Thirty years ago — I was thirty-eight — I pastored Our Father’s House in West Unity, Ohio. As Polly and our children will attest, I was a busy preacher, a workaholic who rarely took time off from the ministerial grind. In the summer of 1995, I started feeling tired all the time. I wasn’t sleeping. My muscles ached. I wondered, “What is wrong with me?”
I sought out the care of a primary care doctor in Defiance, Ohio, who gave me a half-assed exam, drew no blood, and decided that my real problem is that I was depressed over my mom’s death FOUR YEARS EARLIER! That, of course, was so far from the truth that it wasn’t funny. I told this medical school reject that I wasn’t depressed. My body hurt, and I needed to figure out why.
The next year, I saw a primary care doctor in Bryan, Ohio. This man is still my doctor to this day. After months of examinations, tests, and research, he concluded that I have fibromyalgia. The past thirty years have proven this diagnosis to be true. Over the years, other diagnoses were added to my chart: gastroparesis, endocrine pancreatic insufficiency, osteoarthritis, and degenerative spine disease — all incurable. All doctors can do for me is treat my symptoms — to varying degrees of success.
There are other health problems that I have given up on. I have been to numerous specialists, each concluding that they don’t know what’s wrong with me. I asked one doctor what I should do next. All I got was a shoulder shrug and an “I don’t know.” My primary care doctor told me that I am an enigma to him. I am oh-so-special, right?
Americans want to believe that doctors are miracle workers. They are not. Skilled, competent practitioners of medicine? You bet. But miracle workers they are not. They all have patients like me, people they can’t do much for much for. This is especially true for chronic pain sufferers. I saw a neurosurgeon last week. More surgery may be on the horizon, though I am weighing whether I want to have it. I asked him about the severe neuropathic pain in my legs. Unbearable, at times, to say the least. He bluntly told me, “No, there’s really nothing that can be done for your pain.” Of course, I already knew that. I know my body inside and out. When doctors tell me something I don’t know, I go home and research the hell out of the subject. I know that there’s not much that can be done for neuropathic pain. Live with it, or die. Some days, the latter seems preferable.
I have an EMG (electromyography) scheduled next week. The neurosurgeon wants to see if he can pinpoint the locus of my neuropathic pain. I am not optimistic that anything will come from this, but since I have never had an EMG on my legs, I thought it would be a good idea to have the test done. Maybe a miracle diagnosis awaits, right?
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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When you read articles like this who say people are leaving Christianity, they are not really leaving at all. What is happening is that fake Christians are leaving long dead churches that have the appearance of life.
Kevin Schaal would have us believe that the people leaving Christianity are all fake Christians; that anyone who deconverted is a fraud. Surely Schaal knows this claim is a lie. Surely he knows people who left Christianity who were committed followers of Jesus Christ. Does he really believe that these former Christians, who were pastors, evangelists, missionaries, youth pastors, worship leaders, deacons, Sunday school teachers, or junior church workers — all people who were devoted believers — are all frauds?
No, the real issue here is Schaal’s Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) soteriology. Once a person is saved, they never, ever can lose their salvation. Whether called once-saved-always-saved or the perseverance/preservation of the saints, the bottom line is this: once a person prays the sinner’s prayer, they are forever saved. The problem, of course, is that born again church members can and do walk away from Christianity. Some IFB preachers claim that these scoffers are saved, no matter what; that they will lose rewards in Heaven because they weren’t faithful until the end.
I suspect Schaal finds the very thought of people such as the Evangelical-preacher-turned-atheist Bruce Gerencser being in Heaven with him disgusting, so he cooks up ways to claim that these defectors were never Christians. According to the quote above, Schaal believes people like me were fake Christians. Talk about a conspiracy theory. Schaal would have us believe that these former servants of the most high God deceived everyone around them. Does he realize how absurd this is? I would have had to deceive scores of people, including close friends, colleagues in the ministry, professors, IFB family, and five IFB preachers in my wife’s family. This is about as believable as the moon landing hoax or the existence of God.
Regardless of Schaal’s rigid theology, followers of Jesus do deconvert. They do reach a place in their lives where the central claims of Christianity no longer make any sense to them. The deconversion process is messy, but in the end, those who deconvert do so because they can no longer buy what Christianity is selling.
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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Some of you may remember that I moved from Hostinger to Rocket as the host for this site. Up until two days ago, everything worked as it should. But then, I started having problems with receiving contact form submissions and comment notifications. I contacted Rocket support, only to find out that they can’t fix the problem; that the real issue was that Google decided to block the use of Gmail accounts to “send” the emails. Fixing this problem requires me to have a domain email address (i.e. xxx@brucegerencser.net instead of xxx@gmail.com) which Rocket cannot provide since they don’t provide email service for hosted domains. So, on to SiteGround.
