From there he [Jesus] set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter. (Mark 7:24-29 NRSV)
Based on the this passage of Scripture, it is clear that the Syrophoenician woman with a demon- possessed daughter was called a dog by Jesus. Some stupid apologists will argue that Jesus was calling the Syrophoenicians (Gentiles) dogs, and not the woman herself. Was the woman Syrophoenician? Yes. This means, then, that Jesus was calling her a dog. I live in Ohio. If Jesus said all Ohioan are dogs, would that include me? Of course, it would.
Other stupid apologists will claim that Jesus or the author of Mark was just reflecting the social norms at the time. Perhaps, but when it is it ever right to call a woman a “dog”? Donald Trump has hurled all sorts of misogynistic, racist invectives at people. Are such verbal attacks on others appropriate? Of course not. Surely, we should hold Jesus to a higher standard than Trump, yes?
Jesus was a first century Jew who lived in rural Palestine. He likely viewed Gentiles much as his fellow Jews did. Remember, when Jesus jumped in his celestial space shuttle and came to earth, he didn’t come to save Gentiles. He came, to quote the Bible, to save the Jews from their sins. Gentile salvation was an afterthought. There’s no reason for us to believe that Jesus’ social norms were different from that of his parents, grandparents, and his neighbors.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
In 2019, Jeriah Mast, a former Mennonite aid worker for Christian Aid Ministries in Berlin, Ohio, was arrested and charged with sexually abusing five minor boys.
Jeriah Mast, 37, of Millersburg, Ohio, was indicted Monday by a Holmes County grand jury for offenses that occurred in that county, according to the indictment. Mr. Mast turned himself in to the Holmes County jail on Tuesday evening and is being held on a bond of $250,000 cash surety, according to the jail. He is scheduled for arraignment Wednesday afternoon.
He faces seven felony charges of gross sexual imposition and seven misdemeanor counts of sexual imposition.
He is accused of sexual offenses against five different minors.
he charges of felonies are for alleged offenses against minors under 13, and the charges of misdemeanors are for alleged offenses against minors under 16. The indictment says that the offenses took place between 1999 to 2008.
A Haitian court is seeking Mr. Mast’s return to that country for him to face similar allegations. He left Haiti this spring after allegations arose of his sexually abusing minor boys over a period of years. A Haitian attorney told the Post-Gazette he represents five alleged victims of Mr. Mast.
Christian Aid Ministries of Berlin, Ohio — which is supported by various Mennonite, Amish and related groups — said in an earlier statement it “promptly discharged” Mr. Mast earlier this year when it learned of recent allegations against him in Haiti. He has not yet returned to appear before the Haitian court in the city of Petit-Goave to face the allegations.
Both Christian Aid Ministries and Mr. Mast’s church said he made confessions of sexual offenses.
The ministry placed two of its leading staff members on leave last month after its board learned that they knew as far back as 2013 that Mr. Mast had confessed to “sexual activity with young men that had taken place several years prior,” yet allowed him to remain at work for the ministry until this year.
Did you catch the fact that two Christian Aid Ministries staff members were put on leave for failing to report Mast’s predatory sexual activity with young men? Put on leave? Really? How about firing and excommunicating them for helping to facilitate the ongoing abuse of Haitian children?
Mast later pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two Holmes County, Ohio boys.
Jeriah Mast, 38, of Millersburg, Ohio, had faced 14 counts alleging he abused five minors between 1999 and 2008. On Wednesday, 12 counts were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. Mr. Mast pleaded guilty to two felony counts of gross sexual imposition in connection with molesting two boys.
One incident happened in late 1999 or early 2000 and involved a 12-year-old boy; the second happened in 2005 or 2006 and involved an 11- or 12-year-old boy, Holmes County Prosecutor Sean Warner said during the hearing at the Holmes County Courthouse.
Mr. Mast denied that he abused the boy in the first incident — in which the boy’s mother said she walked into her son’s bedroom to find Mr. Mast under a blanket with her son — but he nevertheless pleaded guilty.
He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, although both the prosecution and defense as part of the plea agreement recommended he serve no more than five years in prison.
Holmes County Judge Robert D. Rinfret emphasized in a hearing Wednesday that he was not bound by that sentencing recommendation.
“This is horrendous,” Judge Rinfret said of the crimes. “This is awful.”
Sentencing was set for Nov. 5.
