This is the eighth installment in The Voices of Atheism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. Know of a good video that espouses atheism/agnosticism or challenges the claims of the Abrahamic religions? Please email me the name of the video or a link to it. I believe his series will be an excellent addition to The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Today’s video features Christopher Hitchens. Enjoy!
This is the two hundred and third installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.
Today’s Song of Sacrilege is Holy Man by Shelley Segal.
Lyrics
Who is the holy man and what does he believe?
That we must cover up our bodies
We must show humility
I believe my body is beautiful and it belongs to me
What makes a holy man? What does he decree?
There is an order to this place and he’s atop the hierarchy
I believe there’s no one above me and no one underneath
But I’m a sinner I’m a whore
I’m rotten to the core and you’re the holy man
It’s to you that He confides
You have god on your side
And you’re the holy man
Yeah you’re the holy man
I hear the holy man
He’s calling for our souls
That we must kneel, beg forgiveness like it’s something that we owe
I believe our only stipulation is the kindness that we show
But I’m a sinner I’m a whore
I’m rotten to the core and you’re the Holy Man
It’s to you that He confides
You have god on your side
And you’re the Holy Man
Yeah you’re the holy man
While their animosity [Democrats] toward God is easily demonstrable (who doesn’t know that Democrats typically hate Him?), it’s the Democratic Party’s platform contrast with the Second Table that might need closer inspection.
Consider the 6th Commandment: “You shall not murder. (Exodus 20:13)This seems simple enough, yes? The Hebrew word is רָצַח (ratsach) and means, “the unjust taking of innocent human life.”
And yet, the Democratic Party platform promotes . . . Abortion on demand, murdering babies for the sake of convenience.
Consider the Seventh Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14)
Jesus interpreted this command for us in the Sermon on the Mount, in which he equated any kind of sexual impurity as a Seventh Commandment violation (Matthew 5:28). Any of the Bible’s lists of sexual sins – including the desire itself, acted upon or not – fit under the condemnation of the Seventh Commandment.
And yet, the Democratic Party promotes: The special protected status and special rights (including marriage) for homosexuals and others with perverse sexual desires.
….
Consider the 9th Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor (Exodus 20:16)
We are not supposed to lie. A “lie” is something that is demonstrably untrue. God is truth. To not speak truth is to misrepresent God as his image-bearers.
The Democratic Party platform promotes: Reinforcement of the idea that it’s possible to transition gender, and that a man can be a woman, and a woman can be man.
….
After comparing the Democratic platform to the Second Table of God’s Law it becomes apparent that it’s not so much a platform as just a list of things that God hates.
While the Democratic Party may try to convince the public that they are the compassionate party of love and kindness, in reality it’s God’s Second Table of law that tells us how to love our neighbor. And if that’s the case, the Democratic Party breaks each and every command that teaches us how to love our neighbor.
Being a Republican does not make you a Christian, but being a Democrat probably means you aren’t.
— Unnamed Author, Pulpit & Pen, Love Thy Neighbor: How the Democratic Party Platform Breaks God’s Laws, March 22, 2019
This is the one hundred and ninety-fifth installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section. Let’s have some fun!
Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a video clip of a prayer uttered by Pennsylvania Rep. Stephanie Borowicz before Movita Johnson-Harrell, a Muslim Representative from Philadelphia, was sworn into office. Borowicz’s husband, Jason, is an associate pastor at Crossroads Community Church in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.
The York Daily Record reports:
Now normally, the opening prayer is not a big deal, just some words intended to inspire our elected officials to grasp for the higher angels of their nature – which, considering the results, often doesn’t seem to take.
But Borowicz’s prayer was seen as being political, coming just moments after the House swore in its first Muslim member, Movita Johnson-Harrell, a Philadelphia Democrat who took the oath of office while resting her left hand on the Quran.
At one point, House Speaker Mike Turzai, an Allegheny County Republican, reached over and touched Borowicz’s arm, cutting her off in mid-prayer.
The prayer, some representatives said, was divisive and was seemingly intended, as House Minority Whip Jordan Harris, a Philadelphia Democrat, said, to weaponize her religion and “intimidate, demean and degrade” Johnson-Harrell.
