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Evangelical Conspiracy Theories and Hysterical Thinking

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lego store

It can be argued that Christianity itself is a conspiracy, complete with a mythical virgin-born, sinless God-man. This God-man turned water into wine, walked on water, healed blindness with dirt and spit, raised people from the dead, teleported from one room to another, and healed sick people. Then, at thirty-three, this God-man was executed, descended into the earth’s bowels to preach to people, resurrected from the dead, and walked around Jerusalem for 40 days before ascending into the clouds, never to be seen again. According to Christians, this resurrected, glorified God-man is sitting on a throne in Heaven, hearing and answering prayers, and magically performing millions and millions and millions and millions of miracles.

Evangelicals take the conspiracy theory even further, believing that the Bible is supernaturally inspired by God, and is inerrant and infallible. Meant to be read literally, the Bible provides Evangelicals with all sorts of conspiracy theories. Having grown up in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement in the 1960s and 1970s, I heard lots of preaching on the end times, the rapture, the great tribulation, the antichrist, the second coming of Jesus, and the making of a new Heaven and a new Earth. With newspapers in one hand and their KJV Bibles in the other, preachers connected allegedly prophetic Bible verses with newspaper headlines. Sermons about Satan walking to and fro upon the earth, seeking to oppress, possess, and destroy people, were illustrated with nefarious conspiracy theories (i.e. grocery scanners were really meant to scan people’s hands for the mark of the beast, football stadiums were built to be used to persecute Christians and feed them to the lions, the Illuminati, trilateral commission, or the Rothschilds rule the world, to name a few.)

Today, thanks to the Internet and ready access to the news, Evangelical conspiracy theories abound. Rarely does a day go by that I don’t read about a new conspiracy theory that is a sure sign that Jesus’ return to earth is imminent — a message I have been hearing my entire life. For the remainder of this post, I want to focus on two uber-conspiracy theorists: Geri Ungurean, who blogs at Absolute Truth From the Word of God: Jesus Has Every Answer and Jeff Maples who blogs at The Dissenter (formerly Reformation Charlotte).

Several days ago, a mega-dairy of 18,000 cows exploded outside of Dimmitt, Texas, killing most of the cows and landing one worker in intensive care.

The Texas Tribune reports:

More than 18,000 cows died and one farm worker is in critical condition following a dairy farm fire in the Texas Panhandle.

The fire started Monday night at South Fork Dairy Farm in Dimmitt, about 66 miles south of Amarillo. The Castro County sheriff’s office, along with fire departments from Dimmitt, Hart and Nazareth, were the first responders to the explosion in the small town of nearly 4,200, according to the sheriff’s office.

One person was trapped inside the dairy farm but was rescued by first responders, according to the sheriff’s office. They were later flown to a Lubbock hospital.

According to the Animal Welfare Institute, the incident is the deadliest fire involving cows in nearly a decade. A statement provided by the Texas Association of Dairymen on behalf of the dairy industry expressed condolences for the incident.

“We are deeply saddened for the family dairy, and everyone affected by the tragedy that occurred at South Fork Dairy farm,” the statement said. “The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and we are deferring to the appropriate authorities to make that determination.”

In 2019, Texas authorized the facility to more than double the number of cattle allowed on-site from 11,500 to up to 32,000, according to a permit with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The state also authorized the facility to increase its manure production by more than 50% in that expanded permit.

While there are several possible explanations for the explosion, i.e. a methane gas explosion and fire, Geri Ungurean was having none of that:

Sounds to me as if they rounded up those 18k cows for the slaughter. I also think that this has Bill Gates’ fingerprints all over it.

….

Do you get the feeling that America’s food supply is being targeted? This is deliberate and nefarious.

COME LORD JESUS!

Ungurean’s fellow conspiracy theorists chimed in:

Comment One: Yes I certainly do!! It is not by accident that food and processing plants are burning down all over America. Come Lord Jesus Come

Comment Two: I don’t think the dairy biz is too lucrative these days but in all my years I never heard of one exploding like this one. Maybe the owners took an early Billie G retirement type 401k boost to look the other way + big ins payout. Ya never know what those good old Texas boys will do. They yes maam or sir u to death but in the end do whatever they want…that’s been my experience.

Does seem odd nationwide toxic trains derailing near rivers, food processors burning down, drinking water contaminations & the chem trails above (oops I mean contrails, wink, wink) keep up their toxic sky trails. Something like 18 food processing plants been damaged or eradicated by fire in the last year.

Also the Chinese buying up oodles of “farm” land near nuke style military bases & Chinese intelligence balloons sauntering overhead unimpeded. Thank goodness citizens in their driveways noticed the intrusion & notified our great defenders to check it out which they did after it crossed the whole country at its leisure.

Chinese now owning Smithfield (biggest pork producer in USA,) Billie G (not known for being the outdoorsy type) also made himself biggest land owner in USA & owns about 1/3 of all farmland in the USA according to Dept of agriculture. Just coincidence, folks, move along, nothing to worry about, the govt is here to help you. Put ur heads back into ur Facebook & Twitter, no worries ignore the big picture.

Comment Three: Nothin’ to see here, huh? Move along now…….

Comment Four: Notice how all these explosions have that wicked black smoke. Can’t wait til all these evil entities meet the Lord.

There is no hope of reaching people who think like this. Occam’s razor and a little bit of knowledge about how mega-dairies operate suggest that this was likely a methane gas explosion. Rural folks such as myself, who have spent their lives living in farm country, know that concentrated cow shit is not only toxic, it is also combustible, given the right circumstances. Certainly, there could be a different cause — say a Muslim terrorist attack 🙂 — but my money is on exploding cow shit.

