An Evangelical woman named Barb Webb sent me a short email today that said:
It so heartbreaking to me that you didn’t meet the real Jesus. He is still there.
Webb then left the following comment on the post Why I Hate Jesus:
Heartbreaking to read that you were introduced to an imposter not the real Jesus.
I have no idea how much, if any, of my autobiogpraphical material Webb read. I suspect, not much. Her email and comment reflect ignorance about my story and past beliefs. No one with knowledge and understanding about my Christian past would ever say that I didn’t meet the “real” Jesus.
Who is the real Jesus? I believed in, worshipped, and followed the Jesus of the Bible. I assume this is Webb’s Jesus too. Of course, my story is different from Webb’s, so instead of trying to understand my story, she dismisses it out of hand, saying that I never was a real Christian.
What evidence does Webb have for the claim that I was introducted to a “false” Jesus? Is she saying my parents, pastors, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and college professors were all false Christians too; that everyone in my sphere of religious influence was deceived too?
I agree with one thing Webb said, “He [Jesus] is there.” 2,000 years ago, Jesus was executed by the Roman government. He was then buried in an unknown grave where he remains to this day. So, Webb is right, Jesus is still there, buried in an unknown grave somewhere in or near Jerusalem. He will remain there, never to be seen again. If Webb has evidence to the contrary, I would love to see it. (Quoting the Bible is a claim, not evidence.) She, of course, doesn’t, so all she has is a faith claim which I reject.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Republicans want to cut food, heating, and housing subsidies for poor children and families.This tells me everything I need to know aboutthe Republican Party.
Senator Bob Menendez should be forced to resign from office by his fellow Democratic senators.
It looks like Trump not only inflated his dick size, he also grossly inflated the value of his real estate and business assets.
Some Democrats are calling for candidates to run against Joe Biden. I support this call in the primary. However, come November 2024, the only thing that matters is keeping Trump out of the White House.
Upwards of twenty-three raccoons frequented our backyard this spring and summer. And now that fall has arrived, the raccoons have disappeared, making occasional raids on the food we put out for feral/stray cats.
Chronic illness and pain affects every aspect of my life. Telling me to “put mind over matter” is never the right thing to say. When you say this, I say to myself, “Go fuck yourself.” Continue in your insensitive behavior, I might say this to your face.
“Looks like you are feeling better today,” well-wishers often say. They wrongly judge the quality and level of my suffering by what I do, failing to understand that looks can be deceiving. Just because I’m smiling, doesn’t mean I don’t want to cry. I often smile for others, hiding my pain from them.
Hey, Joe Namath. You had a lifetime 50% pass completion rate, worse than embattled New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson. STFU. Give the kid the break. Nobody wants to hear from ancient old ex-players. Different era, different game.
Travis Kelce, a Taylor Swift dating, Bud Light drinking promoter of COVID vaccines is upsetting right-wingers with his “woke” behavior. OMG, the meltdowns are fun to watch.
Kevin McCarthy says Biden is to blame for the threatened government shutdown. Sure, Kevin, sure. I bet the hemorrhoid in your arse you affectionately call Matt Gaetz is telling you to say this lest you lose your speakership.
Bonus: I’m increasingly disillusioned with what I see and hear in the larger atheist community. Maybe this is on me. I’ve moved on from the “angry atheist” phase of my life. I’m not that interested anymore in debates about the existence of God.
Several times a month I receive emails from Evangelicals wanting to be “friends” with me. These emails invariably say that the writer is Evangelical, but not like the Evangelicals I focus on in my writing. Often, these writers attempt to “hook” me by saying that they “totally” understand why, based on reading about my past experiences, I would walk away from the ministry and Christianity. They too, I am told, would have done the same. Usually, these emails are filled with compliments about my transparency, openness, and honesty. These Evangelicals promise me that their motives are pure, and that they have no desire to try to win me back to Jesus. All they want is an opportunity to show me “true” Christian love and friendship.
I also get Facebook friend requests from Evangelicals who, again, promise that they have no ulterior motive for friending me. Years ago, one such person friended me on Facebook. He knew “everything” about me, having read my blog and talked to his sister who was, at one time, a member of one of the churches I pastored. So, I friended him, thinking that maybe, just maybe, he was different from other Evangelicals. And for a while he was, but one day he became inflamed with righteous indignation over something I had written about Christianity. Our discussion quickly spun out of control, and the man unfriended me. He warned his sister about me, saying that I was satanic and Christians should avoid me lest I influence them with my demonic words.
These days, I simply do not respond to Evangelical friendship requests, be they via email or on social media. Several years ago, the president of a Christian college attempted to goad me into having lunch with him by appealing to my desire for openness and understanding. This man told me that he just wanted to share a meal and hear my story. I told him, as I do anyone else who takes this approach, Look, I have written more than four thousand blog posts. I have written extensively about my past and present life. If you really want to know about my life, READ! If, after reading my writing, you have questions, email them to me and I will either answer them in an email or a blog post. Of course, this is not what these “friendly” Evangelicals want. They want a face-to-face meeting with me so they can probe my life, hoping to find that wrong beliefs led to my deconversion. Never mind that I have written numerous posts about my past beliefs. Everything someone could ever want to know about my life and beliefs can be found on this blog.
Perhaps the question these Evangelicals should ask is this: why would I want to be friends with you? What would a friendship with you bring to my life that I don’t already have? It’s not like I don’t have any friends. I do, and I am quite happy with the number of friends I have, both in the flesh and through the digital world. Not only that, but my partner of forty-five years is my best friend, and I am close with my six children and their families. I have all I need when it comes to human interaction. Why, then, would I want to be friends with Evangelicals who, as sure as I am sitting here, want to evangelize me? Friendship Evangelism remains a tool churches and parachurch ministries use in their evangelistic efforts. Friendship becomes a pretext. The real goal is to see sinners saved. Promoters of “Friendship Evangelism” know that befriending people disarms them, making them more sensitive and receptive to whatever version of the Christian gospel they are promoting.
As long-time readers of this blog know, I am pretty good at stalking people on the internet and social media. I have learned that you can tell a lot about people just by looking at their Facebook wall, along with the groups they are a part of and the pages they like. Recently, a local man contacted me, offering to buy me dinner with no strings attached. What, no expectations of sex after the date? Consider me a doubter. I decided to check out the man’s Facebook profile. I found out that he voted for Donald Trump and supports most of the Evangelical hot-button issues. He opposes same-sex marriage and abortion. We have nothing in common socially or politically. Why, then, would I want to be friends with him?
