This is the latest installment in the Sacrilegious Humor series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a comedy bit that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please email me the name of the bit or a link to it.
Today’s video is a compilation of song clips by Faith+1, the greatest Christian band of our generation.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
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 clip of Ricky Gervais explaining religion in ten minutes.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
Recently, I received the following email from a Christian man named Mike:
Bruce, I had my colon removed last year but I still love Jesus for dying for my sins. You had a rough life. If God didn’t spare Jesus from suffering, why should He spare us?
My Evangelical critics often misunderstand or deliberately misstate the reasons I left Christianity. Take Mike. He says I had a “rough life,” and that this is the reason I deconverted. While personal experiences played a secondary part in my loss of faith, they are not the primary reason I am no longer a Christian. While I could justify deconverting based on these experiences alone when compared to what the Bible says about Jesus’ love, care, and compassion for his followers, they are not the prime reason for me divorcing Jesus.
If I have made one thing clear, it is this: I deconverted because the central claims of Christianity no longer made sense to me. In other words, I am now convinced that beliefs I once held to be true are false. (Please see The Michael Mock Rule: It Just Doesn’t Make Sense.)
As a Christian, I never expected God to deliver me from suffering. I knew that God used suffering to teach or correct me, and in some instances, he used my suffering for his purpose and glory. My duty was to submit to and obey God’s divine will. I can’t remember a time when I was angry or bitter towards God, even when I pleaded with him to heal me or lessen my pain. Jesus may have been the Great Physician, but I learned that he didn’t make house calls, nor did he offer office appointments. “Pray and wait” was the script Jesus wrote for me time after time, without any semblance of healing or help following.
Mike mentions the suffering of Jesus, as if it is the gold standard for suffering. How much did Jesus actually suffer? Was his suffering worse than the suffering of billions of other humans? Not even close. Yes, he suffered, but it was only for a matter of hours before he died — not from the beatings, but because he chose to die. The duration of Jesus’ suffering was minimal — the equivalent of a long weekend — compared to people who live with unbearable pain for months and years. (Please see I Wish Christians Would Be Honest About Jesus’ Three Day Weekend.)
Mike mentions having his colon removed last year. My partner had part of her colon, along with part of her bladder, removed several years ago. A fistula opened up between her colon and bladder, leading to her — literally — urinating shit. Polly spent three weeks in the hospital and was off work for two months. While her ulcerative colitis is now managed — most of the time — with medication, her months of suffering left a lasting mark on her physical well-being. Thousands of people read this blog, many of whom have had serious health problems at one time or another. Sadly, some readers have died from heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, and cancer. My point? Many of us have experienced suffering in our lives, and some of us continue to suffer to this day. We know suffering, and that’s why we object when Evangelicals say Jesus suffered more than any other human. He didn’t, and Evangelicals need to quit claiming otherwise.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
“Dr.” Arv Edgeworth, an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) evangelist, sent me another email. Here’s what he had to say
I have a question for you. I saw the list of IFB pastors and their sexual sins. I didn’t read any of the information, it would be too depressing. I know of a number of incidents like that in churches I have been associated with, sad to say. However, in your opinion, which should be considered worse: an IFB preacher who was guilty of sexual misconduct; or an IFB preacher who did a complete turn around and denied Christ, and tried to get others to do the same thing? Sexual misconduct, or spiritual misconduct? In your opinion, which would do the most damage?
I assume that Edgeworth is talking about the Black Collar Crime series. Edgeworth wants to know which is worse: an IFB preacher who raped church children or an IFB preacher (me) who deconverted and now tries to get others to do the same? What’s worse, Edgeworth asks, sexual misconduct or spiritual misconduct? I assume he thinks “spiritual” misconduct is worse because it leads to eternal consequences.
Let me be clear, sexual misconduct in all its forms is morally wrong and often leads to lifelong consequences. IFB churches are notorious for ignoring or covering up sex crimes. Worse, offenders often leave the churches where the offenses occurred and move on to other churches. More than a few IFB churches are pastored by preachers who have committed sex crimes. God has forgiven them of their sin. How dare anyone keep them from their calling! God forgives and forgets, and so should we. Or so the thinking goes, anyway.
Edgeworth’s claim that I committing spiritual misconduct is absurd. Am I taking advantage of people? Am I fulfilling the lusts of my flesh by spiritually assaulting and raping people? Of course not. I am just one man with a story to tell. I am not an evangelist for atheism. All I do is share my story and carefully examine the central claims of Evangelical Christianity. I write, people read. I have never forced myself or my beliefs on another person.
How is it spiritual abuse to encourage people to rationally think for themselves? Shouldn’t that be the goal for Christians and unbelievers alike? Edgeworth will search in vain for one post that remotely suggests that I tried to get Christians to deny the Messiah. Have some people said that my writing played an instrumental part in their deconversion? Sure, but all I did was answer their questions. Or maybe my personal testimony resonated with them. Regardless, I have never forced anyone to deny Jesus and become an atheist.
Should I not tell my story, Arv? You came to my blog and told yours. Why is it okay for Evangelicals to go from IP address to IP address, preaching the gospel, even to people who have no interest in what they are peddling? I have been told several times that I should shut up and keep my story to myself. One preacher told me he feared that if people read my story that they would deconvert. Really? Am I so powerful that my words carry such power — more powerful than God — that they can cause people to lose their salvation? Trust me, I am not that powerful. More often, my writing is just one step in the process of deconversion.
