period is the blackest page in England’s life. Not only men, but women and children had to work fifteen to sixteen hours a day. Children, too, of six, even five years of age, were called to the mills at five o’clock in the morning; if they were a minute late, an overseer with a slave-driver’s lash stood there to thrash them and the girls and women like dogs. Some power of revolt existed, and this country owes more than it thinks to the revolutionary course of the early Trade Unionists. We still have England’s industrial prestige maintained by child labour at ten and eleven years of age.
In thousands of instances the standard of life is such that when a man is in full work, so little does he earn that the wife and mother must not only get up herself at five o’clock in the morning, but must also wake her children, and TAKE THE INFANT OUT INTO THE RAW WINTRY AIR to leave it with some nurse, while she, the mother, must go to the mill, reaching there at six, to take her stand by the men, work all day, and return home at night to commence house duties, and this because the family would starve if she did not. Oh, Church people! if ever a crusade were needed it is here in England now. The honour of our country is left with us to guard. For humanity’s sake, let us see to it that we wipe out these accursed blood-red stains.
There is much to be proud of in Britain’s history, but whilst such conditions remain we cannot wait to comment upon the work done in face of so much waiting to be done? Who shall do it? Every man and every woman is expected to contribute a share. The social salvation of the entire community is the religious duty in which you preachers and people are called upon to engage.
Oh! rich women of the Churches, have you no social political duty? You, who spend so much on your own persons, have you no care for the body of Society? And you women of the middle classes, who have a great power, will you not use that power to wipe out these stains on our national and Christian character? If you take up a determined stand in connection with the Churches, they will be compelled to become active. The work will be done with or without you, but quicker with you than without you.
Women! who shall one day bear Sons to breathe New England air, If you hear without a blush Deeds to make the roused blood rush Like red lava through your veins, For your sisters now in chains, Answer! are ye fit to be Mothers of the brave and free?
To the women already in the Socialist movement, I can say with full assurance that you are stimulating and ennobling the men, as well as doing your own share of ardent advocacy of sound principles. These few remaining years of the nineteenth century shall yet see great and glorious changes made in the removal of the causes that produce poverty, and therefore crime and suffering. To help in this work should be our greatest desire and chief delight, and the success of this work will mean: International solidarity, and world-wide fraternisation.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Ohio, one of a handful of states without comprehensive sex education taught in schools, has a higher teen birth rate than the national average.
The national birth rate for females 15-19 years old was 13.1 per 1,000 females and Ohio’s teen birth rate is 14.6 per 1,000 females in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than half (61%) of Ohio’s chlamydia cases in 2023 were people between the ages of 15-24, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Ohio’s syphilis rate (16.3 per 100,000) was higher than the national average (15.8 per 100,000) in 2023, according to the CDC.
“What we’ve seen is states that have no sex ed or poor sex ed policies, they typically fare worse on health indicators such as (sexually transmitted infections) rates, teen birth rates, having lower contraceptive knowledge, and other existing health disparities,” said Nawal Umar, senior policy analyst for Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS).
“These states are also putting their young people at higher risk for sexual violence victimization and having poor mental health outcomes because sex education provides really critical instruction, consent and communication and healthy relationships and so much more,” Umar said.
Ohio’s curriculum stresses abstinence as a general policy and requires some instruction about sexually transmitted infections, according to the Ohio Revised Code.
Schools are required to “emphasize adoption as an option to unintended pregnancies” and “teach the potential physical, psychological, emotional, and social side effects” of sex outside of marriage, according to Ohio’s law.
Because Ohio lacks comprehensive sex education, it’s ultimately up to each school district on how they decide to teach it.
“When there’s not a sex education policy in place at the state level, one of the major consequences of that is that teens across the state can have very diverse experiences when it comes to the kind of instruction they’re receiving about their bodies because there’s a lack of uniform policy,” Umar said.
The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce is required to conduct an annual audit to ensure school districts are in compliance with the state’s law.