This is the one hundred and ninety-fourth installment in The Sounds of Fundamentalism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a video clip that shows the crazy, cantankerous, or contradictory side of Evangelical Christianity, please send me an email with the name or link to the video. Please do not leave suggestions in the comment section. Let’s have some fun!
Today’s Sound of Fundamentalism is a video clip of Jack Hyles, pastor of First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana, saying that true salvation can only come through the King James Bible.
Evangelical Man Finds My Story “Confusing”
Several months ago, I received an email from an Evangelical man who shared with me that he found my story confusing. This is a common problem for Evangelicals when they encounter this site. The reason for their confusion is simple: they can’t fit the narrative of my life within the confines of their theological box — in this man’s case, the Evangelical box. To which I say, that ain’t my problem. All I know is that I once was a Christian, and now I am not. It really is that simple.
The email writer raised several issues, so I thought I would take a stab at publicly answering them. My response is indented.
I stumbled on this site when reading Don Williams words about his daughter who just lost her husband to a shooting in Cameroon Africa.
Here’s the post he is talking about: Who’s to Blame For the Tragic Death of IFB Missionary Charles Wesco?
The articles why you became a Calvinist part 1 and 2 caught my attention and then coming up to date. I can’t help but wonder if what is really being expressed in your writings is like warnings to readers of what can happen when following the teachings of man/men as several men’s intellectual or their writings were sought after. And eventually being led to humanistic view point with no return.
You can read the Calvinism series here:
Why I Became a Calvinist — Part One
Why I Became a Calvinist — Part Two
Why I Became a Calvinist — Part Three
Why I Became a Calvinist — Part Four
Why I Became a Calvinist — Part Five
Why I Became a Calvinist — Part Six
The email writer suggests that what happened to me is that I left the Jesus and the teachings of the Bible and followed after the teachings of mere men. This ultimately led me away from Christianity to humanism. I agree with the man, but I would say the same of him and every person who has ever claimed to be a follower of Jesus. Jesus was a man. The apostles were men. Paul was a man. The authors of the books of the Bible were men. Christianity, if it is anything, is a religion based on the writings of men. All John Calvin and other Calvinistic men did was teach me their spin on the Bible — men explaining what other men said and meant.
As a humanist, I believe that the highest authorities on earth are men and women. Suggesting that there is some sort of supernatural force at work — i.e. God — is a faith proposition, not a fact. Evangelicals say God, through supernatural inspiration, wrote the sixty-six books of the Protestant Bible. The evidence for this claim is what, exactly? “The Bible says” is not valid evidence. Believing the Bible is anything other than a collection of books written by men requires faith, a faith I do not have.
Not wanting sympathy or giving any it’s hard to figure the atheist part because is there really any such thing because everyone has something or someone that has first place in their life Or that they /we idolize —making it an idol or to be a god of our life.
The writer demands I use the Bible as the standard by which I measure/judge my life. Thus, he believes there’s no such thing as an atheist; that everyone worships/idolizes someone or something. Again, the email writer nails it. Of course I have people in my life I worship: my wife of forty years, my six children, my twelve grandchildren, and the Cincinnati Reds. If we worship what we love, then I indeed worship the people that matter to me. However, they are not my God or gods. I don’t exalt them above human experience. I don’t pray to them or call on them to guide/direct my life. And most of all, I never say my life is worthless without them.
Answer to the question about being called to be a pastor can’t see how that can be either because IF were truly called then would still be.
The writer uses an inane circular argument that I find irritating every time a Christian zealot tries to use it on me. I could never have been “called” to a pastor, because if I had been, I would still be a pastor. The Bible says that the calling of God is irrevocable. “Once a pastor, always a pastor,” the thinking goes. This is akin to me saying I once was married, but now I am divorced. I couldn’t have “really” been married, because if I had been, I would still be married. Silly, right?
The email writer can’t square my life with his peculiar beliefs, so the only option he has is to declare that I was never a “true” pastor; never a True Christian®. Wouldn’t it be much easier for him to admit that people become pastors and leave the ministry for all sorts of the reasons. The same could be said for people who were once Christians and now they are atheists, agnostics, humanists, pagans, spiritualists, Buddhists, et al.
All I ask readers to do is accept my story at face value. Instead of trashing me, how about taking a hard look at your theological beliefs? How about pondering the reasons I give for leaving the ministry and Christianity? (Please see Why?) Of course, this rarely happens because THE BIBLE SAYS trumps human experience. This kind of thinking leads to cognitive dissonance.
