The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

It’s Summertime: Beware of Evangelical Attempts to Evangelize and Indoctrinate Your Children

June 3, 2023 Evangelicalism 30 Comments

It is summertime, a time when school children spend their waking hours in leisure pursuits. I have many fond memories of the warm days of summer, three months of freedom from the rigors of the classroom. I spent countless hours at the swimming pool, riding bikes, playing baseball, going to Kings Island/Cedar Point, overnight camping, and aimless hanging out with friends. I suspect children today do many of the things I did half a century ago.

Evangelical churches know that they will have numerous opportunities over the summer months to — through coercive means — win boys, girls, and teenagers to Jesus. Church members are encouraged to scour their neighborhoods in search of children to invite to their church’s Vacation Bible School (VBS), Backyard Bible Club, or Day Camp. Non-Christian parents, unaware of the ulterior motive of Evangelicals, readily allow their children to attend programs that serve no other purpose than to turn children into Evangelical Christians.

Evangelical churches are quite savvy when it comes to methods used to attract children to what can only be described as indoctrination camps/meetings. Years ago, Vacation Bible School was the main tool used by churches to evangelize neighborhood children. While many churches still use this method, other Evangelical churches use day camps to draw children to their lair. These camps are fun-filled weeks sure to thrill most children. Some of these camps focus on sports. Regardless of the theme or focus, the end game is always the same — evangelizing children and teenagers.

Most of the time at these events will be spent doing fun activities. Fun! Fun! Fun!, says advertising material. What’s never stated is that the fun is a means to an end — making sure every attendee has an opportunity to ask Jesus into their heart/get saved/become a Christian. Some churches even baptize youthful converts at special services at the end of the week.

Sadly, many non-Christian (and Christian) parents are way too trusting. If Evangelical neighbor Susie stops by to invite their children to VBS or day camp, many parents quickly say yes. After all, the events are being held at churches, parents think. What harm could possibly come from allowing my children to go? As those of us who follow closely the machinations and shenanigans of Evangelical churches know, churches are NOT safe havens for children and teenagers. I would never advise parents to send their children to church unattended. The risk is too great, especially now that we know that sexual predators and child abusers are often fine, upstanding church members, pastors, deacons, youth group leaders, and Sunday school teachers. No parents in their right minds would allow their children to spend time with neighborhood registered sex offenders. Doing so would warrant a visit from child protective services. Yet, these very same parents don’t think twice about letting their children attend church activities that are magnets for predators. (Churches rarely do criminal background checks on summer program workers or the ministry teams that go from church to church holding camps/meetings.)

Evangelical churches should state very clearly their motives when inviting neighborhood children to VBS or day camps. Imagine what the response would be if advertising material contained the following:

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL

We are Wonderful Baptist Church
666 Salvation St Defiance, Ohio 43512
419-956-Jesus

Come Join Us
June 13-17
6:00-9:00 P.M.

Lots of Fun and Games
Crafts and Snacks Too

And while your children are with us we plan to use coercive means to evangelize them. We plan to scare the hell out of your children, teaching them that if they do not repent, they will spend eternity being tortured by God.

Disclaimer:
We plan to use workers who have not been thoroughly vetted. It’s too darn expensive to do a background check on everyone. Besides, we are Christians. Everyone knows Christians would never hurt children.

Something tells me that doing so would drastically reduce VBS/day camp attendance. Maybe not. Surely the fine folks down at First Baptist Church would never, ever do anything to harm children, right? People need to open their eyes and pay attention to the nefarious methods used by Evangelical churches (and some mainline churches) to evangelize and indoctrinate unchurched children. Just remember, it’s never just about fun, food, and fellowship. The ultimate goal is always to win wicked, sinful children to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

In any other setting such methods would be roundly criticized and condemned. Churches, however, get a free pass because they are considered depositories of morality and ethics. Until people realize that churches do not warrant such trust, children will continue to be targeted for evangelization and indoctrination.

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

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One Million Moms Wages War Against LGBTQ People

June 3, 2023 Evangelicalism 10 Comments

One Million Moms is a ministry of the American Family Association. OMM is virulently anti-LGBTQ. What follows is a list of their recent boycott campaigns.

North Face

The North Face is currently using a drag queen to help push its gay pride clothing line. This line includes a couple of items for children, and these pieces furtively advocate for the LGBTQ lifestyle. The North Face ad begins, ”Hi, it’s me, Pattie Gonia, a real-life homosexual. I’m here with The North Face.”

But that’s just the beginning! The North Face’s new rainbow-themed clothes and accessories, including a rainbow jacket and a blanket for children, are part of its gay pride collection and marketing campaign. And this particular ad features a drag queen spokesperson actually saying, “COME OUT,” as a double entendre. He continues in a high, screeching voice, “We are here to invite you to COME OUT … in nature with us!”

The advertisement includes an invitation to their summer tour called “Summer of Pride,” held in select cities: “This tour has everything. There will be hiking, community, art, lesbians, and lesbians making art! Last year, we gay sashayed across the nation and celebrated pride with hundreds of you.”

The ad also features the male spokesman in full drag, wearing a rainbow mini-dress, matching rainbow leg warmers, heels, a wig, a rainbow headband, makeup, eyelash extensions, and huge hoop earrings. Nothing about this get-up promotes the great outdoors. The commercial ends with him stating, “That’s pretty gay!”

Adidas

People across the nation are outraged over the Adidas Pride 2023 collection, particularly after the company chose a biological male to model a woman’s one-piece swimsuit. The ad shows a hairy chest and crotch bulge to get the campaign’s point across.

Adidas is also taking heat because it is extremely offensive to women for the company to pay a biological male to model a woman’s swimsuit. In truth, Adidas is pushing an agenda of sexual confusion instead of just selling athletic clothing and swimwear.