The site was moved tonight, so it may take a day for everything to propagate worldwide. If you notice any bugs or quirks, please let me know so I can — if possible — fix them. So far, everything works, but I have no doubt that there is a bug lurking in the shadows, waiting to bite me. 🙂
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 attended a large public high school in the early 1970s. After I became a born again Christian at the age of fifteen, I purposed to carry my KJV Bible to school every day, hand out tracts to my classmates, invite them to church, and witness for Christ at every opportunity. I was one of the most religious students in the school. I wore my Christianity proudly, even when I was mocked and ridiculed. I still remember several of my classmates “stealing” my Bible and playing keep away with it, tossing it from student to student. Eventually, they tired of their game and let me have my Bible back. Was I embarrassed? Nope. I was proud to have been persecuted for Jesus.
I took biology in tenth grade — an anti-Evangelical class if there ever was one. My teacher expected me to give science answers to test questions, which I did. However, I also wrote Bible verses on my test paper, complete with theological commentary, making sure my teacher knew the TRUTH! I also wrote for my English class a report about the Baptists being the “true” Christian church. I got an A on the report. My teacher wrote “interesting” on my paper in red pencil.
Recently, University of Oklahoma student Samantha Fulnecky received an “F” for giving Bible verses and personal opinions as an answer to an essay question. Fulnecky screamed PERSECUTION, and the teacher was placed on administrative leave.
A University of Oklahoma student is in the national spotlight for claiming religious discrimination after she failed a psychology essay.
Samantha Fulnecky, a junior at OU, received a zero on an assignment, asking students to react to an article on gender roles. After receiving her grade, she filed a complaint with the university.
….
Fulnecky is a junior at OU. She is from Nixa, Missouri, according to a biography on OU Women’s Tennis page. She was listed on the Women’s Tennis roster for the 2024-25 season.
She spoke to KOCO 5 after filing the complaint against the professor.
“I gave my opinion, and, not just my opinion, but that’s like the Bible says that God created male and female, and anything that’s not from God, is glorifying to God, is glorifying to the enemy,” Fulnecky said.
Fulnecky said she reached out to the teaching assistant to reconsider the grade before filing a formal complaint with the university.
“It’s that I think I should have gotten 100. I’ve gotten 100 on every single essay in this class, and I write them all the same—exactly the same. The TA has never had a problem with how I write my papers in this class. So, it has nothing to do with the title, or grammar, or how I write, or anything like that,” Fulnecky said.
….
On the essay rubric, the grading was based on whether there was an understanding of the article, whether it was a clear reaction, and whether the main ideas were organized in a coherent discussion.
The assignment was worth 25 points.
….
The graduate instructor, who did not wish the comment on the story, said the essay did not follow the assignment guidelines and was “at times offensive.” The instructor said it lacked empirical evidence.
“Please note that I am not deducting points because you have certain beliefs, but instead I am deducting points for you posting a reaction paper that does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class, and is at times offensive,” the instructor said in the grading comments, according to screenshots posted by OU’s Turning Point USA chapter.
“While you are entitled to your own personal beliefs, there is an appropriate time or place to implement them in your reflections. I encourage all students to question or challenge the course material with other empirical findings or testable hypotheses, but using your own personal beliefs to argue against the findings of not only this article, but the findings of countless articles across psychology, biology, sociology, etc. is not best practice”
The instructor also responded to Fulnecky’s claims that society pushing the idea of multiple genders is “demonic.”
“Additionally, to call an entire group of people “demonic” is highly offensive, especially a minoritized population. You are entitled to your own beliefs, but this isn’t a vague narrative of “society pushes lies,” but instead the result of countless years developing psychological and scientific evidence for these claims and directly interacting with the communities involved. You may personally disagree with this, but that doesn’t change the fact that every major psychological, medical, pediatric, and psychiatric association in the United States acknowledges that, biologically and psychologically, sex and gender is neither binary nor fixed,” the instructor, who is a transgender woman, commented.
Fulnecky told KOCO that she did not mean for the “demonic” comments to be offensive.
A second instructor for the course also commented on the essay, saying they agreed with the grade given to Fulnecky.
“This paper should not be considered as a completion of the assignment,” said the second instructor’s comments, according to screenshots from Turning Point USA.
When Fulnecky received zero out of 25 points on the assignment, filed a complaint against OU, claiming her religious freedom was violated.
The instructor was placed on administrative leave. The university confirmed to KOCO that the essay would not count toward Fulnecky’s final grade.
