By Scott Yenor, a political scientist at the Heritage Foundation (the group behind Project 2025), as reported by MS Now
Every effort must be made not to recruit women into engineering, but rather to recruit and demand more of men who become engineers. Ditto for med school and the law and every trade.
If every Nobel Prize winner is a man, that’s not a failure. It’s kind of a cause for celebration. Why can’t our celebration of male excellence in sports be translated into all facets of life. More successful men will mean more happy citizenry and a stronger nation.
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Such medicated, quarrelsome and meddlesome women gain their meaning through the seeming participation in the global project. They are agents of the new world, but not new life. Such women are now the backbone of every left-wing cosmopolitan party in the Western world, from the Greens in Germany to the Democratic Party in America. And if our ideal woman is a childless media scold or a barren bureaucratic apparatchik, there is no question whether we can have a future. We can’t. There is a question of whether we deserve one.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Evangelicals believe that God gave them dominion over the Earth and all its inhabitants. Progressive Christians will suggest that “dominion” actually means stewardship; that Christians are to care for and protect the natural world. Evangelicals — with a few noteworthy exceptions — ain’t having none of that. No sir, God gave them control of the Earth and they are free to do whatever they want with it. This, by the way, is the theology driving men such as Secretary of Illegal Wars Pete Hegseth, to do unspeakable things in the name God, freedom, and manifest destiny. Left to their own devices, the Pete Hegseths of the world will burn everything down because they can, all the while praising Jesus for giving them the “victory.”
If there is one thing Americans do well it is this: we kill anyone or anything that gets in the way of our personal, religious, or political fulfillment. Currently, U.S. military forces are bombing the hell out of Iran, slaughtering countless civilians, including 175 children at a school. Our Liar-in-Chief, Donald Trump suggested that the Iranians got a hold of one of our Tomahawk missiles and used it to kill their own children. Typical Trump. Always blame someone else. Name the last time Trump stood before the American people and confessed that he made a mistake or he acted without understanding a matter? Never, that I know of. Kristi Noem did what Trump wanted, yet because she embarrassed him in testimony before Congress, he fired her. Trump never complained when Noem’s storm troopers beat and killed scores of American citizens and peaceable, family-loving undocumented immigrants. Why would he? Of late, Trump has uttered murderous, violent threats against the leaders of countries such as Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and Columbia, causing war mongers such as Senator Lindsay Graham to repeatedly cream their pants. (Link provided for Fundamentalist Christians who are euphemism-challenged and think they need to buy coffee creamer to put in their pants.) All of this traces back to dominionism: the establishment of a Christian kingdom on earth by exercising control over every aspect of society. It should surprise no one that Pete Hegseth is a devotee of Doug Wilson, a Fundamentalist reformed pastor in Moscow, Idaho. Wilson has long been a theocrat, with a nasty Calvinistic bent.
Who is primarily behind attempts to rollback advances made on the climate change front? Evangelical Christians. Who gives a shit about climate change? Evangelicals say. The rapture is imminent! Why build out wind and solar infrastructure when Jesus is fixing to come to Earth to remove all Christians before he destroys the environment and every living thing in it. (See what God has in store for us in the book of Revelation. God is one sick puppy.) Why worry about the environment when God will soon set the Earth on fire? This sort of thinking drives Evangelical indifference towards the plight on immigrants and the poor. Jesus — the God of erectile dysfunction — is coming again soon, so all that matters is getting saved. Oh, Evangelicals will give lip service to ministering to “the least of these,” but don’t be deceived by their superficial acts of charity. Their goal is to get fat on preaching, Bible study, and praise and worship music as they wait in their megachurch bunkers for the second coming of their lover, friend, and car key finder. Yes, there are exceptions, but all exceptions do is what, class? Prove the rule.
If you happen to be an Evangelical preacher who wants to challenge my claims about how churches minister to “the least of these,” please send me a copy of your FULL church budget and income/expense statement. I want to run the numbers and see how much your church really cares for people outside of the four walls of your building. Not the summary budget you use to hide how money is really spent. I want to see the complete, in-depth budget. I first made this challenge over a decade ago. So far, not one pastor/church has provided these documents (which should be readily available, but are often hidden from prying eyes). Why? They know that I am not an outsider. I know how things really work behind the scenes. Further, having a business background helps me to quickly see through the bullshit church leaders often peddle to obfuscate how money is really being spent.
