In 1 Kings 18, we find the Prophet Elijah doing battle with the prophets of Baal. No need to tell the whole story. It’s enough for me to say Elijah won the battle and slaughtered all of the prophets of Baal. Elijah prayed one prayer, and BOOM! God sent fire from Heaven! Awesome, right? In John 14, Jesus told his followers that they would one day do greater works than he did. Surely this is a promise for believers today, too. Surely through the power of the Holy Spirit they can do great works. If this is so — and the Bible says it is — I want to propose a surefire way for God to heal me and restore me to the health of an active, athletic twenty-five-year-old man. Are you ready, Christians?
I have been blogging since 2007. Over the past twenty years, thousands of Christians have told me “I am praying for you!” Monday, I had melanoma surgically removed from my neck. My nurse was a friendly young woman; a delight to talk to. She was chatty, and so was I. She learned that I had recently been diagnosed with severe axonal neuropathy, leading to severe nerve pain in my legs. She replied, “well I sure will be praying for you.” I smiled, and said, “Thank you. I appreciate it.” No need to offend, but I sure have heard that line a few thousand times, both as a Christian and as an unbeliever.
As I was deeply meditating on prayer, God sent me a message straight from throne room of God. The Holy One said that I would be completely healed, right down to my hemorrhoids, IF the following happened:
On April 1, 2026, at 4:20 PM, God is calling every Christian who promised to pray for me to gather together in the Ney Park for a time of worship and prayer. Perhaps, my former best friend, Pastor Keith Troyer, will come and lead this testimony to God’s love, forgiveness, and healing. Maybe all my former colleagues in the ministry who said they would pray for me will be in attendance too. Throw in Dr. David Tee, John, Revival Fries and other “praying Christians,” why, these mighty prayer warriors will surely deliver me from my afflictions; and if they do, I promise to serve Jesus the remaining days of my life. I will even record a YouTube video testimony of my healing. Total healing, not just my hemorrhoids.
Surely, if a thousand or more praying Evangelicals — the one true religion — show up at the Ney Park on April 1, 2026 at 4:20 PM, God will hear their prayers and heal me, right? Right? Thousands of singular prayers have already been uttered on my behalf, without success. Maybe corporate prayers are required for success, but I have been lifted up in prayer by numerous churches over the years. Are their unified prayers not enough? All this praying, and no salvation or healing. What’s up with that?
I will await healing on April 1, 2026. Until then, I have a CT scan of my abdomen and pelvis scheduled, along with an appointment with yet another neurologist in Toledo. I have faith, but my fingers are crossed.
You were once a Christian. You know how we lied when we said “I’ll pray for you.” We meant well, but quickly moved on to other needs. Of the thousands of people who said they would pray for me, it is doubtful that many of them ever did beyond a prayer for me while I was on their mind. If only they had prayed for me every day, God might have healed me.
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.
Interesting that I asked the AI program to put poor people in the pews. Notice the skin color of most of the congregants. Evidently, poor people=Black people.
The Bible teaches Evangelicals that Jesus is to have preeminence in every aspect of their lives. You would think that this foundational truth would be readily evident in Evangelical churches, but it’s not. Instead, we see a church culture focused on celebrity and consumer culture. Larger Evangelical congregations have turned into religious entertainment centers — complete with bands, smoke machines, and cool, hip worship leaders. While Jesus is still mentioned, the focus is on spiritually energizing the crowd and meeting their felt needs. And people love it, as they flock to Evangelical churches to watch the “best show in town.”
Have you noticed all the titles Evangelical preachers have these days? Not content to be called pastor or preacher, many preachers sport fancy titles such as senior pastor, executive pastor, apostle, bishop, or teaching pastor, to name a few. Most ordained preachers start their careers as a Reverend (Rev) — a person to be revered. Should preachers be revered more than anyone else in the church? Are preachers special in God’s eyes? Should they be honored and respected because of their title? Does God punish people who refuse to give preachers their due? The answer to these questions, straight from the inerrant, infallible Bible, is Yes (as interpreted by Evangelicals, anyway)! I am an ordained Baptist preacher. I am also ordained with the Universal Life church. I hated the Reverend title. When people called me Rev., I typically told them that it was okay to call me by my first name or Preacher. I saw preacher after preacher get puffed up with importance, thinking that they were somehow being uniquely used by God to advance his kingdom.
