Earlier this year, I did an interview with Tim Mills, The Harmonic Atheist. This interview has now gone live on YouTube. Please give it a listen and let me know what you think. If you are so inclined, please LIKE the video.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—who once suggested that his boss, then-President Donald Trump, may have been sent by “God” to save Israel—waxed biblical again this week in defense of Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime in Palestine.
Interviewed by Julia Macfarlane and Richard Dearlove for an episode of the “One Decision” podcast that aired Wednesday, Pompeo—a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate who also previously served in Congress and as CIA director—denied that Israel is even occupying Palestine.
Mcfarlane noted that as secretary of state, Pompeo “undid the Hansel memo that called Jewish settlements in the West Bank against international law,” a U.S. position that had been in place since 1978.
Under the Fourth Geneva Convention and other international law affirmed by numerous United Nations bodies, both Israel’s 52-year occupation and ongoing settler colonization of the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal.
Pompeo—who played a leading role in negotiating the historic Abraham Accords between Israel and multiple Arab dictatorships—countered that Israel “is not an occupying nation.”
“As an evangelical Christian,” he asserted, “I am convinced from my reading of the Bible” that “this land… is the rightful homeland of the Jewish people.”
“I am confident that the Lord is at work here,” added Pompeo—who refused to say whether he supported a so-called two-state solution to the crisis caused by Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and ongoing usurpation of Palestinian land.
According to a 2017 survey by LifeWay Research, a Christian polling group, 80% of U.S. evangelicals believe the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948, largely through terrorism and ethnic cleansing, was a fulfillment of biblical prophecy that would hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Around two-thirds of respondents said that the Bible says “God” gave Israel to the Jews, while more than half said Israel is important for fulfilling biblical prophecy.
Many evangelicals believe that Jews must rule Israel in order for Christ to return, but once he does nonbelievers including most Jews will be wiped out. Knowing this, numerous Jews and others have decried what has been called the “unholy alliance” linking Christian and Jewish Zionists.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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.
We’ve been here in Hughes Auditorium for over a hundred hours — praying, crying, worshiping, and uniting — because of Love. We’ve even expanded into Estes Chapel across the street at Asbury Theological Seminary and beyond. I can proclaim that Love boldly because God is Love.
Asbury University, an Evangelical institution in Wilmore, Kentucky, is presently experiencing what is commonly called in Evangelical circles a “revival.”
As you may have heard in news reports, a spontaneous religious revival broke out Feb. 8 at an ordinary, scheduled chapel service at Asbury University in Wilmore. As I write this, nearly a week later, it’s still going, 24 hours a day. The faithful and the curious have flooded into Wilmore from around the state and the nation to be part of the experience.
“It’s not winding down,” said Craig Keener, a widely regarded biblical studies scholar at Asbury Theological Seminary, which is across the street from the university. “People have been praying for it for years,” he said. “I was hoping it would happen before I retired.”
At some points the university’s chapel has been so crowded the seminary’s chapel is being used as an overflow site. The two schools are separate institutions. Keener emphasized he wasn’t involved with the revival’s outbreak and isn’t a leader of the ongoing events. But he’s attended services at the university multiple days. “It started with the students,” he said. “I think they’re the most important component.”
He said the gathering has been marked by prayer and worship, mainly, with an occasional sermon, too. This past Saturday, Feb. 11, roughly 1,000 people took the Lord’s Supper together.
The awakening began with an ordinary, regularly scheduled 10 a.m. chapel service. For some reason, this one didn’t end. People didn’t want to leave. They felt what they interpreted as an unusually palpable presence of God.
Students felt an “unusually palpable presence of God.” More on that in a moment.
I sit in the back row of the Hughes balcony. My legs are starting to ache from stiffly sitting in the same position for so long. Voices echo throughout the high ceilings as the pounding beat of a drum rattles my bones. The light shifts with the sun through the yellow, artfully crafted, stained-glass windows facing me.
“Our affection, our devotion, poured out on the feet of Jesus.”
Over and over again, this refrain repeats.
I sat here on Wednesday, I sat here on Thursday and I sat here on Friday. Hopeful to connect with Jesus in the earth-shattering way it seems everyone else has. Or at least in the way their Instagram stories make it seem.
After my 1 p.m. class on Wednesday, I felt called to go to Hughes. Lately, my heart has been incredibly hardened. It was full of frustration due to so many situations in my life that I felt unheard and unvalued. For the sake of complete transparency, it had even been impacting me physically with a tightening in my chest, a bodily response from being unable to access my emotions. When I arrived at Hughes, my immediate inclination was to take photos and record what was happening through interviews, as my job typically requires. In my heart, I felt an outer nudge to be still. And so that’s what I did.
Nothing immediately happened to me or changed in my heart. A beam of light did not cast itself upon me, and thank goodness, the Lord did not immediately smite me out of existence even though I deserved it. I did not let the lack of immediacy deter me, even though I thought about leaving. All that mattered at that moment was our Creator. The transfer of my focus nudged me to ponder how infinitesimally small we are. The situations that enraptured my mind were mere specks on the horizon compared to eternity.
My heart shifted, and a resentment that had followed me for months was lifted by the grace of God alone. Walls of bitterness and agitation released themselves from my mind. I felt them cast out of my mind and heart to the point where I have almost completely forgotten the prior feeling. Knowing myself, I am confident this shift is not of my own volition. I was set and satisfied in my resentment, but God had different plans for me.
This moment of absolute peace shifted my reality. My conversations with friends are deeper. Reconciliation is genuine and pure in heart with no intent to harm. God-prompted, open discussions are strengthening beliefs in ways I never could achieve on my own.
Having preached here in Kentucky’s Asbury chapel, where I had the privilege of leading hundreds of students in prayer late into the night, I am thrilled to hear the credible reports of a significant new work of the Spirit breaking out there over these last six days, and now beginning to spread to other universities.
I am particularly grateful to those who seem to be stewarding this humbly, wisely and well. (Some of them will be joining me tomorrow night for a time of impartation at an online seminar organised by @reviveeurope and @247prayer)
Let me also say that I understand the cautious questions being asked in some quarters. These are natural and sensible.