The brand’s Pride campaign has been promoted by British Olympic diver Tom Daley, but he is not seen wearing the woman’s swimsuit.

As part of the Adidas campaign, Daley has written a “Love Letter to Sport” that said, in part, “No matter their sexual orientation, gender identity, whatever it is. Every single athlete should be free to love you while loving whoever they want; and most importantly, being true to whoever they are.”

This unnatural behavior is portrayed as a normal occurrence as Adidas embraces the LGBTQ community and glorifies the transgender lifestyle in its most recent ad.

But 1MM finds it extremely dangerous to share lies and deceit while propagating what God calls an abomination, camouflaged as kindness, love, and inclusivity. Yes, we are instructed to love one another, but we must also hold others accountable and speak out against sin.

Target

The Target boycott continues!

Target is currently selling gay pride clothing and accessories for infants and children, specifically transgender and gender-neutral items, furtively advocating for the LGBTQ lifestyle.

Target’s rainbow-themed T-shirts for children and onesies for babies are part of its gay pride marketing campaign.

The children’s T-shirt imprints include logos such as “It Takes All Kinds” and “Always Proud.” The infant items include “Bien Proud” designs, along with other rainbow skirts and accessories for children, preschool age and younger.

Please sign our petition and let Target know their decision to engage in corporate promotion and financial support of homosexuality is a bad idea, especially considering the number of mothers currently shopping for graduation gifts, college essentials, summer merchandise, and upcoming vacation items.

Maybelline

Maybelline is facing serious backlash due to its paid partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. The trans social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney is known for pushing his sinful lifestyle onto impressionable teens who see the influencer glamorize his lifestyle on TikTok. During one TikTok video, he applies several Maybelline products to play up his gender-dysphoric identity as a trans woman.

Maybelline paying Dylan to model its makeup has sparked outrage with conservative consumers. Maybelline is also taking heat because this is extremely offensive to women to pay a biological male to model its makeup brand in its recent ad. In truth, Maybelline is pushing an agenda of sexual confusion instead of just selling makeup.

This perverted behavior is portrayed as a normal occurrence as Maybelline embraces the LGBTQ community by glorifying the transgender lifestyle in its most recent partnership.

But 1MM finds it extremely dangerous to share lies and deceit while propagating what God calls an abomination, camouflaged as kindness, love, and inclusivity. Yes, we are instructed to love one another, but we must also hold others accountable and speak out against sin.

M A C Cosmetics

Parents should be aware that M·A·C· Cosmetics has a dedicated VIVA GLAM line that financially supports the LGBTQ lifestyle. M·A·C· uses transgenders, drag queens, and particularly, trans social media influencers to push this lifestyle onto impressionable teens who see the influencers glamorize their lifestyle. In truth, M·A·C· is pushing an agenda of sexual confusion instead of just selling makeup.

This perverted behavior is portrayed as a normal occurrence as M·A·C· embraces the LGBTQ community by glorifying the transgender and drag lifestyle even though it is an unhealthy lifestyle. M·A·C· camouflages their agenda as good by calling themselves Mactivists.

The official M·A·C· Cosmetics website states: “27 years of giving a glam! Since 1994, M·A·C VIVA GLAM has raised OVER $500,000,000 globally – and counting! – to support healthy futures and equal rights for all. That’s over 9,713 grants given to 1,818 organizations in 92 countries. And over 19,000,000 lives changed around the world.”

Yes, M·A·C· has donated 100% of the VIVA GLAM lipstick selling price of $19 each to help the LGBTQ community and people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. Ironically, M·A·C· claims to support healthy futures when it is proven the LGBTQ lifestyle is unhealthy.

The M·A·C· website also brags, “Our founding credo – All Ages, All Races, All Genders – remains more integral to who we are now than ever before, as we fight for the rights and freedoms of all our friends and fans around the world.”

M·A·C·’s website clearly celebrates pride all year long, and the cosmetic retailer is proud to celebrate what they call beauty without gender boundaries.

But 1MM finds it extremely dangerous to share lies and deceit while propagating what God calls an abomination, camouflaged as kindness, love, and inclusivity. Yes, we are instructed to love one another, but we must also hold others accountable and speak out against sin.

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

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Ohio Republicans Continue to Viciously Assault LGBTQ People

June 2, 2023 Politics 3 Comments

By David DeWitt, Ohio Capital Journal Editor-in-Chief and Columnist

Happy Pride Month, Ohio, where LGBTQ+ people are under constant assault by bully Republican lawmakers who are weirdly obsessed with our community, especially the transgender members of it.

Transgender people — especially transgender people of color — have been leading the activist charge toward LGBTQ+ human rights and equality since the beginning, literally throwing the first punches at the Stonewall riots.

They are the icons of our human rights movement that every LGBTQ+ person ought to know: Sylvia Rivera. Marsha P. Johnson. Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. Stormé DeLarverie.

And since the beginning, transgender people have been the most victimized. They remain so, and Ohio Republicans have devised numerous abhorrent ways to target and victimize them further.

Extremist right-wing lawmakers have introduced bills to ban transgender kids from participating in athletics that align with their gender identity, to ban gender-affirming health care for trans youth, and to ban trans youth in schools and colleges from using bathrooms that align with their gender identities.

Probably what I find most obnoxious about all of this is that these are politicians who have virtually no experience with the LGBTQ+ community, who have expressed no interest in understanding LGBTQ+ people, who have no comprehension of the day-to-day lived experience of LGBTQ+ Americans, who have no expertise whatsoever in the broad scientific, mental health, and medical consensus on care when it comes to LGBTQ+ lives, and who show absolutely no interest in doing anything to help LGBTQ+ people legally, medically, or politically.