Evangelicals come by this thinking honestly. Young men are taught that being a God-called preacher is superior to being president of the United States. I was told countless times as a young preacher that my calling was superior to any other career and it was irrevocable. Church members had careers, but Bruce Gerencser had been divinely called by the triune God to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. This thinking, of course, leads to pride, arrogance, and false superiority.
I know a lot of Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) preachers who love being called “Doctor.” They expect church members to call them Doctor and their undoctored colleagues to bow in reverence to them. In the IFB church movement, to have a doctorate means you have arrived, that your metaphorical dick is bigger than that of your fellow pastors. Having a doctorate gives one an air of importance and respectability. Go to any of the big IFB conferences, and you’ll find the scheduled speakers list littered with the names of men who have doctorates. But, here’s the thing: the overwhelming majority of preachers sporting a doctorate didn’t earn the moniker. Most likely, one of their preacher buddies, who just so happens to run an unaccredited Bible college, gave them their doctorate. Or, they did minimal coursework at one of many IFB diploma mills. Either way, their doctorate is nothing more than the plume of a peacock. Look, look, look at me, I am special, I am important, I am a Doctor.
Even at the IFB college, university, and seminary level, many of the professors have doctorates that were granted to them by the institution at which they are teaching or some other unaccredited college. I spent twenty-five years in the ministry, and I came in contact with a lot of Doctors. In every case but one, the doctorates were either honorary or “earned” through minimal work done at diploma mills. The only person I knew who had an earned doctorate was Tom Malone — the founder and chancellor of Midwestern Baptist College. Dr. Malone had a Ph.D. in education from Wayne State University.
….
I suspect that most IFB church members don’t have a clue about how their pastor got his doctorate. They naïvely assume their pastor is just like their medical doctor or a professor at the local college. They likely think their pastor went through the rigors of a Ph.D. program and is eminently qualified to teach them the Bible. Little do they know that their pastor’s doctorate is nothing more than a high-five from a friend who operates a college, or a piece of paper given to him after paying a fee and doing minimal course work.
On one level, who cares, right? But, many of these “Doctors” are counseling people with serious mental health problems. A troubled church member goes to their pastor thinking he is qualified to help them. After all, he has a doctorate in counseling, right? He is just as qualified as the psychologist at the local mental health clinic, right? Unbeknownst to the church member, their pastor’s doctorate is little more than words scrawled on used toilet paper.
As Paul Harvey used to say: now you know the rest of the story.
Doctorate-sporting IFB preachers are like Diotrephes in III John:they love to have the preeminence. Go to an IFB church or conference and watch how Dr. Bob or Dr. Jack or Dr. Paul are fawned over and treated like gods. I wonder when these Doctors last preached on James 2:
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:11,12)
According to the Bible, the church at Corinth had become factional, with various groups saying that they were a follower of Apollos, Cephas, Paul, or Christ. In First Corinthians 1:13, Paul asked:
Is Christ divided?
Two thousand years later, we can answer Paul’s question with an emphatic YES! The followers of Jesus Christ have spent the past 2,000 years fighting amongst themselves. Their internecine warfare has caused schisms, splits, and divisions, leading to the establishment of thousands of Christian denominations throughout the world (Wikipedia list of major Christian denominations).
Every Christian Bible has the following verses:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! (Psalm 133:1)
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:35)
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (I Corinthians 12:13)
There isone body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)
These four verses alone stand as an indictment of modern Christianity. The various Christian sects can’t even agree on basic beliefs such as salvation, baptism, and communion. Jesus said, I am the way, truth, and life, and almost every Christian sect thinks it has the way, truth, and life market cornered. Pick the wrong sect and, according to many sects, you will miss Heaven and spend eternity in Hell being tortured by God.
Evangelicalism, an inherently Fundamentalist religious belief, (please see Are Evangelicals Fundamentalists?) has a unique problem in that its churches are generally a blend of sectarian divisiveness, Madison Avenue advertising techniques, and movie-star devotion to pastors, evangelists, and other “successful” Evangelical leaders. This has led to a cult of personality, similar to that which Paul addressed in the church at Corinth 2,000 years ago.
