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OMG! I Have Proof That the Rapture is Imminent!

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hicksville ohio earthquake

For 2,000 years, Christian preachers have been saying Jesus is coming to Earth soon. As the 1976 gospel song by Andre Crouch goes:

Soon and very soon
We are going to see the King
Soon and very soon
We are going to see the King
Soon and very soon
We are going to see the King
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
We’re going to see the king

Soon and very soon? Every generation of believers believed that Jesus would return to Earth while they were still alive. And every generation of believers died without seeing Jesus face-to-face. In the 1970s and 1980s, in particular, Evangelicals were certain that Jesus was going to rapture them away, safe from the wrath and judgment God planned to pour on the Earth, as recorded in the book of Revelation. Alas, most preachers who prophesied that the rapture was nigh died, proving themselves to be false prophets. Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, Harold Camping, Herbert W. Armstrong, Edgar Whisenant, Jerry Falwell, and Ed Dobson — all pushing up daisies in the cemetery — predicted Jesus’s return in their lifetime.

These days, Evangelicals have largely given up on making predictions about the second coming of Jesus. Tired of waiting for Jesus to show up again, Evangelicals have taken to building a kingdom on earth through raw political power. They do not need Jesus; Trump is their Lord.

Earlier today, Defiance County, Ohio residents experienced an earth-shaking event that I hope will change their minds about the rapture. I spent fifty years of my life hearing Evangelical preachers preach passionate sermons about the imminent return of Jesus. Countless sermons were preached from Matthew 24:

And as he [Jesus] sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

….

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

….

And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Astute readers of the Bible will notice that I have skipped a number of Bible verses. I did this because that is exactly what many, if not most Evangelical preachers do. Their goal is to make a point or advance an agenda instead of properly exegeting the Word of God. If that was their plan, they would preach this passage of Scripture in context, and in doing so, teach their congregations that Matthew 24 has nothing to do with the rapture.

At 6:48 AM, Defiance County, Ohio, specifically the community of Hicksville (a few miles from our home), felt a magnitude 2.9 earthquake. This is the first recorded earthquake in Defiance County history. No fault lines lie nearby, so experts wonder what caused the earthquake. I suspect some local Evangelical preachers won’t wonder about what happened. Nope, these prophets of the Almighty will turn to Matthew 24, rip out the verses necessary to prove their point, and say that this earthquake is an irrefutable sign of the second coming of Jesus. Yes, siree bob, Jesus is coming soon! What other explanation could there be, right?

In time, scientists will posit likely explanations for the Defiance Earthquake®. And sure as Jesus is still lying in an unmarked Judean grave, these very same preachers will conveniently forget their earthquake predictions and move on to other newspaper auguries, sure, that this time, they will be right.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

How Evangelicals Will Act When Seeing Their Unsaved Loved Ones in the Lake of Fire

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hell

Most Evangelicals believe that one day the virgin-born, sinless, resurrected Son of God, Jesus Christ, will return to earth to judge the living and the dead, granting Christians eternal life in the Kingdom of God and consigning everyone else to the Lake of Fire. Christians will spend eternity worshipping and praising Jesus, while non-Christians will be endlessly tortured in flames of intense fire. Of course, the bodies of non-Christians would immediately sizzle away as the fat on a steak as it’s broiled, so God plans to give these unfortunate people whose only crime is worshipping the wrong deity, a special body that will survive torture for millions of years. What an awesome God Evangelicals serve, right?

After believers are resurrected, they will receive new bodies. Gone will be the pain, suffering, loss, and death of their former bodies. Their minds will be wiped clean of all thoughts except those of Jesus. Gone will be thoughts of their unsaved families, spouses, and friends. The overwhelming majority of people who populated the earth will end up in the Lake of Fire. Billions upon billions of non-Christians will face untold suffering, all because they worshipped the wrong deity or none at all. Finite crimes will receive infinite punishment. It matters not if you lived a moral, ethical life. All that matters, according to Evangelicals, is that you believe the right things, pray the right prayer, and worship the right deity. Putting extra money in the offering plate helps too. The vile Dr. David Tees and Revival Fires of the world will receive great rewards from Jesus, but those who practiced the Golden Rule and followed the second part of the Great Commandment to love their neighbor as themselves will be rewarded with eternal pain and suffering, all because they weren’t Christians. What a perverse religion, yet millions and millions of Evangelicals worship this version of the Christian God.