Friendships are generally built around shared beliefs. I don’t have any interest in being friends with people who voted for Donald Trump or support political views I consider anti-human, racist, bigoted, and misogynistic. And I sure as hell don’t befriend people who root for Michigan. I have standards, you know? Seriously, most of us have friends who hold to beliefs similar to our own. We might have a handful of friends who differ from us, but we find ways to forge meaningful relationships with such people. I am friends with several Evangelicals, but the main reason I am is that our friendships date back to the days when we were walking the halls of Lincoln Elementary. We’ve agreed not to talk about religion or politics. We share many common connections that make such discussions unnecessary. I am sure they fear for my “soul” and pray that I would return to the fold, but these things are never voiced to me. If they did attempt to evangelize me, it would most certainly put an end to our friendship.
To the man, these friendly Evangelicals believe that my life is missing something — Jesus — and is empty, lacking meaning, purpose, and direction. In their minds, only Jesus can meet my needs. Without him, what is the point of living another day, right? In their minds, Jesus is the end-all. Why would I want to trade the life I now have for Jesus? What can Jesus — a dead man — possibly offer me? Well, Bruce, these Evangelicals say, Jesus offers you forgiveness of sins, escape from Hell, and eternal bliss in Heaven. Surely, you want to go to Heaven when you die? Actually, I am content with life in the present. Threats of Hell or promises of Heaven have no effect on me. Both are empty promises.
Why would I ever want to be friends with someone who believes that, unless I believe as they do, their God is going to torture me in a lake filled with fire and brimstone for eternity? This same God — knowing that my present body would, in hell, sizzle like a hog on a spit — lovingly plans to fit me with a special fireproof body that will be able to feel the pain of being roasted alive without being turned into a puddle of grease. What an awesome God! No thanks. I have no interest in being friends with anyone who thinks that this is what lies in the future for me. I can’t stop (nor do I want to) such people from reading my writing, but I sure as hell don’t want to “fellowship” with them over dinner at the local Applebee’s.
I would like to make one offer to Evangelicals who want to be friends with Atheist Bruce. Fine, let’s go to the strip club and have drinks, and let’s do it on All Male Revue Night. I’m not all that interested in seeing males strip, but I thought taking these Evangelicals to such a place would help them see how I feel when they view my life as lacking (naked) and in need of clothing (Jesus).
My life is what it is. True friends accept me as I am, no strings attached. Evangelicals, of course, have a tough time doing that. In their minds, Jesus is the end-all, the answer to all that ails the human race. Life is empty without the awesome threesome — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I spent fifty years in the Christian church. For half of those years, I was preaching the Evangelical gospel. I was, according to all who knew me, a devoted, zealous follower of Jesus. Whatever my faults may have been (and they were many), I loved Jesus with all my heart, soul, and mind. Deciding to walk away from the ministry and Christianity were the two hardest decisions I have ever made. Yet, my life, in virtually every way, is better today than it was when I was a Christian. Quite frankly, Christianity has nothing to offer me. I am content (well, as content as a perfectionist with OCPD can be, anyway) with life as it now is. Sure, life isn’t perfect, but all in all, I can say I am blessed. Yes, blessed. I am grateful for my partner, six children, and thirteen grandchildren. I am grateful that I can, with all the health problems I have, still enjoy their company. The advice I offer up to people on my ABOUT page sums up my view of life:
You have one life. There is no heaven or hell. There is no afterlife. You have one life, it’s yours, and what you do with it is what matters most. Love and forgive those who matter to you and ignore those who add nothing to your life. Life is too short to spend time trying to make nice with those who will never make nice with you. Determine who are the people in your life that matter and give your time and devotion to them. Live each and every day to its fullest. You never know when death might come calling. Don’t waste time trying to be a jack of all trades, master of none. Find one or two things you like to do and do them well. Too many people spend way too much time doing things they will never be good at.
Here’s the conclusion of the matter. It’s your life and you’d best get to living it. Someday, sooner than you think, it will be over. Don’t let your dying days be ones of regret over what might have been.
For me, the game of life is late in the fourth quarter. Time is literally running out. I must focus my attention and energy on relationships that are mutually beneficial, relationships that offer love, kindness, and acceptance. No Evangelical worth his or her salt can offer me such a relationship. Lurking below the surface will be thoughts about how much better my life could be with Jesus and thoughts of what will happen to me if I die without repenting of my sins. Evangelicals who really believe what the Bible says can’t leave me alone. They dare not stand before God to give an account of their lives, only to be reminded that, when given the opportunity to evangelize the atheist ex-preacher Bruce Gerencser, they said and did nothing. And it is for these reasons that I cannot and will not befriend Evangelicals.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
If you have not done so, please read the previous post on this subject here.
After posting Bruce, I Want to be Your Friend — Part One, I read a perfect illustration of what I was talking about in this post.
Writing for A Clear Lens — an Evangelical apologetics blog — Nate Sala wrote:
A lot of people in the Church seem to be asking the same question more and more these days: How do I talk to people about my faith in Christ? This is an excellent question to ask! Particularly considering the current climate of tribalism, whataboutism, and the outrage culture, how are Christians supposed to navigate often difficult conversations in order to get to the Gospel in the 21st century?
I’ve spent the last nine years formulating an effective method of communicating why Christianity is true; and a lot of this has been through trial and error. And I do mean, a lot of error! But now I see that the difficulty in sharing our faith with folks is not rooted in whatever is happening in the news or academia or political correctness or even atheist websites. I am convinced that the difficulty in sharing our faith stems from our having forgotten how to be in relationship with each other.
….
We need to stop making speeches and start making friends. Evangelism and apologetics is only as effective as the authentic relationship you have with folks. Let speeches be for political venues or TED Talks or even the pulpit. But for us, when we want to communicate to people about our faith, we need to begin with real relationship. That means asking questions to get to know people. In other words, treat your interactions with folks like you would a first date.