The Ohio charges were filed in July after Mr. Mast confessed to the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office in May that he abused boys over a period of about 15 years in both Ohio and Haiti, where he was working for Christian Aid Ministries, a Berlin, Ohio, organization supported by various Mennonite, Amish and related groups.
Mr. Mast told authorities that he abused four victims in Holmes County; a fifth victim — the one Mr. Mast denies abusing but pleaded guilty to — later came forward.
Mr. Warner, the prosecutor, said Wednesday that the plea agreement was offered in large part because further investigation of Mr. Mast’s May confession showed that all but two of the victims were 13 or older at the time of the abuse. That meant five of the seven felony charges Mr. Mast had faced became misdemeanor charges — and that meant the charges were beyond the statute of limitations to prosecute.
Please see the Post-Gazette series Coverings for complete coverage on Mast’s crimes and sexual abuse within Amish/Mennonite communities.
Mast was sentenced to nine years in prison for his crimes. Mast served six years before he was released from prison.
Recently, Mast was indicted for more sex crimes, this time against Haitian children.
A former missionary with an Ohio-based ministry has been indicted on federal charges of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with four different minors in Haiti over multiple years.
Jeriah Mast, 44, of Millersburg, Ohio, was indicted for alleged actions during his multiple visits to Haiti between 2002 and 2019. Mast — who according to authorities admitted to abusing about 30 victims in Haiti and more in Ohio — worked for part of that time for the Millersburg-based Christian Aid Ministries, which coordinates missionary activities for Amish, conservative Mennonite and related groups.
It marks the second court case against Mast, who was sentenced in Holmes County court in 2019 to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two minors in Ohio.
Mast received an early judicial release in October after serving just under six years, according to Ohio’s inmate database. As a condition of his release, he was placed on three years’ supervised probation and required to complete an intensive supervision program, including sex-offender specific programming.
Court records indicate that presiding retired Judge Edward Emmett O’Farrell of Tuscarawas County granted Mast’s release based on “an exemplary record” behind bars and “most importantly, the Defendant’s stated and demonstrated remorse for the crimes he committed, and the emotional and psychological pain and suffering he inflicted upon the child victims and their families in this case.”
Mast was arrested on the federal charges on Nov. 5 and formally indicted on Tuesday. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in federal court in Cleveland.
“Crimes against children, like those mentioned in these allegations, are reprehensible,” U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio said in a statement. “Such appalling and morally corrupt behavior will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We commend the work of Homeland Security Investigations and the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office, whose thorough work led to these federal charges being filed today.”
The charges are based on a U.S. law that prohibits citizens from “traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in any illicit sexual conduct with another person,” according to court filings.
The court docket indicates Mast is represented by a public defender, who did not immediately return email and phone messages seeking comment late Wednesday.
The Mast scandal came into public view in 2019 after he abruptly returned home from Haiti. In a subsequent interview with Holmes County authorities, he admitted to molesting about 30 children in Haiti between about 2003 and 2019, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court by Special Agent Jason M. Guyton of Homeland Security Investigations. Details of his admission indicate many if not all of the reported victims were boys.
The federal charges accuse Mast of abusing four different minors in 2004, 2007 and 2011. One was a 13-year-old boy Mast met through his missionary work and allegedly molested in a tent, according to the criminal complaint.
Judge Edward Emmett O’Farrell of Tuscarawas County granted Mast’s release based on “an exemplary record” behind bars and “most importantly, the Defendant’s stated and demonstrated remorse for the crimes he committed, and the emotional and psychological pain and suffering he inflicted upon the child victims and their families in this case.”
Are you fucking kidding me? This judge should be immediately removed from office. Surely, he knew there were other alleged victims; that predators such as Mast typically have far more victims than they are ever prosecuted for.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
I am beyond embarrassed over how far I’m behind on responding to emails, text messages, and sending out thank you notes to financial supporters. I will try to get caught up in the month of December. Until then, let me say THANK YOU for your continued support.
According to the Bible, pain and suffering are tests, trials, and punishments from God. God punished Adam and Eve for eating fruit off a forbidden tree:
And to the man he [God] said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you,‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (Genesis 3:17-19 NRSV)
While Evangelicals love to protect God’s honor, the Bible is clear: all pain and suffering comes from God himself. I have firsthand experience with pain and suffering. All of us, if we live long enough, will have similar experiences, though the reason, degree, and length will vary from person to person. Most of us have experienced acute pain:
Acute pain is a sudden, short-term pain that signals a specific injury or illness and typically goes away once the cause is treated or healed.
