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Christian Porn: Kevin Sorbo’s Atheist Salvation Fantasy

Bruce Gerencser 17 Comments

kevin sorbo quote

In recent years, several movies marketed to Evangelicals have featured erotic scenes of Evangelical revivalism ravishing atheism. Movies such as God is Not Dead are built around the notion that the Christian gospel has the power to brings atheists to their knees. Never mind the fact that these Evangelical fantasies are about as real as the scenes found in countless porn movies. While I can point to countless Evangelicals who are now atheists, rare are atheists who become Christians. When people tell me that they were atheists before they embraced the wonderful, matchless grace of Jesus, I question them as to what they really believed. Most often these former atheists were not atheists at all. At best, they were anti-theists or indifferent to religion. These atheists-turned-Christians wrongly assume that not believing in the Christian God means the unbelievers are atheists. This simply is not the case.

Most atheists I know can give numerous reasons for why they are atheists (or agnostics). Most of the atheists-turned-Christians I have met couldn’t explain atheism if their life depended on it. Ask them what atheist writers they have read and they will likely give you a blank stare. What often happens is that Evangelical pastors and evangelistic zealots convince these new Christians that they were once atheists. What better testimony is there than that of an atheist who realized the Evangelical deity was the true and living God. Outside of being a Satan worshiper, a mob kingpin, or Pablo Escobar’s right hand man, there is no greater Christian testimony than to have once been an atheist.

Most atheists are naturalists and materialists. Most atheists put a lot of stock in the sciences. It is hard for me to imagine someone abandoning science and a naturalistic view of the world in exchange for a religious system built upon an anti-science, anti-reason foundation. I am sure, on rare occasions, it happens, but I do not personally know of one person who was once a card-carrying atheist and who is now a Bible-believing Evangelical Christian.

Actor Kevin Sorbo is working on a film about “an atheist who, upon experiencing a near-death experience, converts to Christianity.” Titled Let There be Light, the movie will feature Sorbo as the world’s greatest atheist. Think Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, or Steven Hawking. Or move way down the list to C movie atheists such as myself or other one-time Evangelical preachers. Try to fathom what possibly could happen for one of us to have a come-to-Jesus moment where we reject reason, skepticism, rationalism, atheism, agnosticism, humanism, and science and in their place embrace the mind-numbing, anti-intellectual, irrational, and anti-science beliefs of Evangelicals. Sorry Kevin Sorbo. This might be some sort of Christian porn fantasy, but in real life it is highly unlikely that a well-known atheist would reject atheism in favor of Evangelicalism.

Of course, this won’t stop Sorbo and others like him from making movies such as God is Not Dead, God is Not Dead 2, and Let There be Light. You see, these movies are not made for atheists or to be used as an Evangelistic tool to reach the godless for Jesus. These type of movies are campaign propaganda meant to stir the hearts of believers, leading them to believe that ANYTHING is possible — even the salvation of Richard Dawkins.

Yesterday, Mother Teresa was granted sainthood. This monumental event led Benjamin Wiker, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Franciscan University of Steubenville to say that Catholics  should now pray to Saint Teresa of Calcutta, asking her to heal Steven Hawking of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and convert him to Christianity Wiker writes:

I know this might be rather bold, but I’d like to ask, say, several million people out there to pray to Mother Teresa during her canonization day, and eight days thereafter, for the conversion and complete healing of the great physicist Stephen Hawking.

Why? As simply as I can put it, his conversion and cure would be a miracle that would show to the world that Christian faith and science are not opposed, but (as St. John Paul II said) “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.”

Imagine what would happen to Hawking himself if God would see fit to answer this prayer through the intercession of Mother Teresa. He would not be any less a physicist. He would still know what he had previously known, from Black Holes to Quantum Mechanics, but his universe would quite suddenly become immeasurably larger and more complex.

Hawking would then be faced with an even bigger task than coming up with a Theory of Everything because the Everything he would now have to fit into the Theory would involve mysteries beyond the ken of science, but not in ultimate contradiction to them. Faith and science couldn’t be in contradiction because they in fact co-exist in a much larger harmony. There are Black Holes and there are also Albanian nuns (or at least one) whose prayers somehow bring about the divine healing of unhealable diseases like Lou Gehrig’s disease, which has for so many years afflicted Hawking.

Moreover, if these prayers were answered, Hawking would know exactly what it was like, some two millennia ago, to be healed directly by Jesus, and that would mean that the New Testament would quite suddenly be transformed from a book of fiction (as too many scientists see it) to a book of startling miraculous facts. That book would then have to be on the same shelf with his physics books.