Thirty years ago, I was the co-pastor of Community Baptist Church in Elmendorf, Texas. One of the first conflicts I had with my fellow pastor was over the church budget. I asked, “Why don’t we provide complete financials to church members?” My co-pastor replied, “How much do they really need to know?” With raised voice, I said, “EVERYTHING!” I won this battle, but I suspect my colleague didn’t like having to be accountable for how he and his fellow elders spent money. Sadly, this kind of thinking is all too common.
Bruce, I thought this post was about moles. It is, as I shall now make clear. I live in rural northwest Ohio, the land of God, guns, and Trump. Seven out of ten local voters voted for Trump three straight times. I give them a pass on their first Trump vote, thinking they were ill-informed about our Fascist-in-Chief’s beliefs and lifestyle. Many of them convinced themselves that Trump was a “baby Christian” — a phrase coined by James Dobson. However, I refuse to give them a pass on the 2020 and 2024 elections. They knew better, but they voted for Trump anyway.
Evangelicalism dominates rural America, and that’s certainly the case in northwest Ohio. And with Evangelicalism comes the belief that God gave them dominion over the Earth and all its inhabitants. If one of those non-human inhabitants gets in the way of Evangelicals controlling and dominating the natural world, the solution is to kill them.
I read several local groups on Facebook. These groups are largely filled with gossip, questions about what time this or that business opens, or rants about local government. I find these groups quite entraining, though it troubles me that I live around so many ignorant people. One such discussion had to do with moles.
Moles are small, subterranean mammals. They have cylindrical bodies, velvety fur, very small, inconspicuous eyes and ears, reduced hindlimbs, and short, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging.
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Moles may be viewed as pests to gardeners, but they provide positive contributions to soil, gardens, and ecosystems, including soil aeration, feeding on slugs and small creatures that eat plant roots, and providing prey for other wildlife. They eat earthworms and other small invertebrates in the soil.
I find moles to be fascinating creatures. “But, Bruce, moles make trenches and holes in my pristine, dandelion-free yard.” And your point is what, exactly? Evangelical dominionists say, “Die, mole, Die! How dare you mess up my weed-free, chemical-laden, perfectly green yard!” This is why the mole discussion featured ways to effectively kill moles:
Put moth balls down their burrows
Dump grub poison down their burrows, killing a primary food source for moles
Pump propane into the tunnels and set it on fire
Dump anhydrous ammonia (a dangerous fertilizer) down the tunnels
Flood the burrows with water, drowning the moles
Find the moles and kill them with a spade
This is what Evangelical dominionism looks like, stripped of all of its flowery theological verbiage. Kill anything that gets in your way, be they moles, ground hogs, raccoons, stray cats, or Iranian school children. Why? Because God told them they could.
I wanted to leave a comment on the mole discussion, but since I was using my partner’s Facebook account, I refrained from doing so. I wanted to say, “What the fuck is wrong with you people? How about leaving the moles alone? They have a right to live too. They aren’t hurting anyone.”
As long as dominionism infects the collective American mind, we will continue to rape the land in the name of freedom and kill anything that gets in the way of fulfilling our wants and whims. And that includes killing people in faraway lands all because their political, religious, and social systems are different from those of God’s chosen people — white Christian Americans. The goal is nothing short of the domination of every corner of the world, from the heights of outer space to the depths of the seas. What makes this thinking so dangerous in this present world is that Evangelical dominionists now control the U.S. government. Their magnum opus? Project 2025; which Evangelicals in the Trump administrations are feverishly trying to implement before we run the whole lot of them out of office.
It may seem that “moles” are a silly subject for me to write about, but as a pacifist and animal lover, I think ALL life is important, even moles. This post is also a metaphor for what Evangelical dominionists plan to do to usher in the iron-fisted rule of Jesus on earth. Get in their way and they will metaphorically chop off your head with a Bible spade.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
As you may have noticed, I haven’t posted a meaningful post in nine days. Outside of my life partner, Polly, and my writing partner, Carolyn, I haven’t talked to family or friends about my current health status.
For new readers who may not know what’s ailing me, I am battling several diseases: gastroparesis (an incurable stomach disease that causes vomiting, nausea, satiation, weight loss); exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (a disease of the pancreas causing the insufficient production of digestive enzymes, leading to diarrhea, weight loss, and malnutrition); severe axonal neuropathy (a painful nerve disease in my legs and feet causing burning, numbness, and increased falls and injury); fibromyalgia (a chronic disease that causes widespread muscle pain/weakness and fatigue); osteoarthritis (a chronic degenerative disease affecting my joints causing pain and debility); degenerative spine disease (affecting my neck and spine causing pain and limited mobility); skin cancer (I have had five cancer surgeries and chemotherapy treatments, the last being surgery on my neck for melanoma three weeks ago). I am also being treated for high blood pressure and diabetes—both of which are well managed. My latest a1c was 5.8.