We all know (at least I hope we all do) the dos and donts of dating. Don’t dominate the conversation with long-winded speeches about yourself or your views. If you do that there won’t be a second date! Instead ask questions about your date in order to discover who they are and show them that you are genuinely interested in them. And then just listen carefully to what they say. This is no different when it comes to evangelistic or apologetic conversations. Don’t begin with an agenda where three steps later you’re asking someone to say the sinner’s prayer with you. Just start off by getting to know the person you’re talking to. Treat your interactions like a first date with an important person. And, when the person you’re speaking to feels comfortable, ask them about their faith. Let me say that again: When the person you’re speaking to feels comfortable, then ask them about their faith. As a matter of fact, J Warner Wallace has a great question you can ask them: What do you think happens after we die?
Friends, if you try to treat people like a checkmark on your agenda, you will come across as an inauthentic used-car salesman. Instead, if you treat your conversations like a first date with an important person, you will find the path to evangelism and apologetics so much easier!
Read carefully what Sala says: friendship is a tool to be used in evangelizing non-Christians. In other words, it’s friendship based on deception, not honesty. Imagine if Evangelical zealots were honest and said, look I want to be your friend, but I only want to do so because I see you as a hell-bound, sin-laden, enemy of the Evangelical God, who is headed for Hell unless you buy what I am selling. Why, I suspect most people would say fuck off. Few of us want friends who can’t love and accept us as we are, where we are. And don’t tell me Evangelicals love everyone, loving them so much that they just have to tell them the truth — JESUS SAVES! Who wants friends who see them as defective in some way; friends who view them as broken; friends who see them as purposeless and empty; friends who cannot and will not love them as is, without conditions?
Evangelicals feign friendship so they can evangelize. True friends, on the other hand, enjoy your company and accept that differences are what make each of us special. Evangelicals look to convert, adding more minds to the Borg collective. Conformity, not diversity, is the goal. Doubt that this is so? Ask your new Evangelical “friend” if, after you get saved, you can continue having gay sex and continue working for Planned Parenthood. Ask him or her if you and your significant other can have your same-sex wedding at their church. Ask if you, as a gay man, can teach Sunday school or work in the nursery. Absurd, right?
I have no doubt Sala and other Evangelicals will object to my characterizations of their intent. However, I spent a lifetime in Evangelicalism. I know how Evangelicals operate. I know what lurks behind their “friendliness.” I know that they use friendship as a means to an end, much like foreplay before sexual intercourse. Evangelicals fondle and caress your emotions, hoping that you will spread your legs wide so they can penetrate you with their slick gospel presentations. No thanks.
For all I know, Nate Sala is a nice guy, as are many Evangelicals. I just wish they would all be honest about their intent when they lurk in the shadows hoping to befriend unwary “sinners.” While this might not generate as many club members, there will be no regrets come morning.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Over the weekend, I received the following email from a Christian woman named Alicia. All spelling, grammar, and punctuation in the original. My response follows. Alicia means well, so I do want to extend grace to her in my response.
Hi Bruce,
I just love you. I bet you were an awesome pastor. (And your wife looks absolutely lovely.) I am a believer and I love Tim Mill’s site and your site.
I am not sure what Alicia means by saying “I just love you.” I tend to bristle when Christians tell me that they love me, knowing how “love” is used to manipulate people or as an evangelism tool. Alicia doesn’t know me, so she is not in a position to “love” me. Maybe she used the word in a colloquial sense.
I will leave it to former parishioners to say whether I was an awesome pastor. I humbly tried my best to minister to other people. Whether that qualifies as “awesome” is for others to decide. I do know that there are former parishioners who don’t think I am “awesome.” If these people saw me in a crosswalk, they would probably speed up and try to run me over. ‘Tis the nature of the ministry. You can’t be all things to all people.
Several months ago, I was interviewed by Tim Mills. Over 82,000 people have viewed the interview.
I find it so interesting to see how real believer’s minds change. I kinda get the textual and philisophical reasons why folks deconvert. But what I don’t get is when you guys say that there is no such thing as sin. Well, I do get it. It’s because you guys never wallowed in it yourselves. You actually walked the walk so your consciences are clear and your souls aren’t dinged up from it. You just feel like you’ve been bamboozled by religion.
Sin is a religious construct used by clerics to induce guilt and fear. Properly abused by preaching and teaching on “sin,” congregants are then offered a “solution” for their sin — Jesus. Of course, Jesus is only found in churches that preach Biblical truth — or so preachers say, anyway. Offered forgiveness, once accepted, church members are expected to be faithful attendees and tithers. Preaching up sin is a way for preachers to maintain their hold on congregants, and, most of all, keep the money flowing.
As a humanist, I believe in good and bad behavior — not sin. Many normal, healthy human behaviors are considered “sins” by Christians. People go through life feeling fearful and guilty over just being human. This is particularly true when it comes to sexual behavior.
Trust me when I say that I have done a lot of “sinning” in my lifetime. My religion taught me that I daily sinned in thought, word, and deed, committing sins, according to my pastors, of commission and omission. This thinking led to a lot of fear and guilt. I was worried that the judgment of God was nigh, and that if I didn’t stop sinning God might kill me.
Today, I live a much simpler life. No more fear or guilt, no worries about chastisement or judgment. My goal on any given day is to be a good man, living according to the humanist ideal. (Humanist Manifesto) And when I fail, I do my best to apologize and make restitution.
Well,,Lemme tell you, as a prodigal. THERE IS SIN. I walked away from God and walked in sin and it traumatized me. (Don’t let a Dr. prescribe an antidepressant. They will fry your brain worse than a street drug.) Anyhow,… When I came back to God and read the Bible again…talk about feeling Bamboozled. What a B-Slap! Over and over that Book warns us not to sin so we don’t hurt ourselves and others.
I can’t speak to Alicia’s experiences, but I don’t view myself as a prodigal. I am a truth-seeker. Fifteen years ago, my studies and experiences showed me that the central claims of Christianity are false. Prodigals are people who return to that which they left behind. How could I possibly do so? If Christianity is untrue, what is there for me to go back to? That ship has sailed.
You”re in therapy cuz you were sinned against so horribly as a child. Your precious mother was sinned against and so traumatized. ( Lord only knows what you saw and dealt with as a Pastor.) And as i said…my own sins traumatized me.
I am in therapy for a lot of reasons — childhood trauma being one of them. However, it would be wrong to pin my deconversion on trauma alone. I’m not an atheist because my step-grandmother sexually molested me, nor am I an atheist because of countless other childhood traumas. Sure, these events shaped me psychologically and affected how I engage the world I live in, but my deconversion rests primarily on intellectual reasons, not emotional ones.