Yet they claim to somehow be the ones who “care” and are out to “save” LGBTQ+ people, by committing rampant harm and torment on our families in every way they can imagine.

It’s a very creepy and disturbing fixation they’ve revealed within themselves. The legislative sponsor of various attacks on transgender people, Vickery Republican state Rep. Gary Click, is a pastor who inexplicably and absurdly claims he has no religious motive, despite Click defending conversion therapy and suggesting that homosexuality and the idea that one can be trans are pushed by Satan in order to undermine the family.

Click even made an appearance celebrating his anti-trans attack with Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, a right-wing religious fanatic organization that is labeled as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Parents of LGBTQ+ youth, medical professionals who provide LGBTQ+ health care, and advocates who have dedicated their lives to saving LGBTQ+ lives, all stand opposed to these bills.

Only six transgender girls play sports in Ohio, out of 1.5 million public school K-12 students. Both the Ohio High School Athletic Association and NCAA have rules around transgender participation that are well-established and based on a wide variety of expert advice and research.

Gender-affirming care is supported by every major medical organization in the United States. A study released last year found that gender-affirming care for youth was linked to 60% lower odds of moderate or severe depression and 73% lower odds of suicidality.

There is no evidence that letting transgender people use public facilities that align with their gender identity increases safety risks, but there is ample evidence that forcing transgender people to use bathrooms that do not align with their gender identity increases risk of assault against transgender people.

The Trevor Project found in a 2021 poll that anti-trans legislation led to 85% of transgender and nonbinary youth reporting negative impacts on their mental health.

Nearly 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary young people attempted suicide in the past year, according to the Trevor Project’s 2023 survey of mental health of LGBTQ+ youth.

A 2022 survey from The Trevor Project found that 45% of LGBTQ+ youth across the country seriously considered suicide that year, while 14% actually attempted it.

In 2021, the Human Rights Campaign tracked a record number of violent fatal incidents against transgender and gender non-conforming people. These are people’s children and family members and friends whose last moments alive were suffered under the wicked violence of hate.

LGBTQ+ safe spaces and celebrations have been targeted with threats or acts of violence, including masked Nazis showing up with semi-automatic rifles to a drag show at Land Grant in Columbus in April.

Nazis have a history of victimizing transgender and gender non-conforming people first.

The world’s first trans clinic, the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin, was one of the first victims of German Nazi targeting in 1933, when it’s clinic was shut down, administrators and doctors were forced to flee the country, and 20,000 books — including every bit of then-established transgender science and research — were set aflame in a public bonfire.

In America today, a new staggering rise in violence against LGBTQ+ people directly mirrors the recent rise in anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and lawmaking among right-wing politicians, pundits, and loser internet trolls.

As of April of this year, at least 417 anti-LGBTQ+ bills had been introduced in state legislatures across the United States since January, a new record surpassing last year’s record.

Why are they doing all of this?

Radical reactionary politics. Heartless politicians seeking to roll back and destroy human and civil rights for their own political gain. To drive a wedge. To take advantage of a political moment to victimize others.

Theirs is a campaign of fear, hate, and intimidation, meant to dismantle 50 years of progress, meant to “other” us, as though we weren’t people’s daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, and cherished friends, wholly deserving of dignity, tolerance, and our fully protected human and civil rights.

As the larger community has gained widespread acceptance, many Americans will still tolerate victimization of our transgender sisters and brothers, even though a majority favors protecting trans people from discrimination. Even within our community, a disturbing level of transphobia sometimes exists among cisgender gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals.

And that probably breaks my heart the most. I expect nothing from small-minded, hateful bigots and cretins who live their lives in fear and intolerance, but I do expect the LGBTQ+ community and our allies to stand together in strength, love, and acceptance against them, especially at such a critical moment. This is a perfect month for us all to recommit ourselves to that.

This past Sunday, I attended a drag brunch in Columbus hosted by the always hilarious and inimitable Virginia West. We had a small crowd for the holiday weekend, but it included members of our community of all types, cheering, clapping, singing, and laughing so, so much.

We had straight people, gay people, lesbians, bisexuals, pansexuals, asexuals, and one beautiful family celebrating a mother’s birthday who raised two transgender children to be fun, confident, happy adults. Their straight, cisgender father was wearing a t-shirt that said, “Drag is Not a Crime.”

Sitting only a couple tables away, a wide smile spread across my cheeks as I observed this delightful family living in love and laughter and acceptance and joy with each other.

That is what this is all about, I thought. That is what our community is all about. That is what life — and living life well — is all about: Honor, decency, honesty, compassion, laughter, joy, acceptance, and living with love, tolerance, and understanding in our hearts. That is the LGBTQ+ community — and all communities — at our best.

How dare these voices of hate and intolerance assault that? These fringe zealots who want to dictate their dogma on everyone are not only un-American, they’re wildly ignorant of the fact that so many families of all types live in beautiful harmony. But the intolerant want only one way: their way. It’s a mean, narrow, base conceit.

These lawmakers who live with such contempt, such loathing, such a lack of empathy, and such bottomless cruelty for anyone who doesn’t live as they say everyone must live, are defiling both themselves and their positions of public trust. They are the shame of Ohio, deserving of nothing but mocking disdain.

As ever, America, we have a constant choice: Between tolerance or intolerance, courage or fear, kindness or cruelty, love or hate. It’s an easy choice.

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You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Raising Money for “God”

June 2, 2023 Evangelicalism 4 Comments

Evangelical preachers are known for their legendary sermons on tithing, giving offerings to the building fund, missionary fund, and funding the whims (needs) of the church and pastor. Congregants are expected to give ten percent of their gross income to the church, and if they are really, really, really right with God they will financially support the missionaries, building programs, and give whenever a special offering is called for; say to pay an evangelist, buy a van for the church, purchase a copy machine, or send the pastor and his family to a retreat. The opportunities to give to God are endless.