When asked where the Lake of Fire is located, thoughtful Evangelicals will say “I don’t know.” Others will cobble together Bible verses and reinterpret them to provide an answer to this question. One Southern Baptist evangelist, the late Rolfe Barnard, believed the Lake of Fire was located outside the gate of the New Jerusalem; that believers would see the smoke of the Lake wafting into the air like the smoke of a Burger King on a busy Friday night — a constant reminder of the punishment they would have received had Jesus not saved them from their sins.

Barnard went on to say that when the redeemed saw this smoke, they would fall on their knees and say:

Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, Alleluia And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. (Revelation 19:1-6)

That’s right, Christians will praise Jesus for the true and righteous judgments their unbelieving families, friends, and neighbors are receiving as just recompense for their sin and rebellion against God. I suspect this is why preachers tell fellow believers that their minds will be wiped clean from thoughts of their former lives. If not, what kind of people would praise Jesus for torturing their parents, spouses, children, and grandchildren? Psychopaths, that’s who.

Is this a God worthy of our worship? Not in my book. Christianity is a blood cult, and Evangelicals, in particular, revel in the workings of a violent, bloodthirsty deity who will someday, beyond today, inflict horrific pain, suffering, and death on everyone who didn’t worship him. I have often been asked if I would worship the Evangelical God if I found out he was real, and the answer is “no.” Such a deity is unworthy of my worship, and I will not bow a knee to a deity who takes pleasure in torturing his created beings.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Bruce Konold Sentenced to Jail Time for Taking Sexual Advantage of Woman He was Counseling

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pastor bruce konold

In 2022, Bruce Konold, pastor of Eagan Hills Church in Eagan, Minnesota, was accused of taking sexual advantage of a woman he was counseling. Eagan Hills is affiliated with the Christian Missionary and Alliance denomination.

The Pioneer Press reported:

A former Eagan pastor was charged this week with a dozen felony counts of criminal sexual conduct involving two women who were parishioners.

Bruce Douglas Konold, 61, was the lead pastor at Eagan Hills Church from 1997 until his resignation in February, and the alleged sexual misconduct occurred between June 2020 and December 2021, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

Minnesota law says it’s a felony for members of the clergy to have a sexual relationship with a person they are counseling or to whom they are providing spiritual advice.

Konold’s attorney, Kevin DeVore, said Friday that the “charges are brand new, and we’re just assessing everything now.”

….

A 20-year-old woman told police in March that Konold fondled her at his home last year and it led to numerous sexual encounters, which occurred at his home, the church, hotels, and in his vehicle.

She said she began attending the church in January 2021. She said the next month Konold told her she needed a father figure and began providing her with spiritual counseling and guidance on a regular basis.

During a break from college, she said Konold suggested that she stay at his home. One day, Konold gave her several alcoholic drinks — she was not of legal age to drink — and she felt foggy and had difficulty walking. She said he then touched her genitals above her clothing and tried to remove her clothes several times before she pushed him away.

Konold began sending the woman sexual messages regularly and suggested she move into his home at the end of her school year. He got her a cleaning job at the church.

The sexual acts began in May 2021 and continued until the end of the year. She described to police how she had “conflicting emotions about the incidents, explaining that there were certain incidents that didn’t feel consensual,” the complaint read.

….

Police also spoke with a 30-year-old woman in March who said she and her husband attended Konold’s church for about 10 years and that in 2020 he offered her a personal assistant job at the church. She told police that Konold then began pressuring her for sex, pleaded with her not to leave the church or tell the church elders, and also made suicidal comments after she would reject him.

Konold told the woman “she was selfish because he had been meeting her emotional needs, but she was refusing to meet his needs,” the complaint read.

She said Konold first fondled her at his home in June 2020 and she agreed to have sex with him at a hotel in November 2020 after he promised to leave her alone afterward. It later led to numerous sexual encounters, which occurred at his home, her home, a hotel, and in his vehicle in places near the church and Lebanon Hills Regional Park.