I hope you don’t regret too much your time as a pastor. I”m sure you hedged a lot of folks from pain.\
The only thing I regret is spending so much of my life believing a lie. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed being a pastor. There are certain aspects of the ministry I don’t miss, but loving and caring for people? Preaching and teaching? Ministering to the least of these? I would be less than honest if I didn’t admit that I miss these things. Maybe I need to start an atheist church. 🙂
Forgive me if I seem like I”m talking church talk. I really am approaching it from a psychological standpoint.
The problem with approaching my story from a “psychological standpoint” is that Alicia is not qualified to do so, and neither are countless other Christians who take this approach with me.
I know you stayed at a Holiday Inn last night, but you are not a medical professional, so please do not send me unsolicited medical or psychological advice. I am not interested — ever.
If you are an Evangelical Christian, please read Dear Evangelical before sending me an email. If you have a pathological need to evangelize, spread the love of Jesus, or put a good word in for the man, the myth, the legend named Jesus, please don’t. The same goes for telling me your church/pastor/Jesus is awesome. I am also not interested in reading sermonettes, testimonials, Bible verses, or your deconstruction/psychological evaluation of my life. By all means, if you feel the need to set me straight, start your own blog.
I make it clear that I am not interested in receiving medical or psychological advice — ever. I see a team of doctors on a regular basis. I see a psychologist weekly. I am well-cared for. That’s why I ask people to NOT send me medical or psychological advice. How hard can it be for people to respect my wishes?
Anyhow, please don’t feel the need to respond. I know you are a busy dude. And this topic is treading borderline for you.
Not treading, past the line. I know you mean well, so I am giving you a pass this round. In the future, when someone you don’t know says “These are my boundaries,” believe them.
I wanna say God Bless You, but I don’t want to offend.
So I”ll be more invasive and just say HUGE HUGS to you and your wife.
There is no God, so I am not concerned about his “blessing” in the least. I have much to be thankful and grateful for, but God plays no part in my life. I give credit to whom credit is due, and God ain’t done squat for me. How can he? He is a mythical being.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Over the weekend, an Evangelical man named Charles Pentland, Jr. sent me the following email:
Sad, you turned from the faith. You’re not the only one. It won’t be long & you will believe it.
I really don’t have much to say to Charles. For the life of me, I don’t understand why Evangelicals think threatening strangers on the Internet with Hell is an effective evangelization technique. Does anyone thusly threatened immediately fall on their knees, repent, and ask Jesus to save them? Of course not. Thus, I am left to conclude that such threats are all about people such as Charles, and not the people they threaten. They have a pathological need to be right, and what better way to show their rightness than by threatening unbelievers — especially atheists — with hellfire and damnation? Evangelicals feel vindicated, thinking, “I sure told that atheist.” Instead, all they do is remind me of why I left Christianity, and why the single best decision I made next to marrying Polly was the day I said to the world “I no longer believe.”
Charles feels “sad” over my loss of faith. Does he really? I doubt it. People change their minds about things all the time. People marry and later divorce. Jesus and I were married for many years — happily so. Yet, there came a day when I realized my marriage to Jesus was over. What did I do? I filed for divorce, and fifteen years later, I am still a happy divorcee. While I lost lifetime social connections when I deconverted, I have developed new relationships with people who accept me as I am, and not for what I believe. My life is better in every way — post-Jesus. Of course, Charles likely doesn’t believe me, thinking that no one can have a good life, a satisfying life, one filled with purpose and meaning, without J-e-s-u-s. All I know to do is to keep living my “sad” life all the way to the grave. Isn’t that all any of us can do?
Let me leave Charles with the advice I give to readers on my About page:
You have one life. There is no heaven or hell. There is no afterlife. You have one life, it’s yours, and what you do with it is what matters most. Love and forgive those who matter to you and ignore those who add nothing to your life. Life is too short to spend time trying to make nice with those who will never make nice with you. Determine who are the people in your life that matter and give your time and devotion to them. Live each and every day to its fullest. You never know when death might come calling. Don’t waste time trying to be a jack of all trades, master of none. Find one or two things you like to do and do them well. Too many people spend way too much time doing things they will never be good at.
Here’s the conclusion of the matter. It’s your life and you best get to living it. Someday, sooner than you think, it will be over. Don’t let your dying days be ones of regret over what might have been.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Over the weekend, I received several emails from an Evangelical women named Annelie. All spelling, grammar, and punctuation in the original.
Annelie:
Hello there.. I just read your story Blog. I have one question only… And it’s one word…. WHY. ?
Did you walk away from God. Help me understand you.
Thank you for your kindness.
Carolyn:
Annelie,
It’s funny that you should use the word WHY. There is a whole series of posts under the word WHY on Bruce’s home page. Here’s the link: https://brucegerencser.net/why/. Read those posts, then come back and ask questions if you wish more information. The short of it is that Bruce is a voracious reader, and the more he read, the more he realized that the bible was neither inerrant nor infallible. Once he discovered this, he realized that fundamentalist Christianity no longer made sense.
Happy reading,
Carolyn Patrick, editor for Bruce Gerencser
Bruce:
Annelie,
Thank you for taking the time to contact me. Your question is one that has been asked countless times. I actually have a page that lists articles I have written that hopefully answer the “Why?” question. I believe my editor sent you a link to this page: https://brucegerencser.net/why/
If you have any further questions, please let me know, and I will do my best to answer them.
Annelie:
Bruce
I think you answered your own question…..
When you said that you once believed that Christianity was true…
And I hate to tell you that it STILL is… whether you choose to believe it or not.
Eternity is a L-o-n-g Time without GOD.
My heart breaks for you.
Annelie:
Hello again…
Just to let you know that I will not give up on you !
I will not stop praying for YOU. !
A song that come to mind for you is…
“ Set my spirit free , that I may worship Thee,
Set my spirit free, that I may praise Thy Name,
Let all bondage go, and let deliverance flow,
Set my spirit free, to worship Thee.”
Some day when I get to heaven,
I want to see ….. BRUCE : the mighty man of God there,
Singing with all his might…
“ Wonderful grace of Jesus,
Greater than all my sin,
How can my tongue describe it ?
Where can my praise begin ?