And about a book you hope to finish writing or finishing your book maybe before the rapture if I understood correctly, of which if I understand correctly an atheist or socialist don’t believe in any such thing as a rapture or being caught up?
Sarcasm, bro, sarcasm. The only rapture I believe in takes place between the sheets in my bedroom.
Don’t much like pointing a finger as it usually has three aiming back- but to unashamedly admit being a pastor of baptist churches and even had started 5 I believe I read then admitting turning to a gospel of a different kind in the name of Calvinist —was that to stir up discord ???
Not at all, but I know my story does trouble a number of Evangelical readers. I am just one man with a story to tell. While I write on all sorts of subjects, the focus of this blog remains my story; my upbringing; my life as a pastor; my deconversion; my present life as an atheist and a humanist. I try to be open and honest, even when it causes personal embarrassment.
Does reading my story lead some people away from Christianity? Yes. Is that my goal? No. Is it gratifying to know that some people find my writing helpful? Yes. Shouldn’t all writers want their work to be well received, to be helpful to others? Yes!
Is there possibly warning with that to be careful because allowing teachings of men to fill our mind can drive our hearts away from the one true foundation ? Is your message to readers to be careful to gird up the loins of our mind? And to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is???
No, the real message is that what Evangelicals believe about the Bible cannot be rationally sustained; that the teachings Evangelicals claim are authoritative and infallible are anything but.
If you haven’t read any of Dr. Bart Ehrman’s books, I encourage you to do so. I am confident that his books will disabuse any Evangelical reader of the notion that the Bible is an inspired, inerrant, and infallible text. Whatever the Bible might be, it is not what Evangelicals say it is.
Not sure why I even bothered to write but just happened on your site from the tragedy that occurred to the Wessco family Tuesday and thought maybe it’s meant to be so slander me if you like because it may turn out for good.
You wrote me either out of divine direction from God or because you wanted to. I’m going with the latter. You wrote, and here’s my response. I am not sure why you thought I would slander you. I don’t know you, so I am in no position to render any sort of judgment.
I wish you well.
Saved by Reason,
Bruce
Books by Bart Ehrman
The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
How Jesus Became God : the Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee
Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth
Forged: Writing in the Name of God–Why the Bible’s Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are
God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question — Why We Suffer
About Bruce Gerencser
Bruce Gerencser, 61, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 40 years. He and his wife have six grown children and twelve 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. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.
Bruce is a local photography business owner, operating Defiance County Photo out of his home. If you live in Northwest Ohio and would like to hire Bruce, please email him.
Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section. If you are a first-time commenter, please read the commenting policy before wowing readers with your words. All first-time comments are moderated. If you would like to contact Bruce directly, please use the contact form to do so.
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This is the two hundredth and second installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.
Today’s Song of Sacrilege is Faithless by Rush.
Lyrics
I’ve got my own moral compass to steer by
A guiding star beats a spirit in the sky
And all the preaching voices –
Empty vessels ring so loud
As they move among the crowd
Fools and thieves are well disguised
In the temple and marketplace
Like a stone in the river
Against the floods of spring
I will quietly resist
Like the willows in the wind
Or the cliffs along the ocean
I will quietly resist
I don’t have faith in faith
I don’t believe in belief
You can call me faithless
But I still cling to hope
And I believe in love
And that’s faith enough for me
I’ve got my own spirit level for balance
To tell if my choice is leading up or down
And all the shouting voices
Try to throw me off my course
Some by sermons, some by force
Fools and thieves are dangerous
In the temple and marketplace
Like a forest bows to winter
Beneath the deep white silence
I will quietly resist
Like a flower in the desert
That only blooms at night
I will quietly resist
This is the two hundredth and first installment in the Songs of Sacrilege series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a song that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please send me an email.
Today’s Song of Sacrilege is For the Love of God by Mindless Self Indulgence.
Lyrics
I was doing just fine
‘Til the son of God had saved me, now
And I sin all of the time
Living life begging forgiveness
Sweet religion
Blood is spilling, blood is spilling
Sweet religion
Persecute the weak and willing
I’ve been here so long
For the love of God
(Come here, I got somethin’ to tell you, Jesus!)