Every district completed the 2023-24 audit and all but three school districts were found to be overall compliant. Jefferson Township Local School District (Montgomery County), Ridgewood Local School District (Coshocton County), and Washington Local Schools (Lucas County) were non-compliant.
In explaining why it didn’t meet the standards, Ridgewood told the state “many family structures exist today, and all can provide children with a loving and supportive environment.”
“We have school staff and students who come from single-parent households, same-sex couples, and traditional married couple families alike,” the district said. “This highlights the importance of recognizing and respecting all family types. Furthermore, sex education should never be used to shame students for their family background.”
Jefferson Township’s district said it only have 255 students and was unable to find someone to teach sex ed, according to ODEW’s audit.
“We do not teach children that if they were born out of wedlock there are harmful consequences for society,” Washington Local Schools wrote in their explanation. “All children have opportunities and are valued by our school district.”
Ohio is the only state without its own state health education content standards. Ohio lawmakers decide curriculum requirements, so the State Board of Education can not require health education standards.
“It’s maddening that the State of Ohio has refused to implement this after decades of experts, educators, even religious communities, asking for this curriculum to be delivered in public schools because, unfortunately, some students don’t have families who are able to provide them with this information,” said Abortion Forward Executive Director Kellie Copeland.
Comprehensive sex ed is medically accurate, age-appropriate information that teaches about sexual health, healthy relationships, and consent, said Jenna Wojdacz, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio’s senior director of strategy and community engagement.
“Access to accurate sexual health information should not be political,” Wojdacz said. “It’s certainly what our young Ohio students need.”
The Ohio Center for Sex Education is the education arm of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio that teaches comprehensive sex education in schools and community organizations.
The center currently teaches in six school districts — Cleveland Metropolitan School District (Cuyahoga County), Akron Public Schools (Summit County), Lakewood City Schools (Cuyahoga County), Berea Schools (Cuyahoga County), Shaker Heights Schools (Cuyahoga County), and Columbus City Schools (Franklin County).
A 2021 report from the Journal of Adolescent Health reviewed three decades of research and determined there is strong support for comprehensive sex education.
“When we don’t have comprehensive sex education, we know that learners are getting misinformation that is basically values laden by somebody else’s propaganda agenda,” Wojdacz said.
Benefits of teaching comprehensive sex ed include reduced teenage birth rates, reduced STI rates, increased contraceptive usage, and delayed sexual activity, according to Umar.
Students who received comprehensive sex education were less likely to have a teen pregnancy than those who received either no sex ed or abstinence-only programs, according to a 2008 report in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Advocates spoke out against having abstinence-only as a general policy.
“It’s ineffective,” Umar said. “It also tends to be pretty heteronormative.”
“A lot of the abstinence-only curriculum teaches this purity idea that if something sexually happens to you, then you’re not pure,” Copeland said. “That is so damaging to the psyche of people who have either become sexually active because they wanted to or because they didn’t want to.”
Ultimately, Copeland said, teaching abstinence-only as a general policy does not work.
“It leaves (students) without vital information for when they do become sexually active later in their lives,” she said. “It’s really important for people to understand how their bodies work, how pregnancy works, and how sexually transmitted infections work.”
Receiving comprehensive sex education does not encourage students to engage in sexual activity, Wojdacz said.
“In no way does our curriculum promote giving it a try or encouraging people to engage in any activities,” she said. “There’s no prescriptive aspect to comprehensive sex ed. … It’s reductive to suggest that accurate information is going to suddenly trigger a bunch of destructive behavior in people or a bunch of ill-advised behavior.”
Ohio is one of 13 states that received an “F” on SIECUS’s state profiles on sex education policy. Washington, Oregon, California, Illinois, New Jersey and Rhode Island all received an “A.”
Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring sex education, according to SIECUS.
Umar urges Ohio lawmakers to push for better sex ed policies.