Of late, my pain levels have been impossible to manage. I could always take more narcotics—they work—but then I will spend my days unable to do anything other than exist and sleep. The rest of the stuff is out of my control. I regularly see my primary care doctor, take prescribed medications, eat properly, and sleep when I can. “Sleep when I can” means I sleep in short 1-3 hour blocks throughout the night, and then nap throughout the day. I am never not tired or fatigued.
Of late, I’ve been losing weight again. I have lost a total of 120 pounds. I’m down to what I weighed 30 years ago. I have little to no appetite, so eating has been reduced to “eating because I have too” unless I want to starve myself to death. My diarrhea and vomiting have gotten to the point that I fear going out in public lest I have an accident. Two weeks ago, I had an abdominal CT scan, with contrast. Down went the contrast, up came the contrast, in a waiting room of people. I was so embarrassed to make such a public scene. I’m a private person, so there’s the added psychological stress from embarrassing myself in front of others.
My daily life has come to a standstill. Three weeks of unopened mail sits on my desk. I haven’t filed our taxes—which I’ve done for 50 years. I contacted one local man about doing our taxes, but he wanted $250 to do them (W-2 wages, social security, one Schedule C for my blog income/expenses). That’s not going to happen, so I need a “good” day soon to file. Blog-wise, I haven’t answered reader emails in several months, and my writing output has declined 90 percent. Writing is one of the few pleasures I have in life, so I find the inability to do so distressing.
There’s no cure on the horizon. All doctors can do for me is help to manage my symptoms. There are days when I feel “this is it.” A week ago, for some unknown reason, my blood pressure dropped to 98/50, with a 120 resting pulse rate. I also had dangerously low blood sugar. I woke Polly up, stammering and unable to talk in complete sentences. She got me a Coke and some high carb junk food to eat, and my blood sugar rebounded to a low normal level. Polly took the day off of work to care for her dilapidated, but still s-e-x-y, man. Gotta have some humor, right? 😂
There are other problems I’m dealing with health-wise, but they are inconsequential compared to what I’ve shared above. I suspect it’s time to ask family to come in and help, but I find it difficult to make my problems theirs. They have their own lives to live. My family will say of me: “Bruce/Dad/Grandpa is a stubborn, prideful man who doesn’t like to ask for help.” When I was a strong buck, I was the master of my domain, but such is no longer the case. As anyone with chronic pain/health problems will tell you, one of the biggest problems to deal with is the inability to be self sufficient.
I hope to do some writing tomorrow. Of course, I’ve told Carolyn that every day for a week. Maybe Tuesday will be the day! 😂 I texted Carolyn earlier, “As you might have divined, rough days and nights lately. Still I hope, so tomorrow is another day to write.”
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
The DoS attack has been dealt with by going to an upgraded ($180 a year) CDN (content delivery network) service. This service will keep this site up and running going forward. I had to change the DNS (Domain Name Service) records to reflect the new CDN. This may introduce issues I am not aware of, so if something is not working for you as it should, please let me know and I try to fix it.
It takes DNS records up to 48 hours to propagate, so you might see intermittent unavailability. You will also see a security page/check which will remain until Siteground is sure the DoS attack has stopped.
The CDN service will provide global data hosting, so readers should see quicker page load times.
Thank you for your understanding.
Bruce
March 5, 2026
This site was down earlier tonight due to a DoS (denial of service) attack. Hackers attempt to flood a site with massive amount of data, overwhelming the server. At one point, this site had 10,000 users a minute. Everything is up and running again, but I can’t guarantee service won’t suffer if hackers try to disrupt this site again. Usually reserved for big sites, I must have pissed somebody off. Maybe I finally got God’s attention. 🤣🤣❤️
This problem is beyond my control. I hope you understand.
I recently received a thoughtful, polite email from a Christian man named Levi. My response follows.
I’ve spent more time than I probably should admit reading through your blog to get a feel for how the project actually works on its own terms. One thing I keep circling back to is how your evidentiary standards function in practice, not just in principle.
You’re clear (and consistent) that extraordinary claims require strong justification. That’s a fair standard to set. But what I’m still trying to square away is how admissible justification seems to be doing a fair bit of work before the argument even starts. Historical inference, testimony, and philosophical reasoning are perfectly serviceable when reconstructing Roman governance, Jewish sectarianism, or early Christian belief formation. But when those same tools start pointing toward metaphysical conclusions you’ve already set aside, they seem to downgrade into just “mere claims.”
