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.
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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.
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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?
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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.”
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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.
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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.
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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.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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.
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.
“Dr.” George Bell, founder and pastor of Anchor Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, was accused in 2024 of four counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition involving a minor under the age of 10. Anchor Baptist is an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation.
George Bell, 72, of Grove City, appeared Tuesday for arraignment in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on four counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition involving a minor under the age of 10. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on a $20,000 recognizance bond, according to court records.
Bell was formerly the pastor at Anchor Baptist Church, located at 3699 Clime Road on the city’s Far West Side, which he founded in 1989.
Court records say the alleged assaults occurred between 2021 and June 2024. The sexual assault charges do not involve a member of Bell’s congregation, authorities said.
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A statement on the church’s website said he resigned in front of the congregation in June, citing personal reasons.
As a church, we are committed to full transparency and to the truth throughout this process. We have been and continue to fully cooperate with any law enforcement and the justice system. We invite you to join us in prayer for and support of victims, their families, and individuals involved. We continue to remain loyal to God’s Word and the principles established in Scripture. We sincerely desire your prayers for us to have Godly wisdom and clear direction as we move forward. We were previously informed by law enforcement that there was no evidence of any incident on church property or involving any church member. Recent events have verified this. Colossians 1:18 “… that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
Our former pastor, George Bell, submitted a resignation letter which was read to Anchor Baptist Church after the Thursday evening service on June 27, 2024. Pastor Bell cited personal reasons for his immediate resignation and did not go into details. To our knowledge there was nothing untoward involving church members or church property. We are grateful for his and Mrs. Bell’s years of service to Anchor Baptist Church and ask for your prayers for them during this difficult time. Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
Anchor Baptist Church will continue forward for the cause of Christ. Please pray for church leadership as we seek God’s will and follow our Constitution, By-Laws, and Statement of Faith. The deacons and staff have unanimously selected Bro. Peter A. Cordrey to serve as the interim pastor. During this transition, we will maintain the same schedule and activities. We will act with integrity and transparency in this process. Colossians 1:18 “… that in all things he might have the preeminence.”
Due to new information that has come to our attention, we are amending our previous statement released on July 3. Our testimony in this community is of the utmost importance to us. We now know that there was more to the unexpected resignation of our former pastor, George Bell, than we were originally led to believe. It breaks our heart to discover that there have been serious allegations and an indictment that have been brought. Any conduct that is contrary to the Bible and our laws as citizens are unacceptable and not tolerated. In light of this new information, we endeavor to make clear our stand to our church family and to our community.
We have been and will be cooperating fully with law enforcement and the justice system.
We are committed to full transparency and to the truth throughout this process.
As a church, we are loyal to God’s Word and the principles established in Scripture.
We sincerely desire your prayers for us to have Godly wisdom and clear direction as we seek God’s help and guidance.
We get it, your pastor is a pervert and you say you didn’t know ANYTHING about his proclivities. In time, the truth shall be known — no prayers or “understanding” needed. My advice? Stop making statements and carefully consider whether the church was in any way culpable in Bell’s crimes. Quoting Bible verses rings hollow when sexual abuse against children is the crime. Readers of this site are familiar with rampant IFB cover-ups of criminal misconduct by pastors, evangelists, missionaries, youth pastors, bus drivers, music directors, choir directors, and Christian school administrators and teachers. Your commitment to “full transparency and to the truth” remains to be seen. I do hope you are true to your words.
I was born in the very poor and crime-ridden area of North Columbus, Ohio. Of four girls and two boys, I was the second youngest. My only brother was to play a key part in my life as a sinner and a Christian.
My parents were not close. I never heard my dad and mom exchange an “I love you” or show much affection at all. My dad never had much time for us kids, and I personally never heard my dad say to me, “I love you” or “I am proud of you” while I was growing up. My parents were not Christians and never attended church, though my mother and grandmother tried taking us to a Seventh-day Adventist church for about a year. We were not taught to pray anything more than a bedtime prayer and never read the Bible. No church people ever stopped by the Bell house to present the Gospel. No bus workers ever stopped by to see if the Bell children could go to church.