But after a quarter century thinking and praying about such things, and with much on my heart, for now I simply want to say just two things:
Firstly, as has often been said, when it comes to reports of revival I would far rather be gullible than cynical. As Gamaliel said to the Sanhedrin: “If this teaching or movement is merely human it will collapse of its own accord. But if it should be from God, you cannot defeat them, and you might actually find yourselves to be fighting against God!” (Acts 5:38-39, J.B. Phillips)
Secondly, we need this. What’s happening at Asbury is not everything but it is something and right now we need something to shock the system so that this generation can experience for themselves the life-changing power of God. We need repentance and holiness. We need the kind of outpouring of the Spirit on campuses that can incubate and detonate a new generation to preach the gospel with greater confidence, fight injustice with greater defiance, and transform society with greater intelligence.
Beyond human programs, products and personalities, we need God’s power, presence and perspective. In other words we need a sovereign inbreaking of the Holy Spirit.
America was built on such awakenings. The UK was saved by them. And they always, always, always begin in precisely this way: with seasons of concerted prayer.
The desire and need for revival (renewal or awakening) is baked into the DNA of millions of Evangelicals. Churches regularly pray for revival, pleading with God to set their souls on fire again.
Those of us raised in Baptist churches likely sang the nineteenth-century hymn Revive Us Again countless times:
We praise thee, O God, for the Son of thy love, for Jesus who died, and is now gone above.
Refrain: Hallelujah! Thine the glory, hallelujah! Amen! Hallelujah! Thine the glory, revive us again.
We praise thee, O God, for thy Spirit of light who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night. [Refrain]
We praise thee, O God, for the joy thou hast giv’n to thy saints in communion, these foretastes of heav’n. [Refrain]
Revive us again, fill each heart with thy love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. [Refrain]
My wife, Polly, and I attended Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan in the 1970s. Revival was on the lips of professors and students alike. We pleaded with God to send revival, and, at times, he did. Virtually every week, we would sing Set My Soul Afire during daily chapel services:
Set my soul afire Lord, for Thy Holy Word, Burn it deep within me, let Thy voice be heard Millions grope in darkness in this day and hour, I will be a witness, fill me with Thy pow’r (chorus)
Chorus
Set my soul afire Lord, set my soul afire. Make my life a witness of Thy saving pow’r. Millions grope in darkness, waiting for Thy Word. Set my soul afire, Lord, set my soul afire!
Set my soul afire, Lord, for the lost in sin, Give to me a passion as I seek to win; Help me not to falter never let me fail, Fill me with Thy Spirit, let Thy will prevail. (chorus)
Set my soul afire, Lord, in my daily life. Far too long I’ve wandered in this day of strife; Nothing else will matter but to live for Thee, I will be a witness for Christ lives in me. (chorus)
For those reading my writing for the first time, I was raised in the Evangelical church, particularly the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement. I pastored Evangelical churches in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan for twenty-five years. I spent fifty years in churches where talk about revival was common. The churches I pastored held one or more revival meetings every year. In one church I pastored, we had protracted revival meetings — fifteen days, three Sundays of non-stop preaching, singing, and testifying. I have witnessed and experienced firsthand God’s “unusually palpable presence.” Souls saved, lives transformed, sins confessed, wrongs made right. People lingering for hours after church, not wanting to leave. There were numerous days when we saw the Shekinah glory of God and felt his presence in our midst.
I have been a student of revivals all of my adult life, both as a pastor and now as a vocal critic of Evangelicalism. I have read and studied the source materials for the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, the Azusa Street Revival, the New Hebrides Revival, the Brownsville Revival, and other mighty moves of God. I read countless biographies of the lives of notable revivalists such as George Whitefield, Nikolas Count Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd, John and Charles Wesley, Barton Stone, Asahel Nettleton, Charles Finney, Christmas Evans, William Williams, Hudson Taylor, David Livingstone, DL Moody, CT Studd, Billy Sunday, Andrew Murray, Evan Roberts, and others. I am confident that I understand the history and nature of revivalism, both from what I have read and heard, but also from what I have experienced firsthand. I have personally felt the presence of God in my life; felt the Holy Spirit come upon me in unusual and powerful ways. The question now, for me — now that I no longer believe in the existence of God — is what do I make of my own personal experiences and that which college students are presently experiencing at Asbury?
Photo by Linda Fox
Is the revival at Asbury an “unexplainable” event? Defenders of the revival will point to its spontaneity and suddenness as evidence that God is the primary mover and shaker. However, I am convinced that there is an earthly explanation for the Asbury Revival, and every other revival before it. Every revival can be explained from a sociological and psychological perspective. Indoctrination, conditioning, and tribalism naturally prepare Evangelicals for experiencing “revival.” Is it any wonder that the primary recipients of revival at Asbury are young adults, many of whom have been raised in revivalistic homes and churches their entire lives? Some of them were homeschooled or attended private Christian schools. My wife and I have six adult children, all of whom were homeschooled and/or attended a private Christian school operated by their parents. They spent their formative years hearing about and experiencing “revival.” Our children read countless biographies about the great revivalists. They were primed and ready for revival.
Years ago, our two oldest sons went to a conference in Louisville, Kentucky sponsored by People of Destiny (PDI)/Sovereign Grace Ministries. Both boys were serious about their faith, and this conference was an opportunity for them to spend several days with like-minded young adults. Upon their return, it was evident the conference had made a difference in their lives, especially son number two. He was on fire for God. He came to Polly and me and informed us that he was packing up his stuff and moving to Louisville. He was certain that was what God wanted him to do. Fortunately, I was able to talk him off the ledge, telling him to wait awhile; that if he still felt that way later, I would support his move. Sure enough, several weeks later, the “voice” of the Holy Spirit receded and his desire to move abated. As I talked to my son tonight about this time in his life, he told me, “truth be told, I think the real reason I wanted to move was that there were a lot of girls in that church. As you remember, Dad, our church didn’t have many girls my age.” He is not the first Evangelical young person to feel revival in his genitals.
My son’s revival experience can easily be explained by looking at the various earthly factors that led him to believe God wanted him to move away from his family and join up with a new, exciting megachurch. Mom and Dad, at their country storefront church, couldn’t compete with that.
What happened at this conference? Preaching, music, and personal testimonies were used to emotionally manipulate those in attendance. This is exactly what is happening at Asbury. The methods of revival have always been the same: use powerful preaching, extended singing, and passionate testimonies to stir the emotions of attendees. Used correctly, these things will always produce “revival” — no God needed. Young adults, in particular, are vulnerable to emotional manipulation.