The Bible is a book of claims. Evangelicals quoting Bible verses at me seem to not understand this fact. If they want me to believe, Evangelicals are going to have to do much better than giving proof-texts from an errant, fallible, contradictory ancient religious text. Why should any of us consider the Bible authoritative?
It’s not that I need overwhelming evidence as much as I need sufficient evidence; evidence that I find compelling. Such evidence has not been forthcoming. All I get are the same, worn-out, weak philosophical and theological arguments. After hearing these lame arguments thousands of times, I hope you will forgive for not being open to such arguments today.
Now, that asymmetry doesn’t automatically make your conclusions wrong, but it does make your method interesting. Skepticism usually presents itself as provisional, meaning it can and does change sometime in the future. In the archive, your skepticism often reads as settled. The questions repeat, but the answers never seem particularly at risk of changing.
I am an agnostic atheist, so the God question is an open possibility for me. An unlikely possibility, but possible; as in me winning the mega-millions lottery. Possible, but unlikely. I am more settled in my opinion of Christianity. I have weighed Christianity in the balance and found it wanting. Christianity is a text-based religion; a dead religion with no new revelation forthcoming. Thus, I am confident that my studies have led me to the proper conclusion: Christianity is a mythic blood cult that worships a dead man named Jesus.
It wouldn’t make much sense to just ask you to reopen Christianity, suddenly grant the Bible authority, or give miracles a hall pass. But it does seem reasonable to ask whether your framework itself ever becomes an object of skepticism, or whether it functions as the final court of appeal, immune to the standards it applies everywhere else. I think that question alone would provide readers with more information about how you see your own project.
My framework is certainly open to challenge, yet few Christians bother to contest it these days. Instead, they bitch, whine, and complain about my comment rules; as if I am infringing on their right to shit on my doorstep. I have worked very hard to make this blog a community. I learned early on that I had to regulate Evangelical commenters lest they fill the comment section with preaching, Bible verses, and personal attacks. That said, EVERY commenter is given at least one opportunity to say whatever it is they think the Lord has laid upon their heart. Future participation depends on them playing well with others. Sadly, many Evangelicals are toddlers, unable to pay nice on the Internet.
I ask this question because, even though I’ve perused around 100 or so of your articles (I even went back to your first article, a letter to the editor of a newspaper posted in 2006), I still could not find an article that addresses this question directly. Perhaps it is buried somewhere in here, but I could not located it, even with the help of the handy search bar. If it’s necessary, you could use my message as a new article to answer the question once and for all on your blog.
I haven’t directly answered this question before, so I appreciate being able to answer it, If you still have questions, please let me know, and I will do my best to answer them.
If the answer is simply “yes, my framework is settled,” that’s fine. But then your blog reads less like an open inquiry and more like a ongoing explanation of why inquiry, at least on certain questions, is no longer necessary.
This blog is primarily a place for me to tell my story. As such, it is personal and conversational. I invite people into my story, and traffic numbers and emails suggest that many people find this approach helpful.
I am ALWAYS open to questions. My answers might not sit well with others, but I try to be open and honest in my responses. I plan to start a new series titled, “The Bible Says What?” This series will flesh out some of the objections I have to some of the things found in the Bible.
That, in and of itself, is still an interesting project. I’m just not sure it’s the one the blog advertises.
This iteration of this blog was started in 2014. Have my views changed over the past twelve years? Sure. Long-term readers know how my writing has evolved over the years. HaveI left my core mission? I don’t think so, but I will leave this for others to decide.
Thanks for the questions, Levi. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.
Saved by Reason,
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Both Bg [Bruce Gerencser] and MM [Meerkat Musings, Ben Berwick] say things that are not the most intelligent or wise to say.
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He obviously has not read our books on Noah’s Flood [link removed to book] in which we record a large amount of evidence for that event. BG should do so in order to not make this silly mistake again. Only unintelligent people would ignore the evidence and make such erroneous statements.
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Another unintelligent and silly thing to say. Gonorrhea is not a ‘living element that was targeted by the flood. What was killed were all the humans who chose evil over God.
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What makes BG’s statement so silly and unintelligent is that the flood did ot wipe out sin or corruption that entered the world at Adam’s sin. It also did not wipe out evil that leads people to sin and corruption.