On to Jeff Maples . . .

Today, Maples wrote a post titled Father Confronts LEGO Clerks for Pushing LGBTQ Propaganda on Little Children. Here’s what he had to say:

One has to ask the question: why is the LGBTQ industry so hell-bent on targeting children? Why is LEGO holding a queer festival in its stores to promote sexual deviancy to children who would otherwise not even think about such things?

To be clear, the LGBTQ movement and its various symbols, including the pride flag, have absolutely nothing to do with love. Friends, even friends of the same sex, can love each other—but it is not sexual. The LGBTQ movement is a movement designed for the sole purpose normalizing aberrant, dangerous, and violent sex acts among people of the same sex.

So why in the world would these people be so concerned about promoting such filth to children?

As the father, who is also a member of TPUSA, confronts the store clerks, he asks these very questions, to which they only replied with a call to security to have him removed from the store.

“The question,” the father asked, “is why are you all in here with those pins on? Do you think children care about what man sucks penis at home and what girl eats vaginas at home?”

“Do you think they care about that?” Amanchukwu pressed.

“I don’t think they think about that, personally,” the clerk said. 

“Right,” the father said, “so they think about it when they see your pin.” At this point, security arrives to remove the father from the store “When does it stop?” he asked. “At some point, we need to stop pushing this mess on children.”

Maples, along with his buddies at Protestia, are well-known for their obsession with human genitalia. They think it is their duty to police what people do with their genitals — especially LGBTQ people — but have little to no concern about what Evangelical preachers do with theirs. (Please see the Black Collar Crime Series.)

Maples post features a video of a preacher named John Amanchukwu going into a LEGO store to make a scene. I found the video on YouTube:

The video must be viewed on YouTube.

Evidently, there was a rainbow LEGO display in the store. Further, store employees were wearing rainbow pins. Any fair-minded viewer of this video will conclude that Amanchukwu wanted to make a scene; that he is a bigot and a bully. This was no happenstance encounter, as the fact that there is a video clearly shows.

According to Amanchukwu, the fact of store employees wearing rainbow pins and the store having a rainbow LEGO display is evidence of the LEGO Company trying to groom children, making them targets of LGBTQ people, especially those evil, despicable transgender folks.

Amanchukwu explains what he did and why this way:

My six year old son goes into @LEGO_Group to find a LEGO set for me to purchase. While being in the store, we notice that 4 store clerks are marketing PRIDE FLAGS on their aprons, in a store that caters to KIDS! That’s disgusting 🤢. This is another form of indoctrination. What does your sexual preference have to do with cheap plastic toys made for kids? Why? When does it stop? Are there any safe places for children left? DEI is ruining America. The LEFT glorifies INCLUSION, but I was asked to leave the mall because I opposed the madness of GROOMERS. That’s not inclusion, that’s exclusion. The Biden administration has the backs of the LGBTQIA+ community, but who has the backs of INNOCENT IMPRESSIONABLE CHILDREN??? I DO!!! Going WOKE tanked Toys R Us and it has cost Bud Light nearly 4 Billion dollars. Is LEGO next? Luke 17:2 It would be better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to fall into sin.

Amanchukwu would have us believe that he did this for his son; that he did this for THE CHILDREN. Really? All he taught his son was how to bully people. Worse, in the presence of other children, he said, “Do you think children care about what man sucks penis at home and what girl eats vaginas at home?”

Amanchukwu also doesn’t seem to know that LEGOS are for all ages, not just six-year-olds. My fifteen-year-old grandson plays with LEGOS — I mean EXPENSIVE LEGOS — and he definitely cares about that penis and vagina stuff (yes, I can see his red face from here). 🙂 I know adults who collect LEGOS and build all sorts of complex things with them.

No, the real issue here is that Maples and Amanchukwu have bought into yet another Evangelical conspiracy theory. The gays/homos/faggots/lesbos/queers/trannies — their words, not mine — are coming for American children, grooming them, and robbing them of their innocence. Never mind the fact that most sexual crimes against children are perpetrated by heterosexual men; children are at greater risk of assault by a stepfather than they are by the gay man who lives down the street; children are at greater risk of being sexually assaulted by their heterosexual pastor or youth director than by a gay man or lesbian woman.

As with Ungurean, there’s no hope of talking sense into Maples and Amanchukwu. Their worldviews are driven by hysteria and newspaper headlines. As long as they demonize others, and see themselves as defenders of Biblical morality, nothing can be done to change their minds. All I know to do is expose their wickedness — to use a good Bible word — for all the world to see. People need to know that the Ungureans, Maples, and Amanchukwus of the world walk among us; that their hysterical religious, political, and social beliefs can and do cause harm.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Quote of the Day: Is it Time for the United States to Stop Funding Israel’s Violence Against Palestinians?

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noam chomsky

Excerpt from an Al Jazeera interview of Noam Chomsky

The United States is increasingly split – so is Israel. This is the first time Israeli leadership has openly broken with US leadership … when Smotrich and Ben-Gvir and sometimes Netanyahu say: ‘We’re just going to disregard what you want,’ openly and brazenly to American leadership, that’s new.

Recently, Israel may not have liked US policies, but when the United States demanded that it do something, it would do it. That was true of every US president up until Obama. Trump, of course, went all out to offer Israel anything it wanted, in love with Israeli power, violence and repression. Recognised the Golan Heights annexation, Jerusalem annexation, supported settlement policies all in violation not only of international law but of US policy. US had supported the Security Council resolutions that banned the Israeli takeover of Golan Heights and of Jerusalem. Trump reversed all that. … He did the same thing with Morocco, recognising Moroccan takeover of Western Sahara, which is somewhat analogous to the Palestinian situation.