Drive by many Evangelical churches these days and what do you see on the church sign? Sign after sign will have the pastor’s name prominently displayed. Why is this important? Why is it necessary to advertise the name of the pastor? If the church is one body worshiping the one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, why call attention to the identity of the pastor? Why don’t churches put the names of the poorest church members on their signs as James suggests in James 2:1-4:
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
Isn’t giving the pastor top billing on the church sign showing the pastor undue respect? After all, the Apostle Peter said in Acts 10:34 that God is no respecter of persons. God may not be a respecter of persons, but his Evangelical followers sure are. Ask Evangelicals where they go to church, and they are just as likely to say, I go to Pastor So-and-So’s church as they are, I go to First Baptist Church.
In the average Evangelical church, the center of attention is not Jesus, the Word, or the sacraments. The focus is on the man standing behind the pulpit. He is the man of God, God’s messenger, the pastor. In some Evangelical churches, he is also the bishop, prophet, or apostle. He is the main cog in the machine, without which the machine won’t run. If you doubt this, watch what happens when one of these superstar Evangelicals leaves his church. The membership inevitably declines, often because church members don’t like the new guy. Evangelicals then feel “led” to join a different church so they can be “fed.” Rarely will they admit that the reason they changed churches was that they were spiritually and emotionally infatuated with the previous pastor.
Megachurch pastors, in particular, are getting rich off the ministry. It is scandalous how these “profits” of God rake in millions of dollars from the churches they pastor, the books they sell, and outside speaking engagements. Even an atheist can see that these kinds of pastors are not following in the steps of Jesus. Instead of following the WWJD mantra, they are following what would a Wall Street profiteer do?
Whenever I write about one of the Evangelical superstar pastors, people will surely come along and defend him. I have attacked their god, and it doesn’t matter what the Bible or common decency says, they are not going to stand for it. Little do they realize that their defense illustrates my contention that Evangelicalism is a cult of personality.
I would love to be able to say to readers of this blog that I was different when I was a pastor, but I wasn’t. My name was prominently displayed on the church sign. I was the center of attention, the hub around which everything turned. People came to the churches I pastored because they loved my preaching and liked me as a person. When I pastored a fast-growing church in southeast Ohio, people would drive 30-45 minutes to hear me preach. Our church was exciting and growing, and I — uh, I mean God — was the reason.
What drives the cult of personality? Here in the United States, we are enamored with success. We tend to give respect to people who appear to be winners. Even in the blogosphere, we often judge the value of writers by the number of people who read their blogs and follow them on Facebook, X, Pinterest, and Instagram. We forget that these numbers say NOTHING about the person. I have to constantly guard against this. I know my blog readership numbers, page views, and mailing list subscriber numbers are growing. Does this mean that I am “more” successful than I was years ago when a hundred people a day read my blog? Should people respect me more now that thousands of people read my writing? Of course not. Numerical success proves nothing.
Within Evangelicalism, numerical success is everything. Success for a pastor is measured by the size of his penis — uh, I mean the size of his church. The criteria for calling a pastor/church a success is not much different from the criteria used to judge a successful CEO in the corporate world: growing the business and maximizing profits.
The sure sign that a pastor has arrived is when he writes a book telling everyone how he achieved his success. When I was an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) pastor, almost every big-name pastor wrote a book detailing how he achieved numerical success. The subtle message was this: God is blessing me and this is why. Do you want God’s blessing? Do what I am doing! Why is it that these successful pastors never write a book years later detailing the fact that “God’s blessing” didn’t last and their penis size shrank dramatically?
American Evangelicals love their conferences. Hundreds of Evangelical conferences are held each year. Who are the speakers? Those who have achieved “success.” These conferences always feature big-name pastors who pastor large, successful churches. When was the last time Evangelical conference promoters had a Bro. Joe, who pastors 20 people on the backside of some hill in West Virginia, come and speak at their conference? It never happens.