“There’s so many benefits that could be achieved by improving sex education,” she said.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Most Americans know very little about the Declaration of Independence. For example, the document contains twenty-seven grievances against King George and the British government. What follows is list of the grievances. Notice how eerily similar many of the grievances are to those many Americans have against King wannabe Donald Trump.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
And here’s a modern rendition of the twenty-seven grievances:
He won’t approve laws that are necessary for the public good.
He makes governors wait to pass laws until he gives his approval—and he often doesn’t.
He refuses to pass laws that are important unless people give up their right to representation, which is too important to give up.
He has made legislative meetings difficult by forcing them to be held in inconvenient, uncomfortable, or distant locations, just to wear people down.
He has dissolved elected legislatures just because they opposed his invasions of people’s rights.
After dissolving these governments, he’s refused to let new ones be formed, leaving people unprotected and exposed to disorder.
He has blocked immigration and naturalization laws, making it harder for people to settle here.
He has refused to let us set up a justice system that’s independent and fair.
He controls judges entirely—they serve at his will and are paid by him.
He has created many new offices and sent over a swarm of officials to harass and exploit us.
He has kept standing armies among us during peacetime without our consent.
He’s made the military more powerful than civilian governments.
He has allowed foreign laws to override our own justice systems.
He has allowed British soldiers to be housed in colonists’ homes without permission.
He has protected soldiers who commit crimes by allowing them to avoid trial and punishment.
He has cut off our trade with other countries.
He has taxed us without our consent.
He has denied us the right to trial by jury.
He has taken people across the ocean to be tried unfairly in Britain for supposed crimes.
He has tried to impose British law in Canada and expand it into our territory, threatening our laws and governments.
He has taken away our charters (legal rights), abolished our laws, and changed our governments.
He has suspended our legislatures and claimed the power to govern us directly.
He has declared us outside of his protection and started a war against us.
He has destroyed our towns, attacked our coasts, and harmed our people.
He has sent foreign mercenaries (hired soldiers) to kill and destroy with cruelty unheard of in modern times.
He has forced American citizens captured at sea to fight against their own country.
He has stirred up domestic unrest and encouraged Native American attacks on frontier settlements.
By my count, Trump has done most of the things on this list. Yet, his MAGA followers can’t or won’t see it; going so far as to say that maybe having Trump as an authoritarian king is not a bad idea. More than seven million Americans participated in nationwide No Kings rallies on Saturday — the largest single day political rally in U.S. history. These rallies suggest that Trump will not be made King Donnie without, hopefully, a spirited, raucous, non-violent fight. I am not convinced that civil war is avoidable, but we on the left need to make sure that we do all we can to press our demands in non-violent ways. In moments like these, we must follow in the steps of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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At least a dozen LifeWise Academy Ohio programs have taken public school students on field trips to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter in Kentucky, which claims humans lived alongside dinosaurs and the Earth is only 6,000 years old.
LifeWise Academy is a controversial Hilliard-based religious instruction program for public school students on “religious release time,” that operates in 34 states and plans to enroll nearly 100,000 students this school year, according to its website.
LifeWise Academy programs in Adams County, Holgate Schools (Henry County), Continental Schools (Putnam County), Antwerp Schools (Paulding County), Wayne Trace Schools (Paulding County), Paulding Schools (Paulding County), Central Local (Defiance County), Van Wert (Van Wert County), and Tinora (part of Northeastern Schools in Defiance County) have all taken field trips to the Ark Encounter this year, in 2024 or 2023, according to Facebook posts from those LifeWise programs. [Central Local is our local school district and we have grandchildren who attend Northeastern Schools]
Pandora-Gilboa’s LifeWise Academy Program (Putnam County) has visited the Creation Museum every year from 2021-2025 and Upper Arlington’s LifeWise Program (Franklin County) visited the museum in 2023, according to Facebook posts from those LifeWise programs.