During the time of the sexual acts, which continued until January 2021, the woman continued to regularly meet with Konold for one-on-one spiritual counseling and guidance.

In a March interview with police, Konold said he had sexual relations with the woman about 15 times. He expressed concerns about the church supporting her mission work, saying that “it was not right that they continue to support an adulteress,” the complaint read. He “quoted a bible verse regarding adulterous women being ‘stoned.’”

Konold described his relationship with the 20-year-old woman as “another adulterous relationship,” the complaint said.

Konold did not directly answer the question from an investigator of whether he considered her as someone seeking spiritual counseling, but said she thought of him as a father figure and “explained that his conversations are spiritual given that he is considered one of the foremost experts in world religions,” according to the complaint.

In early April, the 20-year-old left police a message saying that she had felt pressured to come forward and was no longer sure about whether she had been sexually abused. Later that month, her pastor contacted police and reported that Konold had been aggressively pursuing the woman by showing up at her home, work and school and used threats of suicide to “manipulate her into continuing a sexual relationship,” the charges read.

She later told police that Konold had been harassing her after learning about the police report. She described an incident where he approached her car and asked why she wanted him to go to jail and said he had lost everything. He told her that she could tell police that it wasn’t abuse.

Konold is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. He’s also been charged with one count of harassment involving the woman he allegedly talked to after he learned she spoke with police.

….

Eagan Hills Church, located at 700 Diffley Road, is affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance, an evangelical Christian denomination.

In September 2024, Konold was convicted of one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct and later sentenced to 90 days in jail.

The Pioneer Press reported:

Bruce Douglas Konold’s victim told the court Friday that pastors are “supposed to be people you can trust.”

But the 63-year-old Konold “betrayed me, betrayed me at my most vulnerable moments and in the most humiliating ways,” the college-aged woman said.

“Your Honor, I was shamelessly exploited by a man who took pleasure in abusing his position as a pastor to find sexual satisfaction through my vulnerability,” she said. “My suffering was a means to his end.”

Dakota County District Judge Ann Offermann on Friday sentenced Konold to 90 days in jail. The judge stayed the imposition of a two-year prison sentence, making it possible for Konold’s conviction to be reduced to a misdemeanor after 10 years of supervised probation.

A jury in September found Konold guilty of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2021 involving the former parishioner, finding the relationship took place while he was giving her ongoing religious advice, which is a felony in Minnesota. They were hung on a more serious third-degree charge against Konold and acquitted him of two similar charges involving a second parishioner.

Konold was the lead pastor at Eagan Hills Church for 25 years until he resigned in February 2022, shortly after his then-wife learned of his sexual relations with the woman. She ended their 32-year marriage soon after charges were filed.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

What God’s Treatment of Animals Says About Him

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animal sacrifice

You can judge a man’s true character by the way he treats his fellow animals.

— Paul McCartney

I agree with Paul McCartney. Observe how a person treats both domesticated and wild animals and you will learn a lot about their character. The same can be said for deities. Take the Christian God. The Bible says in Psalm 145:9: The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. Is God truly good and merciful to all, including animals? I will argue in this post that he is not.

What was the first thing God did after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden? The first humans were created naked and got a show on the Discovery channel. However, the moment they ate bananas off the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, breaking God’s command to NOT do so, they sensed they were naked and took fig leaves and sewed them together, making aprons to cover their nakedness. God said their plant-based clothing was inappropriate. What did God do? He killed two animals, skinned them, and made Adam and Eve aprons. These unnamed animals were likely the first creatures to die in the Garden. God could have clothed them in garments made of cotton or polyester, but, instead, he chose to kill two innocent animals so he could use their fur to make clothingfor the sinning couple. God could have created fur garments without killing animals. Still, he wanted to establish the foundation of the blood cult that would one day be called Christianity, so he killed and skinned the animals to provide a covering for Adam and Eve’s nakedness. (Evangelicals believe that while these things really happened, they were meant to be a metaphor for the blood atonement of Jesus on the cross thousands of years later.)