Thus, gonorrhea would not be wiped out as its source is found in a variety of places. The cattle on the ark were not perfect and incorruptible, nor were the other animals or the people on board. To assume that they were would be stupid andidiotic.
The germs that affected the pre-flood world did survive in a variety of ways simply because the components that act as a catalyst were not removed during the flood. After the flood, people still got sick and died.
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But stupid people just do not think things through when they make their weird and out-of-reality accusations against the Bible and God. They also prove they do not know how diseases come to life and what conditions are needed to fuel that existence.
They would rather just blindly accuse God of making a mistake. They take this step when they do not look at the whole picture.
Sigh, Where, oh where, do I begin? Being a “stupid” man, I won’t have much to offer a renowned Biblical scholar and author such as the mighty Tee, but I will try.
First, why in the world would I read Thiessen’s books? I have, in the past, read all the big- name authors in young earth creationism. At the first church I worked for, we had John Whitcomb come in and hold a two day Creationist Conference. I am well-versed in what Christian Fundamentalists believe about creationism and Noah’s flood.
Second, it is evident that Thiessen does not know how to competently search the Internet. Had he done so, he would have learned that Gonorrhea doesn’t survive for long in water — no more than a couple of hours, depending on the water source. It only survives for a couple of minutes in chlorinated pool water. Thus, the flood did not kill the disease, and since it needs a human host, at least one human on Noah’s big boat was infected with the clap.
Thiessen hurled a lot of slurs my way instead of actually engaging what I wrote. He failed to follow basic research principles, choosing, instead, to just make up shit as he goes. Thiessen has no answer for my Gonorrhea claim other than personal opinion and religious dogma.
Do better, David,
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Recently, I received the following email from a seventy-eight-year-old Christian man named Pat. My response follows.
Wow!!! What writings.
Thank you for appreciating the profundity of my writing,
Never read anything like them.
Again, that you for recognizing the uniqueness of my prose.
I am exhausted after going over your blogs.
Awesome! I appreciate new readers who are willing to read and understand my . . . Oh wait, I see. You were being a sarcastic prick. You didn’t mean the compliments you paid me. OMG! Another dishonest Christian. Never seen that before, right?
You have accomplished the task of making yourself the center of attention, that I conclude has always been important to you.
You don’t know me, so you have no idea what is important to me. I have been blogging for almost twenty years. I enjoy writing. I have tried over the years to share my story with others. Thousands of people have found my writing helpful and encouraging. That you don’t is no reason for you to attack me, but alas, even at seventy-nine, you never learned how to behave as a Christian in public.
Did you bother to consider how your words would be received by myself and the readers of this blog? Do you really think you represented Christ well? These are rhetorical questions, by the way.
You position your blogs that you always get the last word in, which gives you a feeling of control and power which also is important to you.
Again, you don’t know me, so you make judgments that are based on some sort of straw man of me you have built up in your mind.
People are free to comment on this blog, but there are rules. I make no apology for this. Everyone gets at least one comment to say whatever they want. After that, participation depends on playing well with others. Sadly, your tribe isn’t known for respectful dialog. Your email is case in point. Your goal was to wound and debase me, and not to interact and understand.
You have probably spent a great part of your life manic/depressive, which would be a hard life to live.
Untrue. Are you a psychiatrist or psychologist? Of course not. I have never been manic. Believe me, my Evangelical mom was manic, so I know what it looks like. I have, however, suffered from situational depression, especially since my health has declined.
Probably fought the demons off of homosexuality, may have even given into the temptation.
Ah, here we go, the gay slur. What would an email like yours be without some sort of attack on my sexuality. First, I am an atheist, so there is no God, and there is no Devil or demons. Do you have empirical evidence that suggests otherwise?
In your world, being LGBTQ is a sin. You condemn people for who they are. I don’t know, Pat, you probably fought off the demons of heterosexuality yourself, and have even given into the temptation. What a disgusting man you are to sin against the thrice holy God by having heterosexual, missionary position sex on your birthday and anniversary. Do better, Pat.
Or you can realize you are a bigot and repent.
For the record, my sexuality is none of your business. What I say here won’t matter, so I will leave you with your fantasy of having gay sex with me.
Doesn’t make you a bad person just makes you lost like most of the world, myself included.
Sorry, Pat, but I am not a sinner, so I am not, in any way, “lost.” I know right where I am. I also know right where Jesus is too: in an unknown grave in Jerusalem. If you want to worship a dead man, have at it. I have no interest in your blood cult or your Mormon-like worship of the dead. Jesus F. Christ, Pat, it’s 2026. Stop with the religious nonsense.