But the new administration, especially the leading figures like Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich, are simply telling the United States: ‘Get lost.’ Netanyahu has made pretty strong statements, saying: ‘We’re a sovereign country, we’ll do what we want.’ It’s the first time the confrontation has been this clear and it’s not clear how the United States will respond.

Two or three years ago … a US representative in the House of Representatives, Betty McCollum, introduced legislation calling for the United States to reconsider US military aid to Israel in light of US law [which] has been regularly violated by US aid to Israel. Didn’t get very far.

Just a couple of days ago, Bernie Sanders introduced legislation calling for prohibition of US aid to Israel … asking for inquiry into its possible conflict with US laws which ban US military aid to any country which is involved in human rights violations. The IDF [Israeli army] is involved … so if there’s an inquiry into this, it might lead to a debate about the legality of the US aid to Israel.

Well, I think all of these things could lead to big changes in the future … It is based to a large extent on substantial shifts in public opinion. I can tell this just from personal experience, I’ve been giving talks, writing and so on about Israel-Palestine issues. Up until pretty recently, I used to have to have police protection if I gave a talk on a campus because of the violent antagonism of the pro-Israel forces. Police insisted on walking me to my car after a talk because of the threat. Even on my own campus, city police and campus police would be there if I was giving a talk. That changed radically.

The point at which it changed is easily identifiable: Operation Cast Lead. That was so brutal, violent, young people just weren’t going to take it any more. I think that was a real tipping point. You could see it very clearly in things like talks on campuses, even strongly pro-Israel campuses like Brandeis University …changed very sharply. These are attitudes of younger people that are going to have a big effect on all of us in the future. So there are conflicts brewing. You don’t see it yet in policy, but I think you can see the beginnings of it.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Dr. David Tee “Explains” Why People Leave Christianity

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angry preacher

Dr. David Tee — who is neither a Doctor or a Tee — mounted his Internet pulpit recently to opine on why people leave Christianity. Here’s an excerpt from his post:

People have all sorts of excuses and they have all sorts of motivating triggers that help them make a decision. One thing that bothers us about the reasons they give is that there is no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Yet, these people who have turned away from different religions, mostly those that claim to be Christian., have decided to toss all of their faith away instead of moving to a different church (non-cultic) that meets their needs and shows them what Christianity is all about.

We are not going to list the reasons here. . .

Your eternal destination is on your shoulders, it is your responsibility, not the other people in the church.

Yes, many people do not follow Jesus and act in a way that is consistent with biblical instructions or commands. But you get to rebuke them if they err. using other people’s behavior to leave the church, Christ, and other religious organizations is simply making an excuse for your decision and failing to take responsibility for that momentous occasion.

Most of the reasons read like excuses. They have little legitimacy and point the finger towards the idea ‘I do not like what you did so I will punish you by leaving the church.’ Not a very smart or common sense decision.

….

But as we said, most are excuses and it looks like people did not want to be in the church anyway and were looking for a face-saving way to leave the church.

Evil is hard at work in destroying people so it is somewhat understandable why these illogical and non-common sense decisions were made. People seem to like doing knee-jerk reactions when it comes to church and religion overall.

What is ironic is the fact that you do not see people saying the same type of things about how non-believers or non-religious people treated them and their families. If they like to be treated well why then do they not leave unbelief when they or their families are treated in horrendous ways?

….

However, leaving the church or your faith over those incidents is not a smart thing to do. Those decisions say a lot about the people making those excuses:

#1. They are not looking to God to meet their needs. They are looking at pastors, etc and when they do not get what they want they take it out on God and punish him.

#2. They are holding the pastors and churches to a standard they do not hold themselves to. Are those people who deserted the faith, etc., doing what they expect other religious people to do?

#3. They are selfish and only want a one-way street their way.

#4. Their own claims to be a believer were not based on a strong foundation and they were weak, toppled over the first situation that provided negative input. They were superficial believers and probably like the seeds that were scattered on rocky or hard soil according to the parable Jesus told.

#5. They do not give God much credit or really cared about him. They were turned off of God for very petty acts that could have been overcome with prayer and a change in churches. This does not say much about them and their commitment to God or their religions.

Tee’s real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen, so I will use his legal name in the remainder of his post.

Thiessen’s post is a theological trainwreck. Thiessen supposedly has a Bible college education and was a pastor, but many of his posts reveal that his theology can be best described as paint-by-number; except for the fact that when a number corresponds to a particular color, Thiessen uses whatever color he wants; regardless of how doing so makes the painting look. Thanks to his literalist, inerrantist, “it means what it says” view of the Protestant Christian Bible, Thiessen has beliefs that are, at times heterodox, or even heretical. I have concluded that he doesn’t really understand the Christian gospel, as he vacillates from salvation by grace to salvation by works to salvation by right beliefs to an admixture of these beliefs. I don’t doubt that Thiessen is a Christian, but damn, I’m not certain that he understands the gospel or has an in-depth understanding of Christian — particularly Evangelical — soteriology. While it would be fun to shred Thiessen’s theological beliefs, I am more concerned about the lies he continues to spread about people who left Evangelical Christianity and embraced atheism, agnosticism, paganism, or non-Christian religions. I say “lies” because Thiessen has been reading my writing for several years. He has written uncounted posts about me personally, Ben Berwick, and the readers of this blog. His unhealthy, creepy obsession with me is well known. No matter how many times I tell Thiessen that I am NOT interested in hooking up with him, he continues to write about me, uttering lies and half-truths as effortlessly as does disgraced congressman George Santos.