In Genesis 6-9, we find the story of Noah and the flood that killed every human being, save Noah’s family of eight. The Bible gives the justification of God killing every man, woman, child, and fetus as their exceeding wickedness. How fetuses and children were exceedingly wicked is not explained; that is, until centuries later when theologians cooked up the doctrine of original sin to render all of humanity guilty before God and deserving eternal punishment in Hell. Left undiscussed is why Noah had to take pairs of animals upon the ark. Before the first drop of rain fell upon the Earth, God had determined to kill every animal on the face of the earth except those safely ensconced upon the ark. God savagely drowned billions of animals, starved to death countless birds, and killed off saltwater marine life by deluging their habit with fresh water. What, exactly, did these animals do to deserve such callous punishment? Nothing, other than being alive when God decided to violently rain judgment and death upon the human race.

In 1 Samuel 15:3, God commands Saul to kill all the oxen, sheep, camels, and donkeys:

Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel, and ass.

In Joshua 11, God commands Joshua to hough all the horses. Hough is King James for hamstring. God commanded Joshua to cut the hamstring on all the horses so they would be unable to run:

And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire.

From these two passages of Scripture, what do we learn? That God has no problem with killing innocent animals or inflicting horrific suffering upon them.

And then there are the blood cult rituals commanded by God throughout the Old Testament. God commanded the Israelites to sacrifice certain animals to atone for their sin and appease his wrath. For Christians, Jesus became the final lamb sacrificed to atone for sin. What we see time after time in the Old Testament is God’s indifference to the cruel suffering and death of animals.

In Exodus 12, we find God telling Moses that he plans to kill all the firstborns in the land of Egypt, including firstborn cattle. God told Moses that the only way for the Israelites to avoid this judgment was to kill a lamb and wipe its blood over the doorposts of their homes. Countless animals died, and for what reason? God wanted to prove a point?

Christian apologist C.S. Lewis attempted to explain these passages of Scripture and others this way:

The Christian explanation of human pain cannot be extended to animal pain. So far as we know beasts are incapable of either sin or virtue: therefore, they can neither deserve pain nor be improved by it. … From the doctrine that God is good we may confidently deduce that the appearance of reckless divine cruelty in the animal kingdom is an illusion.

The authors of the paper, Neo-Cartesianism and the Expanded Problem of Animal Suffering, explain Lewis’s position thusly:

From the fact the animals suffer we may confidently deduce that either there is no divine Being or he is reckless, cruel, or completely indifferent to animal suffering.

Some Evangelical apologists suggest that these “problems” are in the Old Testament; and that Jesus was different. However, Jesus is God, so it is impossible to divorce him from the actions of the Old Testament deity — that is, unless apologists embrace Arianism, which none of them do.

In the New Testament — Mark 5 — we find the story of a mentally ill man, whom the Bible says is demon-possessed, living in a cemetery, often bound with chains he would break. When Jesus came nearby, the Maniac of Gadera, as he is called in other verses, ran to meet him. Jesus preceded to cast unclean spirits out of him, leaving the man in his right mind. And what did Jesus do with the demons? Why, he cast them into a herd of pigs who promptly ran over a cliff and died. Jesus could have just cast the demons out of the man, killing them with no further action, but, instead, he killed 2,000 animals. And for what, to prove a point? We are not told, but I think that Jesus thought very little of animals. The Jewish blood cult’s animal sacrifices were still going on during Jesus’ thirty-three years on Earth, yet he said not a word about the senseless slaughter of countless animals.

And finally, we come to the book of Revelation, the book that reveals that Jesus is just as bloodthirsty, violent, and cruel as his Father. God rains judgment upon the earth killing virtually every living thing, including animals. Revelation is a sick horror flick beyond imagination, a reminder of the true character of the Christian God. Why does God slaughter most animals? He’s pissed off that Adam and Eve ate bananas off the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, so every human being and animal must pay for their disobedience to God.