As far as I know, Hawking never met Mother Teresa. But I have often thought, when seeing Hawking so sadly trapped in a painfully twisted body for so long, what it might have meant for him if Mother Teresa had come to him, as she had to so many like-wise broken bodies lying in the dust of Calcutta, and picked his frail body up, looked into his eyes, and spoke with him about the love of Christ.

One might say that it’s too late for such a meeting. But it just may be the perfect time, her canonization, a very busy time for saints. She could, God willing, go to him now.

I also think about this meeting for what might seem an odd reason. Stephen Hawking has lived far, far longer than anyone should who has Lou Gehrig’s disease. That in itself is a mystery. Perhaps it is a mystery waiting for such a meeting.

I pray that it is, and hope again, for several million others to do likewise. Spread the word.

St. Teresa, by the Grace of God you ministered to the poorest of the poor, the sickest of the sick, the crippled, the leprous, and the dying. We beg you please, in virtue of the Graces now bestowed upon you in canonization, to pray for the complete physical healing and conversion of Stephen Hawking. Through the same Christ our Lord you so dutifully served. Amen.

I predict, based on the evidence at hand, that no notable atheists will be converted through Sorbo’s movie. I also predict that seven days from now Steven Hawking will (sadly) still have ALS. And as a final prediction, I predict that Christian preachers, priests, and movie makers will continue to make money off Christian porn featuring straw-men atheists who do not exist in real life. From the safe corners of Christianity, God’s spokesmen will continue to tilt at the atheist windmills of their own making. Cheering crowds of Christians will rejoice, thinking their leaders have once again routed the enemies of God. Little do they know that no atheists were harmed in the making of this movie.

Kindred Spirits in a Pathless Land — Part Five

Bruce Gerencser 11 Comments

guest-post

Guest post by Kindred Spirits

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four

Planet Without Laughter by Raymond Smullyman

Smullyan, still alive and a few years shy of 100, is an very unique person, so reading his background is interesting. He was a professor of Philosophy, a mathematician, a magician, and a musician, among other things. In general, he seemed to not be religious, but leaned towards a rather Taoist philosophy of life. You can read more at the Wikipedia entry for Raymond Smullyan.

I’ve read several of his books, which were interesting, but the most memorable of his writings was a story written as a parable comparing mystical spiritual understanding with humor. Since so many people have different understandings of what “god” or “spirituality” means, conversations among people can be maddeningly abstract. In this story, he imagines a planet where different types of people approach humor in different ways:

Planet Without Laughter, by Raymond M. Smullyan:

The main philosophical problem of the Middle Period was to establish whether this mysterious thing called “Humor” really had objective existence or whether it existed only in the imagination. Those who believed it really existed were called Pro-Humorists; those who believed it did not were called skeptics or Anti-Humorists. Among the Pro-Humorists there raged bitter controversy as to whether the existence of Humor could be established by pure reason, or whether it could be known only by an act of faith. The Pro-Humorists were roughly of three sorts; the Rational Pro-Humorists, who claimed that the existence of Humor could be established by pure reason; the Faith-Humorists, who believed that reason could be somewhat helpful but that an act of faith was crucial; and finally there were the “Mystic-Humorists” (known in modern times as “laughers”), who claimed that neither reason nor faith were of the slightest help in apprehending Humor; the only reliable way it could be known was by direct perception. Reason, they said, leads nowhere. To believe in the existence of Humor on the mere basis of authority means that you obviously don’t see it for yourself. To have faith in the existence of Humor; on what basis is this faith? Is this faith based on acceptance of authority? Is it based on some sort of hope that there really is such a thing as Humor? Is it perhaps that the Faith-Humorists believed that Humor, if it really existed, would be something very good, and hence, because of their desire for the good, they took an oath to themselves to conduct their lives as if Humor really did exist? Yes, this seemed to be it. But, as the Mystic-Humorists pointed out, this attitude, though well intentioned, was a sad testimony to the fact that the Faith-Humorists could not see humor directly. The Mystic-Humorists kept repeating, “If only you could see humor directly, you would not need rational arguments nor any faith nor anything like that. You would then know that Humor is real.”

[….]

“What you utterly fail to realize is that it is not the ability to laugh correctly which gives you a sense of humor, but the very reverse. Once you have the sense of humor, then you will automatically and spontaneously laugh correctly without your having to analyze how you laugh. Yes, we know that you have fallen under the spell of many books with such titles as “How to Laugh Correctly,” but we can solemnly assure you that no true laugher would ever write such a book. Indeed, such books are totally antithetic to the true spirit of humor. You must remember that the activity of laughter is only the outward form of Humor; Humor itself is something entirely within the inner spirit. And you can never attain this spirit by any amount of imitation of outward forms of behavior.