You would do almost anything to win, but this battle with God will be lost. He is not the god that you speak about in your writings and your experiences within the Church. He is a God of love and mercy.
I am not fighting God. Sorry, but God is a myth. Why in the world would I battle a myth? That would be irrational and stupid. Your claims about God are your personal opinions, and can be easily refuted if you want to get into a theological and Biblical debate with me. I’m game, Pat, are you? I’ll even let you get the last word in. Better yet, you may write a guest post for this site, saying whatever the dead Jesus puts on your shriveled heart to say. Of course, that means I will likely get the last word in, but this is an opportunity for you to put the atheist Bruce Gerencser in his place. After all, I’m just a godless, narcissistic, mentally ill homosexual. I’m no match for a virile hetero like you. 🤣
This blog has always been a place for me to share my story. As the sub-header says, I am one man with a story to tell. If you don’t like this fact, feel free to NOT read my writing. I certainly don’t want to irritate your emerods.
I wish you the best in the days ahead.
No you don’t. Stop with the false compassion. You can’t write all the shit you did and then “wish me the best.”
I hope you find some relief in the health issues you are dealing with.
There will be no relief forthcoming. I am, in a sense, terminal. The stomach diseases I have are incurable. I have been told by doctors that there is nothing they can do for me. What I do need, Pat, is money. Now there’s a way you can show your compassion. I will be awaiting your large donation to Dr. Bruce Gerencser, Director of the Christopher Hitchens Evangelization Center PO Box 183, Ney, Ohio 43549. Thanks, Bro!
You are still a young man. I will be 79 in a week.
Really? I am literally ten years younger than you. I am hardly a young man.
You write of your honesty; I am very truthful in my life also and in this note to you, found it to be less complicated that way…Pat
Sigh. (Please see Why I Use the Word “Sigh.”) This is your way of explaining and dismissing your boorish behavior. It seems you are one of these old men who thinks their advanced age gives them a right to say whatever they want. Unlike you, I have become more careful with my words since I deconverted in 2008. Age should bring maturity and wisdom. Certainly age should teach you to not contact random strangers on the Internet so you can belittle and insult them. You must have missed this lesson in life.
What did you hope to accomplish with your email? Do you really think you represented Jesus well, as the Bible commands you to do? Or have you written me off because I am an atheist?
Saved by Reason,
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
In the 1980s and 1990s, I pastored Somerset Baptist Church in Mt. Perry, Ohio. I planted the church, and in its heyday it surpassed 200 in attendance. Not far from our church sat Calvary Bible Fellowship — a large Amish-Mennonite community. My partner and I, along with our children, attended Calvary Bible on occasion. We really enjoyed the accapella music.
I befriended some of the church men over the years. I suspect they viewed me as an oddity: Fundamentalist like them, but not quite. Suspicious of most religious sects, the folks at Calvary Bible were not quick to paint someone a Christian.
Recently, I received a short email from an Amish-Mennonite man named John. John remembers my preaching and witness for Christ, but doesn’t remember personally talking with me much. He’s older than me, so I will attribute his faulty memory to age. 🙂 John and I had several discussions over the years, including at his business down the road from the church.
John wrote:
A, born again believer has a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He had repented of his sins, recognizing that he needs a savior, and an asked Jesus to come into his life the Holy Spirit to guide him, and even a true Christian enjoys his relationship with the Lord he has assurance of salvation and he would not leave that relationship and become an atheist. I’m sorry to say but Bruce I still love you and I know that the Lord does too and he’s calling you to come back to him and race receive a relationship with him and obtain eternal life at the end. I was a minister at Calvary Bible Fellowship for early 20 years. I still remember you were quite diligent and in talking to people about the Lord and as I remember you challenge the Catholics, but I don’t remember personally talking with you very much that I can remember.
For the purpose of this post, I want readers to ignore John’s sermons. Nothing new there; nothing I haven’t heard countless times before — albeit from an Arminian perspective. I want to focus on John’s description of me:
I still remember you were quite diligent and in talking to people about the Lord and as I remember you challenge the Catholics.
Think of how many zealots and apologists have attacked my character, saying I was a fraud, a liar, a deceiver Several preachers have spread far and wide the lie that I never was a pastor. My story is a legend, not lived history. John, who knew me better than ANY of my critics, saw me differently. John and I crossed paths many times over the years. He and his family lived two miles down the road from our church and “spacious” 12’x60 foot Hillbilly Mansion on wheels. We saw each other here and there, usually trading pleasantries, and, on occasion, talking about the decline of society, the Bible, and Christian education (we used books from Mennonite publisher, Rod & Staff, in our private Christian school). I found John to be a good man; someone I enjoyed talking to, on occasion. He certainly took his faith seriously.