God is, indeed, a bloodthirsty deity, and Christians have built a blood cult upon his bloodthirstiness. From Genesis to Revelation, we see a violent deity who demands blood sacrifice and has no problem shedding the blood not only of humans, but innocent animals too. This God, if he exists, is unworthy of our fealty and worship. Fortunately, this God is a myth. The only blood lust that we must concern ourselves with is that of our fellow humans, especially those who sit in seats of power, using bloodshed as a means to hold power or gain land/resources. Sadly, way too many of our fellow earthlings are just like the God they worship.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Quote of the Day: Why Secular Humanism is Superior to Christianity

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quote of the day

Secular Humanism is about humans and what’s good for them. Christianity is about Jesus and what’s good for him.

— Matt Dillahunty, The Atheist Experience, 2017

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Christians Say the Darnedest Things: The Physical Presence of the Bible in Schools Protects Students From Being Shot

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no bible

Recently, Canyon Independent School District (Texas) Superintendent Darryl Flusche removed the Bible from school libraries due to its sexually explicit material. Some Evangelicals were outraged over the superintendent putting the Bible in the same category as secular books deemed offensive to Christian sensibilities.

Regina Kiehne, a mother of two students in the Canyon Independent School District said:

It seems absurd to me that the Good Book was thrown out with the bad books. In a day when we are needing security guards and bulletproof windows and doors, I think having the Word of God available to our children cannot only be preventative to violence, but also provide comfort and a sense of security in a chaotic world.

It just makes sense to have the Word of God in our school library. After all, it is the book of wisdom. It is the bestselling book of all time; it is historically accurate, scientifically sound, and most importantly, life-changing.

The only reason something is stolen is because it is valuable. The Bible holds great value. It should be valued in our Texas school system.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Bruce’s Ten Hot Takes for December 23, 2024

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hot takes

Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 record two different creation accounts. They cannot be reconciled without resorting to Bible gymnastics. Evangelicals, of course, love gymnastics.

Donald Trump is threatening to seize the Panama Canal unless Panama reduces the fees charged to go through the canal. I thought Trump was a capitalist.

Donald Trump, once again, is demanding Denmark sell Greenland to the United States. Evidently, he doesn’t understand the concept of sovereignty. This is understandable since the founding of our nation was built upon ignoring the sovereignty of indigenous people.

I am troubled by how many atheists think it is okay to commit murder, as in the case of Luigi Mangione’s murder of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Is anyone surprised that Matt Gatez had sex with an underage girl, hired prostitutes, and used illegal drugs? I’m not. What surprises me is that Gaetz is married and his wife hasn’t divorced him.

Donald Trump plans to go after transgender people, banning access to gender-affirming care, not permitting them to serve in the military, and forbidding transgender women from playing women’s sports. These issues deserve a vigorous science-based debate, but that’s not Trump’s approach. He thinks he is a king, and citizens must bow to his edicts.

I predict Donald Trump and his current co-president Elon Musk will have a falling out. Musk is a publicity whore, and if there’s anything we know about Trump, he will quickly push Musk out of the limelight. In MAGA World, only Trump can be in the limelight.

It’s high school basketball time in Ohio, my favorite time of year. I miss photographing local high school games. I had to retire from doing so due to being unable to hold my camera properly. The weight of my professional camera and lenses put a strain on my neck and back, causing me increased pain. One thing I don’t need is more pain.

I feel bad for our feral/stray cats. Temperature lows are now in the teens. We have four inside cats — all stray/shelter cats — and that’s our limit. So we do what we can. We feed and water them. I also bought three oversized storage tubs, cut holes in their sides, and put straw in them, hoping they shelter the cats from the worst of winter. So far, five cats have been using the shelters.

The Democratic Party is headed for a nasty split as centrist, corporate Democrats continue to disparage and marginalize progressives. Nancy Pelosi and her gang of corporate shills need to go.

Bonus: MAGA Republicans in Congress have made it clear that they plan to reign in “entitlements,” including Social Security and Medicare. Instead of raising taxes, they plan to cut benefits by raising the retirement age. The suggestion that the Social Security Fund is insolvent is a bald-faced lie. How about demanding Congress pay back the trillions of dollars it has borrowed from the fund?

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Update: RSS Feeds Not Working

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help

Update: Come to find out, it was Feedly that was causing the problem. I downloaded a different RSS reader and the post feed now downloads correctly. The comment feed still doesn’t work, but I’m not inclined to mess with it since so few people use this function.