I have repeatedly talked about the reasons why I deconverted. I have, time after time, responded to Evangelical apologists who, much like Thiessen, think they know the “real” reasons people walk away from Christianity; people who attack the character of the deconverted and malign their motives for doing so. These scurrilous attackers of former Evangelicals often pontificate on the whys of deconversion without meaningfully and extensively talking to those who have actually deconverted. God condemns such behavior in Proverbs 18:13: Answering before listening is both stupid and rude.

Thiessen says that people like me are excuse-makers; that we blame others for our loss of faith; that the church hurt us, so we left, with feelings hurt, never to return. Thiessen later says that those who leave Christianity are selfish, people who want their way, and when they don’t get it, they take it out on God and punish him (there’s some of that famous Thiessen theology). Thiessen suggests that people who deconvert are superficial Christians or even fake believers; that they never cared much for God or gave credit to him (for what, exactly, Thiessen doesn’t say).

I ask you, dear readers, do Thiessen’s reasons for why people leave Christianity reflect why you are no longer a Christian? Thiessen knows better. He knows exactly why people deconvert. I have explained this to him numerous times in my writing and email responses to him. It is evident, at least to me, that Thiessen is not an honest interlocuter; that his goal is to demean and defame, and not honestly and humbly understand.

What do you think about Thiessen’s post? Please share your erudite thoughts in the comment section. I am sure “Dr.” Tee will appreciate your responses. I would suggest that you comment on his blog, but he doesn’t allow comments.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Is it Really “Stunning” That a Majority of Americans Believe Jesus Resurrected from the Dead?

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resurrection of jesus

A recent headline on Charisma News said, “Stunning Proportion of Americans Believe Bible Accounts of Jesus’ Resurrection Accurate.” According to a recent Lifeway survey:

Two-thirds of U.S. adults (66%) say the biblical accounts of the physical resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate. They believe this event actually occurred, according to the 2022 State of Theology study. Fewer than a quarter (23%) disagree, and 11% say they’re not sure.

The percentage that affirms the bodily resurrection of Jesus as described in the Bible is unchanged since 2018 and within two percentage points of where it has been since the first State of Theology in 2014.

Jesus’ Easter resurrection is more accepted in the Midwest (70%) and South (70%). But majorities in both the West (62%) and Northeast (60%) also affirm it.

Younger Americans are the least likely age group to say they believe in a historical resurrection. Still, 58% of those 18-34 accept it as fact.

Self-identified evangelicals (90%) and Black Protestants (89%) are more likely to affirm Jesus’ resurrection than Catholics (79%) and mainline Protestants (74%).

Are these results “stunning,” as Charisma News alleges? Of course not. Sixty-three percent of Americans self-identify as Christian, whereas only thirty-one percent of the world does. Americans are twice as likely to be Christian as the rest of the world. In some parts of the United States — particularly rural and southern America — non-Christians are few and far in between. In fact, in some regions, it is social and economic suicide to not at least give the appearance that you worship the risen Jesus.

While the United States is a secular state, practically speaking we are a Christian nation. Almost ninety percent of congresspeople self-identify as Christians. I am sixty-six years old. Dwight Eisenhower was president when I was born, and Joe Biden is president today. Between the two, Republican and Democratic presidents have come and gone. Yet, all of them have one thing in common: they professed to be Christians.

Christian churches dot street corners and rural roads in America. I live in rural northwest Ohio. I have spent most of my life living in rural Ohio communities; communities dominated by Christianity. If I were inclined to attend church — and I am not — I have the choice of over three hundred Christian churches within thirty or so minutes from my home. Whatever your desired flavor of Christianity, there’s a church sure to meet your needs.

Thus, it is not “stunning” that Americans believe a crucified man named Jesus resurrected from the dead. As Charisma News — the master clickbaiters that they are — often does, they distorted Lifeway’s study to give a false impression of American beliefs. Desperate to counter the increasing secularizing of the United States and the rapid rise of the NONES, Charisma News is willing to lie to paint a false picture of American religious beliefs.

Sure, two-thirds of Americans believe the Biblical accounts of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead are completely accurate. What Charisma News fails to tell their overwhelmingly Evangelical readers is this:

Most Americans believe Jesus rose from the dead on the first Easter Sunday. They’re just not sure it matters much.

….

Despite accepting the biblical accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, many Americans have conflicting thoughts about the Bible and seem to see little connection between Jesus rising again and their daily lives.

In 2022, for the first time in the history of the State of Theology study, a majority of Americans (53%) say the Bible, like all sacred writings, contains helpful accounts of ancient myths but is not literally true. And 40%, the highest percentage yet, say modern science disproves the Bible.

A growing percentage, up to a high of 32%, says God is unconcerned with their day-to-day decisions. And 3 in 5 (60%) say religious belief is a matter of personal opinion, not objective truth.

Lifeway’s study revealed that ninety percent of American Evangelicals believe Jesus resurrected from the dead, just as recorded in the Bible. However, previous studies have also shown that Evangelicals really don’t know their Bibles very well; that many Evangelicals are an inch deep and a mile wide when it comes to what the Bible actually teaches. Quiz Evangelicals on what the Bible actually says about the resurrection of Jesus and its theological implications, many Evangelicals will hem and haw before confidently saying, with a wave of their hands, “I know what I know, there’s no doubt about it, Jesus died for me on the cross of Calvary and resurrected from the dead three days later. Praise God!”