I snickered a bit when John mentioned me challenging Catholics. Yeah, there was a time when I had no contact with Catholics other than trying to evangelize them. John likely remembers me and a few men from the church street preaching in front of the Catholic church in Somerset as they held their annual Garden Party (which featured beer and gambling). This was how the church raised funds to operate for the year. Years later, after actual exposure to Catholics, I moderated my views on Catholics, grudgingly admitting they were Christians, The Baptist in me took a long time to die.
I enjoyed hearing from John. I know he’s disappointed in me, but I have many fond memories of our years in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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For those of us who drank deeply from the Evangelical well, we heard a lot of talk about Heaven — the place saved Evangelicals go after they die. Preacher after preacher, including myself when I entered the ministry in the 1970s, said that this life was preparation to meet God. We were told to focus on the important stuff: going to church, reading the Bible, praying, tithing, witnessing. These practices were meant to draw us closer to Jesus in preparation for the day we when draw our last breath and enter the pearly gates to meet Jesus face to face.
According to Revelation 21:1-5 says:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and be their God; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Evangelicals will interpret these verses various ways, but the gist is that there is coming a day when every Christian, either through death or rapture, will be carried away to Heaven. This will be a glorious day, no more tears; no more death; no more mourning, crying, and pain. God himself says, “I am making ALL things new.” Most Evangelicals think God will make a new Heaven and a new earth. The former earth and universe will either be destroyed or renovated by fire. Christians will live in the New Jerusalem. No darkness, no night. Jesus is the light of the city. Sounds like an awesome place, right? No more pain really appeals to me, but then I think about the other things that go with an eternity in Heaven, and I quickly say, ‘No thanks, Jesus.” Bruce, aren’t you willing to “believe” if it means no more pain? No.
I have come to understand that we believe what we believe. We don’t choose our beliefs, as if, through libertarian free will, we “choose” whether to believe in Jesus. This is patently untrue, even if it “seems” differently to us. If you really believe we choose our beliefs, I ask you right now, Christians, to CHOOSE to be an atheist. Come on, you can do it! Come to the dark side. The weather is nice, the beer is cheap, and the company is awesome. Couldn’t choose? Why is that? We only believe that which convinces us. We evaluate evidence, and somewhere along the line we become convinced of one or more propositions, and we believe. I will believe in Jesus Christ the day I become convinced that the Christian gospel and the central claims of Christianity are true.
Two other questions remain for me:
Who will live in Heaven with us?
What will we do in Heaven for thirty trillion years?
According to Evangelicals, ONLY born-again people will live in Heaven after death. No Jews. No Muslims. No Buddhists. And certainly no agnostics, atheists, humanists, or pagans. Only Evangelicals need apply. This means that born again Jeffrey Dahmer — a serial killer who ate his victims — will be in Heaven, but moral, ethical atheists will be in Hell. That’s some fucked up thinking, is it not? Worse, think about spending eternity with the likes of fine Christians such as Revival Fires, Jaisen, John, James, Steve, and Dr. David Tee. Can you imagine them being your neighbors for eternity? I wonder of there will be suicide in Heave? 🙂
However long eternity is, human beings will live on in either Heaven or Hell (actually the eternal Kingdom of God and the Lake of Fire). What will Evangelicals do for eternity in Heaven? Some Evangelicals believe that eternity will be spent in community in a new Heaven and Earth. Everything will be perfect. I have heard some fantastical sermons about Heaven over the years, most without Scriptural warrant. According to this view of Heaven, life will be one long party, maybe like Mardi Gras without the beads, boobs, and booze. Or maybe Jesus will tell Evangelicals, “Hey that stuff is okay! Let’s party, brothers and sisters.”
Another dominate view of Heaven is the idea that eternity will be one never-ending praise and worship service. Evangelicals will spend eternity like Baptist Catholics, kneeling, standing, kneeling, standing . . . and singing. Lots and lots of singing. Can you imagine listening to masturbatory praise songs ad nauseam for millions of years. Kill me now. 🙂
How do preachers sell this nonsense to congregants? They convince themselves that an eternity of worshipping a narcissistic deity is the price one must pay for Jesus saving them from their sins.Ugh, no thanks. I might be convinced of the party Heaven if we can move Revival Fires, Jaisen, John, James, Steve, and Dr. David Tee outside the city gates, never to be seen again. Or maybe they could be tasked with cleaning the sewers in Heaven. These giants of the faith have a lot of expertise in “shit,” so it shouldn’t be too hard to teach them to clean up in the next life what they refuse to clean up in this life.
