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Health Update

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health care

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,

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Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

How You Can Financially Support This Blog

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preachers and money

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.)
  • Credit card donation via Stripe.

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.

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Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Blog Hosting Change Completed

2 Comments
simplified blogging

For many years, this blog was hosted by Flywheel (which was bought out by WP Engine). I later moved this site to Hostinger, which later proceeded to dramatically raise the rate I was paying for hosting. I decided to move back to Flywheel, paying $30 a month for hosting. I was notified by Flywheel last week that, unbeknownst to me, this blog’s traffic numbers had dramatically increased, and I would have to move to a more expensive package — as in $300 a month!

This forced me to find another host. Rocket is my new service provider, costing $60 a month. Hopefully, I won’t have to mess with this again. I know, I know, false hope. 🙂

Let me know if you have any problems reading or commenting on this site. I am hopeful that I can focus on writing instead of messing with technical stuff. I am beyond worn out. 🙁

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Recent Changes to Site Completed

4 Comments
simplified blogging
Not the astute commenters on this site 🤣❤️

Yesterday, I switched this site’s service provider from Hostinger back to my previous provider, Flywheel. It typically takes 24-72 hours for a site to propagate worldwide. As of the writing of this post, a handful of DNS routers are unchanged. Until this site propagates worldwide, you may face intermittent error messages saying the site is inaccessible.

If you see any errors or hiccups, please let me know. You might need to flush your device’s DNS cache and/or restart your device.

Thank you for your support.

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Are You Interested in Writing a Guest Post?

3 Comments
guest post

I am always interested in having people write guest posts for this site. If you are interested in writing a guest post, please use the contact form to email me or text me at 567-210-1145. You can choose any subject. If you are an Evangelical Christian, you can even write a post about how wrong I am about God, Christianity, and the Bible. No subject is off limits.

Have a story to tell about your life as a Christian and subsequent deconversion? Testimonies are always welcome. I have found that readers really appreciate and enjoy reading posts about the journey of others away from Evangelicalism. Perhaps you are someone who has left Evangelicalism, but still believes in the existence of a deity/energy/higher power. Your story is welcome too.

If you worried about grammar, punctuation, or spelling, don’t be. Carolyn, my ever-watchful friend, editor, and blog wife, edits every guest post before it is published. If she can turn my writing into coherent prose, trust me, she can do the same for yours.

Anonymous posts are okay, as are articles previously posted elsewhere. If you have written something for your own blog and would like to post it here, please send it to me.

If you have previously written a guest post, I am more than happy to publish another one from you. Some readers have become regular contributors. It’s important for readers to hear from other writers from time to time. As a pastor, I knew people would tire from hearing me week after week, so I would schedule guest speakers to preach. Guest posts give readers an opportunity to hear new, different voices. Will that voice be yours?

Several readers have emailed me in the past about writing guest posts. I am w-a-i-t-i-n-g. 🙂 Seriously, if you have something you would like to say, I am more than happy to post it here. The ball is in your court.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Making Sense of Readers Who Came and Went Over the Years

31 Comments
worst blog

I have been blogging since 2007. When I started, I was still a Christian — barely. A year or so later, I finally admitted I was no longer a believer. This iteration of my blog went live in December 2014, over ten years ago. Over the years, millions of people have stopped by to read one or more pages on this site. Many readers are one-and-done. They read a few posts, get what they need, and move on, never to stop by again. Others become regular readers of this site, even if they don’t comment or email me. And then some are devoted readers; people who regularly comment on posts that interest them.

Lurkers are likely the largest groups of readers. I am encouraged when lurkers comment or email me, often saying that they have been reading my writing for years. Oftentimes, when I feel like throwing in the towel, I will get an email from a lurker thanking me for something I’ve written or sharing with me how my posts helped them “see the light.”

As I rework and repost old writing, I look at the comments to see who commented on the original post. Without fail, I find commenters who, at one time, were regular participants on this site, but no longer are. I wonder, What happened? Did I piss them off? Did they die? Did they return to the faith? Did they get what they needed from my writing, and move on? Did my political writing upset them? Did my writing become boring to them, or too repetitious?