Taking away my burden,
Setting my spirit free,
Oh the wonderful grace of Jesus,
Reaches me. !!! “
It is evident from Annelie’s emails that she spent very little time reading my autobiographical material, especially the articles found on the WHY? page. I have come to expect such behavior from Evangelicals. Rare is the Evangelical who actually tries to understand my story before emailing me. (Please see Curiosity, A Missing Evangelical Trait.)
Further, Annelie disregarded what is stated on the CONTACT page:
If you are an Evangelical Christian, please read Dear Evangelical before sending me an email. If you have a pathological need to evangelize, spread the love of Jesus, or put a good word in for the man, the myth, the legend named Jesus, please don’t. The same goes for telling me your church/pastor/Jesus is awesome. I am also not interested in reading sermonettes, testimonials, Bible verses, or your deconstruction/psychological evaluation of my life. By all means, if you feel the need to set me straight, start your own blog.
If you email me anyway — and I know you will, since scores of Evangelicals have done just that, showing me no regard or respect — I reserve the right to make your message and name public. This blog is read by thousands of people every day, so keep that in mind when you email me whatever it is you think “God/Jesus/Holy Spirit” has laid upon your heart. Do you really want your ignorance put on display for thousands of people to see? Pause before hitting send. Ask yourself, “how will my email reflect on Jesus, Christianity, and my church?”
It seems to me that when you comment on a blog or email its owner, the very least you can do is respect their wishes. Sadly, Evangelicals are not a respectful lot. Putting a word in for Jesus, evangelizing the lost, or exposing heresy is more important to them than being decent, respectful human beings.
Annelie asked a question, one that was answered by both Carolyn and myself. Her response should have been, “Thank you. I will read the posts you mentioned, and if I have further questions I will let you know.” Instead, she went into preaching mode.
Annelie seems to think that assertions or claims are the same as “truth.” Saying Christianity is true whether I believe it or not is a claim, not a fact. I provided ample evidence for my claim that Christianity is not true, yet Annalie chose not to read those posts. Instead, as many Evangelicals do, Annalie stomped her feet and loudly proclaimed CHRISTIANITY IS TRUE! She provides no evidence for this claim. She expects me and other unbelievers to just believe her. Christianity, in her mind, is true, because she believes it is. End of discussion. Such thinking might work at countless Evangelical churches, but the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the world such as myself require more than bald assertions and faith claims. If Annelie wants to discuss whether the central claims of Christianity are true — I’m game.
As Evangelicals often do, Annelie couldn’t help but threaten me with Hell. Oh, she didn’t come right out and use the word Hell, but it is implied when she said “Eternity is a L-o-n-g Time without GOD.” For Evangelicals, eternity is comprised of Heaven (the eternal kingdom of God) and Hell (Lake of Fire). Everyone goes to one of these places after they die. I have no doubt Annelie thinks I am headed for Hell.
What did Annelie hope to accomplish by emailing me? Surely she knows I was part of the Evangelical church for fifty years; that I have an Evangelical Bible college education; that I pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years; and that I have spent the past sixteen years writing about my journey from Evangelicalism to atheism. What did Annelie hope to achieve by quoting the lyrics to the song “Wonderful Grace of Jesus?” I know all I need to know about Christianity. With my mind wide open, I have weighed Christianity in the balance and found it wanting. Did Annelie really think that by quoting Christian song lyrics I would suddenly fall on my knees, repent, and get saved?
In her first email, Annelie said, “Help me understand you,” yet subsequent emails suggest she is more interested in preaching at me than understanding me. Understanding me requires reading my autobiographical material. I make it easy for Evangelicals to “understand” me, but many of them are so damn lazy that they can’t be bothered to do their homework.
Annelie says she’s not going to give up on me. What, exactly, does that even mean? Is she going to kidnap me and beat Jesus into me? I am not low-hanging fruit, someone who can be easily evangelized. Thousands of Evangelicals have tried to evangelize me, without success. Does Annelie believe, with song lyrics in hand, that she is going to accomplish what thousands before her have been unable to do? “With God all things are possible,” Annelie might say. Yelp, everyone who has tried to “save” me allegedly had God on their side too. Yet, I remain an outspoken, unrepentant atheist. It seems, at least to me, that not only are Evangelicals powerless to “save” me, but so is their God.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Most atheists tend to skew to the left socially and politically. However, that doesn’t mean all atheists are liberals/progressives. Atheists are not a homogenous group. There’s a diversity of opinions on all sorts of things. Some atheists voted for Donald Trump and think his present legal troubles are a witch hunt. Other atheists are hardcore libertarians. Atheists as a demographic comprises all sorts of people with diverse beliefs.
In recent years, I have noticed a rise in conservatism among atheists. Just today I read a rant by an atheist who attacked “wokeism,” particularly transgender ideology and people who refuse to stand for the playing of the National Anthem. This particular atheist believes that there’s no such thing as transgender people. Another atheist was glad the U.S. women’s team lost their World Cup match. Why? Many of them refused to participate in singing the national anthem. Jesus, some of them didn’t put their hands over their hearts!
Many atheists have had to deal with Evangelicals who deny that they are atheists; that atheists don’t really exist. Want to piss an atheist off? Just tell her you deny and reject her self-identification. When someone tells me she is an atheist, agnostic, Christian, Buddhist, or some other self-identifying label, I believe her. If someone tells me he is gay, bisexual, pansexual, heterosexual, asexual, or transgender, I believe him. How someone identifies himself doesn’t materially affect me in any way.
Yet, some atheists refuse to live and let live. They revere Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, and J.K. Rowling for their stands against “transgender ideology.” While it is certainly true that transgender people are more visible now in the United States, this does not mean this is something new. Transgender people have always lived among us. Much like the other letters in the LGBTQ acronym, transgender people have long had to live in the shadows. It seems some atheists don’t like the fact that transgender people are no longer willing to suffer in silence, locked in a prison not of their own making. I am sixty-six years old. Throughout my lifetime, various people groups have rebelled against being marginalized and being treated as less than or inferior. Once they gain some semblance of justice and equal protection under the law, these marginalized people have no intention of returning to their closets. And that’s exactly what some atheists advocate. They want icky transgender people to voluntarily return to their closets — out of sight, out of mind. And if transgenders refuse to do so? Conservative atheists support politicians, policies, and laws that will force them to do so.
It seems that these anti-trans atheists don’t care if their words and actions cause harm to transgender people (and their families). No longer interested in thoughtful discussions around the intersection of transgender people and sports/medicine, these atheists call names and post memes. One atheist said that anyone who thinks biological sex and gender are not one and the same is anti-science.