Who hasn’t heard a sermon on Malachi 3:10:

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

“Just remember,” IFB preachers say, “you can’t outgive God.” Surely, church members want God to open up the windows of Heaven and pour them out a blessing, so they give money they do not have to the church, believing God will come through for them. And when he doesn’t? Members are encouraged to faith-it; to keep giving, no matter what. God will eventually come through, and if he doesn’t in this life, he will reward you in Heaven. Where have we heard that canard before? Are your prayers for healing or material needs going unanswered? Just remember, God will give you after death a perfect body and a glorious, luxurious home in Heaven. All the promises of God are offloaded to the afterlife. Believers are expected to endure hardness as good soldiers, knowing that in Heaven God will settle all his IOUs.

Polly and I gave lavishly to the church, even if that meant doing without. Doing without was just God saying to us we didn’t need it. Besides, I wasn’t really giving to the church, I was giving to God. The church was just the bank. For a time, I became a fundraiser for God. What God wanted, I shook down congregants for the funds to pay for it. In retrospect, I now see that what God wanted and what Bruce wanted were one and the same. What church members were funding was my wants and ambitions. Sure, we had to pay for the clubhouse, keep the utilities on, and pay for our programs and ancillary expenses, but I still find it difficult to separate Bruce from God. How could I, or anyone else for that matter, know what God wanted? He doesn’t seem to be the talkative type.

A big problem for me is that I was a full-time pastor. For twenty-five years, I treated the church as a full-time job; my primary employment. None of the churches paid me a full-time wage, with benefits, but they got 40-60 hours a week from me nonetheless. Of course, I had a family to feed and bills to pay, so I often worked secular jobs or, in later years, Polly worked jobs outside of our home. We treated our outside employment as a means to an end: funding our work in the ministry.

Somewhere in the late 1990s, I stopped being a fundraiser for God. Most of the families in the church I was pastoring at the time were working poor; people who struggled to lived from day to day. I felt guilty badgering them to give money that they didn’t have. Instead, I took a “give what you can” approach. I stopped passing the offering plate, putting a box at the back of the church for people to use for their offerings.

I also stopped tithing on my church income. It made no sense to me to give money to the church, only to receive it back as salary. I was, in effect, funding my own salary. Oh, we still liberally supported the church and personally helped congregants with their material needs.

While I never treated the church as an ATM machine, I knew more than a few Evangelical preachers who did. In their minds, what they — I mean God — ordered, the church — I mean God — paid for. Remember, with God ALL things are possible, including buying the preacher a new automobile.

If I were asked to give young Evangelical preachers advice about money and the ministry, I would tell them to treat their churches as a part-time job; that their ministries and communities would be better served if they worked full-time secular employment, instead of walling themselves off in the safe confines of their churches and your studies. Years ago, I heard a missionary explain why he sponsored a dirt track race car. He believed it was important to be in the world, to get dirty for God. Yes, we are Christians, but we are everyday humans too, just like the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the world.

The question these fundraisers for Jesus need to ask themselves is this: why is God so poor? If he is a miracle-working deity, why can’t he provide a bag of money each Sunday for churches just like he did when he provided manna for Moses and the wandering Jews? Why does God need church members to be shaken down every Sunday for money to pay for the preacher’s every whim? Maybe congregants need to start asking for purchase orders signed by God before funding their pastor’s — uh, I mean, the church’s — latest “need.” Ask yourself, does God really need $250,000 of AV equipment? Does he really need extravagant buildings and a plethora of programs meant to make fat sheep fatter, all the while, outside the gates, poor, marginalized people the least of these are hungry, homeless, and suffering. If Jesus really were the treasurer of the church, what would he do?

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him [Jesus] shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. (Matthew 25:31-46)

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The One Thing Churches Should Do, But Don’t

June 2, 2023 Evangelicalism 15 Comments

I pastored my last church in 2003. Between July 2002 and November 2008, my wife and I, along with our children, personally visited the churches that are listed below. These are the church names we could remember. There are others we have either forgotten or vaguely remember, so we didn’t put them on the list. Churches in bold we attended more than once. All told, from 2002-2008 we visited about 125 churches. If I added every church I have ever attended or preached in my lifetime the count would be over 200.

If the church has a website, I linked to it. A handful of these churches are no longer open. Emboldened church names we visited more than once.