Chronic pain is pain that lasts for over three months. You may feel the pain all the time or it may come and go. It can happen anywhere in your body and has countless causes.
Chronic pain is pain that doesn’t do away. It may get better or worse, but this sort of pain never goes away. This is the kind of pain I have had since the late 1990s. There’s not been a day since I was forty years old that I have been pain-free. What started with fibromyalgia has grown like a brushfire with osteoarthritis, degenerative spine disease, gastroparesis, and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Today, my life is one long, exhausting struggle with pain. My goal every day has been to control my pain well enough that I have enough energy to write and do work around the house. Some days, it is impossible for me to do anything more than survive; to live to face another day. And other days, all I want to do is die. I love my family, but sometimes my pain is so severe that all I want, in the moment, is for the pain to stop.
Chronic pain sufferers know that pain medications become less effective over time. That’s the case for me. I’ve been taking narcotic drugs for twenty years. Over this time, I have unnecessarily suffered because of the government’s and Parkview Hospital’s war on chronic pain sufferers. I take fifty percent less morphine load today than I did five years ago. I have largely found that local pain doctors are worthless; more concerned with doing injections and procedures than they are managing the suffering of chronic pain sufferers. And even worse, local pain doctors, to the person, oppose cannabis use. Figure that one out.
If the goal of medicine is to lessen suffering, why don’t doctors do more to help their chronic pain patients? My primary care doctor plans to retire in four years. He told me it is unlikely, due to clinic policies, that another doctor will write my narcotic scripts. I replied, “No problem. I plan to be dead by then.” My doctor thought I was being funny, but I most certainly was not. Without narcotic pain medications — yes, many people really need them — I will not survive. “But, Bruce, aren’t you worried about becoming a drug addict?” Are you kidding? Of course not. I have CHRONIC pain. It never, ever goes away. I suspect my pain will only get worse with time. How could it be otherwise? My spine — from neck to coccyx — shoulders, and hands continue to structurally deteriorate. I can easily see a time when I can no longer type or walk. As it stands now, I use a cane, walker, or a wheelchair to get around.
If I am a chronic pain sufferer, why does it matter if I become “addicted”? If I was in hospice with terminal pancreatic cancer, would I be given narcotics for pain control? Would the goal be to ease my suffering? Of course, it would. Why, then, is it any different for chronic pain sufferers? Just because we are dying “slowly” doesn’t mean we aren’t in just as much pain as those who have terminal illnesses.
I do all I can on any given day to manage and control my pain: heating pads, steaming hot baths, Tylenol/aspirin, TENS unit, stretching exercises, massage, cannabis, and, yes, narcotic pain medications. I also take medications to manage symptoms from gastroparesis and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Cannabis has reduced my nausea and vomiting, so there’s that, for which I am grateful.
I see a neurosurgeon later this week; the same surgeon who did my surgery a year ago. Hopefully, he will provide an answer for my lower back pain and awful neuropathic leg pain. If so, I will have surgery again, though I am hesitant to do so. All I know to do to is gather information and decide accordingly.
Are you a chronic pain sufferer? Is your pain well-managed? Please share your experiences in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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There are several direct or indirect outcomes of all the ills that evolutionary and/or atheistic humanism has brought upon society. Many of these existed long before evolutionary thought pervaded much of society but all have increased dramatically since 1859 (after the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species) and even more so by 1871 (after the publication of Darwin’s The Descent of Man). Just a few are listed below:
Racism
Genocide
Eugenics
Abortion
Euthanasia
Moral relativism
Communism
Atheism
Satanism
Homosexuality
Transgenderism
Collapse of traditional marriage
Suicide
Addiction (drugs/alcohol)
Gambling
Debt
Prostitution
Pornography
Pedophilia
Human trafficking
[JFC! Are humanists to blame for everything?]
What makes this list so lengthy is that the rationale for these things is often pinned to the belief that humans evolved via natural processes and that there are no absolute truths, ethics, or morality. In other words, once humanity decided to “shake off the shackles of religion,” they started down an inexorable path to all manner of sin.
….
Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without true Christianity (as well as theism, deism, polytheism, and other supernatural beliefs, despite their deficits), asserts humanity’s ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity. Atheistic humanist thought is the idea that when people are unshackled from religion and largely left free to pursue their own interests and goals, think for themselves, develop and hone their abilities, and operate in a social setting that promotes liberty, the number of beneficial discoveries and accomplishments increases and humanity moves further toward the goal of greater self-understanding, better laws, better institutions, and a good life.
….
At first, many of these “commitments” seem to borrow heavily from Christianity. Empathy, humility, responsibility, and altruism are core Christian values based on Scripture—especially the teachings of Christ and his apostles. But in the humanist religion, they are all based on introspection and have no real foundation or objective basis. Ultimately, humanists of all stripes decide for themselves what is right and wrong. The overarching question is this: Can humanity be good without God?
….
Moral relativism, a main component of humanistic beliefs, permeates our culture. We see the worship of idols (the god of self), rampant sexual sin of all types, people redefining moral absolutes (which ultimately come from Scripture) so that the death of infants and the elderly is seen as good, and the right to life is viewed as antiquated at best or evil at worst. Even biological reality is denied as people decide to base their gender on what they perceive it to be. Feelings are elevated above truth, indeed, and are now classified as determining truth. Even the meanings of words are twisted to accommodate such views. Pedophiles are rebranded as “minor-attracted persons,” and the murder of children is termed as removing a “clump of cells.”
….
Truly, as this article has attempted to illustrate, the atheistic, evolutionary humanist mindset is one that “loves death.” God cannot tolerate such evil as the killing of people made in his image (especially the most innocent and vulnerable) indefinitely. The only solution to this world’s fascination with death is forsaking sin, repenting, and trusting in Christ.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
How odd that a compassionate God uses such a mode … a book … to communicate with his mostly illiterate creation. By odd, I mean ridiculous…not of God but of us to look at a book written in a real human language and think, “Perfect! Obviously God’s word!” A real human language is a constantly evolving thing. Meanings drift. Spellings change. Pronunciation shifts. Metaphors and even definitions lose their intelligibility or gain totally different ones.
….
A truly good God would just speak to us … all of us .. whenever we had a question. When someone was misrepresenting his intent, he’d correct them in real-time and discuss why he felt a certain way or gave such an injunction or command or allowed such evil to occur due to some greater good. If he did suffer himself to write a book, it would be self-translating and modify itself to the belief system of the reader, such that it could reveal itself with the clarity and distinctness of raw, uninterpreted sense data. We could still choose to believe or not believe, worship or not worship, follow or not follow, of our own free will, but there would be no disagreement that God was real, and this is what he says about himself and his creation. In fact, this is the only way a good God, a compassionate God, a God who did not revel in billions of blind men, women, and children stumbling in ignorance towards their eternal doom, would act.
We call this “informed consent”. When I have more information and more knowledge, I can make better choices or at least make more informed choices. As I’m writing this now, I am being misinterpreted by every reader at some point in my argument. But anyone need only ask and I’ll clarify…personally. How is it that I, a being so much more limited than God, can do what God never does? I want people to interact with as accurate an interpretation of my ideas as is possible. To do that most effectively, I must know that misunderstandings will happen, and I will try to correct them to the best of my ability. If I am unwilling to clarify even the grossest misunderstandings, I cannot hold someone responsible for failing to understand my intent or my belief.
Unfortunately, we decided at some point that our stories were Truth and that science was a threat because both make claims about the natural world, and often these claims conflict. There is a battle for the future of humanity. If Science wins, we may actually have a future. We will at least face our problems in the here and now and tackle them in a manner up to the task and not colored by theological squeamishness. If Theism wins, then God help us all. My money, as much as it saddens me to say, is on theism stamping out progress. Theism has a long and glorious dalliance with fear and has cultivated its use to high art. And as science has shown, fear is the most motivating of forces.
My contention then is that God is but a sideshow; I highlight the absurdity of a supposedly compassionate God relying on ambiguous scriptures to guide us. Theological —Islamic, Jewish, Christian—stem from the same flawed medium I rail against. A divine presentation would know each reader, communicate, update, and respond. It would’ve spared us centuries of book-burning and observatory-wrecking. Instead, we’re left with human squabbles over divine intent, proving my point: a good God wouldn’t play hide-and-seek with truth. And so we can dispense with the notion.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
David Wood is an Evangelical evangelist and a psychopath. Wood readily admits he is a psychopath, though he does not think this disqualifies him from the ministry. Recently, Wood admitted raping several girls years ago.