Other atheists view themselves as flag-waving patriots, not much different from the faux patriots found among Trump supporters. Some of these atheist patriots voted for Trump twice — an action I will never understand. These atheists demand all Americans stand and sing the Star Spangled Banner — that people who refuse to do so are unAmerican. Some of them even think everyone should put their right hands over their hearts and say the Pledge of Allegiance — maybe skipping the mention of God. Evidently, freedom of expression and free speech doesn’t apply when it comes to masturbating to American imperialism.
I don’t say the Pledge of Allegiance, nor do I sing the Star Spangled Banner. Often, I don’t stand for either. The reasons for this are many (and not the primary focus of this post), but to suggest that my refusal to mouth a Christian nationalist pledge and sing a War of 1812 song means I am unpatriotic is laughable.
One atheist suggested that the women’s soccer team “embarrassed” the United States on a world stage by refusing to fully participate in the national anthem ritual. I didn’t feel embarrassed one bit, and I suspect many other Americans didn’t either. How about we have serious discussions about a plethora of embarrassing American actions and inactions that should cause thoughtful people to hang their heads in shame? Quite frankly, there’s not a lot to cheer about these days. Maybe you disagree. Fine, but suggesting that I am not patriotic or that I am not a loyal American if I don’t support your political and social agenda is not only absurd, it is un-American.
I have lost readers over the years due to my politics. Not much I can do about that. I am not going to change what I believe. I am a committed liberal/progressive/socialist/pacifist. I’m convinced that these political views best fit with my humanist beliefs. I am sure some readers will disagree with me. That’s fine. What pisses me off is when these disagreements are turned into attacks on my character. The same goes for my support of transgender people. If I dare suggest that they have the same rights and freedoms as other Americans, I am somehow supporting an immoral agenda. That these attacks come from atheists is troubling, but not surprising. There’s a rightward drift among some atheists and that will bring me into increasing conflict with them. This is unavoidable. Atheists are growing into a diverse cohort, and that will bring disagreement and conflict. What matters is how we interact and engage with people with whom we have political and social disagreements. Unfortunately, we live in the era of memes, and not friendly, thoughtful discussion.
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Over the past two days, I have responded to two emails from a Christian author from Tennessee named D.S. Mullis. Please see the previous emails and responses here and here. Today, she sent me another email, this time telling me what she really thinks of me. If you have been following the Mullis Saga, you will see that her latest email is her crowning achievement: putting the atheist Bruce Gerencser in his place. As she will find in a moment, I am not one to wither when one of Jesus’ followers pisses in my direction.
To give readers an idea of what is coming, let me give you the sentence Mullis ended her screed with:
Will see if you’re man enough to post this reply on your blog for the world to see.
I checked, and yes I am “man” enough to post her email on this site for the “world” to see. 🙂
Mr Gerencser,
First off, let me say I don’t surf the net nor seek out strangers, either.
You came to this site via a search or a link that took you to a post in the Black Collar Crime series. You had no idea who I was when you came to this site, and over the past seventy-two hours, you have made no effort to remedy your ignorance. No need, right? I said I was an atheist, end of discussion.
You have a public site I had never heard of or seen until it came up from an article I was reading. I think God allowed it for such a time as this.
“God allowed it for such a time as this”? Really? How could you possibly know this? Did God whisper in your ear and tell you to come to this site; to send me increasingly hostile, preachy emails? Did you read the text on the Contact page? If so, you would know I am not interested in receiving emails from people like you. The Contact function exists for people who need help to contact me. It is evident you don’t need help, have questions, or want to do anything else but preach. For the Contact function to work properly, I must endure emails from Christian zealots. I decided years ago to turn emails such as yours into blog posts, providing entertainment and instruction to readers.
Even though you state I came into your home and overstepped a boundary, I would say if that were true you should either get off social media or else not have a public blog site giving any and everybody who visits it access for comment. You are opening your ‘home’ and ‘life’ to the world which is your first amendment right, as are my comments which your site gives ability to do.
Let me educate you. This is a private site that the public can read if I permit them to do so. If you read the comment policy, you know that I don’t give “any and everybody who visits it access for comment.” Besides, you haven’t commented on this site, to start with. You have sent me three emails, and not three comments.
You are a debater.
A masturbator too. I can be, but did you think I was trying to debate you? If that was the case, I would have burnt your vacuous statements to the ground. No, the purpose of my response to you was to show you why your first email was impolite, disrespectful, and rude. A proper response from you would have been: “You are right, Bruce. I don’t know anything about you, and I shouldn’t make any judgment about you until I educate myself about your background and life.”
Apparently you have a need to be heard and as long as you have supporters who applaud your lifestyle you receive them gladly.
Remember, you never commented. If you had, your first comment would have been approved. Christian zealots are given one opportunity to say WHATEVER they want in a comment. Let ‘er rip! Tell me what God had laid upon your precious little heart! However, after the first comment, you must abide by the comment rules. If you prove you can play well with others, then I will continue to approve your comments.
This site is read by thousands of people every day from every walk of life. Scores of Christians read my writing and some of them even comment. Without knowledge of who actually reads my writing — shocker, right? — you have pigeonholed the readers of this blog.
Otherwise, those of us who don’t you call us attackers. Truth is still truth, whether one believes it or not. And a life lived and based on God’s word still stands the test of time. When one folds up like a dishrag and opens their heart and mind to the god of this world, then all hell wreaks havoc and torments them to the point of death. It happens every day.
Ah, here comes the first attack: I have opened up my heart and mind to Satan. You say by opening my mind (heart is the same thing as mind) to Slewfoot that “all hell wreaks havoc and torments.” Really? I haven’t had any of these things today. Woke up in a lot of pain today; decided not to go to the races; drove to Fort Wayne to eat dinner with Polly and Bethany at an upscale Chinese restaurant; took a country drive home; made a joke about Skynet when we saw the wind turbines; laughed at and mocked church signs; ate a chocolate cone at DQ in Paulding; counted deer; saw a new type of hawk we’ve never seen before; laughed, sang, made jokes — a wonderful time. No havoc and torment, for me.
I adequately answered your first and second emails.
You assume your personal beliefs = truth. Are you interested in having that premise challenged? I mean, really challenged? Something tells me that you are really aren’t a truth seeker. Instead, armed with certainty and an inspired, inerrant, infallible ancient religious text, you arrogantly think you are absolutely right. Your mind is shut off from any challenges to your peculiar “truth.”