One of the reasons people leave Evangelicalism is that they become tired of everything being about the pastor or of the focus being on the methods of the latest hotshot, knows-everything, successful pastor. They sincerely thought that Christianity was all about Jesus. They found out that Jesus was just the window dressing for their pastor’s ambition. Most Evangelical churches, thanks to their leaders, have lost all sight of what it means to be Christian. They proclaim that the Bible is their standard of faith and practice and then ignore its teachings and examples. Christianity should be about Jesus and his kingdom. From my seat in the atheist pew, it seems to me that Evangelicalism is all about the pastor’s kingdom and not the kingdom of Jesus they say they follow.
Your thoughts and experiences are appreciated. Please share them in the comment section.
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.
How odd that a compassionate God uses such a mode … a book … to communicate with his mostly illiterate creation. By odd, I mean ridiculous…not of God but of us to look at a book written in a real human language and think, “Perfect! Obviously God’s word!” A real human language is a constantly evolving thing. Meanings drift. Spellings change. Pronunciation shifts. Metaphors and even definitions lose their intelligibility or gain totally different ones.
….
A truly good God would just speak to us … all of us .. whenever we had a question. When someone was misrepresenting his intent, he’d correct them in real-time and discuss why he felt a certain way or gave such an injunction or command or allowed such evil to occur due to some greater good. If he did suffer himself to write a book, it would be self-translating and modify itself to the belief system of the reader, such that it could reveal itself with the clarity and distinctness of raw, uninterpreted sense data. We could still choose to believe or not believe, worship or not worship, follow or not follow, of our own free will, but there would be no disagreement that God was real, and this is what he says about himself and his creation. In fact, this is the only way a good God, a compassionate God, a God who did not revel in billions of blind men, women, and children stumbling in ignorance towards their eternal doom, would act.
We call this “informed consent”. When I have more information and more knowledge, I can make better choices or at least make more informed choices. As I’m writing this now, I am being misinterpreted by every reader at some point in my argument. But anyone need only ask and I’ll clarify…personally. How is it that I, a being so much more limited than God, can do what God never does? I want people to interact with as accurate an interpretation of my ideas as is possible. To do that most effectively, I must know that misunderstandings will happen, and I will try to correct them to the best of my ability. If I am unwilling to clarify even the grossest misunderstandings, I cannot hold someone responsible for failing to understand my intent or my belief.
Unfortunately, we decided at some point that our stories were Truth and that science was a threat because both make claims about the natural world, and often these claims conflict. There is a battle for the future of humanity. If Science wins, we may actually have a future. We will at least face our problems in the here and now and tackle them in a manner up to the task and not colored by theological squeamishness. If Theism wins, then God help us all. My money, as much as it saddens me to say, is on theism stamping out progress. Theism has a long and glorious dalliance with fear and has cultivated its use to high art. And as science has shown, fear is the most motivating of forces.
My contention then is that God is but a sideshow; I highlight the absurdity of a supposedly compassionate God relying on ambiguous scriptures to guide us. Theological —Islamic, Jewish, Christian—stem from the same flawed medium I rail against. A divine presentation would know each reader, communicate, update, and respond. It would’ve spared us centuries of book-burning and observatory-wrecking. Instead, we’re left with human squabbles over divine intent, proving my point: a good God wouldn’t play hide-and-seek with truth. And so we can dispense with the notion.
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.
Ian: So, God is not good? If it is “good” to cure childhood cancer, then is God not good if he doesn’t do so?
We know, of course, that God doesn’t cure childhood cancer, because children have cancer, including babies born with it.
Usually, at this point, Christian apologists realize they are trapped, so they start rolling out the justifications and excuses for God. “No, God doesn’t cure childhood cancer, but he has a reason for not doing so.” “Gods thoughts are not our thoughts, and God’s ways are not are ways. God’s ways are higher, unknown by mere mortals.” “Yes, God gives cancer to children, but after they die a horrible death, he will take them to Heaven when they die. Ain’t God good?”
And so it goes, but never forget, God could in a split second cure childhood cancer. That he chooses not to suggests either he doesn’t exist or he doesn’t care about the pain and suffering of his created beings — especially children. Either way, such a deity is not worthy of our worship.
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.