After a livestream in November 2025, Wood confessed to having partaked in sexual activities with two minors when he himself was 18 years old. In the livestream, he described in graphic detail with Ridvan Aydemir, claiming that the 13-year old “flung herself at” him, and with respect to the 15-year old, said that he: “had anal sex with that girl”, before rhetorically asking: “do you know what that would be in court?” In response to a commenter saying that he should face consequences, Wood asked whether: “think they’d send me to prison based solely on me saying I did something?”
Julie Roys, an investigative journalist, criticized Wood’s confession as egregious and seemingly having a “lack of remorse”, for: attempting to minimize the weight of his crimes; by describing the girls as if they were willingly participants; insensitively describing the girls’ physical features; and describing the events flippantly.
Wood is a disgusting human being, unfit to be in the ministry. Yet, many of his devotees think he’s still qualified for the ministry; that his crimes were committed before Wood became a Christian, thus his past sins are under the blood of Jesus, forgiven and remembered no more. According to 1 John 1:9:
If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (NSRV)
And 2 Corthinthians 5:17 says:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (KJV)
According to the Bible, if any person is “in Christ”:
He is a new creature (creation)
His old life passes away
All things become new
To Evangelicals I ask, are you really a Christian? Are you a new creation in Jesus? Has your old life passed away? Do you live in a way that shows all things have become new?
As I read through the comment sections on various posts and videos about Wood’s immoral behavior, I was shocked by how many Christians defended Wood’s actions; that his crimes were committed before he was a Christian, so they have been wiped away by the wondrous blood and grace of Jesus. And yet these same people pompously say that Christianity provides them a superior moral and ethical framework by which to live by. Sorry, but defending a rapist and justifying his crimes as mere blemishes on his record before Jesus saved him is beyond disgusting. And for those Christians who think Wood is qualified to remain in the ministry as an apologist, would you let your teen daughters spend the weekend at his house?
Wood uses his psychopathy to justify raping the girls. According to Wood, these girls wanted it, so he didn’t really rape them. Wood claimed:
[One girl] “flung herself at me.” [With the other one, he had anal sex.] “I did nothing against their will. I didn’t forcibly do anything.”
Should Wood be given a pass for his past sex crimes? Should he be expelled permanently from the ministry? Is psychopathy a justification for criminal behavior? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
According to red words in the Bible, Jesus loves children and punishes anyone who causes them harm. Most of us agree with Jesus’ sentiment about the most vulnerable among us. Children are taught a song that says Jesus loves all the children of the world, regardless of their color. Again, few of us would reject this universal declaration of love and acceptance. Sunday after Sunday, preachers preach up the love of Jesus, yet ignore the fact that, as God, Jesus was anything but loving, kind, and accepting.
To Evangelicals I say, read the damn Bible — ALL OF IT. And then tell me what we should think of Jesus, the second person in the godhead — according to orthodox Christianity, anyway? Read the passages about God ordering violence, murder, enslavement, and rape. And if God ordered it, so did Jesus. The alleged Prince of Peace is anything but when you take the Bible as a whole. Only by proof-texting and using Bible gymnastics can Evangelicals absolve Jesus of culpability for the violent, murderous, perverse behaviors commanded or facilitated by God. Jesus is God, right? If so, it is logical to conclude that Jesus is just as culpable as the other two persons of the godhead: the Father and the Holy Ghost.
In the book of Genesis we find the “100 percent true” story of Noah and his big boat. This story is absurd at every point, but hundreds of millions of Christians and Muslims believe the earth is 6,028 years old, and about 4,000 years ago, God decided to destroy the entire human race — millions of people — with a flood. And so on the appointed day, it started raining and didn’t stop until the highest mountains were covered with water. Everyone died, except Noah and seven other people on his big, beautiful wood boat. God also killed billions of animals for no other reason than that he could. Our God is an awesome God, right?
Millions of people died, including women, children, babies, and fetuses. So much for claim that God loves the little children. He doesn’t. That many Evangelicals do love children is a testament to their humanism, and not God or their religion.