Thank to Neil for letting me know that his RSS feed for this site worked just fine. That meant, of course, the problem was local, and not site wide. ❤️

Are you a WordPress expert? If so, I need your help. I have been using WordPress since 2007. I have always been able to fix the problems that have cropped up over the years. I am not an “expert,” but I’m not a novice. This problem has me flummoxed, stressed, and wanting to pull my hair out — that is if I had any.

The RSS feed for posts stopped updating on December 17, 2024. The RSS feed for comments hasn’t worked in ages. This didn’t concern me because I am likely the only one who uses the comment feed. The post feed not working, however, is a BIG problem. Hundreds of people use RSS readers to read my writing. It is important that this updates every time I write a new post.

Here’s what I have tried so far:

  • I checked the feeds at WC3 Feed Validation. The post feed shows as a valid feed. The comment feed shows the following error: It looks like this is a web page, not a feed. By the way, I am using the default WordPress RSS feeds.
  • I have checked my theme’s functions.php file for spaces. There were no spaces.
  • I have switched to the default WordPress theme and rechecked the feeds. Same problems.
  • I have disabled my plugins one and one and rechecked the feeds. Same problems.
  • I have regenerated my site’s permalinks, Same problems.
  • I flushed the cache after every troubleshooting process to make sure I was getting a fresh copy of my site.

I have reached the end of my expertise. If you can be of help, please let me know. You may email via the contact form. If no one can help me, I will have to hire someone to fix the problem. Not the best time of year to be spending money on tech support, so I want to avoid hiring someone, if possible.

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Counselor and Pastor Raymond Gaglardi Convicted of Sexual Assault, Facing More Charges

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raymond gaglardi

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 2023 Raymond Gaglardi, a former employee of Glad Tidings Church in Vancouver, British Columbia and Hillside Community Church in Coquitlam, was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to almost 13 years in prison. The sentence was reduced to half due to Galardi’s age, meaning he will only spend six and a half years in prison.

TriCity News reported:

A former pastor, therapist and counsellor who worked for churches in Coquitlam and Vancouver walked out of a court prisoner’s box today to be handcuffed and led to jail.

On Friday (Jan. 20), BC Supreme Court Justice Paul W. Riley imposed a sentence of 12 years and 11 months against Raymond Gaglardi; however, it was reduced by half under the totality principle due to his age, meaning Gaglardi will be behind bars for six years and six months.

Gaglardi, a diminutive man of 78 years old, showed no emotion as Riley took nearly 90 minutes to read out his reasons for judgment, or when the judge imposed the sentence.

His wife of 49 years, who sat behind the prisoner’s box, showed no expression as well.

But some victims present in court, and their spouses, brushed away tears after the decision. Several other victims — some dating back four decades — watched the hearing online.

Last year, following a trial, Riley convicted Gaglardi on 11 of the 25 offences before him. On the counts, each of the 11 victims experienced between one and three sexual assaults.

Riley recounted how Gaglardi befriended his victims at the Glad Tidings Church in Vancouver, its academy or summer camp, as well as at the Hillside Community Church in Coquitlam or at his counselling practice, located in the basement of his Coquitlam home.

The judge said Gaglardi “preyed” on adolescent boys or young men who came from troubled homes or were in need of help. They came to trust “Dr. Ray” for emotional support because he was part of the church and he told them he held a PhD in philosophy from Ohio Christian College, a post-secondary institution in the U.S. that was later declared to be fraudulent.

Gaglardi’s interactions with the boys and young men were “bizarre” and “opportunistic,” the judge told the New Westminster courtroom: In private, Gaglardi would check their bodies for venereal disease, touch their penises, use a pen-like instrument to examine their genitals, massage their prostate, provide pornographic material to masturbate or perform a coffee enema.

In another case in Coquitlam, Gaglardi did an anal swab with a Q-Tip to look at the feces.

And when the boys reported Gaglardi’s sexual conduct, they were often shunned from their broken families, who believed the church-going authority figure instead of their children.

The impact was long-lasting, the court heard, as many victims said Gaglardi’s actions led to shame, embarrassment and trauma that had a ripple effect on their future relationships.