I was a pastor for twenty-five years. It was not long before I learned to use the tools of my trade to produce “revival” — particularly at Somerset Baptist Church in Mount Perry Ohio, a congregation I pastored for eleven years. Over six hundred people were saved and countless Christians got right with God during my time at Somerset Baptist. People would drive from as far as an hour away to hear me preach and experience God’s mighty work at our humble country church (which had grown to be the largest Protestant church in Perry County). At the time, I thought God was using me to do his work. What else explained what was happening in our midst?
Of course, all “good” things come to an end. Revivals come and go. By the end of my tenure at Somerset Baptist, things returned to “normal.” Attendance dropped and people stopped driving for an hour to hear me preach. I became just another country preacher declaring the unsearchable riches of Christ on a rural hilltop. In time, I moved to San Antonio to co-pastor a young, fast-growing Sovereign Grace church. God was in our midst again. Today, both pastors are gone and the church is a shell of what it once was. Where did God go?
If the Holy Spirit (God himself) lives inside of every believer, why is there a need for revival? If God is all Evangelicals claim he is, why do believers need revived? Evangelicals hear two to four sermons a week, read their Bibles, and consume countless books that purport to tell them how to have fulfilled, Holy Spirit-powered lives. Yet, despite all of these things, Evangelicals still need revived. Why is that?
When we study revivalism from a sociological and psychological perspective, we can easily see the human causes of “revival.” What is attributed to God can just as easily be attributed to human influence. Polly and I have been married for almost forty-five years. We have experienced a lot of ebb and flow in our years together; times when passions ran hot, and times when they didn’t; times when we craved intimacy, and times when we were consumed with other things. So it is in churches. There will be times when it seems the whole congregation is on fire for God. There will other times when the church settles into a comfortable marriage. I pastored Our Father’s House in West Unity Ohio from 1995-2002. I loved this church. Great people. Over the course of seven years, we only lost three families (they didn’t like that we were using praise and worship music). It was all love, peace, and kumbaya at Our Father’s House. Attendance reached the 50s. Few people were saved. We were just another boring Evangelical church filled with good people, loving people; a church where nothing meaningful was happening and no one seemed to mind.
Both what happened at Somerset Baptist and Our Father’s House have human explanations. Believers willing to honestly examine their spiritual experiences will come to the same conclusions: that human instrumentality is behind everything. Of course, for those presently experiencing revival at Asbury University, no amount of rational explanation will change their minds. When you are dealing with alleged supernatural experiences, reason and rationality play no part. When faith and the supernatural are invoked, no rational discussion can be had.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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.
Older readers might remember shopping at the stores of discount retailer Kmart and seeing what was commonly called a “blue light special.” Blue light specials were sudden discounts offered to shoppers during their shopping experience at Kmart. A store employee would roll a cart with a police-like blue light attached to a pole near the aisle where the sudden discount was going to be offered. At the customer service desk, another employee would announce to shoppers, for example, “ATTENTION KMART SHOPPERS! There’s a blue light special going on right now on GE light bulbs in aisle three!” The employee in charge of the blue light would switch it on, and with its flashing/rotating light, the blue light would guide customers to their exciting just-for-them discount on light bulbs. Woo-hoo!
For eleven years in the 1980s and 1990s, I pastored the Somerset Baptist Church in Mt. Perry, Ohio. I started this church in 1983, and remained its pastor until I resigned and moved to San Antonio, Texas in 1994 to become the co-pastor of Community Baptist Church. For a few years, Somerset Baptist was the largest non-Catholic church in Perry County. The church was known for its fiery redheaded preacher and its International Harvester-colored red and creme buses that bused in church attendees from Muskingum, Perry, and Fairfield counties. Reaching high attendances in the low 200s, this country church reached thousands of people for Christ.
The church also attracted more than a few people who had — in my Baptist eyes, anyway — screwy beliefs. One such person was the mother of a woman who was a member of the church (along with her husband and two children). I had visited this woman and her husband several times at their home, hoping that they would join their daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren in worshiping Jesus at the “fastest-growing church in Perry County.” I knew the woman had some charismatic tendencies, but I thought I could preach all that nonsense right out of her if she would only give me the opportunity to do so.
For those of you who are not aware of what charismatic beliefs are, let me describe them this way: all the miraculous spiritual gifts found in the Bible — healing, raising the dead, speaking in tongues, to name a few — are in force and valid today. The favorite gift of charismatics is speaking in tongues — an unintelligible prayer language God gives to people who are filled/anointed/baptized with the Holy Ghost. As a Baptist, I believed that when a sinner was saved he received all of the Holy Ghost, and there was no more of Him to be had. All Christians needed to do was utilize the power that was already within them. Charismatics tended to be an emotionally excitable lot, at least while worshiping Jesus. (I preached at several Charismatic/Pentecostal churches during my tenure at Somerset Baptist.) In their minds, babbling nonsense they believed was given to them by the Holy Ghost was a sign of God’s presence and power. Just turn on any of the dozens of national Christian TV channels and in short order, you’ll see tongues-speaking on display.
The woman I mentioned above was a babbler, and this worried me a bit, but I thought that my Bible-saturated preaching would deliver her from charismaticism. Not only did this woman speak in tongues, she also believed that Jesus spoke to her, audibly. That’s right, this woman had conversations with Jesus.