I was eleven years old. A woman I did not know was standing in our living room. My mother was there, and all of us kids were ushered into the room. The woman stranger then asked us if we wanted to live with our dad or our mom. I could not understand what was really going on, but I heard the others say, “Mom,” so I did, too. Not long after, my mom and dad were divorced after twenty-one years of marriage. As I grew older, it did not surprise me as to the reason why: my dad was a drunkard, a womanizer, and abusive to my mom and us kids.
That event seemed to open the floodgates of tragedy. The family continued to fall apart. For the first time in twenty-one years my mother had to get a job. My sisters began to date, go to slumber parties, and run with other bad kids. My brother, Bill, started fighting, drinking, and gambling. He was good at it, and I emulated him. By age thirteen I was already smoking, drinking, and running the streets. After having several altercations with the police, my mother thought it would be best to leave the small suburb where we lived and move to the west side of Columbus.
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I was seventeen-and-a-half years old. In September of 1969, I volunteered for the Army. Because I was very physically fit and tough, I liked basic training. In A. I. T. (advanced individual training) at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, I met my first airborne sergeant. As a result of our meeting, I determined I wanted to be an Airborne Ranger. From a worldly viewpoint, I thought I was finally on track at the age of eighteen. I found something I was good at that those around me appreciated me doing. Like any other teenager, I was starving for attention, and if being a “gung-ho” soldier would do it, then why not?
After airborne training, while waiting to get on a list for Green Beret (the next step before getting into Ranger school), I again fell in with the wrong crowd. I was living in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I was eighteen with no dad to call for answers, no paster with whom to get counsel, and no Christian friends upon whom to rely. With my security level and self-confidence basically non-existent, it was easy to follow a strong voice of any kind. The wrong crowd began to convince me that the government and military were all against me and giving my best to them was a joke. They taught me to rebel, disobey, make fun of authority and look for an opportunity to get out of the Army. They introduced me to illicit drugs. I had smoked cigarettes since I was eleven and drank since I was thirteen, but now I encountered marijuana and LSD. The early success of my military career notwithstanding, since nothing I had ever wanted, tried or was good at last long, it was not surprise that my life continued to go down. Because of never having a Christian background and never being witnessed to of Jesus, I assumed my condition was just bad luck and that it was bound to change sooner or later. But it did not. Without going into detail, I got into deep trouble while at Fort Bragg. Once again, I came before a judge and was told that if I was found guilty, I could receive a maximum sentence of 15 to 25 years in the penitentiary.
I had nowhere to turn. Because I was in trouble, I called my brother Bill, thinking he would understand. I really did not want help; I wanted help out of trouble. On the phone he said, “I can’t help you live like that. I go to church now.” And he hung up. He had gotten saved. My idol and example changed directions on me. The person I thought would always understand and side with me had abandoned me.
At eighteen my life had added up to zero and now I was looking at prison time. Don’t ask me why people do it or where it comes from, but it seems whenever people are in real trouble in life, they somehow find themselves in a church house. While walking across a parade field on base, I noticed a small while church house situated there on a hill. I opened the door, walked inside, sat on a pew, and through tears got down on my knees and pleaded with God, “If you get me out of this mess, I will never do it again.” Of course, the prayer was nothing more than selfish plea-bargaining. I remember when I was done, I felt as lonely and as empty as I was before I knelt. Oh, had a real Baptist preacher or soul winning been there to guide this blind, hurting, and lost soul!
….
I never met a Christian while in Vietnam. No one ever talked to me of Christ, and no one spoke of church. But one day while being re-supplied in the jungle, word was spreading that a chaplain was coming out. I remember many men went over to him. He spoke to us, and though I do not remember what he spoke, he prayed for us and gave all of us a little Bible. Though I did not read it, I thought it was incredibly nice of him to do that for me. Oh, but had someone, anyone, interrupted my life! Had someone spoken up and at least shared the Gospel with this young man seemingly doomed for Hell, but “no man cared for my soul.”