This is the latest installment in The Voices of Atheism series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. Know of a good video that espouses atheism/agnosticism or challenges the claims of the Abrahamic religions? Please email me the name of the video or a link to it. I believe this series will be an excellent addition to The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser.
Thank you in advance for your help.
What follows is a video of an interview with Dr. Francesca Stavrakopoulou, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion at the University of Exeter. The main focus of her research is on the Hebrew Bible, and on Israelite and Judahite history and religion. Her seminal book, God: An Anatomy, is a must read.
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.
What follows is a letter my mother wrote to the editor of the Bryan Times It was published May 7, 1969. I am hoping this letter will provide a glimpse of the type of home I grew up in. I was 11 years old when this letter was written. 12 days later, this letter was also published in the Toledo Blade.
Bryan Times:
In view of recent student uprisings, revolts, demonstrations, anarchy and lawlessness on college and university campuses in these United States — I, an American taxpayer and mother of three children, urge a PUBLIC Congressional Investigation into the colleges and universities that fit the above and an investigation into the SDS, its leaders, motives, and followers.
Either local authorities on campus or the government must stop this outrage or there should be a taxpayers’ revolt. I, for one, do not care to support such so-called institutions for a so-called higher education. Why don’t parents of these students cut off funds? Why doesn’t the government cut off funds to such institutions and cut off student loans to such students?
Now, summer approaches and Americans are wondering and waiting to see whether the riots in our cities will resume. Many of these same students will be taking to the streets this summer. Rioting has become a habit, a thrill. I have heard the remark, many riot all day and run home to watch themselves on the 6 o’clock news.
Many Americans are justifiably living in fear. I have heard remarked that only a dictator and a police state will be able to protect American citizens from anarchy and lawlessness. Is this what we want? I ask you to ask yourself, what can I do? What can or should our duly elected government officials do? What can or should our tax supported institutions do? Let your universities and government officials know how you feel. It is time to stand up and be counted.
I had thought that with a new administration (Richard Nixon) we might begin to enter into a period of law and justice and might once again go back to majority rule upon which this country was founded. How can a handful of 50 students completely subdue a college campus and its authorities?
I used to think a college education was an ideal goal for a youngster. Now I am very skeptical of sending my children to such an educational institution. Have you ever asked yourself why the students on the large and small campuses of Bible colleges and other religious institutions are not rioting, or are you trying not to think, period? (now that was one snarky line, Mom)
Did you ever stop to think that the students who do not like their teachers, courses, university rules and regulations have the freedom to go elsewhere? Perhaps a trip to Vietnam might give them the proper perspective. While our boys fight and die to preserve freedom, the students usurp the freedom and rights of others to an education in a tax supported institution. Teachers not going along with students are being intimidated as well as their families being threatened. Some even have had bomb threats in the name of freedom.
To all college and university authorities, to all judges and law enforcement officials and to all government officials: in regards to the students, I say Amnesty-NO, Prosecution, Expulsion-YES.
Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Barbara Gerencser Route 2, Hicksville
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.
Preachers lie, sometimes intentionally. Other times, they lie out of ignorance, often repeating “facts” they heard as a child or in Bible college. One such lie is this: The Bible is the most read book of all time. Most of us likely heard this claim at one time or another, and believed it with nary a thought.
While it is true most American homes have at least one copy of the Bible, this does not mean that it is the most read book of all time. In fact, the Bible is is the least read book of all time. It is the one book everyone owns, but few people actually read it.
No, the truth is this: most Christians do NOT read the Bible from cover to cover. They might read Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, the Gospels, and a few of Paul’s books, but most of the Bible’s books are never read outside of hearing their pastors read sermon texts on Sundays. Most Christians are nominal practitioners who rarely read the Bible, and their theology is that of the man who preaches to them on Sundays. Is it any wonder the average Christian can’t list, define, and explain the core doctrines of Christianity?
If the Bible is the most important book ever written, why do most Christians largely ignore the text, choosing to let their pastors to speak for God instead of hearing directly from him (I speak from an Evangelical perspective)? I listen to a lot of debates between Evangelicals and atheists. You would think that apologists would yearly read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, but they don’t. Some do, of course, but many don’t. They are more concerned with studying the passages that reinforce their arguments than they are nurturing their minds and studying the whole council of God.