In sentencing, Riley said he took into account Gaglardi’s age and his lack of criminal history, but he also noted Gaglardi’s abuse of position within the churches, his claim he was a trained doctor and therapist, and the duration of his crimes, which lasted from 1971 to 2017.

Besides his 155-month sentence in prison — cut to 78 months behind bars — Gaglardi will also be on a sex offender registry for 20 years and provide a DNA sample, Riley ordered.

In November 2024, Gaglardi was charged with three more counts of gross indecency and indecent assault.

Burnaby Now reports:

An 80-year-old former pastor and therapist who is serving a prison sentence for sex crimes against 11 young male clients has been charged with more offences in Vancouver and Burnaby in the 1970s.

Raymond Howard Gaglardi was sentenced in January 2023 to six-and-a-half years in prison after being convicted of multiple counts of sexual assault and sexual exploitation against victims between the ages of 10 and 30.

The offences were committed between 1971 and 1981, when Gaglardi was working at Glad Tidings Temple in Vancouver, and between 1993 and 2015, when he was associated with Hillside Community Church in Coquitlam, according to court documents.

A number of the offences were committed at Gaglardi’s Burnaby apartment.

His victims were between the ages of 10 and 30.

“In each case, Mr. Gaglardi touched the victim in a sexual manner, in circumstances where the victim did not consent, consented on false pretenses, or consented based on Mr. Gaglardi’s exploitation of a trust relationship,” B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Riley said in his sentencing ruling in the case.

On Nov. 13, Gaglardi was charged with three more counts each of gross indecency and indecent assault (charges that no longer exist in the Criminal Code of Canada) against three different alleged victims in 1970, 1973 and 1974, according to the Vancouver provincial court registry.

He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on the new charges Wednesday.

The Burnaby NOW reached out to Coquitlam RCMP, which investigated the cases, for more information and was told a “full update” on the charges would be published later in the week.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Black Collar Crime: Mormon Prophet Samuel Bateman Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison for Sex Crimes Against Children

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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.

Samuel Bateman, a self-appointed “prophet” of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints — a polygamist subset of the Mormon church, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity and a conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Bateman was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

The United States Attorney’s Office: District of Arizona reports:

Samuel Rappylee Bateman, 48, of Colorado City, was sentenced yesterday by United States District Judge Susan M. Brnovich to 50 years in prison, followed by lifetime supervised release. On April 1, 2024, Bateman pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Transportation of a Minor for Criminal Sexual Activity and Conspiracy to Commit Kidnapping.  

“Protecting the most vulnerable is our highest calling as prosecutors,” said United States Attorney Gary Restaino. “Many thanks to our dedicated prosecutors and law enforcement colleagues for an expeditious investigation, and to our victim advocates for their focus on services and healing.”

“Every child should feel and be safe in their homes,” said FBI Phoenix Special Agent in Charge Jose A. Perez. “Today’s sentencing brings some closure to the victims with hopes they can confidently continue the long road to living normal lives with trusted and loving adults surrounding them. Protecting our most vulnerable populations, with children at the top of the list, is and will continue to be a high priority for the FBI and our partners.”

Bateman, who represented himself as a religious prophet, was the leader of a years-long child sexual abuse conspiracy that spanned several states and victimized at least 10 children. Beginning in 2019, Bateman amassed followers in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska. In 2020 and 2021, Bateman’s followers gave their minor daughters and wards to him as child “brides” to sexually abuse. The victims were as young as nine years old. Through coercion and manipulation, Bateman regularly forced his victims to participate with him in individual and group sexual activities with adults and other children. He gave one of the victims to an adult male follower to be sexually abused, and on another occasion transmitted a live video stream of child sexual abuse to his followers. Bateman and others transported the victims between states to facilitate the sexual abuse, which continued until Bateman’s arrest on federal charges in September 2022.

Following Bateman’s arrest, his child victims were placed in the legal and physical custody of the Arizona Department of Child Safety. In November 2022, Bateman conspired with some of his followers to kidnap the victims from their custody placements. The conspirators succeeded in taking eight of the girls to California and then to Washington, where they were found by law enforcement and returned to Arizona.