Churches We Visited 2002-2008	Location

Our Father’s House	West Unity, Ohio
First Brethren Church	Bryan, Ohio
First Baptist Church	Bryan, Ohio
Grace Community Church	Bryan, Ohio
Lick Creek Church of the Brethren	Bryan, Ohio
First Church of Christ	Bryan, Ohio
Eastland Baptist Church	Bryan, Ohio
Bryan Alliance Church	Bryan, Ohio
Union Chapel Church of God	Bryan, Ohio
Celebrate Life Christian Fellowship	Bryan, Ohio
Faith United Methodist Church	Bryan, Ohio
Trinity Episcopal Church	Bryan, Ohio
Archbold Evangelical Church	Archbold, Ohio
Sherwood Baptist Church	Sherwood, Ohio
Ney Church of God	Ney, Ohio
Ney United Methodist Church	Ney, Ohio
Sonrise Community Church	Ney, Ohio
Farmer United Methodist Church	Farmer, Ohio
Lost Creek Emmanuel Missionary Church	Farmer, Ohio
Hicksville Church of the Nazarene	Hicksville, Ohio
Community Christian Center	Hicksville, Ohio
Grace Bible Church	Butler, Indiana
St John’s Lutheran Church	Defiance, Ohio
Harvest Life Fellowship	Defiance, Ohio
Community Christian Center	Defiance, Ohio
Second Baptist Church	Defiance, Ohio
First Baptist Church	Defiance, Ohio
Grace Episcopal Church	Defiance, Ohio
First Assembly of God	Defiance, Ohio
Defiance Christian Church	Defiance, Ohio
First Presbyterian Church	Defiance, Ohio
St John’s United Church of Christ	Defiance, Ohio
Peace Lutheran Church	Defiance, Ohio
Pine Grove Mennonite Church	Stryker, Ohio
St James Lutheran Church	Burlington, Ohio
Zion Lutheran Church	Edgerton, Ohio
Northwest Christian Church	Edon, Ohio
Restoration Fellowship	Williams Center, Ohio
Pioneer Bible Fellowship	Pioneer, Ohio
Frontier Baptist Church	Frontier, Michigan
Salem Mennonite Church	Waldron, Michigan
Waldron Wesleyan Church	Waldron, Michigan
Lickley Corners Baptist Church	Waldron, Michigan
Prattville Community Church	Prattville, Michigan
Betzer Community Church	Pittsford, Michigan
Fayette Church of the Nazarene	Fayette, Ohio
Fayette Bible Church	Fayette, Ohio
Fayette Christian Church	Fayette, Ohio
Morenci Bible Fellowship	Morenci, Michigan
First Baptist Church	Morenci, Michigan
Demings Lake Reformed Baptist Church	Demings Lake, Michigan
Medina Federated Church	Medina, Michigan
Thornhill Baptist Church	Hudson, Michigan
First Baptist Church	Hudson, Michigan
Rollins Friends Church	Addison, Michigan
Canandaigua Community Church	Canandaigua. Michigan
Alvordton United Brethren	Alvordton, Ohio
Pettisville Missionary Church	Pettisville, Ohio
Vineyard Church	Toledo, Ohio
Providence Reformed Baptist Church	Toledo, Ohio
Lighthouse Memorial Church	Millersport, Ohio
Newark Baptist Temple	Heath, Ohio
Church of God	Heath, Ohio
30th Street Baptist Church	Heath, Ohio
St Francis De Sales Catholic Church	Newark, Ohio
Bible Baptist Church	Newark, Ohio
Cedar Hill Baptist Church	Newark, Ohio
Eastland Heights Baptist Church	Newark, Ohio
Northside Baptist Church	Newark, Ohio
Newark Brethren Church	Newark, Ohio
St John’s Lutheran Church	Newark, Ohio
Vineyard of Licking County	Newark, Ohio
Vineyard Grace Fellowship	Newark, Ohio
Grace Fellowship	Newark, Ohio
Faith Bible Church	Jersey, Ohio
Vineyard Christian Church	Pataskala, Ohio
Cornerstone Baptist Church	New Lexington, Ohio
St Nicolas Greek Orthodox Church	Fort Wayne, Indiana
Nondenominational Church	Angola, Indiana
Nondenominational Church	Fremont, Indiana
Victory Baptist Church	Clare, Michigan
First Assembly of God	Yuma, Arizona
Desert Grace Community Church	Yuma, Arizona
Calvary Lutheran Church	Yuma, Arizona
Bible Baptist Church	Yuma, Arizona
Calvary Chapel	Yuma, Arizona
Oasis	Yuma, Arizona
Faith Baptist Church	Yuma, Arizona
Valley Baptist Church	Yuma, Arizona
Calvary Assembly of God	Yuma, Arizona
Foothills Assembly of God	Yuma, Arizona
Morningside Baptist Church	Yuma, Arizona
Faith Horizons Baptist Church	Yuma, Arizona
Stone Ridge Baptist Church	Yuma, Arizona
Old Order Mennonite Church	Yuma, Arizona
Grace Bible Fellowship	Yuma, Arizona
Calvary Temple of Christ	Yuma, Arizona
Maranatha Baptist Church	Yuma, Arizona
Independent Lutheran Church	Yuma, Arizona
Community Christian Church	Yuma, Arizona
Church meeting in funeral chapel	Yuma, Arizona
Pentecostal Church	Winterhaven, California
North Holtville Friends Church	Holtville, California
Sierra Vista Baptist Church	Sierra Vista, Arizona
Hedgesville Baptist Church	Hedgesville, West Virginia
New Life Baptist Church	Weston, West Virginia

We visited all sorts of Christian churches, with varying beliefs and practices. We didn’t visit many Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregations. No need — been there, done that. What we found is that the churches we attended didn’t really care about us; that we were just asses in their seats and money in their offering plates. Often, we were treated as if we were unwanted. We were able to get in and out of one church of 300 or so people without anyone speaking one word to us. Congregants were often stand-offish, wondering why we were attending THEIR churches.

I was a pastor for twenty-five years. When someone visited our church, I made sure I introduced myself to them. I made sure they received a visitor’s card. I encouraged church members to warmly welcome new people, knowing first impressions mattered. On Monday or Tuesday, I would call people who visited on Sunday and ask if it would be okay to come and visit them. (I also visited the homes of church members several times a year.) Most visitors said yes. Over the course of twenty-five years, I personally visited hundreds of visitors, often taking one of the men from the church with me. Sometimes, depending on the circumstance, I would ask Polly and one of the church women to visit newcomers.

I believed then, and still do today, that personal contact with visitors is important for church growth (or business growth, in general.) Sitting in someone’s home allows them to feel comfortable and more willing to share their stories and ask questions. By my actions, I was saying to visitors that I cared about them and wanted to help them in any way I could.

I know that part of the reason for doing this is my personality and work background. I was a people person, even though I often craved being left alone. Was it my schtick? I don’t think so. I genuinely wanted to help people. I worked a lot of public-facing jobs, especially restaurant management. I honed my people skills by interacting with customers and staff. According to others, I was good at my job.