As was our custom for many years, the church had a testimony time on Sunday evenings. This was time allotted for church members and visitors to stand up and share with everyone in attendance what Jesus had done for them over the past week. Sometimes, these brag-on-Jesus times turned into narcissistic, look-at-what-I-did-have-done-do-for-Jesus sessions. Often, testimony time was a time for congregants to lie about their relationship with God. One dear woman, who had been a smoker her entire adult life, stood up one Sunday and praised Jesus for delivering her from the filthy sin of smoking. We had a quite a praise-fest that night, thanking our Lord for delivering Sister R from her addiction. Years later, I learned that Sister R had, in fact, never stopped smoking, and that the only reason she said that she did was so she could have the appearance of a victorious Christian life like the rest of us. Oh, if she had only known that NONE of us, including her preacher, had victory over sin, she might not have felt compelled to lie. Sister R felt so guilty about not being as spirit-filled as the rest of us that she was willing to lie to her friends (and God) about her deliverance from smoking. Not long ago, Sister R died of cancer. I do hope that she found peace and rest. While her smoking most certainly contributed to her death, she had other qualities that deserved praise and admiration. Sister R was a kind, compassionate woman, but sadly, in the IFB church she attended, all that mattered was her sinful habit. As her dumb ass preacher used to say, smoking won’t send you to Hell, but it sure will make you smell like you have been there! (Please readKen Ham, Answers in Genesis, Dinosaurs, and the SIN of Smoking)
On one particular Sunday night, the charismatic lady mentioned above decided to attend church with her daughter. She had visited several times before, and let it be known that she really liked my “old-fashioned” preaching. Prior to my sermon, I asked if anyone had a good word they wanted to put in for Jesus. Several people raised their hands, signifying that they wanted to brag a bit on their Lord and Savior. The charismatic woman excitedly raised her hand, anxious to let everyone know about a recent encounter she had with Jesus. When it came time for her to testify, she popped up from her seat and said this (as recounted from thirty-five years ago):
I was asleep last night, and all of a sudden I awoke, feeling a “presence” in my bedroom. As I stood to see this presence, my eyes saw a blinding blue light. Now, I knew that Satan could present himself as an angel of light, so I spoke to this light, saying, If that’s really you Jesus, please make yourself known to me. And right then and there I heard, Attention K-Mart Shoppers! (Okay, that last sentence was a bit of literary fiction, also known as preaching.) And right then and there I heard a voice that said, it’s me, Jesus. Praise, the Lord. I knew then that the presence in my room was Jesus.
For those of you raised in the IFB churches, imagine my homicidal thoughts as this woman was regaling congregants with her version of a blue light special. I was oh-so-happy when she stopped testifying, and later let it be known among church members that her testimony was NOT an approved meeting with Jesus. We Baptists only talked to Jesus in English, and only while we were on our knees praying; and even then our talks with Jesus had to align with what the Bible said. In other words, ATTENTION CHURCH MEMBERS! There will NOT be any blue light specials at Somerset Baptist Church.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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.
One of the more bizarre beliefs found within the confines of the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement is that there will be no women in Heaven. That’s right, ladies, there will be NO females in Heaven. The thinking goes something like this: God, the father is male and Jesus is male. In Heaven, Christians will receive perfect resurrected bodies just like that of Jesus. Thus, everyone in Heaven will be a thirty-three-year-old male. This means, of course, that God promotes and supports Transgenderism for women. Time to get your male on, ladies. Prepare now for eternity in Heaven as a m-a-n.
The late Peter Ruckman, a noted IFB preacher and defender of the King James Bible, had this to say about women in Heaven:
This means that every saved woman in the body of Christ is indwelt by a MAN, at least as far as sexual designations are concerned. Someday, the saved woman will be fashioned “LIKE UNTO HIS GLORIOUS BODY” (Philippians 3:21). (Bible Believers’ Bulletin. May 1986, page 3)
This would mean that every saved woman in the body of Christ will eventually become a THIRTY-THREE AND ONE-HALF YEAR OLD, SINLESS MALE (Phil. 3:20-21). She would be a perfect replica of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). (Bible Believers’ Bulletin. May 1986, page 3)So up in Heaven, ladies, you are going to be a 33 1/2-year-old male just
like your Saviour. If that seems odd or peculiar or distasteful to you Christian ladies, just remember that you have a man living inside of you (1 Tim. 2:5 cf. Col. 1:27), and that your destiny as a child of God is to be conformed to that man’s image (Romans 8:29). (The Book of Luke: The Bible Believer’s Commentary Series, page 636)
Since every Christian in the Body of Christ has a MAN inside him (or her) (Colossians 1:27; John 1:12) and is PREDESTINED to be conformed to the image of that man (2 Corinthians 4:4; Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:1-4; Philippians 3:21), there is no question at all about the future state of every Christian in the Body of Christ, except in the minds of Hebrew and Greek professors and the “vast majority of conservative, Bible-rejecting blockheads.” The believer will appear in glory as a 33-year old sinless male. (22 Years of the Bible Believer’s Bulletin Vol. 1 “The AV Holy Bible” page 110)
Moreover, everyone in heaven is a male…The woman is a “womb-man,” a man with a womb. (The Books of First and Second Corinthians: The Bible Believer’s Commentary Series, page 343)
The indication is that the only people who get a glorified body like Jesus Christ are people in the Church Age. The only people who get a 33-year-old sinless [male, see p. 596] body are people saved in the dispensation of grace. All others get their eternal life by partaking of a tree, and they go into eternity male and female, exactly like Adam and Eve were before they fell. (The Book of Revelation: The Bible Believer’s Commentary Series page 587)
Is it any wonder then, that in IFB churches that hold such views, women are lorded over by misogynistic men who think God has given them the right, duty, and responsibility to lord over the fairer sex?
My question is whether there will be women in Hell? I wasn’t able to find any IFB preacher taking up this subject, but I did find a few words from their fellow misogynists in Islam. The Islam Question and Answer site says:
Praise be to Allah.
It was narrated from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) that women will form the majority of the people of Hell. It was narrated from ‘Imran ibn Husayn that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “I looked into Paradise and I saw that the majority of its people were the poor. And I looked into Hell and I saw that the majority of its people are women.”
(Narrated by al-Bukhari, 3241; Muslim, 2737)
With regard to the reason for this, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was asked about it and he explained the reason.
It was narrated that ‘Abd-Allah ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “I was shown Hell and I have never seen anything more terrifying than it. And I saw that the majority of its people are women.” They said, “Why, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “Because of their ingratitude (kufr).” It was said, “Are they ungrateful to Allah?” He said, “They are ungrateful to their companions (husbands) and ungrateful for good treatment. If you are kind to one of them for a lifetime then she sees one (undesirable) thing in you, she will say, ‘I have never had anything good from you.’” (Narrated by al-Bukhari, 1052)
It was narrated that Abu Sa’eed al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with him) said:
“The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went out to the musalla (prayer place) on the day of Eid al-Adha or Eid al-Fitr. He passed by the women and said, ‘O women! Give charity, for I have seen that you form the majority of the people of Hell.’ They asked, ‘Why is that, O Messenger of Allah?’ He replied, ‘You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religious commitment than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you.’ The women asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, what is deficient in our intelligence and religious commitment?’ He said, ‘Is not the testimony of two women equal to the testimony of one man?’ They said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Is it not true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?’ The women said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘This is the deficiency in her religious commitment.’”