My first comment still stands true.
Again, you didn’t make a comment, you sent me an email.
I feel sorry not only for you, but countless thousands if not millions who enjoy the beauties and splendors that our Creator made, who daily thumb their nose at Him because they are their own gods.
Picture D.S. Mullis, shovel in hand, digging deeper and deeper, unable to stop with her zingers, one-liners, and cliches.
Atheists don’t thumb their noses at the Christian God — he doesn’t exist. It would be silly for us to go around being upset with mythical beings. No, our argument is with organized religion and those who want to shove it down our throats.
You seem to think that atheists can’t enjoy the beauties and splendors of our world. This, of course, is untrue. We just have no need to point to a tree, flower, or star and say “God did it.” I was a professional photographer for twenty-five years. I know a good bit about wonder and beauty, having captured a good bit of it with my cameras.
And atheists I’ve met seemingly thrive off trying to thwart Christianity. If atheism is real, why talk about God, Christians, the Bible, and not about all the ways atheism enriches one’s life since they’re void of those elements?
The purpose of this blog is to help people who have questions and doubts about Christianity and provide help and support to those who have already left the faith. In that context, I talk about God, Jesus, the Bible, and Christianity. It’s what I do; it’s my calling.
I have written a number of articles on atheism too, but you are too lazy to read them. Yesterday, I wrote a post titled Is Atheism Meant to Offer Answers for Human Meaning and Purpose? Did you read it? Of course not. Had you done so, you would have found your questions answered there.
It is evident that you don’t know anything about atheism or atheists, in general. Most atheists don’t give a shit about what you and your fellow blood cult worshippers do on Sundays. Keep your religion out of government, stop trying to evangelize us, stop trying to force us to live by your peculiar interpretations of the Protestant Christian Bible, and end your theocratic delusions. Then most atheists won’t say another word about Christianity. In fact, I’ll quit blogging. Of course, you are unwilling to do this. So, as long as Christians do these things, they should expect atheists, agnostics, humanists, liberal Christians, and non-Christians to push back.
You say I attacked you, when in reality you are the attacker.
You know this is gaslighting right?
You say you’re an atheist but you’ve quoted Prov. 18:13 to me twice. Having a ministry background of over 25 years, you can’t get away from the Word, can you? Countless scriptures come to mind, but I’m sure you know them.
Yes, I know the Bible inside and out. In fact, I have no doubt that I know it better than you do. I quoted Proverbs 18:13, thinking its words might challenge your behavior. Alas, it seems you are resistant to God’s Word. When dealing with people who refuse to read my autobiographical work and make judgments about me anyway, I use the Bible they “say” they believe to point out that their God condemns such behavior. Evidently, I believe the Bible more than you do. 🙂
You lied when you said I knew nothing about you until after you responded to me. Your site gives enough information about who you are that anyone who visits it can immediately know what kind of person you are. No, I don’t know you personally, as I’m sure most who comment on your writings don’t.
No, I didn’t lie. I know exactly what posts you clicked on. You didn’t read any of my autobiographical writing, yet you felt justified to judge my life — particularly the quality of my life. All you knew is that I am a former Evangelical pastor, an atheist, and a humanist. That’s it, yet that was all you needed to know for you to say “I truly feel sorry for you,” and all the other bullshit found in your subsequent emails.
I am not asking you to know me “personally.” I am, however, asking you to at least make a good faith effort to understand my story before launching into moral judgments and critiques. When I saw your email, the first thing I did was do a Google search on your name. I looked at ALL the available information about you. Several weeks from now, when people search for D.S. Mullis, you know what they will find? Links to your emails and my responses — usually first page. I hope you are proud of your behavior. Soon others will share “pride” in your actions too
You are explicit to tell that you left ministry in 2005 and Christianity in 2008 to become a humanist and atheist. That’s what made me say, I truly feel sorry for you.
This still doesn’t change the fact that you made no effort to know and understand my story. Is this how you typically do things; read a few words and think you know all you need to know about a person or subject?
Proverbs ch. 26 is a powerful chapter because the wisest man in the world confronts the subject of the actions of fools. Psalm ch. 14 and ch. 53 further attest to same.
Finally, we come to invectives and namecalling. Awesome. A Christian called me a “fool.” Oh My Loki, no one has done that before. (That’s sarcasm, by the way.)
I will say your rebuttals don’t insult me, although it’s apparent with your “biting back” comment you want to.
If my words mean nothing to you, then why did you dissect my reply and post it for all your followers to read?
Your words and my responses are, at the very least, instructive; reminders of the fact that Evangelicals find it almost impossible to treat atheists as Jesus asked them to do in the Sermon on the Mount. Your emails are added to a mile-high pile of other emails I have received from Christians, reminders of the bankruptcy of a religion that supposedly is transformative, yet, in fact, many of its adherents are no different from the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the world. Jesus told you how to treat your enemies in the Sermon on the Mount. Paul spoke of the fruit of the Spirit; the behavioral traits that must be in the lives of his followers for them to be considered believers. Do your emails reflect the words of Jesus and Paul? I think not. So, don’t tell me about your faith, show me. Show me with your behavior. D.S., not sermonettes, cliches, one-liners, and personal attacks.
I hold myself accountable daily, as does God.
Sure . . . How could anyone possibly know this? Not by your behavior. Tell Jesus to give me a call so I can check your accountability report.
And again, having been a man of the Word, you lied when you said, “I don’t concern myself with eternity…Just because the Bible says something doesn’t make it true.”
In what way did I lie? It is most certainly true I don’t concern myself with eternity. I care about the present — today — not a mythical Heaven (or Hell).
You have asserted a lot of things from the Bible. Just because the Bible says something doesn’t make it true. If you want to have a full-throated discussion about the history and nature of the Bible, I’m game.
You’re treading on thin ice, according to the writer of Hebrews in ch. 6…
Ah, yet another threat. Surely you realize these threats don’t work with me. I am not afraid of your God, Satan, or the Bible. The only person I fear is my wife. 🙂 Is there cyanide in my food tonight? 🙂
I’ve done the math. You’re 66 years old, was in ministry 25 years, and have been an atheist now for 16 years.