And if you liked the above, you might also like his thoughts on free-will and “sinning” in Is God a Taoist?

Christians Say the Darnedest Things: The Satanic Takeover of America

Bruce Gerencser 4 Comments

satan clutching the world

What will be the final death stroke for America? From one perspective, only God knows what instrument of death He will use to bring about America’s demise. There are a number of powerful international leaders (along with some in our country) who are collectively working untiringly to bring about the final death blow to America. For America seems to be the last bastion of morality, truth, absolutes, and the dignity of liberty remaining on the earth. It is the final obstacle against a long-desired New World Order. Many ideological diseases have been inflicted upon this nation to weaken its strength. The strong man has been bound from within; we are now witnessing the death of this strong man. But amidst the counsel of the wicked, only God will bring the final death blow to America. His judgment will be because of our overwhelming sins and our covenant with the Prince of Darkness.

We have observed the rise and fall of communism, and the implementation of socialism within this country. We have also observed the trilogy of God giving up a society according to Romans 1. But another aspect to be addressed is the acclimatization of America to secularism.
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When Liberalism and Modernism made their debut during the mid-1800s, they created a destructive force against the Bible’s literalness; this attack in return destroyed the authority of the Bible in man’s thinking. Thus, in time it destroyed the place of God’s presence and authority in man’s living. These were the early stages of secularism. Once such a reality was evident among the leaders of the Church, the momentum of secularism over-whelmingly increased.

Charles Robert Darwin brought another dimension to the process through his presentation of evolution. Although evolution had been known through the writings of Lamarck, Darwin added a philosophical context to the view that went on to permeate not only science but also all of the social sciences. By the mid-1900s, after the forces of Neo-Orthodoxy through Existentialism kept pounding away at the literalness of the Bible, Radical Theology gave its contribution to secularize the secular. It called for the “death of God” in everything including religion. Even John Robinson in his writing Honest to God called for a secularizing of religion. Neo-Evangelicalism brought the conservative church closer to the world’s thinking by doing away with biblical separation. Following hard on its heels was the Charismatic movement which made the feelings of man equal or even synonymous with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

We cannot blame the world for secularism; it has been the mutating of error within the Church that has cast God out. The Laodicean Church Age, because of its emphasis upon prosperity and physical health, has become a Christless church; its embrace of the secular has become more powerful than the spiritual. Most Christians today have no vision for God; such a vision certainly is not evident in secular society. Western civilization no longer has any remote concept of who God is, what He is, and how He acts. Outside the walls of the church God is absent and obviously omitted. People are crying out today that if God did exist why would He allow all of the violence that is found throughout the land. Well, we must remember the courts banned God from our schools; therefore, we cannot blame Him for what is happening. The daily newspapers have their society pages, their sports page, their entertainment section, and even the religious section. But nothing is said about God. The media through television and cinema are conspicuously silent in their treatment of God. Such silence about God reigns in all of the sit-coms while the sodomy theme pushes the envelope of the final frontier of immorality in the media.

The contemporary view of the supernatural is now through the eyes of Harry Potter, where it is evident God is not to be found in his supernatural world. The primer of God consciousness that was found in most children is now being interpreted through the occult. The present generation is allowing nothing to have the presence of God; nothing is allowed to speak of God unless it is in a damning way. Everything in our contemporary which speaks in the schools, in the medical world, in the entertainment world, the science world, the art and music world, and even from the religious world have all labored at keeping God out of the conversation. America has been secularized in its lifestyle and philosophy. The secular world has become secularized. We are in the final throes of its acclimatization before the coming of Christ and Antichrist.
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There are other symbolic powers that may become part of the dismantling of America in the providence of God (which we will discuss in the next issue of Straightway). We now face a presidential election like none before, which may plunge us into the final destruction of our nation (as we have historically known it). We will be thrust into a greater global interdependence that could result in a complete global takeover. There is also the total collapse of morality in our country that has become such an aggressive, terrorist force that it is contributing to an emotional retaliation among the grass-roots of society; this unrest could easily lead to a mutinous rise against the government producing wide-spread disintegration of the fabric of America. Yes, there are a number of scenarios that God could use, even the combination of a number of them, to bring about the final judgment of our once beloved country. The Secretary of State John Kerry pressed in his recent address to the graduates of Northeastern University the hope of the coming New World Order. One of the aspects he announced was the hope of a “borderless world.” The Utopians of our day have promised a “Land of Canaan” in a world without God. This is their vision, their dream, and they are calling upon the world to imagine such a world without God and religion.