…..
And Allah knows best.
For Fundamentalist Baptist and Muslim women alike, Hell is their religion, and Heaven is getting as far away from it as possible.
No matter what women say or do in IFB churches, they will always be considered second-class citizens; inferior to men because the Bible says that women are weaker than men and more prone to emotional silliness. Women can’t be preachers, teachers of adults, elders, deacons, or political leaders. According to some IFB preachers, women just aren’t suited for such jobs. God wants women to submit to their husbands and pastors, and busy themselves with house-cleaning, cooking, fucking their husbands at will, raising children, and working in the church nursery. For these women, their husbands are their bosses, and it’s their duty to submit to them as unto the Lord. Ponder that thought for a moment. How does Jesus want you to submit to him? With love, commitment, and strict obedience. In patriarchal homes, there is a strict order: Jesus, pastor, husband, wife, children, and the dog. Upsetting this order, according to preachers of complementarianism, brings God’s judgment. No marriage is a good one without it being perfectly aligned with God’s order for the church and home. Or so preachers say, anyway.
Some IFB women endure such treatment for the sake of their children. It is not uncommon to see IFB women divorce their husbands once their children are out of the house. I suspect other women take the he that endureth to the end shall be saved approach. They willingly suffer being misused and abused, believing that God will reward them in Heaven for their sacrificial obedience.
But what if Peter Ruckman and his fellow misogynists are right; that women will be turned into men once they arrive at the pearly gates? Think about that fact for a moment, ladies! Imagine spending your life putting up with shit from men, only to find out when you get to Heaven that God hates you too and plans to turn you into a thirty-three-year-old man. Isn’t God’s plan wonderful?
My advice to IFB women is this: RUN! Flee the mind-numbing, psychologically damaging preaching of IFB pastors. If need be, tell your IFB husband that he has two choices: FLEE or separation/divorce. Life is too short for women to give it all up to the wants, whims, needs, and desires of religiously motivated men. There’s no Christian Hell or Heaven awaiting, ladies, so now is the time to make for yourselves your own heaven and hell on earth; hell for the men who demean you and heaven for yourself and those value you as people.
I shall wait for God’s anointed ones to show up and object to what I have written here. The BIBLE says ___________, they will say, and in doing so they will prove, yet again, that the Bible can be used to prove almost anything; that Peter Ruckman with his belief that there will be no women in Heaven is just as credible and believable as Christians who suggest otherwise. Evangelical Christianity is, in effect, a paint-by-number board without numbers. Believers can freely use — thanks to the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God — whatever colors they want to paint their picture. How dare anyone suggest that their particular picture is not a representation of True Christianity®.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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.
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.
Fred “Gammon, pastor of Wayside Assembly of God in Wyandotte, Oklahoma, stands accused of sexually abusing a child, including sending her sent several sexually suggestive and inappropriate text messages, along with one message about “wanting to smell her underwear.”
A Wyandotte pastor accused of abusing a child sent several sexually suggestive and inappropriate text messages to a juvenile victim, including one message about “wanting to smell her underwear,” court documents show.
Fred McCoy Gammon, Jr, 42, of Miami, is charged in Ottawa County District Court with child sexual abuse. He is free on $35,000 bail, court records show.
Gammon is still listed on the website as the reverend of Wayside Assembly of God church in Wyandotte. Gammon’s Facebook page, lists July 18, 2021, as the date he became pastor of the church. The charges of child sex abuse stem from alleged incidents in 2020 and 2021, according to an arrest affidavit.
He has denied the allegations, the affidavit states.
Jeremy Bennett and Ken Gallon, Gammon’s attorneys said in an email “Mr. Gammon maintains his innocence, but will not make any further comments on the advice of counsel.”
Telephone calls to the Oklahoma District Council of the Assemblies of God in Oklahoma City were also not returned. The last known telephone number for Wayside Assembly of God church was not a working number and the church’s official social media site has been deactivated.
When questioned about sexually suggestive and inappropriate text messages that purportedly came from his cell phone Gammon repeatedly denied the content of the text messages, the affidavit states.
According to a probable cause affidavit, text messages allegedly from Gammon’s cell phone to the juvenile show the pastor texting “Oh, I mean it, you are like a fire to me” and “You are hot” and references to smelling the juvenile’s underwear.
The affidavit also states that Gammon’s wife, Tonya, told investigators he approached her saying, “he was being convicted by God and he needed to let her know that he saw (the juvenile victim) in a different light now and he hopes she can forgive him as a wife.”
Gammon’s wife reportedly said she forgave her husband “but that it hurt her.”
Gammon’s mother, Donna, posted the following in a Facebook group she operates called The Coffee Shop:
“There has been some wicked acquisitions (sic) posted in The Coffee Stop about Fred. I do not know the people or where they came from but none of that’s true. To put a stop to this madness I have two (sic) close and delete the coffee stop which breaks my heart.”
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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.
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 2020, Courtney Bingham, a youth leader at Bethany Baptist Church in Loudon, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated statutory rape and one count of solicitation of a minor to commit statutory rape by an authority figure. She was sentenced to twelve years in prison.
Courtney Michelle Bingham, 36, pleaded guilty in Loudon County Criminal Court to four counts of aggravated statutory rape and one count of solicitation of a minor to commit statutory rape by an authority figure stemming from her arrest in December 2018.
According to a news release from Russell Johnson, 9th Judicial District attorney general, Bingham will serve a 12-year sentence in Tennessee Department of Corrections custody at a minimum of 35 percent before she is eligible for parole. She will also be on the sex offender registry for life and subject to monitoring, including internet activities.
As part of the agreement, Bingham admitted having sex with the minor on at least four occasions. She said she knew he was a minor, and that she was at least 10 years older. In addition, she admitted she was in a “position of trust” as a youth leader when she “solicited him for sex via digital communication,” according to the release.