If you want to challenge my assertions in this post, all I ask is that you rebut my claims using the Bible, and that you accept what the Bible says contextually. Good luck with that, Sherlock.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.(Psalm 51:1-4 NRSV)
If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9 NRSV)
Have you ever wondered why some Evangelicals are arrogant, self-righteous pricks who relish in misusing, abusing, and lying about unbelievers. Without mentioning any names, who comes to mind when you think about this description of some Evangelical Christians? Right, me too. THOSE assholes, and no matter how you respond to or challenge them, their behavior remains unchanged. If it is evident — and it IS evident — that these believers live lives in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Bible, how is it that they consider themselves Christians? Are they not walking, talking contradictions to the commands that explicitly teach believers how they should behave and treat non-Christians? When challenged, out comes self-justification or claims that “everyone makes mistakes” or “God isn’t finished with me yet.”
Granted, Evangelicals who are psychopaths will not see anything wrong with their ill-bred behavior, but most followers of Jesus will recognize bad behavior in themselves. “But, Bruce, if this is true why do most offending Evangelicals not apologize or make amends to those they have attacked, offended, or harmed?” Good question, and here’s the answer.
Evangelicals are taught from the get-go that bad behavior requires confession to God so he can forgive them of their sins. 1 John 1:9 says: If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Note that believers in this text are NOT required to apologize or make appropriate amends to those they offended. All that matters is receiving God’s forgiveness and him wiping the sin slate clean. This a process that many Evangelicals practice multiple times A DAY! Does not the Bible say, “Pray without ceasing”? The late John R. Rice said about this verse that believers should keep their prayer lists short. So if you cast your eye towards Sister Bertha’s shapely ass and have a lustful thought, you should immediately avert your eyes and ask God for forgiveness. And just like that, your slate is wiped clean, though it may take longer for your erection to subside. No need to admit your misogyny and sexism and take steps to NOT have perverse thoughts (and I am not saying a momentary thought = perversion. If it does, we are ALL perverts) about Bertha’s ass. All sorts of bad Evangelical behavior is wiped away with a simple prayer: Lord, I am sorry. Please forgive me. That’s why some preachers who commit sex crimes think forgiveness and restoration to the ministry are but a prayer away. If God forgives them, so should everyone else, including the children, teens, and women they abused and sexually molested.
David, a man after God’s own heart, raped Bathsheba and murdered Uriah, her husband. David’s punishment? God killed his child and raped, through the hands of Absalom, ten of his concubines. Did David confess his sins to Bathsheba or his family, apologizing for the rape of Bathsheba and death of their child, the murder of Uriah, and the rape of his concubines? Of course not. David was a good Evangelical. Note this words in Psalm 51: Against you, you alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Not one word about those whom he harmed.
So it is with many Evangelicals. No need to apologize, make amends, or restitution. Just shoot a prayer to God, asking for forgiveness, and in the blink of an eye your bad behavior is wiped away and remembered no more. Awesome, right? No need to be a decent, thoughtful, caring human being. As long as you have settled the score with God, all is well.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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As an Evangelical pastor and devout student of the Bible, I saw the “alleged” contradictions and errors. I knew there were verses that contradicted with each other in it. When I ran into verses that were antithetical to each other, I typically studied the verse in its original language, read what commentaries said on the verse, and consulted several “Answers to Bible Contradictions” books I owned. Usually, this process would satisfactorily give me what I needed to be sure that what I was reading was straight from God himself. Or so I thought, anyway.
Occasionally, my studies left me more confused than when I started. Was I reading an actual contradiction or error in the Word of God? Surely, this cannot be, I thought. God says the Bible is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. How could the Bible have errors or mistakes if it is inspired, inerrant, and infallible? Talk about a contradiction.
Ultimately, when faced with insurmountable contradictions or errors, I appealed to faith, believing that every word in the Bible was true; trusting that, in time, God would give me understanding about about the alleged textual problems. I implicitly believed that God would one day make all things known to me, and if not in this life, then in the life to come. And if not in eternity? I trusted that God would ALWAYS do what was best for me.
This I believed for almost fifty years. It was not until I learned that the contradictions and errors of the Bible could not be explained away or justified that I began to question what it was I really believed. And once the genie in the bottle was released, there was no going back.
Were you raised in Evangelicalism? Did you ever come upon contractions and errors in the Bible? How did you reconcile them, or did you even try? Please leave your pithy thoughts in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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