Bateman was charged along with 11 of his adult followers, all of whom have also been convicted of charges related to the child sexual abuse conspiracy. Two of Bateman’s co-defendants were convicted at trial by a jury, and the others were convicted by guilty plea. Several other defendants have already been sentenced, and the remaining defendants will be sentenced in the coming months.

The Sacramento Bee adds:

Samuel Rappylee Bateman took 10 child “brides,” some as young as 9, and regularly raped them, court documents say. His followers, the girls’ fathers, allowed this abuse, according to prosecutors. Bateman grew a following in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska in 2019 by holding himself out as the new “prophet” of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a polygamist subset of the Mormon church, according to court documents.

In 2012, FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs was sentenced to prison in connection with sexually abusing children, prosecutors said. Jeffs’ criminal case is the focus of the 2022 Netflix documentary “Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey.” According to prosecutors, Bateman “controlled every aspect” of his child “brides’” lives and forced them into group sex acts with other adults and children.

After Bateman’s arrest in September 2022, he came up with a plan to have the girls kidnapped from Arizona Department of Child Safety custody, according to prosecutors. Eight of the girls were abducted by his co-conspirators before law enforcement rescued them, prosecutors said.

A judge has sentenced Bateman, 48, of Colorado City, Arizona, to 50 years in prison on charges of a conspiracy to commit transportation of a minor for criminal sexual activity and a conspiracy to commit kidnapping, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said in a Dec. 10 news release. Colorado City, near the Utah border, is about a 370-mile drive northwest from Phoenix.

Bateman was expressionless in the courtroom when his minor victims and followers spoke at his sentencing on Dec. 9, The Arizona Republic reported. “Sam, you have no power over me,” one girl who was abused by Bateman said, according to the newspaper. ”I hope you feel the pain you caused me as you sit rotting in your cell.”

Bateman was a follower of Jeffs, who denounced him from prison, the Associated Press reported. Before growing his following, Bateman traveled to Canada In February 2019, when he tried to preach his ideas and wanted to marry his 13-year-old daughter, prosecutors said. Batement wanted to “have a baby with her,” according to the sentencing memorandum, which says his wife at the time “immediately divorced (him), obtained a restraining order against him, and protected her daughter.” Bateman went on to travel between Lincoln, Nebraska; Cedar City, Utah; Monument, Colorado; and Colorado City, Arizona, to grow his following and claim “wives,” according to his plea agreement. One man gave five of his minor daughters and a step-daughter to Bateman as “brides,” prosecutors said.

None of the marriages were legally official, according to prosecutors. In the sentencing memo, prosecutors detailed how “the young victims were made to sleep naked every night, whether it was in bed with (Bateman) or on the floor around his bed.” “He would choose a couple of girls to sleep with him each night, which meant they had to have sex with him,” prosecutors wrote. Bateman controlled every part of the girls’ day, according to prosecutors, who said he made them sing to him each night, had them prepare his meals and his baths, and had them “confess minor infractions.”

The women and girls were traded “like property” with other men, the sentencing memo says. Bateman transported the girls through different states to “facilitate the sexual abuse,” which ended in September 2022, when he was arrested on a child endangerment charge, according to prosecutors. A few months later, Bateman schemed to kidnap the girls from their child custody placements in Arizona, resulting in eight of them being abducted to California, and then Washington, prosecutors said. The girls were brought back to Arizona by law enforcement, according to prosecutors.

Eleven of Bateman’s adult followers have been convicted in connection with the child sexual abuse ring, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Multiple followers of Bateman have been sentenced, according to prosecutors, who said a few others will be sentenced within the next several months. “The amount of harm you caused is nothing short of unmeasurable,” U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich told Bateman at his sentencing,

The Arizona Republic reported. A psychiatrist who evaluated Bateman determined he’s “mentally ill” and “delusional,” his legal counsel, Russo, wrote in a court filing. He asked the court to sentence Bateman to 20 years in prison. According to Russo, the psychiatrist suggested Bateman was indoctrinated into believing “criminal” behavior was normal during his upbringing. Bateman will serve his prison sentence until he’s 98, according to prosecutors. “You should not have the opportunity to be free and never have the opportunity to be around young women,” Brnovich told Bateman in court, according to the Associated Press.

Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.