The Bible is a bestseller, but few Christians read all of it. Don’t let them sell you on the notion that it is the most read book of all time. It’s not. Only ten percent of Americans read the Bible every day.
Do you read the Bible? How often? Are you a former Christian? As a believer, did you read the Bible every day? If not, how often did you read the Bible? Did you rely on devotional books, instead? Please share your experiences in the comment section.
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.
My partner, Polly, and I are blessed to have sixteen grandchildren — three grandsons and thirteen granddaughters. Several weeks ago, we watched our two youngest grandsons for our daughter. We decided to take them out to eat and then to a movie.
We ate at the Paradise Buffett in Auburn, Indiana. The boys had never eaten at a buffet before, so it was quite entertaining to watch them navigate the food lines. “You mean, I can eat whatever I want?” “Yes, but remember, whatever you take, you have to eat.” Our one grandson has autism, and for a moment, the buffet experience overwhelmed him. He stood still, turning in a circle, surveying his surroundings. Eventually, I was able to get him to put food on his plate. The boys were even more surprised when I told them that they could get a clean plate for more food. “Really? We can get more food?” Ah the joys of watching children experience the finer things of life for the first time. 🙂
Afterward, we went to the theater to watch the new TRON movie. We arrived as the preview clips were showing. As we found our seats, a scene from a PG-13 action movie started playing. This definitely got our youngest grandson’s attention. He stood on his seat, and in his loudest outdoor voice he said, “OH MY GOD, DID YOU SEE THAT?” I turned to Polly, laughing, and said, “Silas, has found religion.” 🙂
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.
Over the past four months, an Evangelical woman named Terri has sent me more than fifty emails and commented over one hundred fifty times. I asked her five times to please stop emailing me. I also let her know that many of her comments were unhelpful, and, at times offensive. Did this stop her from emailing me? No.
Terri is friendly and polite, but she lacks all sense of personal boundaries and respect. If someone politely asks you not to do something, yet you repeatedly do it anyway, that reveals a lack of respect. Terri will deny being disrespectful or not honoring boundaries, but most readers will likely conclude that sending me fifty emails and leaving one hundred fifty comments — many of which were sent after I asked her to stop — is excessive. Include the comments I didn’t approve, and the total nears two-hundred.
I don’t understand this kind of behavior, mainly because I have never emailed- or comment-bombed someone. What’s the point? I suspect Terri thinks she is duty bound to “share” the truth — her personal interpretations of the Bible — with me, even if I know a hell of a lot more about that Bible, theology, and church history than she does. She likely believes God wants her to share the gospel and the love of God with everyone, even those who have told her they are not interested in what she is peddling. I wish Terri and other Evangelicals would stop behaving like this, but I fear it’s pathological. “Bruce is headed for Hell, and needs Jesus,” zealots think, and God dammit, they are going to irritate the hell out of me regardless of whether I ask them to stop. In their minds, my personal discomfort is the price I must pay for the “good news.” Little do they know or care that their behavior is actually driving me away from Christianity, and I suspect that thousands of the people who read this blog will say the same.
Several days ago, Terri sent me the following email:
Bruce! Just wanted to encourage you here…
Want to encourage me? Send me bags of cash or mind your own business. I told Terri several times that I was not interested in what she had to say about my health. She has no relevant expertise other than the ability to do a web search, so there is no reason I should pay attention to her anecdotal stories and personal opinions. It is evident Terri either doesn’t understand how sick I am or doesn’t care. Or she could be one of those Christians who thinks it is their calling in life to “fix” people. I regularly see a primary care doctor, neurologist, endocrinologist, dermatologist, gastroenterologist, and a podiatrist. I have had a full-day work-up for multiple sclerosis (MS) at Toledo Hospital and a comprehensive examination for fibromyalgia at the University of Michigan. These and other medical professionals treat me for gastroparesis (lack of proper bowel function), endocrine pancreatic insufficiency (pancreas doesn’t produce digestive enzymes), peripheral neuropathy (nerve pain), fibromyalgia (which causes widespread muscle pain and fatigue), degenerative spine disease (think, my spine is literally falling apart), Morton’s neuroma (nerve inflammation in both feet), high blood pressure (well managed), diabetes (well managed), increasing memory loss (early-stage dementia? God, I hope not.), tinnitus, vision problems (my vision flipped from nearsightedness to farsightedness), bladder and bowel incontinence, and four bouts of basal/squamous cell skin cancer.
