I rarely mention money in my writing, so no complaints that I am turning into a money-grubbing Evangelical preacher. 🙂 Until I can pay CASH for a new Lear jet, I am poor and need your donations. 🙂 I have always operated under the notion, Freely give, freely receive. That said, it does take money to operate this blog. Further, to quote the Bible, The laborer is worthy of his hire (1 Timothy 5:18, Luke 10:7). Any money you send my way is greatly appreciated.
Donations are always welcome. You may donate one of three ways:
Patreon (This is best for making reoccurring donations.)
PayPal (This is best for single or reoccurring donations.)
Keep in mind I must pay taxes on every donation I receive. This reduces every donation by at least 20%.
Finally, WordPress recently reclassified my blog as a commercial site, while at the same time, Google rejiggered its search algorithm and caused my blog traffic to drop by 40% (this has improved a bit in recent weeks). This means that some of the services I was receiving free from WordPress now cost a monthly fee. I am still thinking about how best to monetize this site.
Thank you for your kindness and support.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
I restarted this blog in December 2014. Before that, I had several other blogs, such as Bruce Droppings (my all-time favorite), NW Ohio Skeptic, Restless Wanderings, Hungarian Luddite, and Fallen From Grace. I first started blogging in 2007. Because I was an Evangelical-pastor-turned-atheist who used his real name to write, my blogs attracted much attention from the get-go. In 2007, I was still a Christian — barely. I operated blogs such as Rethinking Church Life to flesh out my increasingly post-modern, emerging/emergent views.
Initially, I attracted a lot of Independent Fundamentalist Baptists (IFB) and Evangelicals who were anti-emergent church. As I blogged through the evolution of my beliefs and eventual deconversion, the comments and emails I received increased in volume and hostility — so much so that I would stop blogging. I thought then that if I just told my story and honestly and openly shared my beliefs, that people would, at the very least, understand and treat me as Christ commanded them to do in the gospels and Paul did in the Epistles. Boy, was I naive. Nasty, hateful comments and emails wore me down after a time, so I stopped blogging and deleted all of my writing. With the help of my therapist, I would eventually get back on the proverbial horse and start riding again.
Time and therapy helped me learn how to deal with unChristian Christians, so in December 2014, I decided to restart blogging. One last time, I told myself, and if I can’t make it work, I will give up. Here we are ten years later, I am still writing — 5,203 posts. Have I wanted to quit, at times? You bet. The reasons are mainly health-related these days, but I will have moments when I think I am done or that I don’t have anything more meaningful to say. When such low moments come, instead of quitting, I stop, taking time off to mentally regroup. And then I start writing again. I can’t promise that my health will not one day win this titanic struggle, but for now, I have enough strength and energy to keep pecking away on my laptop keyboard. I no longer make promises, but I will say that I hope to keep writing as long as physically possible.
Blog traffic numbers somewhat leveled off in 2023, but this site did, once again, surpass 1,000,000 page views. And for that I am grateful. 212,000 people came to this site for the first time in 2023 via Google, making up 95% of the searches. Social media plays a small part traffic-wise. 14,000 people came to this site via Facebook, 12,000 from Twitter, 3,200 from Reddit, and 2,500 from WordPress. Somewhat surprisingly, YouTube only generated 400 clicks. The most-read post on this site is the same as last year: The Scandalous Life of Jack Hyles and Why it Still Matters.
Over 45,000 comments have been left since 2014. I appreciate everyone who comments, even those who disagree with me. I am especially grateful for those of you who are frequent commenters. I find your comments encouraging, and they add measurably to the life of this blog.