May God bring us through these troubled and perilous times. Our only hope is for the Lord to come and take His waiting people home to heaven, knowing that one day we will return to this earth with Christ Who will rule with His saints. This is the New World Order for which we are watching and waiting.

— H.T. Spence, Straightway, March-April 2016, America: Reading Its Obituary

The Sounds of Fundamentalism: Young Boy Receives the Power of God at Benny Hinn Meeting

Bruce Gerencser 6 Comments

benny hinn

This is the one hundred and fourteenth installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section.  Let’s have some fun!

Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a clip of a young boy receiving the Power of God at a Benny Hinn meeting.

Video Link

The Sounds of Fundamentalism: The Rain Won’t Stop Until You Receive It

Bruce Gerencser 6 Comments

catholic education

This is the one hundred and thirteenth installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section.  Let’s have some fun!

Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a clip of a young girl preaching at a charismatic revival meeting. This video was posted by evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne.

Video Link

The Sounds of Fundamentalism: Kanon the Baby Preacher

Bruce Gerencser 0 Comments

kanon the preacher

This is the one hundred and twelfth installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section.  Let’s have some fun!

Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a clip of Kanon the Preacher from when he was a “baby” preacher. It’s hard not to weep as you watch how these child preachers are indoctrinated and manipulated by parents, preachers, and Fundamentalist church members.

Video Link

The Sounds of Fundamentalism: Kanon the Preacher

Bruce Gerencser 1 Comment

kanon the preacher

This is the one hundred and eleventh installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section.  Let’s have some fun!

Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a clip of Kanon the Preacher.

Video Link

The Sounds of Fundamentalism: Child Preachers

Bruce Gerencser 1 Comment
young marjoe gortner
Marjoe Gortner

This is the one hundred and tenth installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section.  Let’s have some fun!

Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a clip of several child preachers.

Video Link

The Sounds of Fundamentalism: Duffy Strode, the Boy Preacher

Bruce Gerencser 6 Comments

duffy strode

This is the one hundred and ninth installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section.  Let’s have some fun!

Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a clip of Duffy Strode, the Boy Preacher on the Oprah Winfrey Show. This video is from 1988. Duffy, 10, was suspended from school for refusing to stop preaching to his classmates. Today, Ryan Duffy Strode is married with children of his own. His children have not followed in their father’s preacher boy footsteps. Based on a quick perusal of Duffy’s social media accounts, he no longer walks in the Fundamentalist footsteps of his father.

Please be aware that the following videos are heartbreaking. They are hard to watch, perfect examples of child abuse in Jesus’ name.

Video Link

Here’s another video (1992) that details the street preaching of the Strode family.

Video Link

Quote of the Day: If the Bible Were Law

Bruce Gerencser 2 Comments

the old testament

Thirty-six different offenses in the Bible qualified for capital punishment. How many of these apply to you?

Cursing Parents
For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him. Leviticus 20:9
Working on the Sabbath Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Exodus 31:15

Premarital Sex (girls only)
. . .If, however, this charge is true, that evidence of the young woman’s virginity was not found, then they shall bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father’s house and the men of her town shall stone her to death, Deuteronomy 22:20

Disobedience (boys only)
If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. Deuteronomy 21:18

Worshiping any god but Yahweh
If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that . . . hath gone and served other gods, and worshiped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; . . .Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. Deuteronomy 17:2-5

Witches
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Exodus 22: 18

Wizards (epileptics? migraine sufferers? schizophrenics?)
A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:27

Loose Daughters of Clergy
And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire. Leviticus 21:9

Girls who are Raped within the City Limits
If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city . . . But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. Deuteronomy 22:23-25

Blasphemers
And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death. Leviticus 24:16

Anyone Who Tries to Deconvert Yahweh Worshipers
If anyone secretly entices you–even if it is your brother, your father’s son or your mother’s son, or your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend–saying, “Let us go worship other gods,” . . . you shall surely kill them; your own hand shall be first against them to execute them. Deuteronomy 12:6

Men who Lie With Men
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:13

Adulterers
And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20: 10-12

Men who Lie with Beasts and Beasts who Lie with Men
And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast. Leviticus 20:15

— Valerie Tarico, If the Bible Were Law, Would You Qualify for the Death Penalty?

Books by Valerie Tarico

Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light

The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth

For more excellent reading material, please check out Bruce’s Little Bookstore of Atheism and Humanism

Bruce Gerencser