Here is what is stunning. The resurrection of Jesus is central to Christianity. Not the cross, the resurrection. Jesus’ execution was quite human. His resurrection, however, was a supernatural event. Over one hundred billion people have come and gone on planet Earth, and they all have one thing in common: they are all d-e-a-d. While the Bible records other resurrections, these raised from the dead people ultimately died a second time. Only Jesus, according to orthodox Christian beliefs, died, resurrected from the dead, and remains alive to this very day. Yet, how many Christians can defend the resurrection from challenges by atheists, agnostics, and other unbelievers?

Evangelicals, in particular, believe the Protestant Christian Bible is supernaturally inspired (written) by God and is inerrant and infallible. When challenging what Evangelicals believe about Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead, I have found it effective to first challenge the notion that the Bible is without error. If you can get them to question — yea, hath God said — the supernatural nature of the Bible, this could cause them to question and doubt other sincerely held beliefs. Asking them to reconcile the numerous discrepancies and contradictions in the Bible’s resurrection accounts can and does force some believers to wrestle with what it is they really believe. Remember, most Evangelicals are not students of the Bible. Many Evangelicals are infrequent readers, and few of them read the Bible from cover to cover. According to a Pew Research study, forty percent of Evangelicals rarely, if ever, read the Bible. The idea that Evangelicals are walking-talking dispensers of Bible knowledge isn’t true. According to another Pew study, Jews, atheists, and agnostics know more about religion in general than Evangelicals. When asked specific questions about Christianity, Evangelicals and atheists were equal in the percentage of correct answers given. Think about all the sermons Evangelicals hear week after week, month after month, year after year. Think of all the affordable books and Bible study tools at their disposal. Yet, despite a wealth of Bible instruction and knowledge at the tip of their fingers, Evangelicals largely know very little about what the Bible actually teaches. If Jesus is all that Evangelicals say he is, and Christianity is the one true faith, and all others are false, why are they so dispassionate towards the Bible and its teachings? Why do Evangelicals, to put it bluntly, not give a shit about what the Bible teaches? Why are they content to simply believe what they are told to believe, without ever intellectually, rationally, and skeptically investigating their beliefs? If there is only one life that will soon be past, and only what’s done for Christ will last; if this life is preparation to meet the Christian God face to face; if Heaven and Hell are real, death is certain, and judgment awaits, why are Evangelicals so lackadaisical toward the Bible — a book that is supposedly God’s blueprint for life?

All of these things are stunning; but the fact that ninety percent of Evangelicals believe that Jesus (God) killed himself on a Roman cross, spent a couple of nights hanging out in the bowels of the earth, and then miraculously brought himself back to life? That’s just Evangelicalism 101. Such beliefs are irrational and nonsensical, but when faith is the foundation of your beliefs, anything is literally possible.

If you have Evangelical family and friends and want to help them see the light, I suggest you buy one or more of the books written by New Testament scholar Dr. Bart Ehrman. His books are deadly frontal assaults on Evangelical beliefs about the nature and history of the Bible. While one can maintain their Christian faith after reading Dr. Ehrman, it is impossible to hang on to the notion that the Bible is inerrant and infallible. Challenging Evangelical beliefs about the Bible is the first step in leading believers away from a form of Christianity that is psychologically, and, at times, physically, harmful.

If you are interested in challenges to the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, my friend Gary’s blog, Escaping Christian Fundamentalism, is a good resource. Gary grew up in an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist home, and later became a conservative Lutheran.

Gary describes his deconversion this way:

I was very happy as a conservative (confessional) Lutheran.  It is a beautiful liturgical Church.  In this branch of Christianity, my eternal salvation is based on GOD’S act of justification in Holy Baptism, not on my good works, nor on my possession of adequate faith and repentance in an evangelical born again experience.  The doctrines and teachings of the Lutheran Confessions seemed to me to correctly interpret the Bible.

Then one fateful day as I was surfing the internet, I came across the blog of an ex-fundamentalist Baptist pastor turned atheist [that would be Bruce Gerencser].  I was horrified to read his blasphemy against my Lord and Savior.  I took it upon myself to bring this “back-slidden sinner” back to Jesus Christ.  I believed that if I just exposed him to TRUE Christianity (confessional Lutheranism), he would see the light and return to Christianity.  How wrong I was!  Four months later it was I who had seen the “light”…

…I had become an agnostic.

What did this former pastor/turned atheist say that convinced me that my cherished, beloved Christian faith was false?  Well, to put it simply, he told me to read the books of former evangelical Christian turned agnostic, New Testament scholar, Bart Ehrman, starting with “Misquoting Jesus”.

If you have questions regarding your Christian faith, I would encourage you to read Ehrman’s books.  From there, read this blog and the blogs of other skeptics, atheists, and agnostics; interact with former Christians who have been through the same struggles that you are now experiencing.

And I will give you this piece of advice:  If your faith is more important to you than knowing the truth, don’t read one more sentence of this blog or that of any other ex-Christian blog.  But if the truth—the real truth no matter how cold, ugly, and painful it may be—matters more to you than the comfort and security of your faith, step out of the Christian “bubble” and explore the criticisms of your Christian belief system.  Find out why there are so many ex-Christians, of all denominations, who believe that the Christian belief system is based primarily on assumptions, hearsay, superstitions, and wishful thinking.  There is scant evidence to support the fantastical supernatural claims of this ancient religion.