Welcome to the wonderful world for whiny, butthurt Evangelical Christians who scream persecution anytime they don’t get their way. The essay question in question required the student to access academic materials and respond accordingly. You know, materials specifically related to disciplines such as sociology, biology, and psychology. She refused to do this, choosing instead to give personal opinions and Bible proof texts. That she got an F was deserved.
Fullnecky will be lionized by the religious right. She will soon be featured on Fox News, ONN, and platformed at Turning Point USA events. She will likely sue the teachers and the university. Why? Cuz that’s what Evangelicals do.
This is yet another example of the preferential treatment Evangelicals demand, and if they don’t get it, there will be hell to pay. What say ye? Please leave your astute 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.
Want to annoy the hell out of me? Assume familiarity with me that you do not have. I am acutely aware of this during the Christmas season when complete strangers think they have a right to touch me because I look like Santa. And when I say touch I mean stroking my beard, giving me a hug, or as one drunken 40 year old woman did at a local basketball game in front of my neighbors, sitting on my lap so they can tell me what they want for Christmas. (And let me be clear, if someone politely asks me if they can touch me or take my photo, I always say yes. Yesterday, we ate at Panera Bread in Toledo. A woman, as excited to see me as if she had just won the lottery, asked if she could take a photo with me. I said sure. I did make a snarky comment about the photo ending up on OnlyFans. I have embraced my inner Krampus, uh I mean Santa Claus.)
I enjoy going out to eat with Polly. We are at a place in life where we enjoy fine dining when money allows. Imagine going to an upscale restaurant, only to have a server with a truck stop voice say, “What can I get for you tonight, hon, honey, dear, or sweetie?” Argh, not a good start — at least for me.
Sadly, some servers likely picked up bad habits working at a truck stop, diner, or strip club. Missed was the lesson about not being overtly familiar with your customers, especially when you are meeting them for the first time. Well, at a strip club, overt familiarity is good for business — or so I have been told anyway. 🙂
I know, I know, with Trump trying to destroy our country, it’s silly to talk about how servers address me. However, this is a pet peeve of mine, so this is my blog and I am going to bitch. 🙂
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.
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of scientists, hopes of children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement.
— President Dwight Eisenhower
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.
And I [God] will cause them [Jews] to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them. (Jeremiah 19:9 KJV)
It is clear from this passage of Scripture that God CAUSED the Jews to eat the bodies of their children and neighbors. In other words, God (Jesus) turned the Jews into cannibals. This is no rare occurrence. Any cursory reading of the Bible reveals a God who has no problem maiming and slaughtering fetuses, babies, children, men, women, and developmentally disabled people who dare to cross him. I can’t find one story in the Bible where the punishment and judgment meted out by God is justified for any other reason than he could. And that’s the argument Evangelicals often use to justify God’s violent, immoral behavior. “God can do whatever he wants,” Evangelical shout. Does this mean that the allegedly “moral” law of God doesn’t apply to an allegedly “moral” God himself?
Why did God judge the Jews so harshly? Jeremiah 19:3-5 says:
Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind.
Evidently, the Jews were worshipping other deities before the God of Israel. Is this a behavior worthy of the judgment God (Jesus) meted out upon the Jews? “Hey, you worship Baal, so I plan to cause a famine that will leave you so hungry that you will kill, roast, and eat your children and neighbors.” What an awesome God, right?
If anything God commands is moral, just, and right, Evangelicals are forced to justify behaviors that most of us consider immoral. Evangelicals often appeal to “divine command theory” to justify their immoral behavior. “If God commands me to do something, I am duty bound to obey him, even if the world thinks I am behaving immorally.” Thus, when asked if God (Jesus) commanded them to build an altar and sacrifice their son — as Abraham did — they would do it! Why? Cuz God told them to do so!
“Oh, Bruce, God would never command that today.” Really, have you read the book of Revelation? Talk about a violent deity, who goes to the ends of the earth to torture and murder everyone who refuses to worship him. Besides, doesn’t the Bible say that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever? If so, the God of the Hebrew Bible is the same God as in the New Testament. Did he not say, “I am the Lord, thy God, and I change not.” Sorry, but if you are Trinitarian, your Jesus is God and he is just as culpable for all the deity-driven violence in the Bible as his Father. Ditto for the Holy Spirit.
One of the first things Evangelicals need to learn to do is say NO to God, Jesus, and their pastors. If God commands you to do something you know is unethical or immoral, just say NO. Further, just because the Bible commands you to do something doesn’t means you should. THINK before giving in to the voice that is allegedly whispering in your ear.
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.
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.
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