Most of these diseases are incurable. All that my doctors can do is encourage me and treat my symptoms. My primary care doctor — who has been treating me for almost thirty years — admits that I am his enigma — perplexing, challenging, difficult to treat.
I live with constant pain, from my head to the bottom of my feet. I require a cane to get around home, and a wheelchair or walker when I (rarely) have the opportunity to go to town. I have lost more than one hundred pounds, and I am plagued with frequent bouts of nausea and vomiting. And then comes nighttime; you know when most people go to sleep. I too lie down to sleep, but it takes me HOURS to fall asleep — with narcotic pain medication and cannabis — thanks to horrible pain from my neck and spine to my legs. Sure, if I took a lot more Hydrocodone and cannabis, my pain would be less, but I would sleep all the time, and this blog you are reading would be no more. I must choose between the two.
Typically, I get up in early afternoon. After getting up, I use the bathroom, dress, and wait for Polly to come home from work at 3:20 pm. We talk a bit, eat dinner, and then I watch a sports news program. Afterward, if I have any steam left, I start to write. I usually have three to five hours to maintain this blog and publish content. Some days (increasingly so) I don’t have the physical wherewithal and mental acuity to meaningfully write. On these days, I spend the night reading, watching TV, and listening to podcasts. If I am able, I try to do household chores or take care of smaller projects around the house. Three years ago, I reignited my love for post-war Lionel O-gauge electric trains. I threw myself into the project, hoping to build a train layout in an upstairs room for my grandchildren and I to enjoy. Sadly, it’s been almost two years since I navigated the stairs to work on the 12′ by 12′ layout.
Knowing these things, do you really think I want to receive medical advice from you, especially when you have no relevant expertise nor do you know me will enough to invade my personal space to give me advice? Readers such as Carolyn, my editor, Zoe, ObstacleChick, Geoff, Ben, or Troy, to name a few, have been my friends for a long time. They have invested a lot of time in reading my writing and supporting my work. None of them offers me unsolicited medical advice. At best, they might send me a link to an article, asking me if I had seen it, but that’s it. They know what I need is love, respect, and understanding, and not uneducated, unprofessional medical advice.
a beautiful thing happened in our city a few months ago…a man who lived alone, and who was an atheist, became very sick. He was all alone, no family to take care of him, and so he decided to pray for 3 days straight. At the end of it, he found himself healed!! He’s doing great now!!
This story sounds like a sermon illustration; a fictional story meant to prove a point. If this really happened, I would love to interview the man. I want to know what sickened him. Did he take medication or see doctors? Who was the doctor, so I can interview him too. I want to know if he thinks this man was miraculously healed.
Further, how does Terri KNOW it was her God who healed this man? Satan, a divine healer too, could have healed the man. How does she know that the man was healed as the direct result of three days of non-stop prayer? All we have is a story told by an Evangelical Christian who has spun other fantastical stories before this one. I didn’t believe those stories, and I don’t believe this one either. My unbelief can be easily remedied by providing sufficient empirical evidence to justify the healing claim. I am ready to start a betting pool on whether this evidence will be forthcoming. My money is on “no!”
Terri refuses to accept that most of my physical maladies are incurable. All doctors know to do is treat my symptoms. I have had major surgery twice, five outpatient surgeries, and endured several experimental procedures. There’s not anything else that can be done for me (though I may need surgery on my spine again). So I understand the compulsion some Christians have to offer unsolicited medical advice or prayers. That said, I have made my desires clear, so this unwanted email tells me that what I want or need doesn’t matter to Terri.
God is no respecter of persons…if He did it for him, He will do it for others, too. That’s hope!!