Gary has written a good bit on Jesus’ resurrection, often detailing interactions he has had with Christian apologists. His blog is a good source for the various arguments Evangelicals use for the resurrection and how they can easily be rebutted.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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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You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Quote of the Day: Has the United States Moved From Forever War to Eternal War?

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war to end all wars
Cartoon by Peter Brookes

An excerpt from Will It Never Stop? From Forever War to Eternal War by Karen Greenberg

“It is time,” President Biden announced in April 2021, “to end the forever war” that started with the invasion of Afghanistan soon after the tragic terror attacks on this country on September 11, 2001. Indeed, that August, amid chaos and disaster, the president did finally pull the last remaining U.S. forces out of that country.

A year and a half later, it’s worth reflecting on where the United States stands when it comes to both that forever war against terrorism and war generally. As it happens, the war on terror is anything but ended, even if it’s been overshadowed by the war in Ukraine and simmering conflicts around the globe, all too often involving the United States. In fact, it now seems as if this country is moving at breakneck speed out of the era of Forever War and into what might be thought of as the era of Eternal War.

Granted, it’s hard even to keep track of the potential powder kegs that seem all too ready to explode across the globe and are likely to involve the U.S. military in some fashion. Still, at this moment, perhaps it’s worth running through the most likely spots for future conflict.

In Ukraine, as each week passes, the United States only seems to ramp up its commitment to war with Russia, moving the slim line of proxy warfare ever closer to a head-to-head confrontation between the planet’s two great military powers. Although the plan to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia clearly remains in effect, once taboo forms of support for Ukraine have over time become more acceptable.

As of early March, the United States, one of more than 50 countries offering some form of support, had allocated aid to Ukraine on 33 separate occasions, amounting to more than $113 billion worth of humanitarian, military, and financial assistance. In the process, the Biden administration has agreed to provide increasingly lethal weaponry, including Bradley fighting vehicles, Patriot missile batteries, and Abrams tanks, while pressure for even more powerful weaponry like Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMs) and F-16s is only growing. As a recent Council on Foreign Relations report noted, Washington’s aid to Ukraine “far exceeds” that of any other country.

In recent weeks, the theater of tension with Russia has expanded beyond Ukraine, notably to the Arctic, where some experts see potential for direct conflict between Russia and the U.S., branding that region a “future flashpoint.” Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently raised the possibility of storing tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, perhaps more of a taunt than a meaningful gesture, but nonetheless another point of tension between the two countries.

Leaving Ukraine aside, China’s presence looms large when it comes to predictions of future war with Washington. On more than one occasion, Biden has stated publicly that the United States would intervene if China were to launch an invasion of the island of Taiwan. Tellingly, efforts to fortify the U.S. military presence in the Asia-Pacific region have ratcheted up in recent months.

In February, for example, Washington unveiled plans to strengthen its military presence in the Philippines by occupying bases in the part of that country nearest to Taiwan. All too ominously, four-star Air Force General Mike Minihan went so far as to suggest that this country might soon be at war with China. “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me [we] will fight in 2025,” he wrote in a memo to the officers he commands in anticipation of a future Chinese move on Taiwan. He also outlined a series of aggressive tactics and weapons training maneuvers in preparation for that day. And the Marines have been outfitting three regiments for a possible future island campaign in the Pacific, while war-gaming such battles in Southern California.

….

Congress seems to be seconding the move from Forever War to Eternal War without significant opposition. In fact, when it comes to funding such a future, its members have been all too enthusiastic. As potential future war scenarios have expanded, so has the Pentagon budget which has grown astronomically over the past two years. In December, President Biden signed the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which granted the Pentagon an unprecedented $816.7 billion, 8% more than the year before (with Congress upping the White House’s suggested funding by $45 billion).

And the requests for the 2024 budget are now in. As Pentagon expert William Hartung reports, at $886 billion dollars, $69 billion more than this year’s budget, Congress is on a path to enacting “the first $1 trillion package ever,” a development he labels “madness.” “An open-ended strategy,” Hartung explains, “that seeks to develop capabilities to win a war with Russia or China, fight regional wars against Iran or North Korea, and sustain a global war on terror that includes operations in at least 85 countries is a recipe for endless conflict.”

….

Disturbingly, American calls for peace and diplomacy have tended to further embrace the ongoing war. The New York Timeseditorial board, while plugging future peace diplomacy, suggested that only continued warfare could get us to such a place: “[S]erious diplomacy has a chance only if Russia accepts that it cannot bring Ukraine to its knees. And for that to happen, the United States and its allies cannot waver in their support [of Ukraine].” More war and nothing else, the argument goes, will bring peace. The pressure to provide ever more powerful weapons to Ukraine remains constant on both sides of the aisle. As Robert Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee put it, “[T]his approach of ‘more, better, faster’ would give the Ukrainians a real shot at victory.”

Whether in Ukraine, in the brewing tensions of what’s being called a “new cold war” in Asia, or in this country’s never-ending version of the war on terror, we now live in a world where war is ever more accepted as a permanent condition. On the legal, legislative, and military fronts, it has become a mainstay for what passes as national security activity. Some of this, as many critics contend, is driven by economic incentives like lining the pockets of the giant weapons-making corporations to the tune of multibillions of dollars annually; some by what passes for ideological fervor with democracy pitched against autocracy; some by the seemingly never-ending legacy of the war on terror.

Sadly enough, all of this prioritizes killing and destruction over life and true security. In none of it do our leaders seem to be able to imagine reaching any kind of peace without yet more weapons, more violence, more conflicts, and more death.