My flesh is so weak
And my spirit is not so willing, baby
Turn the other cheek
And I’ll spank you right on your ass, baby
Sweet religion
Help me, Satan! Help me, Satan!
Sweet religion
Drag me down into your basement
I’ve done nothing wrong
For the love of God
Sweet religion
Blood is spilling, blood is spilling
Sweet religion
Help me, Satan! Help me, Satan!
I’ve been here so long
For the love of God
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.
Jim Arnold, a youth ministry volunteer at Big Valley Grace Community Church in Modesto, California, stands accused of child molestation. The Modesto Bee reports:
Jim Patrick Arnold, 40, is accused of the continuous sexual abuse of a family member.
Arnold was a part-time volunteer youth ministry worker at Big Valley Grace Community Church. He has not been charged with any crimes associated with a child outside his family.
A week after Arnold’s Feb. 19 arrest, Senior Pastor Rick Countryman sent a letter to the parents of children in grades 5 through 12 saying Arnold had been removed from the ministry and is no longer allowed on the Big Valley Grace campus.
“We perform interviews and background checks on all employees and volunteers who work with children and youth …” the letter says. “Jim Arnold passed all background checks without report of any past indiscretions.”
The letter goes on to say the allegations occurred off campus with a relative, not with a Big Valley Grace student, but asks anyone with information about “inappropriate behavior … on the part of Jim Arnold” to first notify the Modesto Police Department, then Executive Pastor Bobby Kirchner.
In an email to The Bee Tuesday, Kirchner said he could not say in what capacity Arnold worked with children, if he ever accompanied them on any overnight trips, how long he’d been volunteering there and if he only worked with children in grades 5 through 12.
“I hope you can appreciate that Big Valley Grace cannot and will not comment further on an ongoing criminal case,” he said.
The alleged abuse by Arnold occurred on three different occasions between March 2018 and February 2019, according to a criminal complaint. He has been charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child, possession of an image of a minor engaged in sexual conduct, exploitation of a minor and using a concealed camera to secretly videotape another person.
….
In an email to The Bee Wednesday Reilly [Arnold’s attorney] said, “Mr. Arnold not only promptly admitted culpability and accepted responsibility for his actions, he did so under circumstances in which he was suicidal. Law enforcement contact resulted entirely from Mr. Arnold’s own regret and shame, rather than as a result of a complaint by the minor.”
Judge Shawn Bessey kept Arnold’s bail at $100,000 but added a condition to his release that he have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18, in addition to the terms of a restraining order granted to his wife.
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 2016, Richard Mick, pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Sandusky, Ohio was convicted of child rape and sentenced to life in prison. I previously wrote about Mick’s trial here. In 2018, an Ohio appeals court overturned Mick’s conviction. The Sandusky Register reported at the time:
An Ohio appeals court said a Sandusky pastor previously sentenced to life in prison for child rape must receive a new trial.
Richard Mick, 56, who was sentenced in Erie County Common Pleas Court in 2016, had his conviction overturned Friday by the Sixth District Court of Appeals. A jury originally found Mick guilty of four felony charges of rape and gross sexual imposition.
Mick, formerly a pastor at Lighthouse Baptist Church, appealed his conviction after his trial was notably marked by his then-attorney K. Ronald Bailey refusing to participate in the trial.
Bailey, in 2016, argued the trial should have been delayed, and Judge Roger Binette held him in contempt of court after Bailey told Binette he was “not participating” in the trial. Bailey eventually served a 30-day sentence in the Erie County jail for the contempt charge.
Bailey did not respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon.
Mick’s appeal, filed by his new Cleveland-based attorney, Russell Bensing, alleged Bailey’s refusal to participate in the trial violated his right to effective counsel, according to the appeal.
The appeals court agreed with Mick, according to a court opinion written by Judge Thomas Osowik.
“Although Mick could have waived his constitutional right to counsel, the record shows he did not,” Osowik said.
There are not any court dates set following the overturned conviction Friday.
Mick has another pending court case in Erie County Common Pleas Court, where he faces more counts of gross sexual imposition, according to court records. He has a pretrial in that case set for May 16.
Mick’s new trial is scheduled for June 3. Last week, Mick posted an $80,000 bond and was released from jail.