While I would like every reader to stay with me until death do us part, I know that’s not how the Internet works. The goal, then, is to retain as many readers as possible, knowing that most readers will move in, out, and through this site. I am grateful for everyone who reads my writing, even if they disagree with me, are still Evangelical Christians, or voted for Donald Trump. The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser is a safe place for discussion for everyone, Christian or not. Yes, I have a comment policy, but everyone is given at least one opportunity to say whatever it is they want to say. If a commenter shows he or she can play well with others, they will be encouraged to continue commenting. Some people will frequently comment and then suddenly stop. I always wonder why they stopped commenting. Did I upset them? Did another commenter upset them? Did they say all they intended to say?

None of this troubles me much except for those who stopped reading because I upset them for some reason. I always want to know if something I’ve written upsets someone. Why? Sometimes, people get upset because I was not precise and they misunderstood me. I ALWAYS want to be understood. That’s why I hope people who are upset by something I wrote will contact me so I can clarify what I said — if possible. Sometimes, there’s no imprecision on my part. I do my best to say what I mean to say, so I don’t have to explain or apologize later. I am a plain-spoken writer, and I try to write in a way that everyone understands. Disagreements happen. When they do happen, I appreciate the opportunity, if possible, to clear the disagreement up. There will, of course, always be times when no amount of explanation and dialog will fix a disagreement. Sometimes, disagreements become so sharp that people (usually atheists) feel the need to “break fellowship” with me. Much like getting a divorce, this is their way of showing their disapproval of something I have written or said. These folks rarely return, though sometimes they lurk in the shadows, reading but not commenting. Such disagreements are rare, but they happen.

I know I am a niche blogger, a writer who focuses on Evangelicalism — particularly the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement. Sure, I write on other topics, but I make sure I stay true to my calling. 🙂 I often wonder if I’ll reach a point in my writing where there’s nothing new or meaningful to say or if my words no longer are helpful, and it is time to hang up my spurs. With 1, 600 posts in my draft file, I’m certain I have enough fodder to last a long while.

Are there things you think I can do to improve reader engagement and encourage commenting? Please share your erudite thoughts in the comment section.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Top Twenty Posts and Pages for 2024

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top twenty

What follows is a list of the top twenty blog posts and pages for 2024. As you can see, Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) related content remains popular.

The Top Twenty People Who Have Too Much Time on Their Hands

10 Comments
comments

Comments are the lifeblood of any blog. Thousands of people every year read at least one post on this site, and most of them never leave a comment or message me. As a writer, I must always remember that scores of people lurk in the shadows, never commenting or making themselves known in any way. That said, hundreds of people do leave comments, and some of you are prolific commenters. What follows is a list of the top commenters for 2024:

  • ObstacleChick
  • TheDutchGuy
  • MJ Lisbeth
  • Yulya Sevelova
  • John S
  • GeoffT
  • Zoe
  • Troy
  • Sage
  • Missmontana
  • Matilda
  • Ben Berwick
  • Becky Wiren
  • Karuna Gal
  • Jeffrey Bishop
  • Dave
  • Karen the Rock Whisperer
  • Brocken
  • Silence of Mind
  • Barbara Jackson

Thank you for adding your voice in 2024. I hope I write things in 2025 that you will judge worthy of your pithy comments.

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Get My Writing Delivered Daily to Your Email Inbox

3 Comments
subscribe

Did you know that you can get my writing delivered daily to your email inbox? Hundreds of readers receive the full texts of posts as they are posted on this site. If this is something that interests you, please put your email address in the form field below and click subscribe. You will then receive an email asking you if you really want to subscribe to posts from this site. Click ‘confirm’, and your email address will be added to the list of some of the most awesome people in the world.

If you want to comment, all you need to do is click on the link in the email and you will be miraculously transported using atheist rapture technology to the desktop or mobile version of this site. And if you ever want to unsubscribe, every subscriber email has an unsubscribe link. One click and you will no longer receive post emails from me. I will cry if you do, but I will get over it. 🙂

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Social Media

12 Comments
social media

I am no longer on social media of any kind. Due to declining health, I must do away with things that rob me of time, strength, and mental focus. You may still email me via the contact form or text me at 567-210-1145.

I appreciate your understanding.

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