Who even remembers when the First World War was known as “the war to end all wars”? Sadly, it seems that the era of Eternal War is now upon us. We should at least acknowledge that reality.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Can Non-Christians Read and Understand the Bible?

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1 corinthians_2_14

Evangelicals are a contradictory lot. On one hand, Evangelicals will tell atheists to read the Bible, believing that if atheists will read the gospels, they will see the truth and be saved. Yet, when atheists read the Bible and reject its claims, Evangelicals are quick to say that atheists can’t “know” the truth because the “natural man understandeth not the things of God.”

This idea comes from II Corinthians 2:14:

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The natural man is every human being except born-again people. Unsaved people cannot understand the “things of the Spirit of God — the Bible — because they are foolishness to them; neither can they know (understand) them because they are spiritually discerned. When sinners get saved, the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside of them. From that moment forward, the third person of the Trinity is their teacher and guide. When Christians read the Bible, the Holy Spirit allegedly teaches them the truth. (Please see Know-So Salvation.) If this is so, why, then, do no two Evangelicals believe the same thing? Why do Evangelicals disagree on even the basics: salvation, baptism, and communion? Why do Evangelicals, in particular, wage incessant internecine wars amongst themselves over this or that point of theology? Surely, if the Holy Spirit — God himself — lives inside every Christian and gives them everything pertaining to life and godliness, Christians would all believe the same things. After all, the Bible declares “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.” That Christians can’t agree on the teachings of the Bible suggests that they are “natural men” too.

I was part of the Evangelical church for the first fifty years of my life. I attended an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) college in the 1970s, and pastored churches for twenty-five years. Reading and studying the Bible was central to my existence. All told, I spent over 20,000 hours with my nose in the Bible and theological books. My mind is filled with Bible information and knowledge, including countless memorized verses. In recent years, I have had problems with my short-term memory due to a plethora of health problems. But my long-term memory where all my Bible knowledge resides? Sharp as a tack. Yet, scores of Evangelicals have told me that the moment I deconverted, all my Bible knowledge magically disappeared; that I am now a “natural man” who does not and cannot understand the Bible. This, of course, is absurd. Evangelicals can provide no evidence for their claim other than a single Bible verse.

Yet, these same Evangelicals will turn right around and tell me that I should read this or that passage of Scripture; that if I have an open mind God will reveal the “truth” to me. Never mind the fact that I have read from and preached from the recommended Bible verses; that I know what they say and could preach a sermon from them even today.

The Bible is just a collection of ancient religious texts that have been translated from Greek and Hebrew. The Bible is not a magical text that uses ESP to send special messages from God to Christians. It is a book that can be read, interpreted, and understood by anyone — including atheists — with the desire to learn what it says. Evangelicals tell unbelievers that the Bible is impossible to understand without the aid of a supernatural being living inside of you, yet, at the same time, Evangelicals say this Bible is so simple that even a child can understand it. Which is it?

Most Evangelicals are Gnostics, at heart. They believe that their peculiar God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, gives them special knowledge that unbelievers cannot obtain or understand. This, of course, is untrue. Anyone can understand the Bible if they put their mind to it.

For Evangelicals who object to the claims I have made in this post about the Bible and knowledge of its teachings, I challenge them to ask me any question about the Bible. Put together a test that will measure my Bible knowledge and that of the atheists and agnostics who read this site. I’m confident that I and my merry band of godless heathens will be able to pass this test. Sure, many atheists aren’t all that knowledgeable about the Bible, but neither are a lot of Christians. That said, countless former pastors, evangelists, youth directors, worship leaders, and college professors read my writing; many of whom have college degrees and extensive knowledge of the Biblical text and Christian theology. I have no doubt they will be able to pass any Bible test put before them.

Or, you can keep saying, “Bruce Gerencser doesn’t know anything about the Bible.” No one believes you, and I suspect that deep down in that mythical heart of yours, you don’t believe it either.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Quote of the Day: Coming to Terms with the Horror of the Iraq War

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noam chomsky

Excerpt from an Al Jazeera interview of Noam Chomsky

Let’s start with the obvious. I’m sure you’re familiar with the Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. It’s now been moved forward to 90 seconds to midnight.

Midnight as the termination of the human experience on Earth, racing towards the threat of nuclear war. The threat of imminent climate disaster is increasing – Israel will be one of the major victims.

And our leaders, their major sin is that they’re racing towards disaster. We’re just now commemorating the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq … worst crime of the century, it’s being commemorated here. The US Navy just commissioned its most recent assault vessel and named it the USS Fallujah in memory of one of the worst atrocities of the US attack. Fallujah had been … a beautiful city. Marines invaded, destroyed it, killed thousands of people … People are still dying from the weapons that were used with phosphorus, depleted uranium.

It’s more than atrocious, it’s symbolic. Look over the past 20 years, see if you can find one sentence anywhere near the mainstream that says that the invasion of Iraq was a crime – it was the worst crime of the 20th century. The worst criticism you can make is it was a ‘mistake’. It’s been reconfigured, reshaped to be presented – even by liberal commentators – as a failed effort to save the Iraqi people from an evil dictator, which has absolutely nothing to do with why the war began.

And furthermore, it overlooks a small fact the United States strongly supported Saddam Hussein during the period in which he carried out his most horrible crimes, including things like the poisoning of Iraqis and the Halabja massacre, chemical weapons, killing hundreds of thousands of Iranians. The US was delighted, supported him right through.

