I rarely mention how readers can financially support my work. I have a hard time asking for money. This goes back to my preaching days when I had an aversion to “begging” congregants to give money to the church. I never wanted to be a money-grubbing preacher. That said, it does cost me money to operate this site. I determined from the start that I would not beg readers for money; I would pay for running the site, and if I reached a place where I could no longer do so, I would stop blogging. Fortunately, year after year enough donations come in to pay site expenses and provide a little bit extra for me to make a payment two on my Lear Jet.
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Regular readers know that my writing production has dropped off over the past year. If you see that I haven’t posted lately, it is because I can’t. My spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak. Outside of attending concerts, school events, and occasionally eating out, I am pretty much homebound. I have noticed of late that my recovery after an outing is taking a lot longer — often days longer.
For new readers, I have a lot of serious health problems: gastroparesis (uncurable), exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (uncurable), osteoarthritis, peripheral neuropathy in my legs and feet, fibromyalgia, and degenerative spine disease. An MRI in 2021 revealed widespread damage to my spine and neck:
Disc herniation (T7,T8)
Disc herniation (T6,T7)
Central spinal canal stenosis (T9/T10, T10/T11)
Foraminal stenosis (T5,T6)
Disc degeneration/spondylosis (T1/T2 through T10/T11)
Facet Arthropathy throughout the spine, particularly at T2/T3, T3/T4, T5/T6, and T7/T8 through the T12/L1 levels.
Hypertrophic arthropathy at T9/T10
I had surgery on my spine a year ago, and now it looks like I will have to have surgery again. I have an MRI scheduled for Friday. This should reveal what is causing insufferable pain in my lower back and whehter it can be surgically fixed. Regardless, chronic, unrelenting pain is ever with me, and, thanks to the government’s incessant war on narcotic pain medications, my pain is no longer well-managed. I need twice the medication I currently take, but no doctor (including local pain management doctors) is willing to prescribe it. I am using an increasing amoung of cannabis that helps, but the only thing that reduces my pain to a whisper is sufficient narcotic pain medications (I am taking half the amount I took ten years ago). And please, if you want to keep your head on your shoulders, no unsolicted medical advice. I know my body quite well — what works and doesn’t work. I know many of you care, but all I ask from you is your kindness and support. I have come to terms with the fact that this is my new lot in life, and unless Jesus shows up and divinely heals me, one or more of the diseases that afflict me will eventually kill me; that is if I don’t die from falling (an increasing problem, for me).
Every day of my life is dominated by unrelenting pain, along with stomach and bowel problems. Life is a challenge, to say the least. Nights are the worst, often taking hours, upon hours for me to finally fall asleep, only to wake up again two or three hours later. I sleep when and how I can, but I am NEVER rested. When you see me publish an article, leave a comment, or respond to an email at 5:00 am, you will know I am unable to sleep.
I appreciate your love, care, and understanding. I will continue to write until I can no longer do so. So far, I have been able to keep writing, but there will be days when I cannot sit up let alone type a new post.
Saved by Reason,
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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 Learjet, 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 in one of three ways:
Snail mail (Bruce Gerencser, PO Box 183, Ney, Ohio 43549)
Patreon (This is best for making recurring donations.)
PayPal (This is best for single or recurring donations.)
Keep in mind I must pay taxes on every donation I receive. This reduces every donation by at least 20%.
Whether you can send money my way or not, you are always welcome on this blog. My goal has never been to make money off this site, but I do appreciate every donation, big or small. Over the years, I have received one-time donations as large as $1,000 and as small as a dollar. All of it spends, right? I spent much of my life listening to preachers beg for money, even when they didn’t need it. You will not see such behavior from me. I will shutter this site before I have to resort to panhandling for Satan. 🙂
My partner, Polly, and I are facing a short-term financial problem. First, we have not yet recovered financially from both of us having major surgery in 2024. Polly was off work for almost three months, and this led to increased credit use.
Second, Polly started receiving Social Security last year, while still working. This led to a $6,000 overpayment, which she now has to pay back. Under Biden, we only had to pay ten percent of her check amount until the overage was paid in full. Trump raised the repayment percentage to fifty percent! Now that hurts a bit. 🙁 Polly could apply for a reduced repayment percentage, but the government requires an intrusive amount of information about your finances, including account numbers. I told Polly, “We can’t trust the government with all this information,” so we will have to cut both our discretionary and non-discretionary spending. We can do it, as we have for most of our lives.
Thank you for your kindness and support.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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