Still in the Army but back in America at age nineteen, my rebellion and hatred grew for everyone and everything. Little did I know I was about to come face to face with two people, Jesus and my brother Bill, who were not afraid of me and were determined to change me.
I came back to America just before I was discharged from the Army. At that time I met a girl whose daddy preached at a small by fiery Baptist church out in the country. Her dad said that if I wanted to see her I had to come to church. I did not know that it was the same church that my brother had gotten saved in and was attending. No one knew I was coming that night. I had never been in a Baptist church before, and though it was not a fundamental Baptist church, they believed in fiery preaching and sinners getting saved by Jesus.
A young man who had recently been called to preach was preaching that night. As I sat there I was dumb-founded that he seemed to know all I had been doing, and then he was telling everyone! I honestly believe that at the age of nineteen, for the first time in my life I heard about sin, wickedness, Jesus dying, and men needing to get right. They did not teach soul winning in that church. They believed folks should be saved, but they just believed the Holy Spirit and the sinner would work it all out when they met at the altar. So at the end of the church service, with my brother pleading with me to come back in and pray, I walked out. Between that first time I attended a Baptist church and the second time I attend (which is when I got saved), I had gotten busted four grades in the military, almost killed two people in a car accident, was almost sent to prison again, and was numb to the world and everything in it.
At twenty years of age, I was discharged from the military and found myself back in Columbus. More trouble with fighting, drugs and jail had inundated my life. Now I had lost everything. I literally had no friends, no job, no money, no car, no drugs or booze and no place to live. My mother said I could move back home until everything got better. And who lived behind my mother’s house? My brother, Bill, “the preacher.” It seemed that every evening he was over at my mother’s house talking to my mom and sisters about the Bible and telling them that they should be saved. He would beg and plead with them to come to church. I would stand by the back door and ignore the whole thing, wanting nothing to do with it. But each time he left to go back home after being turned down again by the family, he would stop and invite me to go to church with him. As always, I would turn him down.
Then came April 14, 1972. That evening I was once again standing and staring out the back door of my mother’s home when once again my brother came over to invite everyone to church. Once again, they all turn him down. And as usual, on his way out, he stopped to talk to his little brother. “Would you like to go to church with me tonight?” he said. “There is no preaching, just singing.” I told him, “I don’t have a shirt.” He said, “I’ll get you one.” “Well, I don’t have any dress pants.” “Would you quit worrying about it and just go?” he pleaded. There was one statement my brother always used when trying to get me to come to Christ. He would say, as he said that night, “I know someone Who will help you if you just let Him.” Finally, I relented and said, “Okay.”
As soon as we walked into that Baptist church on that cool Saturday night, I felt unclean and dirty. I thought this was no place for a guy like me. Before the service even started, I was overwhelmed with guilt. We found our place on the fourth row to the pulpit’s right. Outwardly I tried to return the friendliness the people showed to me. People who did not even know me acted as though they cared about me. I shook their hand. I gave a nod and a “hello.” Yet as I quietly sat there, an immense struggle began inside me.
The service began. We stood and began to sing a full-throated congregational song. Unhindered tears began to run down my face. I wanted to hide my face. We sat down and I buried my face in my hands questioned and reasoned: “What’s going on?” While an average church service continued, two voices raged in my mind. One rehearsed the same old routine of promises: “Don’t give in! Remember that party? That girl is waiting. What about your friends?” The other promised nothing, it said, “Come on. It’s the right thing to do. Come on.”