“This case has generated tremendous community interest because of the nature of the charges and the fact that it has caused considerable ‘disruption’ at the suspect’s and victim’s church,” Johnson said in a release. “We are glad to get this resolved with the defendant admitting her wrongdoing. Hopefully, this outcome will serve as a cautionary tale for others who are tempted to find themselves in similar situations. Part of the reason for pressing this case to trial, which resulted in what I consider to be a significant result for the state, was the difference in ages between the defendant and victim, the defendant’s position of trust in the church and her prior multiple felony criminal history.”
A report from then Loudon County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Jason Smith, who is now with Lenoir City Police Department, noted Bingham met the teen at church. The boy claimed they had sex at her residence.
The teen noted he had multiple pornographic images from Bingham on his phone that were sent from her. Most appeared to have been taken by Bingham, according to Smith’s report.
“It took some time to complete the investigation, the analysis of the victim’s phone, interviews, looking at church records relative to Bingham’s ‘supervisory’ position with any of the youth, etc.,” Russell said Monday morning. “Then she was indicted on 32 counts, some of which were alternative counts. We had tried, unsuccessfully, to resolve it at General Sessions Court on the single charge on which she was arrested. Therefore she was indicted on the 32 separate counts at grand jury. The case was finally resolved on five felony counts of the 32.”
Bingham was scheduled for trial Tuesday but accepted the plea before Criminal Court Judge Jeffrey Wicks.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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.
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.
Antonio Jones, 47, was arrested March 17. Jones, who has no middle name listed, was released on bond Tuesday.
Jones is listed as founder of Kingdom Harvest Church International in northwest Roanoke on the church’s Facebook page, which describes Kingdom Harvest as “a multi-cultural, non-denominational church” with more than 150 members.
A call to the church Thursday afternoon was not returned, and no one answered the door there.
According to Roanoke Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court records, the offenses are alleged to have occurred against the first subject sometime between 2008 and 2010, when the juvenile would have been younger than 13.
Jones also is accused of committing indecent liberties against that subject.
The second case is alleged to have occurred between 2009 and 2011, involving someone in their early teens.
A Roanoke pastor is out of jail and has the full support of his church.
Antonio Jones was arrested and charged with sexual misconduct against underage family members. Those claims date back to 2008.
Jones was released after posting a $5,000 bond on Tuesday.
On Wednesday night, several members of Jones’ church told us they were shocked at the charges.
Antonio Jones founded Kingdom Harvest Church International in 2007, according to the church Facebook page.
This story has gotten traction online with a number of members coming to Jones’ defense, calling him a “Man of God” and saying the Kingdom Harvest church family will get through this. The church posted a status earlier today which read, “UNITED WE STAND”
One member, who didn’t wish to be identified or shown on camera told WDBJ7, “This is church business that we doing here and the case is going to be city and court business. All we have to do is wait for the trial to end and other than that he hasn’t been convicted, it’s a trial.”
A Roanoke pastor accused of sexually assaulting two juveniles saw the charges against him certified on Friday, and the case will now go before a grand jury. Antonio Jones, 48, was arrested March 17 and is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of committing indecent liberties. At a preliminary hearing on Friday, both of his accusers gave testimony outlining their claims against him. The Roanoke Times does not identify people who report sexual assaults.
The offenses are alleged to have occurred separately between 2008 and 2011, when the first subject was about 12 years old and the second was a young teen. The two complainants know each other but said they did not tell anyone about their allegations for several years until they decided to speak to police in the summer and fall of 2016. Jones and his defense attorney, Jonathan Kurtin, did not present any evidence at the hearing. In cross-examining the two witnesses, Kurtin pressed them for additional details and time frames, but they often said they were unable to be more specific. Roanoke Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Frank Rogers heard testimony from the two complainants for about an hour before deciding he found probable cause to certify all three charges. The cases will now be evaluated by a grand jury, likely in October.
In 2018, Jones was found guilty of his crimes and sentenced to four years in prison.
Jurors have recommended four years in prison as punishment for a Roanoke pastor, who was found guilty of aggravated sexual battery following a multi-day trial this week.
Antonio Jones, the founder and pastor of Kingdom Harvest Church International in Roanoke, was arrested March 17 and charged with two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of taking indecent liberties with a minor.
In court Wednesday morning, prosecutors recommended five to 10 years in prison, while Jones’ defense attorneys recommended one to five years. The maximum sentence Jones could have received for his conviction would have been 20 years in prison with a $100,000 fine.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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.
The latest school massacre took place yesterday in Lansing, Michigan — ninety miles from our home. This was the sixty-seventh mass shooting in the United States since January 1, 2023. A man opened fire at Michigan State University, killing three students and critically wounding five others. I wept as I watched news coverage of the massacre, but my sorrow quickly turned to anger. I knew that before the sun rose on a new day, several things would happen:
Democrats will call for stricter gun control laws.
Republicans will say now is not the time to talk about stricter gun control laws.
Tough-on-crime politicians will call for increased police funding and stricter school security measures
The NRA will decry the shooting, but reject any and all calls for gun control reform.
Gun-toting Evangelical Christians will flood social media with “thoughts and prayers” comments.
What do we know about school shootings? Is there a pattern or some sort of common denominator? You bet there is. Let me list a few of them:
The shooters are overwhelmingly young, white male students. Many of them come from dysfunctional homes.
Many of the shooters have mental health problems, often untreated.
The shooters were either bullied or viewed as social outcasts, not fitting into the cliques that dominate school life.
The shooters used the Internet to access materials that helped them plan the shootings.
The shooters used the Internet to research past shootings, often finding inspiration from the carnage perpetrated by other shooters.
The weapon of choice is the AR-15 or similar types of fast-firing, high-capacity firearms.
Most shooters used large-capacity clips for their weapons of choice.
Most shooters had large amounts of ammunition on hand.
Now, after reading this list, is there anything that our government leaders can do to put an end to the violence? Yes, there is, but unfortunately, thanks to the NRA and a number of congressional Republicans, what should be done will be ignored. These cowards will, instead, call for armed school guards and extensive school security. Some of these NRA-fearing men and women will even call for the arming of school teachers and custodial staff. After all, what better way to put an end to school shootings than add more guns to the equation, right? What could possibly go wrong?