Out of the churches listed above, do you know how many contacted us by personally visiting us or calling us on the phone? Five. That means that almost ninety-five percent of the churches we visited showed no interest in us post-visit. Only one church contacted us once, a GARBC church. Several churches we attended for months, never contacted us. We were non-existent to them. Thank you for the offering. See ya next week.

We concluded that most churches didn’t give a shit about us. And then one day, neither did we.

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IFB Church Planting and How Church Planters Convince Themselves Their Churches Are “Special”

June 2, 2023 Evangelicalism 3 Comments

We live on a small, insignificant rock, surrounded by countless galaxies, stars, and planets. We know very little about what lies beyond the Milky Way, and despite our progress, there is still much we don’t know about Earth and its inhabitants. Yes, we humans continue to push into the unknown, but despite our inquisitiveness, we remain insignificant creatures with itty-bitty brains living on what Carl Sagan famously called a “pale blue dot.”

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It’s 2023. We supposedly live in the age of science and technological advancement. Yet, the majority of Americans believe God created the universe and the Bible is the Word of God. Young earth creationism flourishes and Evangelical Christianity dominates the political scene. How enlightened and advanced are we really if the majority of people worship as if their lives depended on a Jewish man named Jesus who died 2,000 years ago? Ponder for a moment Christian theology; the core beliefs that millions of people believe are true. (Please see The Michael Mock Rule: It Just Doesn’t Make Sense.) Sunday after Sunday, church houses are filled with people singing praises to a dead man; promising to obey the teachings of a Bronze Age religious text. Pray tell, how enlightened are we really?

According to a 2017 Christianity Today story, there are almost 400,000 Christian churches in the United States. Many of these churches are Fundamentalist, falling broadly under the Evangelical tent. (Please see Are Evangelicals Fundamentalists?) The farther to the right you move, the more shrill the Fundamentalists become. One group you will find on the extreme right of Evangelicalism is the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement. Numbering millions of congregants in thousands of churches, the IFB church movement is fiercely separatist, believing that they preach the One True Faith®, and all other sects are either heretical or heterodox. (Please see What is an IFB Church?)

I grew up in the IFB church movement. I attended an IFB Bible college in the 1970s, pastored several IFB churches, and was deeply invested in IFB doctrine and practice. In 1983, I started an IFB church in the southeast community of Somerset, Ohio. It wasn’t that Somerset needed another church — it didn’t. Somerset had five churches within its village limits, and countless more in surrounding communities. Somerset was, in every way, Christianized, yet Rev. Bruce Gerencser, IFB preacher extraordinaire, believed that Somerset needed one more church — a church that preached the One True Faith®. Ponder, for a moment, the arrogance it took to come to this conclusion. Every time I see a newspaper story about yet another Evangelical church coming to the county I live in, I shake my head and say, “just what we need, another fucking church.” All church planters think “God” is leading them to plant a new church, regardless of how many churches already exist. Church planters convince themselves that they are “special,” and that their churches will be different and unique. And as sure as the sun comes up in the morning, over time their churches become just like every other church in town.

Think of the arrogance and lack of awareness required for an IFB preacher — who takes up a square foot or two on this insignificant planet of ours — to think that his church is “right” and all other churches are wrong; to think that his church is a solitary beacon of light in a world he believes is filled with darkness; to think that virtually everyone outside of that particular church has wrong beliefs, worships the wrong God, and is headed for eternal damnation and Hell unless they see, know, and embrace the “truth.” Truth being, of course, the God-given beliefs of the One True Faith®.

In the grand scheme of things, we are little more than specks of dirt on a pale blue dot. We live and die, and before long are forgotten, a footnote in the history of humankind. What better way to drive away insignificance than to convince yourself that you are special; that God speaks to you and has a divine plan for your life? I planted five churches during my time as an Evangelical pastor. There’s nothing more thrilling than starting a new church. Every Sunday is filled with excitement and anticipation. Over time, you attract people who like you as a person or are drawn to your preaching or personality. As the church grows, you begin to think, “I’m special. God is really using me!” In 1986, the IFB church I was pastoring at the time became the largest non-Catholic church in the county. I proudly advertised, “Perry County’s Fastest Growing Church.” I just knew that I was right and every other church/pastor was wrong. My church was growing, and other nearby IFB churches were not, so I began to think that there was something wrong with them; that maybe there was some sort of defect in their beliefs and practices; that maybe they didn’t work as hard as I did. Isn’t that the American dream? Work hard, and good things will happen. Yet, when I resigned from Somerset Baptist Church in the spring of 1994, the glory days were long over. I had moved on from the IFB church movement, embracing Calvinism and starting a private Christian school. My credo was quality over quantity. Did leaving the IFB church movement make me more ecumenical? Not at first. You see, Calvinism is its own special club. Ironically, most of the Calvinistic Baptist — Reformed Baptist, Sovereign Grace Baptist — preachers I knew were former IFB pastors. Much as I did, these preachers had a Paul-like Damascus Road experience and converted to the One True Faith® — Evangelical Calvinism. What this merry band of predestinarians did was just move one more step to the right. Certain that they finally had found THE “truth,” these preachers of John Calvin’s gospel derided their previous beliefs, doubting that those still in IFB churches were really Christians.

The next time you drive by an IFB church or a Sovereign Grace/Reformed Baptist church, just remember that the pastor of the church and his congregation believe that their church is right and every other church is wrong. And remember most of all the insignificant part they play on planet earth. Oh, they believe otherwise, that God is doing a mighty work in and through them, but the fact remains that they are just another speck of dust on a pale blue dot.

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Christian School Coach Andre Johnson Accused of Numerous Sex Crimes

June 1, 2023 Black Collar Crime 0 Comments

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.