There seemed to be no one else in that room but me. Like a rush it dawned on me that the old voice was lying to me. I thought, “I have no friends out there. No one wants me around anymore. What do I care what they think?” I had heard the preacher say (yes, there was preaching that night), “You who need to be saved need to pray and ask Jesus to forgive you.” I did not know what to do. He said to pray. I had never been taught to pray. I did not know how, but I made up my mind to do whatever it would take to find relief. I was broken. With my heart breaking, my lips trembling, and my cheeks dripping with tears, I turned to my brother and said, “Bill, what do I do?” He simply stepped into the aisle and pointed toward the altar.
My heart was bursting inside. I ran to the altar and in a child-like trust begged Jesus in the only words I could form, “Oh, Jesus, forgive me; forgive me; forgive me; forgive me; I’m sorry; I’m sorry; I’m sorry…” This was the simple prayer of a lonely, empty, sinful man. I knew nothing of Bible doctrine or Christianity.
….
I am now Dr. George E. Bell, pastor and founder of Anchor Baptist Church and schools in Columbus, Ohio. The church started with ten people (six of whom were my own family) in a recreation center, on July 30, 1989. Currently (2002), our average Sunday morning attendance is over 550. We run six bus routes, average 110 soul winners out each week, average 100 baptisms a month, and have over 40 Sunday school classes. We have just built a 6,000 square foot education building and have property worth well over a million dollars. Our church has led our state in baptisms for the last four years.
Bell recently pleaded guilty to rape and was sentenced to at least fifteen years in prison.
A former Columbus pastor accused of raping a juvenile pleaded guilty and was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison, according to Franklin County Court of Common Pleas documents.
George Bell was indicted last year on four counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition with the alleged crimes reportedly happening between 2021 and 2024. According to the indictment, the victim was under the age of 10.
Bell pleaded guilty to two counts of rape. The other charges were dismissed.
He was sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison and must register as a Tier III sex offender.
Bell was a pastor at Anchor Baptist Church in Columbus at the time of the incidents.
The church said in a statement last year that Bell had resigned in front of the church on June 27, 2024, citing personal reasons.
Bell founded Anchor Baptist Church in 1989 and served for almost 35 years as pastor before he resigned.
Back in my IFB days, I was a casual acquaintance of Bell. Our paths crossed at preacher’s meetings and conferences in Columbus.
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.
Lindsey Whiteside, a youth pastor at Getwell Church in Hernando, Mississippi, and high school basketball coach, was accused of having sex with a minor girl under her care. She was later sentenced to house arrest for her crimes, leading to widespread condemnation of the judge.
Recently, Whiteside was rearrested, this time on federal charges.
Chief Judge Debra Brown reversed Whiteside’s bond decision Wednesday, and she was taken back into custody by U.S. Marshals pending her federal trial.
The former DeSoto County youth pastor and basketball coach has been out of jail since October 31 and living at her mother’s house after Federal Magistrate Judge Jane Virden ruled to allow house incarceration as she waits for a federal trial for federal charges.
Judge Brown stated that she weighed a few different things when making her ruling Wednesday, including Whiteside’s previous bond conditions, GPS monitoring, and the defense’s downplay of the relationship between Whiteside and the then-16-year-old victim.
Whiteside walked into the federal court building with her family and attorney on Wednesday, but she did not walk out with them.
Last month, she pleaded not-guilty to federal charges of transporting a minor across state lines for sexual purposes.
During the four-hour evidentiary hearing Wednesday, the defense argued that Whiteside was not a danger to the community.
Her attorney, Tony Farese, said she has been out on bond and in home incarceration since Halloween with no issues.
He also said this case stems from a consensual relationship between Whiteside and the teenage victim.
Farese said it was not predatory, and that is why he argued Whiteside is not a danger to the community.
Farese mentioned a report by Desoto County Deputy Miranda Fox that said “what was done to one, was done to the other,” and Fox also testified Wednesday that the victim was not forced into the relationship.
The prosecution disagreed with the arguments made by the defense. U.S. Attorney Parker King said Whiteside groomed the victim and the victim’s mother by gaining their trust.