The NRA — a Chihuahua-sized group with a Rottweiler bark — and its lackeys will remind Americans that the Second Amendment is sacrosanct, suggesting that gun ownership without restriction is a sacred right that must never, ever be infringed upon. Democrats will point at Republicans, blaming them for doing nothing about school gun violence. They will rightly point out that a Republican-controlled Congress passed legislation that made it easier for people with mental illness to purchase firearms. What these self-righteous liberals forget is that Democrat Barack Obama inhabited 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for eight years, and in his time there nothing was done to meaningfully combat school shootings. So, please stop with the political finger-pointing. Both parties are neck-deep in the blood of school children, and they should be ashamed of themselves for their paralytic inaction.
I grew up in a home where shooting firearms were very much a part of life. My dad was a police reservist, and my brother was the Marshal of Tombstone, Arizona, for many years, and also a detective. I started shooting guns and hunting while I was still in elementary school. I bought my first gun — a bolt-action Mossburg .410 with a modified choke — at the age of twelve. I, at one time, owned numerous shotguns, high-powered rifles, and a smattering of handguns. When I was a young man, my dad owned a gun store in Sierra Vista, Arizona. I worked in the store from time to time, and on weekends I would accompany my dad as he set up tables at area gun shows. Dad’s store gave me access to a plethora of firearms to shoot, everything from a .458 Winchester Magnum to a .22K Hornet. I enjoyed hunting and target shooting with my dad, one of the few things we did together.
I wrote the above so that unaware readers would know that I am not some Commie liberal out to take away everyone’s gun. I do not currently own any firearms. That said, I don’t look down my nose at people who own guns, nor do I think they are to blame for school shootings. Solving gun violence in schools requires political courage and moral certitude. It requires our rulers to act in the best interest of the people, and not the interests of the NRA, Winchester, Remington, Smith and Wesson, or Glock.
So what can be done?
First, universal background checks must be strictly enforced, and connected to a nationwide database. Gun purchasers should be screened for prior convictions of violent crimes, especially domestic violence. Gun purchasers should be screened for mental health issues. Mental health providers should be required to flag patients with mental health issues that make them a danger to themselves or others. The U.S. military and the VA should be required to flag all soldiers who are being treated for PTSD or other mental disorders that make them a danger to themselves or others.
Second, all guns should be licensed. All new purchases should have a seven- to fourteen-day waiting period, allowing sufficient time for background checks to be performed. A database of those who purchased and those who own guns should be available to law enforcement.
Third, all open-carry and concealed-weapon laws should be repealed, putting an end to the Wild West mentality in many states and communities. Only law enforcement should be permitted to carry firearms in public.
Fourth, the manner in which the government and insurance companies handle mental health treatment must be changed in ways that make it possible for people to get prompt, ongoing, and comprehensive care.
Fifth, school leaders must address the ongoing bullying crisis in public schools. Teachers must be taught to be aware of bullying and to take steps to stop it when they see it happening. While I suspect it is impossible to put an end to cliques, schools must do a better job of fostering inclusiveness. Perhaps it is time to put an end to the jocks-rule mentality that dominates most schools.
Sixth, semi-automatic firearms such as the AR-15 should be immediately banned. Any firearm capable of firing large-volume bursts should be banned. There is no legitimate reason for anyone to own military-style firearms.
Seventh, large (high) capacity magazines and clips should be immediately banned. There is no legitimate need for owning guns with large-capacity magazines, nor is there any reason for owning clips holding dozens of rounds of ammunition. It also goes without saying that bump stocks such as the ones used in the Las Vegas massacre should be outlawed.
Eighth, politicians should be banned from taking financial or in-kind donations from the NRA and the gun lobby. The NRA, along with the Ted Nugents of the world, are part of the problem. These promoters of the means of violence should not be given larger-than-life influence over the political process. (As my editor mentioned to me, this would surely not pass constitutional challenge. Fine. Let’s reverse the effects of Citizens United. Let’s make public the names of ALL campaign donors. Let’s ban corporate donations, soft money, and the other endless ways politicians hide who and where donations are coming from. In fact, let’s federally fund elections and limit campaigning as Great Britain does to a short time before time election day. In other words, GET THE FUCKING MONEY OUT OF POLITICS!)
If the United States wants to reduce gun violence in general and school shootings in particular, it must look at how countries such as Great Britain and Australia have crafted their gun control laws and act accordingly. Tinkering at the edges, making meaningless, superficial changes to gun laws is not the answer. The rest of the Western world looks at the United States and thinks that the Yanks have gone bonkers. Can they not see what must be done to put an end to gun violence in their schools? Those of us who don’t suck at the teat of the NRA know what must be done. It is up to us to force our political leaders to stop the blood flowing in the hallways of our schools. If our elected officials won’t act, then it is time for us to get men and women who will. Doing nothing or next to nothing is not the answer.
Today is the fifth anniversary of the Parkland School massacre.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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.
Following in the footsteps of their parents and their grandparents before them, Baby Boomers have taken to criticizing the latest generation of American children. These snowflakes, as Millennials/Gen Z/Gen Alpha are disparagingly called, have it easy, according to their critics. Often, criticisms are followed with “back in the day” anecdotal stories meant to prove that teenagers and young adults are living on easy street compared to their parents and grandparents. If only our society would return to the good ‘ole days, Baby Boomers say, all would be well.
Armed with selective memories or showing signs of dementia/Alzheimer’s, Baby Boomers have posted to social media countless memes and comments about how better their youthful days were than are those today. What Baby Boomers don’t mention is the instrumental part they have played in making things the way they are today. Who are the people running the government? Who are the corporate CEOs and the heads of media outlets? For the most part, Baby Boomers. Millennials don’t control much in this country. It’s their parents’ and grandparents’ generations that control everything. It’s not Millennials who elected Donald Trump. It’s not Millennials who are in charge of the American war machine. It’s not Millennials who have destroyed the working class and outsourced millions of American jobs. It’s not Millennials who have driven up healthcare costs. If Baby Boomers want to find who’s to blame for all these things (and more), they need only look in the mirror. And while they are gazing at their aged “sixty is the new thirty” faces in the mirror, they might want to ask the Greatest Generation to join them. Millennials are certainly not without fault, but to lay the blame for societal ills at their collective feet is not only laughable, it is also a denial of past history and present reality.