Andre Johnson, a coach at Sumter Christian School in Sumter, North Carolina stands accused of 1 count of sexual exploitation of a minor in the first degree, 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in the second degree, disseminating obscene material to a person under 18, assault and battery in the third degree, and incest. Sumter Christian is a ministry of Sumter Bible Church — a congregation similar to Independent Baptist churches.

The Christian Post reports:

A former coach at a South Carolina Christian school, who was accused of sexually exploiting a minor, now faces over 20 new charges for allegedly committing other sex crimes involving minors.

The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office announced on Facebook on May 24 that 54-year-old Andre Girard Johnson of Dalzell had been rearrested on additional charges, having previously been accused of disseminating obscene material to one person under the age of 18 in March.

Charges include 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in the first degree, 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in the second degree, disseminating obscene material to a person under 18, assault and battery in the third degree, and incest.

The alleged crimes involve two juveniles and authorities do not believe there are any other victims.

“Of the many cases our investigators work, the crimes against the most vulnerable in our society, like children, are always the hardest,” Sheriff Anthony Dennis said, as quoted by WIS News 10.

In an earlier report, WIS reported that Sumter Christian School’s administration had initially reported to law enforcement in March that Johnson had been sending inappropriate text messages to a minor.

The minor reportedly told school administrators about the messages as they made her feel uneasy, investigators confirmed. Investigators stated that Johnson also sent pornographic images and sent a text message to the victim telling her that he wanted to have sex with her.

Deputies said Johnson surrendered himself on March 20 and was then transported to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Detention Center. At the time, he was then released on a $5,000 surety bond.

Over multiple weeks, the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office continued to conduct a full and in-depth investigation, bringing to light over 20 additional alleged sex offenses carried out by Johnson against minor victims.

Johnson was rearrested on May 23 and reportedly transported to Sumter County Sheriff’s Office Detention Center. He later posted a $28,000 surety bond and was subsequently released on Tuesday, May 24.

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Youth Pastor Caleb Toney Charged with Intent to Commit Sexual Abuse, Pleads Guilty, Given Probation

June 1, 2023 Black Collar Crime 0 Comments

Caleb Toney, a youth pastor at several unidentified Iowa Evangelical churches, stands accused of two counts of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, as well as two counts of supplying alcohol to a minor involving the same teen and one other.

WHO-13 reported in December 2022:

A former youth pastor is facing charges in Polk and Story counties for allegedly sexually abusing teens and providing them with alcohol.

Twenty-six-year-old Caleb Toney of Elkhart is charged with two counts of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, one count of assault, three counts of supplying alcohol to persons under the legal age, and one count of permitting minors to consume alcohol.

Cmdr. Dan Walter with the Ames Police Department said the first charges stem from incidents in the fall of 2017 at a residence where Toney lived at the time. Toney is accused of giving a 15-year-old alcohol and once the teen was intoxicated Toney allegedly touched him in an “unwanted, insulting, and offensive” manner. Court documents show he provided alcohol for a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old on multiple occasions and allowed them to drink at his Ames residence.

The other incidents are alleged to have happened in Ankeny and Elkhart between January 2019 and May 2020. In court documents, the victim alleges Toney got into bed with him and touched his genitals when he and an underage friend spent the night at his home in Elkhart. Toney is also accused of touching the victim’s genitals while the two were sitting on a couch at an apartment where Toney lived in Ankeny.

Police in Ankeny and Ames did not have information immediately available about which church or churches Toney was a youth pastor at when the alleged abuse occurred.

Toney was arrested on Monday and bonded out of the Polk County Jail on Tuesday night. He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on December 16th for the charges in Polk County.

The Des Moines Register reports:

A former youth minister from Elkhart has been sentenced to probation for sexually abusing an underage student.

Caleb Toney, 27, was arrested by Ankeny police in December. According to Polk County court complaints, Toney on multiple occasions had sexual contact with a teen boy, then a high school student, in 2018 and 2019. The teen told police that Toney was his youth pastor at the time.

Toney was charged with two counts of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, as well as two counts of supplying alcohol to a minor involving the same teen and one other.

….

In April, Toney pleaded guilty to two reduced charges of lascivious conduct with a minor and the two alcohol charges, all serious misdemeanors. On May 18, he was sentenced to two years of probation in lieu of a four-year prison term.

Toney also was ordered to register as a sex offender and remain on supervision for 10 years. As part of his probation, he was ordered to stay off Craigslist and other online personal ad or escort services.

He must pay a fine of $1,720 on top of other court costs and surcharges.

Toney also was charged last year with assault in a separate Story County case. According to that complaint, Toney provided alcohol to a 15-year-old boy at a residence in Ames, then after the boy was intoxicated, began touching the boy’s body until the teen stopped him and moved away. That charge was dismissed at prosecutors’ request in January.

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Black Collar Crime: Evangelical Pastor Raymond Chang Accused of Sexually Assaulting a Child

June 1, 2023 Black Collar Crime 0 Comments

Raymond Chang, the pastor of Resurrection Church and an employee of Sweetser Adult Crisis Residential Facility in Rockport, Maine, stands accused of sexually assaulting a child.

The Courier-Gazette reports:

Raymond K. Chang, who is both a pastor and works at a Sweetser crisis unit, was arrested by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant charging him with felony unlawful sexual contact and misdemeanor unlawful sexual touching.

Chang was taken to the Knox County Jail in Rockland. Judge Sarah Gilbert set bail Wednesday, May 31 at $2,500 cash during Chang’s initial appearance in the Knox County Court in Rockland. The judge also ordered Chang to wear a GPS monitor, not have contact with the victim or her mother, and to have no unsupervised contact with people younger than 18 years old.

Assistant District Attorney Mari Wells had asked for bail to be set at $5,000, citing the seriousness of the charges.

Defense attorney for the day Daniel Purdy had asked for bail of no more than $1,200 which is the amount he said Chang could raise.