The Creation Museum promotes young Earth creationism, the belief that God created the universe and everything in it in six 24-hour days 6,000 years ago.
This comes from a literal interpretation of Genesis 1 where God created the universe.
The museum in Petersburg, Kentucky depicts humans and dinosaurs living together and characterizes the Earth as approximately 6,000 years old.
“LifeWise teaches Bible lessons, plain and simple,” Christine Czernejewski, a spokesperson for LifeWise, said in an email. “As such, kids are taught what Genesis 1 actually says — that God created all things and that He created them over the course of 6 different days.” [I bet that children aren’t taught about the divine council or the multiple deities mentioned in Genesis 1-3.]
Scientists have determined Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old.
“The science (at the Creation Museum), it’s just appalling,” said Daniel Phelps, a retired geologist based in Kentucky.
“They depict dinosaurs and humans as living together. They have many, multiple attacks on the standard view of science, especially things like geology and biology and paleontology. … They misinterpret a lot of the human fossil record, and the Art Park especially has a display that disputes climate science.” [Thanks for speaking the truth, Daniel.]
“We tend to teach the Bible kind of as it teaches,” said LifeWise Founder and CEO Joel Penton. “We do talk through the six days of creation as outlined in Genesis 1. However, developing a systematic theology of young Earth versus old Earth, we leave that to local churches.” [Most, and I mean MOST, Evangelicals are young earth creationists.]
It concerns Phelps that LifeWise programs are taking students to the museum and the ark.
“I would like to call this educational malpractice,” Phelps said. “It simply is not science, and the students are being misled. They’re basically learning to distrust science and follow an extremely fringe version of Christianity.” [Yep.]
A 2019 Gallup poll showed that 40% of U.S. adults believe in creationism, the belief that God created humans in their present form within roughly the past 10,000 years. [actually it it almost 7 in 10 when you add theistic evolution to the equation]
“Most Christians don’t accept the fundamentalist version of creationism,” Phelps said. “… It’s also going to hurt kids that want to have a future studying science and are going to learn all these things that just simply are not true.”
The Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter are both operated by Answers in Genesis, a fundamentalist Christian apologetics organization that promotes young Earth creationism.
The Creation Museum opened in 2007 and the Ark Encounter, 510-foot wooden ship intended as a replica of the biblical Noah’s Ark, opened in 2016.
LifeWise said all field trips require parental permission.
“LifeWise programs have taken field trips to museums, local parks, sporting events and area churches,” Czernejewski said. [Nice dodge. the focus is on trips to an explicitly Evangelical business that promotes science illiteracy.]
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Ohio’s Republican legislators are hellbent on making sure that Ohioans pay less taxes. Who wants to pay more taxes, right? Unlike Republicans, I understand that if we want a better society it takes money to make it happen. This means either cutting spending on other programs or raising taxes. Many Ohio residents understand this. All we ask for is that our tax money is spent wisely on things that benefit Ohioans. We are willing to pay taxes to make Ohio a better place to live. That’s not the goal of Ohio Republicans. Their goal is slash taxes to a bare minimum, slashing programs and services to meet the required balanced budget.
On principle, I support doing away with ALL real estate taxes. A man or woman should be able to own their own home without fear of the government selling it at the courthouse square to pay for delinquent taxes. It sickens me when I read of a family losing their home, all because they couldn’t keep up on rapidly rising real estate taxes.
I would support the Republican plan to abolish real estate taxes, but they have NO plan to replace the income school districts and local, township, and county governments will lose if real estate taxes are done away with. I refuse to support the Republicans until they make concrete plans to replace the lost income. Simply put, I don’t trust them to do right by Ohioans.
I attended a Ney council meeting several weeks ago. It was evident that the mayor, treasurer, and council are worried about what they are going to do to replace the income they receive from real estate taxes. Sadly, this is not a complex issue. Council will be required to either cut programs/services/employees or raise taxes. This same scenario will be played out on the township and county level.
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