Millennials are the first generation to be born into the technology revolution. Their parents came of age in a world without most of the technology that drives our present age. My wife and I will celebrate forty-five years of marriage in July. Until the late 1980s, our life pretty much mirrored that of our parents. Outside of having 8-track/cassette players instead of record players and push-button telephones instead of rotary dial phones, our day-to-day living wasn’t much different from that of the homes we grew up in. Certainly, societal mores were rapidly changing, but Polly and I were insulated from these changes thanks to our immersion in Evangelical Christianity.
In the 1990s, computers became affordable for many people. From that point until today, we have experienced non-stop technological advancement. We now live in world dominated by computers, smartphones, — which are handheld computers with built-in monitors — the worldwide web (www), and social media. In a matter of seconds, we can send text messages, photographs, and emails across the globe. We can talk via Skype to people continents away. Social media allows us to be friends with people that we would never have met had it not been for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the like.
This is the world of Millennials. Should they be faulted for embracing the modern technological age? Who made all these wonders available to them? Who built the companies and products that play such an integral part in their lives? Better look in the mirror again, Baby Boomers. Sure, it’s primarily Millennials who invented social media, but without the work of aged men such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and countless other Baby Boomers, there wouldn’t be an Internet, nor would there be smartphones and social media. Like it or not, Baby Boomers, the world as it is now was created and shaped by us.
I am almost sixty-six years old. Like many of my generation, I don’t like some of the behaviors I see coming from Millennials. But, I also know that my parents and grandparents thought the same about my generation. Being criticized by previous generations is a rite of passage. I am a father to three Gen-Xers and three Millennials. I have thirteen grandchildren, one of whom is twenty-two, and three others who are in high school. In less than fifteen months two of them be in college. My older grandchildren are very much a part of the tech generation (as much as their parents will allow them to be, anyway). Are my children and grandchildren inferior/less hardy than my generation or that of their grandparents? Of course not. What they are is different. They were born into a world very different from the world I entered in 1957. Their experiences, in many ways, are different from those I had as a teen and young adult in the 1970s and 1980s. Yet, their wants, needs, and desires are not much different from what mine were years ago.
As a sports photographer, I spent a good bit of time around local high school students. I carefully watched their behavior and interaction with not only their fellow students, but with society at large. I found, at a base level, kids are kids. Environments change, but kids remain the same. We oldsters do a great disservice to our society when we refuse to see the good in younger Americans; when we refuse to grant that maybe, just maybe, our children and grandchildren have much to offer the human race (despite being hamstrung by runaway government debt, lack of jobs, and astronomical education costs). Millennials are not without fault, but they certainly are not the people described by many of the memes and social media comments I have seen in recent years. One Baby Boomer Facebook friend of mine posted a meme that blamed video games and rap music for school shootings. I shook my head and laughed as I read comment after comment from people agreeing with her. Never mind the fact that video games actually reduce male aggression and that children today are safer than they ever have been (except at school). And music lyrics? Really? Baby Boomers are the classic rock generation. Have they forgotten what the lyrics of their favorite rock songs actually say? Yes, the music loved by Millennials is more explicit, often using graphic words to describe sexual activity, but the music of yesteryear had its own language for sexual activities. In 1976, the Starland Vocal Band released a song titled Afternoon Delight. The lyrics went like this:
Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight Gonna grab some afternoon delight My motto’s always been “When it’s right, it’s right” Why wait until the middle of a cold dark night When everything’s a little clearer in the light of day And we know the night is always gonna be here any way
Thinkin’ of you’s workin’ up my appetite Looking forward to a little afternoon delight Rubbin’ sticks and stones together make the sparks ignite And the thought of loving you is getting so exciting
Sky rockets in flight Afternoon delight Afternoon delight Afternoon delight
Started out this morning feeling so polite I always thought a fish could not be caught who didn’t bite But you’ve got some bait a waitin’ and I think I might Like nibblin’ in a little afternoon delight
Sky rockets in flight Afternoon delight Afternoon delight Afternoon delight
Please be waiting for me baby when I come around We could make a lot of lovin’ ‘fore the sun goes down
Thinkin’ of you’s workin’ up an appetite Looking forward to a little afternoon delight Rubbin’ sticks and stones together make the sparks ignite And the thought of loving you is getting so exciting
If this song were written today, I suspect its author would make ample use of the “F” word and other sexually explicit words. The reason these words weren’t used in the 1970s was because of the Greatest Generation’s puritanical view of certain words. Sexual meanings were hidden behind euphemisms and double entendres. In 1968, the song, “Why Don’t We Do it in The Road” was recorded for the White Album by the Beatles. The entire song was of Paul McCartney repeating:
Why don’t we do it in the road Why don’t we do it in the road Why don’t we do it in the road Why don’t we do it in the road No one will be watching us Why don’t we do it in the road
What exactly was IT that they were doing in the middle of the road? If this song was written today, I suspect the word IT would be replaced by the word FUCK. Is one version any better or worse than the other? Of course not. Different, yes; bad/worse, no. One rendering requires reading between the lines, the other doesn’t.
Baby Boomers love to get all wound up about sexting and other ill-advised behavior by Millennials. These gray-haired “saints” forget that they are the ones who ushered in the sexual revolution, and that they used notes instead of texts to set up intimate liaisons. What I am saying is this: kids are kids, and their parents and grandparents need to lay off constantly judging them and criticizing their way of life. Have these oldsters forgotten how such attacks make someone feel? Baby Boomers raised in the Evangelical church, have oh-so “fond” memories of sermons about the evils of premarital sex, rock music, smoking pot, miniskirts, and long hair on men. Surely, we can help, instruct, and guide our children and grandchildren without denigrating the things they value and consider important. If we can honestly remember our own youthful lives and indiscretions, perhaps we might not be so judgmental towards Millennials.
As a father and grandparent, I love and respect my children and grandchildren. They are far from perfect, and they can do things that drive me nuts, but I know from my own experiences that every generation has to find its own way. Millennials face challenges that their parents never had to face. We live in a fast-paced world where things change overnight. Older Americans have the luxury of ignoring changes they don’t like. Millennials, on the other hand, must continue to change and adapt. Their world is fraught with dangers and challenges Baby Boomers never had to face. They need our help, not our judgment and derision.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 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.
Caution! Snark ahead! You have been warned.