Which God? If the woman who sent me the email worships the Christian deity, I ask again, which Christian God since there are so many? Terri knows I am an atheist, so God talk has no effect on me other than to irritate and annoy me. That’s why Evangelicals are typically given one opportunity to comment. I approve ALL first-time comments, but I encourage Evangelicals to say all they need to say in their first comment. Preach away, but you will likely only have one opportunity to put in a good word for Jesus. I gave Terri a lot of space to spread her viewpoint, but eventually I had enough. I asked her to write one final comment, which I would turn into a post. No edits, no moderation. Say what you want, but that’s it. What did Terri do? She sent me a link to a video she wanted me to post. I, of course, refused.
I love it when Evangelicals say that “God is no respecter of persons,” when the Bible reveals a deity that is very much so, starting with God initially choosing the Jews as his covenant people over the Gentiles. The doctrines of election and predestination also show that God is certainly a respecter of persons.The Bible is littered with examples of the triune God playing favorites.
Further, I am an atheist, so claims of God’s existence fall on deaf ears. Personal testimonies and subjective experiences have no power to explain the existence of the Evangelical deity. These are faith claims, a faith I do not, nor will ever, have.
Does the Bible reflect a God who heals people with respect to who and what they are? Of course not. If God is no respecter of persons and prayer can affect healing, why do MOST Christians go through life unhealed? Churches are filled with praying sick people.
Having said all of that, I will make a wager with Terri’s God. “Jesus, you supposedly healed a sick atheist, so I know you can heal me. If you heal me, I will immediately profess faith in you and spend the remaining days of my life worshipping and serving you. I will shutter this blog, and do all I can to preach the gospel.” The ball is in Jesus’ court. “Heal me, Jesus, and I am yours. If not, I will continue on in my atheist ways, confident that you are a myth, a figment in the imagination of countless Christians.” Think Jesus will heal me? Imagine what a trophy I would be if Jesus healed me, leading to me confessing faith in him. I won’t hold my breath, stop taking medications, or cancel my doctor’s appointments. Stupid I am not. If I have learned anything in my sixty-eight years of life, it is this: Jesus is not the Great Physician and prayer is worthless outside of giving the appearance you are doing something meaningful for people, when you actually are not.
I hope Terri “hears” me. Same goes for others who think my health problems are opportunities for them to put in a word for Jesus. I am NOT interested, and the more you ignore my wishes, the farther you drive me away from Christianity. As of the writing of this post, I can’t think of one reason why I would ever want to become a Christian again. I know I will receive several emails/comments threatening me with judgment and Hell. Whatever — such threats have no effect on me — and I mean none.
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.
If is carrying a lot of weight in this question. How would one go about “proving” Christianity? So far, every argument I have heard from believers allegedly “proving” Christianity comes up short. Quite frankly, many of the arguments Christian apologists use are fantastical or absurd. These arguments may work with people already predisposed to Christianity, but they won’t usually work atheists. Apologists continue to churn out books defending Christianity, but these books aren’t for unbelievers. The target audience is believers, and the goal is to provide them with “evidence” to reinforce and justify their claims, along with settling their nerves after having an atheist eviscerate their beliefs. (Many atheists are former Christians themselves. They know the Bible inside and out.)
Is it possible that someone could convince me that Christianity is true? I would like to say yes, wanting to keep an open mind, but knowing all I do about Christianity, the Bible, and the various arguments used by apologists to defend the faith, I can’t imagine any Christian being able to convince me that I should return to Christianity. If you are a Christian, you are welcome to try to convert me, but I hope you can handle rejection and disappointment; that’s likely what you will experience by trying to put another notch on your gospel six-shooter.
Will this post stop apologists from trying to evangelize me? Of course not. As sure as the sun comes up in the morning, a believer will leave a comment on this site or send me an email detailing their supercalifragilisticexpialidocious argument they are sure will lead me to the light. Sorry, but I was a Christian for most of my life. I spent five decades in the “light.” I was a pastor for twenty-five years. I am confident that I have heard every possible argument for the existence of the Christian deity and the alleged veracity of Christianity. What could you possibly say that I haven’t heard countless times before? Feel free to advance whatever argument you think will reach me, but understand that there is little doubt about whether I have heard it (or used it myself) before.
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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