So now, history is reconstructed so that we were trying to ‘save Iraqis’ from the person we were strongly supporting. Iraqis were not exactly clamouring for rescue from the country that had imposed sanctions in the 1990s that were so vicious and murderous that there were leading international diplomats who resigned because they regarded them as genocidal. But that’s the way the intellectual classes managed to reconstruct crimes of state. There are people who object around the periphery. You don’t hear their voice, they’re marginalised. You want to learn about the USS Fallujah? You’re not going to read it in the American press. You can read it in critical commentary around the edges where people like me were able to find out about it, not from the American press, but from Al Jazeera.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

The Looming War Between China and Taiwan and the American Warmongers Who Are Trying to Make It a Reality

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jack van impe coming war with russia
Fundamentalist Jack Van Impe was predicting war with Russia in the 1970s. Van Impe predicted China and Russia will join together in the “last days”

I turned on the news this afternoon to find out that the People’s Republic of China is conducting military training exercises in the Taiwan Strait — an international body of water separating China and Taiwan (officially the Republic of China). One hundred and ten miles wide, the Taiwan Strait is considered internal territorial waters by China.

China considers Taiwan part of its sovereign territory. Few Americans know much about Taiwan’s history and why China considers the 168 islands that make up Taiwan part of the mainland. All Americans hear is that Taiwan is a democracy and China is a communist state. Once the word “communist” is invoked, most Americans immediately think China is an existential threat. The great red-baiter Joseph McCarthy lives on. Sure enough, the news show I was watching made certain that viewers knew that China was communist. This, of course, had nothing to do with the story. It was an attempt by a Sinclair-owned news station to poison the news.

Sinclair’s “news” story included interviews with two right-wing Republican congressmen, one of whom was Lindsey Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina. Graham, known for getting the vapors and crying on TV, said it was imperative for the United States to immediately send additional troops to Japan and South Korea, and place nuclear weapons near China. Another Republican said the US needed to immediately send massive amounts of weapons to Taiwan so they can defend themselves. No Democrats were interviewed; neither were any anti-war congresspeople.

The majority of our political leaders in Washington D.C. are warmongers, including many Democrats. Fueled by fantasies such as American exceptionalism and manifest destiny, many of our leaders at all levels of government think the United States is a beacon of freedom (except for having the largest incarceration rate in the world) and democracy (except for gerrymandering, laws meant to restrict voting rights for people of color, and the recent expulsion of two Black representatives from the Tennessee House); that the God of the Christian Bible is on our side, and he will lead us to victory in every war we fight (even though we haven’t won a military conflict since 1945). With minds filled with American grandeur and supremacy, virtually everyone, from Democratic president Joe Biden to Republican lunatics too numerous to count, thinks the United States is an unassailable, impregnable fortress of good.

Even people who live in other Western countries have been charmed by America’s rhetoric and press releases. Recently, a commenter on a post titled The United States Advances “Democracy” One Bloody, Violent War at a Time had this to say: The USA has done bad things, but generally with the intention of trying to do good. Is the American prime directive try to do good? Is the United States a do-gooder on the world stage? Do our political leaders really put “good” above all else?

A cursory reading of American history suggests that we have never been a nation primarily motivated by good. Most people would agree that peace is good. So how do we square this ideal with the fact that the United States has been at war somewhere in the world for most of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; that the US has troops and contractors deployed in virtually every corner of the world? War does not bring peace. All war does is bring a cessation of hostilities. Bloodshed and destruction happen until both sides agree to stop killing each other. Is this cessation “peace?” Of course not. The reasons for the hostilities remain, festering until coming to a head once again in the future. This is exactly what is happening in Ukraine. The United States (and NATO) is fighting a proxy war against Russia. Saber-rattling warmongers want to do the same with Taiwan, delusionally thinking that Taiwan can fight a war with China and win. All the United has to do is provide Taiwan with billions of dollars of fancy weaponry, just as we are currently doing in Ukraine. Further, many Americans think we can willy-nilly threaten sovereign states such as Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China with nuclear war without challenge. What happens when a country we have backed into a corner economically with embargoes, tariffs, and other punishments that only hurt the people in the street, decides that its only hope is the use of nuclear weapons against the US? What happens if these countries band together, much as Western nations have done with NATO? When economic and political survival is at stake, nation-states can and do use extreme measures to allegedly protect themselves. This is exactly what the United States did in World War II with the bombing of Dresden, the bombing of Tokyo, and the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

If and when the United States finds itself in a conventional war with a major world power; one where boots must be put on the ground, it is doubtful that the US would win such a conflict. As with all such wars, the willingness to use extreme measures to win only increases as time goes on. The unthinkable becomes possible, as was the case at the end of World War II. The US is losing its primacy in the world, and instead of evolving with the times, America is determined to use violence and death to maintain its power and economic superiority. And when the whole world is on fire someday? Americans will proudly wave foam fingers in the air, saying “We’re #1, we’re #1!” Finally, they will be right.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Quote of the Day: Science-Based Medicine (SBM) vs. Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)

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homeopathic killer

Good science-based medicine should endeavor to isolate variables as much as possible. That is what the entire placebo-controlled trial is about. We cannot make causal conclusion unless the variable of interest is isolated. The problem for CAM proponents is that when you properly isolate the variable that is at the core of their treatment, it doesn’t work. After thousands of clinical trials, for example, acupuncture researchers still have not been able to demonstrate scientifically that acupuncture points mean anything. They do not appear to exist – their own research concludes this. Similarly, there is no “life energy” behind energy medicine, subluxation theory has been essentially disproven, and the principles of homeopathy are demonstrable nonsense.

— Dr. Steven Novella, Science-Based Medicine, An SBM Advocate Goes To Washington, April 5, 2023

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.