The Evangelical Heaven doesn’t appeal to many of us. One life is sufficient, and we plan to live life to its fullest. Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, and then you are dead. Harsh? Sure, but nonetheless true. If you have evidence to the contrary, please leave it in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:19-20 NRSV)
According to this passage of Scripture, when two or three Christians gather in Jesus’s name, he is among them or in their midst. I heard this claim countless times growing up. As a pastor, I would remind congregants that Jesus, in the person of the Holy Spirit, was in our midst. How did I know this? I “felt” it, as did others. How could it be otherwise? What evidence could I have provided for the claim that Jesus was literally with us as we praised and worshiped him? None. Oh, I claimed to have evidence: proof texts, souls saved, backsliders reclaimed, sins confessed, anointed preaching, spirited singing. Rare was a Sunday that I didn’t feel at some point or another the presence of God, as did countless congregants.
This belief is common among Evangelicals. What church and pastor doesn’t want to be known as spirit-filled people; believers who sense and know Jesus in sitting right there with them at church? It is not uncommon for churches to advertise their proximity to Jesus or his sidekick, the Holy Ghost. What do you do when ten local churches trumpet their Jesusness; especially when each church has different doctrines and practices from the others? Churches assume that if two or three members are gathered together, Jesus promised to be with them. However, that is a claim. How does any church or pastor actually know the man, the myth, and the legend Jesus H. Christ is among them? They can’t. This is a supernatural claim for which they can provide no evidence. Either you believe this claim or you don’t. That’s faith.
Look at all nonsense going on in Evangelical churches today — especially megachurches. Rock music, swaying singers, shallow sermons, and low expectations. I have watched enough church service videos to conclude that many megachurches are little more than entertainment venues for believers. Feel good pablum keeps people coming back week after week; ssumed by everyone is that Jesus is right there with them.
As an atheist, I am confident that the Evangelical God is a myth. This means Jesus is NOT in their midst; that what congregants feel are the effects of indoctrination, conditioning, and socialization. When you grow up in the church believing Jesus is with you, guess what? You are going to believe Jesus is your BFF. Every Sunday, Jesus is right there with you, as he is with everyone else. Well, except Deacon Bob. He’s been molesting children for years, but everyone pretends he is just “friendly” with children. Bob says he loves Jesus, but he loves feeling up little girls more. Do Evangelicals really believe that Jesus is with every last Christian, regardless of their behavior? Yep. Jesus is the eternal voyeur. He’s all-present and all-knowing. He sees and knows everything. So Jesus knows Bob is a pedophile, yet he allows Bob to play the sanctified part. Imagine how different Sunday church would be if Jesus said, “Deacon Bob, thou art the man.” And with that, he was hit by a bolt of lightning and died. Jesus sure showed him, right? Not really. After all, Bob is a born-again Christian. All that killing him did was take him to Heaven early. What a punishment, right? Meanwhile the children he molested are left behind to deal with the consequences of Bob’s wicked, vile behavior.
The Bible says this about Satan:
For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of ChristAnd no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds. (2 Corinthians 11:13,14 NRSV)
Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and a minister of righteousness. The question that must be asked then is how Evangelicals know it is Jesus in their midst and not Satan? If Satan is a master of disguises, how can Evangelicals know he’s among them, and not Jesus. Or maybe both Jesus and Satan show up for Sunday church. How do Evangelicals determine whom to worship?
Oh Bruce, Evangelicals have discernment. This is a claim for which no evidence will be forthcoming. At least 80% of white Evangelicals voted for Donald Trump three times. Not too discerning, right? Look at what Trump is doing to the United States. Listen to his disgusting, vile rants on social media. A violent bully, Trump only cares about his image and bottom line. Yet, Evangelicals still support him, even after the release of the Epstein Files. They have been sucked into the Trump Cult, and it remains to be seen if ANYTHING will get them to see what a huge mistake it was to vote for Trump.
If I believed in God, and by extension Satan, I would conclude that Evangelicalism has largely been co-opted by Satan. Of course, I don’t believe this, so I am more inclined to think that Evangelicals have sold their souls for a bowl of pottage. They have traded piety for political power. They have abandoned their calling. Instead of arrogantly and proudly claiming Jesus is ever with them, perhaps Evangelicals will take a careful look at what they have become and repent.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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