There’s more power in the Word of God which supposedly you preached those 25 years, than all the words of humanism and atheism you’ve acquired in the past 16…must be why you continue to speak of Christ and God and Christianity daily. Actually, you’re a testament to Christianity more than some Christians I know.
Yea! You can do math.
Actually, my influence lies in turning people away from your brand of Christianity. I am confident that I have been more successful as a soulwinner than you. You seem clueless to the fact that your emails are actually helping my cause. Ponder how a doubting believer might view your emails. Read the comments on this post and the previous two. They reveal a lesson for you if you are willing to learn.
Jesus is the living Word-and He said He will never leave us nor forsake us. Even though you are claiming to have forsaken Him, He still has your number.
So, I’m still a Christian. Good to know.
Some were sent, others went…Whether you were ‘called’ by God to serve Him in ministry or you went into it on your own, the fact remains Isaiah 55 still burns in your life. You cannot escape the power of the Word, unless you become a reprobate and be damned.
So you know my life better than I do? Surely you can see how arrogant this sounds.
Wait a minute, I thought you said “once saved, always saved. Now you say I am a reprobate and damned. Which is it. Since you can “read” the essence of my life, by all means tell me: am I in or am I out?
I will end on that note. Will see if you’re man enough to post this reply on your blog for the world to see.
Do you see how ugly your words sound; challenging my manhood?
Respectfully,
You have not said one respectful word in any of your emails, so please stop with the fake respect.
D. S. Mullis
Saved by Reason,
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Yesterday, I responded to an email from a Christian woman named D.S. Mullis. You can read my response here. As is my custom, I sent her a link to my response. Today, Mullis sent me another email, which follows below, along with my response.
Dear Mr. Gerencser:
Thank you for replying to my one line comment.
I suspect that Mullis wants to point out that my voluminous response was to a one line sentence. It is what she implied, as she makes clear in this email, that mattered to me. Why would anyone seek out a complete stranger on the Internet, make no effort to get to know them, read a handful of posts, and then say to them “I truly feel sorry for you”? I am sixty-six years old. I have never behaved in such a manner. I do NOT seek out Christian strangers on the Internet and comment on their blogs, telling them that I feel sorry for them. This seems like boorish behavior to me. Certainly, I respond to people who respond to something I’ve written or who have decided to deconstruct my life, but I don’t roam the Internet looking for confrontation with followers of Jesus.
I must say I was a little taken aback at your comments.
Why? You came into my home and overstepped a boundary — one that should have been clear to you according to what is written on the contact page. Maybe you are not used to having strangers you criticize bite back. I’m known for biting back. If you didn’t know that, now you do
But, then again, as I continued to read your words it seemed you were defending your stance of atheism, which is truly your privilege.
My email was not a defense of atheism. That you missed the point of my response to you is astounding. My point is that you had no foundation for feeling sorry for me; that you made a moral judgment about me without knowing anything about me. My post should have led you to read more of my writing, especially my autobiographical material, but you chose not to. (Remember, the server logs of this site tell me exactly what posts you clicked on and how much time you spent reading them.)
This leads me to conclude that your mind is already made up.
My statement was not condemning…it was factual. I do feel sorry for you. I have sympathy, not empathy; for through all the trials and misfortunes, weaknesses and disappointments in my 70+ years, I’ve never found a place of denouncing the faith that was once delivered to the saints, and to my heart intentionally. So I can’t empathize with your reasoning for turning your back on God after having been in ministry for 25 years, nor for any other reasons you state as justification.
Nice attempt to escape accountability for your words. Surely you know that someone can be factual and condemning at the same time. You, however, weren’t being factual. You literally knew NOTHING about me when you sent me your first email. Any opinions you might have about my atheism or my humanism come AFTER I responded to you.
I won’t weary you with my words, as you have your mind made up to live this life without the One who loved you so, He gave His all that you might not only have a earthly life filled with wonder amidst the sorrows, but one day in the not so distant future you could spend eternity with Him and all those who have gone before.
You realize these words mean nothing to me; that I see no evidence of “the One” who loves me or gave “his all for me.” These are claims, not evidence for the existence of God. I don’t concern myself with eternity because I see no evidence for its existence. Just because the Bible says something doesn’t make it true. I am convinced we all have one life and then we die, end of story. I shan’t waste my time on heavenly promises for which there is no evidence except that preachers say so.
As an atheist, I understand both sorrow and wonder. I have had a lot of both in my life — no God needed. Your problem is that you lack imagination. You can’t imagine any worldview but your own. For my life, and that of my wife, children, and grandchildren to have meaning, purpose, and value, we must embrace and worship D.S. Mullis’ God.
As I read your biography of where you once walked, it was apparent that there was an element of animosity toward God, the church, religion, etc.
When did you read my autobiography? The server logs don’t show this activity from you, and they are infallible. 🙂 How about you admit that you really aren’t interested in my story; that all you wanted to do is make a snarky comment and move on?
Instead, you say there “was an element of animosity toward God, the church, religion, etc.” You just can’t help yourself, can you? What posts informed you in such a way that you felt justified in making this claim; a false claim, I might add. Ask long-time readers of this blog — some of them have been reading for sixteen years — if what you say rings true to them. I think you will find that most, of not all of them, will say no.
What I have possessed for over 50 years isn’t based on anything except the personal experience that was imparted to me in an altar of prayer. Then as I was taught to study God’s Word, learn it, apply it, and live by it, I found what Paul referred to in Colossians 1- “Christ in you, the hope of glory…”
So as the old song says, “I’ll tell the world that I’m a Christian”, by Baynard L. Fox, and never be ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes it.
Okay? What’s your point? Are you justifying your first email to me; that you will tell the world you are a Christian by seeking out non-Christian strangers on the Internet and telling them you feel sorry for them? Proverbs 18:13 is clear: Answering before listening is both stupid and rude. Not my words, but God’s. Instead of admitting that you overplayed your hand and probably shouldn’t have emailed me, you double down and justify your behavior.
As Jack on the Titanic stated, “I figure life’s a gift, and I don’t intend on wasting it. You don’t know what hand you’re gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you—to make each day count.”
Yes, and isn’t that exactly what I explained to you in my first email; as an atheist, I only have one life to live, and I plan to take what comes my way and make each day count. Oh wait, that does not compute for you because you can’t fathom a life that matters without Jesus.
May you and your wife enjoy her upcoming retirement.
Respectfully,
D. S. Mullis
Saved by Reason,
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