During a brief recess before the ruling, the victim’s mother, teary-eyed, told Action News 5, “A minor can not consent.”
The mother went on to say that her daughter has to keep the memories of what happened to her and shared that she is going through a lot. She mentioned this after the defense argued this was a consensual relationship.
The judge mentioned she was “troubled” by the defense’s reference that this was a “sexual dating relationship.”
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 Red Collar Scandal Series relies on public news stories for its content. If you read a story about an Evangelical preacher who can’t keep his pants zipped up, please send it to Bruce Gerencser.
Samuel Renihan has resigned as the pastor (elder) of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in La Mirada, California, after confessing he engaged in an adulterous relationship.
Prominent Reformed Baptist Pastor Samuel D. Renihan has resigned as the leader of Trinity Reformed Baptist Church in La Mirada, California, after confessing to engaging in an adulterous relationship.
“I have sinned in an exceedingly wicked way. This past week it was discovered that I have committed adultery. The Lord, whose Spirit yearns jealously for his people (James 4:5), the Lord, who is an avenger in these things (1 Thess. 4:6), exposed my sin. To my great shame, I did not bring it to light,” Renihan wrote on his blog Petty France on Monday.
Renihan, whose father is prominent Reformed Baptist Pastor James Renihan, is well-known in the Reformed Baptist community and has authored several books, including The Mystery of Christ and His Covenant.
Trinity Reformed Baptist Church did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Christian Post on Wednesday.
In his public confession, Renihan used multiple Scriptures to define his “stiff-necked sin” and said he was caught in arrogance.
“As a minister, I should have set an example in holiness, but by my unholiness I have made myself unfruitful and ineffective (2 Pet. 1:8), a warning, an example never to be imitated (1 Tim 5:20),” he declared. “Such clear warnings should have deterred me from sin in the first place, but I was the greatest of fools.”
Though he did not share many specifics about his sin, Renihan said he “read a letter of confession to my church, resigned from the office of pastor, and submitted myself to the judgment and discipline of the church.”
“I am deeply ashamed of my sin. All sin deserves damnation, but some sins are far worse than others, and mine is exceedingly wicked. The only way that I can honor and glorify God, and the only way that I can do anything to help those whom I have hurt is through the grace of repentance,” he added. “The Scriptures say, ‘By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil’ (Prov. 16:6). I do fear the LORD, and by his grace and help I will show steadfast love and faithfulness to God, to my wife, and to Christ’s church.”
Renihan, who has written for organizations such as Ligonier Ministries, said he also made confessions of his sin to “various institutions and organizations” he was affiliated with so “their good names may not be sullied by my sin. “
“I have also unpublished my self-published theological works,” he added. “I thank God that my wife has graciously forgiven me. I have humbled myself before God as a wicked sinner, praying that he would lift me up. And now I humble myself before a broader audience, asking only that you forgive me my hypocrisy and give glory to the Good Shepherd who will never leave or forsake his flock. By his grace, may my repentance be as notorious as my sin.”
Shocker, another Evangelical preacher gets caught fucking someone who is not his wife. What’s interesting in this story is Renihan’s confession. As someone who formerly ran in Sovereign Grace Baptist/Reformed Baptist circles, what I spotted right away in Renihan’s admission was a plethora of Puritan sounding verbiage. Instead of a simple admission of guilt, Renihan says things such as:
I am deeply ashamed of my sin. All sin deserves damnation, but some sins are far worse than others, and mine is exceedingly wicked. The only way that I can honor and glorify God, and the only way that I can do anything to help those whom I have hurt is through the grace of repentance. The Scriptures say, ‘By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil’ (Prov. 16:6). I do fear the LORD, and by his grace and help I will show steadfast love and faithfulness to God, to my wife, and to Christ’s church.”
Renihan could have said, I’m sorry for fucking Elder Bubba’s wife. Instead, Renihan delivered what I call a “sermon apology,” Instead of a simple confession and apology, Renihan used his press release as an opportunity to preach to others.
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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