Chang is a pastor at his church and operates a Sweetser facility, Purdy said.

Sweetser Communications and Public Relations Director Justin Chenette said Chang works at a Sweetser adult crisis residential facility in Rockport but does not run it. Chang is on unpaid administrative leave, the spokesman said.

The affidavit filed in the court by the Sheriff’s Office stated that the victim said Chang had been kicked out of his last church and started a new one in Rockport called “Resurrection Church.”

The affidavit stated that the victim reported being sexually assaulted by Chang multiple times from when she was 12 to 14 years old. The initial criminal complaint filed by the district attorney’s office lists two counts in 2019.

Chang was not asked to enter a plea at Wednesday’s hearing because one charge is a felony and that must first be presented to a grand jury.

The affidavit quotes the victim as saying that she reported the sexual abuse to a family member and in response the family got together with members of the former church (which is not named in the affidavit) and she was told she needed to apologize and that both needed to forgive each other.

The victim reported the matter to police in early April and the Sheriff’s Office began its investigation.

The victim and her mother obtained a temporary protection from abuse order against Chang on April 21 from a state judge in Lewiston, citing sexual and physical abuse, according to the affidavit.

The Sheriff’s Office contacted Chang by telephone on April 27 and he referred Detective Justin Twitchell to his attorney. Chang said he did not have a contact number for the lawyer, and hung up. The man’s attorney Adam Sherman of Lewiston then called the detective back moments later, according to the affidavit.

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Prayer: Asking and Receiving

June 1, 2023 Evangelicalism 6 Comments

Evangelicals believe the words printed in red in the New Testament were uttered by Jesus himself. Thus, in John 14:13, Jesus says to his followers: whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Jesus’ unambiguous statement makes it clear that whatsoever Christians prayerfully ask in his name, he will do. Awesome, right? Mark 11:24 records Jesus saying: Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Jesus’ statement in Mark 11:24 is even more extreme. Whatsoever Christians desire and pray for, if they will really, really, really believe that God will give it to them, Jesus will affirmatively and fully answer their prayers. If only this were true, why I might become a Christian again. I have a lot of things that need fixing in my life. I am more than happy to let Jesus take the wheel! But, alas, the Jews buried the steering wheel with Jesus in an undisclosed location, so I am on my own.

Decades ago, Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) evangelist John R. Rice wrote a book titled, Prayer: Asking and Receiving. Rice, the long-time editor of the Sword of the Lord newspaper, believed that “getting” what you wanted from God was as simple as praying and asking God to deliver. Granted, Rice, and others who followed in his footsteps, had all sorts of explanations for “why” God failed to come through, but these Fundamentalist men of God sincerely believed that getting what they needed in their ministries and personal lives was but a prayer away. Rice believed that the primary hindrance to answered prayer was “sin.” He advocated praying for forgiveness as soon as you become aware that a behavior or action is a sin. “Keep your sin lists short,” Rice said. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5:17: Pray without ceasing. Rice believed that Christians should always be in a spirit of prayer, ever-ready to shoot a prayer up to God. In Asking and Receiving, Rice wrote:

The normal Christian life is a life of regular, daily answer to prayer. In the model prayer, Jesus taught His disciples to pray daily for bread, and expect to get it, and to ask daily for forgiveness, for deliverance from the evil one, and for other needs, and daily to get the answers they sought.

For many years, IFB churches, parachurch ministries, and education institutions grew numerically and financially. In the minds of many IFB Christians, this proved Rice’s contention that prayer was believers asking and God delivering. Today, the vast majority of these churches, ministries, and schools are shells of what they once were. Many of them have closed their doors. What are we to make of their precipitous decline? Did Rice’s prayer formula no longer work? Or, perhaps, it never did work, and answered prayers came from and through human instrumentality, not God.

In the 1980s, I pastored a rapidly growing IFB congregation. Starting with 16 people, in four years the church grew to 200. I thought, at the time, that God had answered my prayers. I pleaded with God to save the lost, stir the saints, and cause Somerset Baptist Church to be a lighthouse in the community. And for five or six years, it seemed God was coming through every time I asked him to do so. Not that I was ever satisfied. I remember Rice saying, “It is not wrong to have a small church — for a while.” I attended numerous IFB preacher’s conferences and Sword of the Lord conferences in the 1970s and 1980s. The theme was always the same: building large churches for the glory of God. I was never, ever happy with the numbers. I took it personally when people skipped church. How dare they miss out on what Bruce — uh, I mean God — was doing at Somerset Baptist. I would learn, over time, that it wasn’t God that “blessed” my ministry, it was me and a handful of dedicated volunteers. One day, I looked behind the vending machine IFB preachers called God, and I noticed it was unplugged. Prayer wasn’t asking and receiving. At best, it was asking, asking, and asking, and then acting accordingly. I found that it was humans, not God, who answered prayers; that I was asking “self” for this or that, and “self” gave me what I asked for.

Rice went to his grave believing: “According to the Bible, a genuine answer to prayer is getting what you ask for.” If he had any doubts, he never uttered them in public. While John 14:13 and Mark 11:24 are clear – that if Christians ask, they will receive – evidence on the ground is clear: God doesn’t answer prayer. Either God can’t answer prayer because he doesn’t exist, or Christians live such sinful lives that their God has turned a deaf ear to their petitions. My money is on the former.

The next time an Evangelical says to you, THE BIBLE SAYS __________, ask him about John 14:13 and Mark 11:24. Does your own version of THE BIBLE SAY __________? Ask him if Jesus meant what he said in these verses. The answer that comes next will likely prove to be long on obfuscation and theological gymnastics and short on, The B-i-b-l-e, yes that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-i-b-l-e. BIBLE!

How did your pastors and churches handle verses such as John 14:13 and Mark 11:24? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

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