Currently, only a handful of people are banned from commenting on this site. Dr. David Tee, whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen, is NOT banned from commenting, despite him saying otherwise. In 2023, I lost several commenters due to my trans-friendly posts. A handful of other readers exited stage right over my liberal political and social views. I learned long ago that I can’t please everyone. All I know to do is to be open, honest, and transparent in my writing. If that offends people, there’s not much I can do about it. I am who I am. 🙂
Currently, I am spending $125 a month to host this blog through Flywheel — a managed WordPress company — and pay for the various software and plugins I use on the site. Thanks to loyal readers who make monthly donations through Patreon or contributions through PayPal, site costs are covered with a little bit of money left over. With the leftover money, I was able to buy a brand-new Lear Jet! 🙂 Thank you for your continued financial support.
I still hope to complete my book and get my podcast up and running soon. Of course, I hoped in 2023 that the Cincinnati Bengals would make it to the playoffs. Sadly, life (and torn tendons in your team’s quarterback’s wrist) gets in the way of hope. No promises outside of “I will do what I can, Loki-willing.”
Have a blessed year.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
Here’s a picture of all the money I’ve made off this blog.
What follows is an email exchange I had with a self-proclaimed Evangelical Christian named Frank. I usually don’t respond to the Franks of the world, but my mood being what it is, I thought I would take a few moments and tell Frank what I thought of his email. Enjoy!
Email #1 From Frank
You have an unsubscribe but when I go there it says that is NOT an active web site. I bet if I offered to send money it would be received!!!!!!!! The problem with your message is that bottom line is you are after FREE money!!!!! Get real!!!!!!
Email #1 From Bruce
Dear Frank,
I am so very berry hairy sorry that you are a technologically challenged buffoon and an asshole to boot. These diseases must be difficult for you to live with. I suggest you pray to your God and ask him to deliver you from your afflictions. Surely your God can help you not only unsubscribe from my mailing list, but also to become a decent human being. Are you offended by my response? I’m just following the Bible which says to answer fools according to their folly.
Now, I must get back to counting all the money that has come in from kind, loving, supportive blog readers. A wealthy lot they are, providing me with enough ill-gotten gain for me to buy a brand spanking old 1985 Chevette. Woo Hoo! Ain’t Satan awesome!
Sarcastically yours,
Reverend Bruce Gerencser, thrice ordained, all praise be to Hymn
Email #2 From Frank
Thank you so much. The GOD I serve is a GREAT god. You can be a witness by your actions, and I don’t mean HAMMERING FOLKS with emails after they have asked you to kindly STOP!!!!!
P/S I am taking your word that you are stopping the emails.
MailChimp User Profile Showing That Frank is Unsubscribed
Email #2 From Bruce
Dear Frank,
Your email was anything but fine. You might want to go back and read the nasty words you wrote about me asking — in a non-offensive, low key manner — people to consider supporting my work. I assume you attend a local blood cult church. Do they collect offerings? Do they ask members to support their work? These are rhetorical questions, by the way.
Your words were mean-spirited, intentionally so. Your email is yet another reminder of why I am so glad to be free from Christianity. All praise be to Loki.
Your MailChimp profile says you are unsubscribed. I had nothing to do with it. You unsubscribed yourself, and when you tried to do it a second time it returned an error message. You have NOT received numerous emails from me, and you most certainly did not ask me to stop emailing you (but I pinky swear to not email you again). You do know the difference between a mailing list and direct email, right? YOU voluntarily signed up for The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser email mailing list. This mailing list sends subscribers an email each day containing the posts I have written for that day. That goes out at 1:00 AM EST. At the bottom of each mailing list email is a clickable link for unsubscribing. Remember YOU signed up, so if you don’t want to receive the daily emails, all you have to do is click unsubscribe — which you did. You then decided to email me, and I responded. You then emailed me again, and this email serves as my response to you. As you can see Frank, you have received one mailing list email, and, once this is sent, two personal emails. I have not HAMMERED you with emails. Normally, I don’t respond to assholes like you, but today I am in a snarky, Godless, eating-fried-babies, Satanist mood.
Have a Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day.
Bruce Gerencser, AKA Bruce Almighty
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