Instead of worrying about Evangelical-preachers-turned-atheists leading IFB church members astray, I would worry more about sexual predators who have infiltrated churches, using the love, kindness, and forgiveness of congregants to hide their evil actions. Sadly, church members can be naive, thinking a man of God would never, ever commit a sex crime. This is a delusion, one that leads to harm, both to church members who are abused and to vulnerable adults who are taken advantage of.
I should add that if anyone is committing spiritual abuse, it is IFB preachers. I could spend months talking about preachers who spiritually abused the churches — myself included. That’s what cults do.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
Troy Lacey, a writer for Answers in Genesis, recently wrote an article titled Answering Atheists. Lame from start to finish, Lacey tries to deconstruct quotes from Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Richard Dawkins. (These men, by the way, are not top-shelf atheists. Lacey might want to engage atheists who are schooled in Christian theology and dogma.)
With the Bible as our starting point, we can look at the natural laws that God created, such as laws of thermodynamics and the law of biogenesis, and we can examine whether natural selection and mutation could possibly account for molecules-to-man evolution. They can’t. Instead, they clearly show the Creator (Romans 1:18–20).
Far from refusing to look at any evidence, creationists carefully examine it all. Creationist articles, books, and museums regularly cite the specific evolutionary arguments and then test them using the most rigorous scientific and philosophical tools available. We desperately want to know the truth so we can speak accurately about the Creator and his handiwork. We have no fears where the evidence will lead because we know it all points to God’s glory.
Oh, the lies young earth creationists tell. Do creationists really “carefully examine it [evidence] all?” Do they “desperately want to know the truth?” Of course not. Most young earth creationists are presuppositionalists. Creationists don’t start with evidence, they start with the following presuppositions:
The Protestant Bible is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God
The one True God is the triune God of the Bible
God created the earth in six literal twenty-four-hour days, 6,028 years ago
God destroyed the human race, save eight people, with a worldwide flood
I could add more Evangelical presuppositions, but these will suffice for now. Instead of weighing the evidence for these claims, they presuppose that they are true. Granted, none of us is free of presuppositions, We should do everything we can to limit our presuppositions. Evangelicals, on the other hand, have presuppositions upon presuppositions. These presuppositions keep them from seeing, knowing, and understanding the truth. And it is for this reason that it is nearly impossible to argue/debate Evangelical apologists. Presuppositions are faith claims that are impervious to falsification. Either you believe them to be true, or you don’t.
Lacey lives in a bubble where he genuinely believes that creationists are “using the most rigorous scientific and philosophical tools available.” He says that creationists do not “fear where the evidence will lead.” Why? Here comes another presupposition: we know it all [all evidence] points to God’s glory. Does all evidence point to God’s glory? Of course not. This is a faith claim.
Long before we can discuss “creationism,” we must first debate the claims Evangelicals make for the existence of God and the supernatural nature of the Bible. Lacey wants atheists to take his word for these claims. Not going to happen. Most atheists are rationalists and skeptics. We expect Evangelical apologists to provide some sort of evidence for their claims. Lacey claims Evangelicals like him examine and test every claim made by scientists. Is this a true claim? If yes, then why are so few creationist scientists published in scientific journals; not creationist or Evangelical journals, but well-respected science journals? Cue claims of persecution or bias. That’s how Evangelicals explain their overwhelming lack of publication in non-sectarian science journals. “The evil evolutionists are out to get us,” Evangelicals claim. However, the more likely explanation is that their claims lack scientific standing, and no reputable journal is going to give space for nonsense to be published.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
When Jesus came to the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he said to his disciples:
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. (Matthew 16:24-28)
First, Jesus states very clearly what is required to be a follower of his:
A man must deny self
A man must take up his own cross (not Jesus’ cross)
A man must follow after Jesus (WWJD)
Note that Jesus doesn’t say anything about having the right beliefs, using the right Bible translation, or attending the right church. As Jesus repeatedly says in the gospels, true Christianity is measured by how a person lives, and not by what he believes. I’m not saying that beliefs don’t matter. I am saying, however, that the true measure of a Christian is good works. James made this clear when he said, “Faith without works is dead.”
Jesus goes on to say that there is coming a day when he will come into his kingdom, and some of his disciples will still be alive when he does. The Message says:
Don’t be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself. Before you know it the Son of Man will arrive with all the splendor of his Father, accompanied by an army of angels. You’ll get everything you have coming to you, a personal gift. This isn’t pie in the sky by and by. Some of you standing here are going to see it take place, see the Son of Man in kingdom glory.”
Evangelical apologists have all sorts of explanations for verse 28, but they fall flat as they try to absolve Jesus of the sin of lying. An honest reading of the text says that there is coming a day when some of Jesus’ disciples currently alive in the first century will see him coming in power and glory. Has Jesus come into his kingdom? Has he returned in power and glory? Nope. The last sighting of Jesus, according to the Bible, was almost 2,000 years ago. With a promise that he would one day return to earth, Jesus ascended to Heaven, never to be seen again. Thus, Jesus lied when he said, “Some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” Either Jesus’ disciples still walk the face of the earth as well-preserved 2,000-year-old humans, or they are all dead, dying not long after Jesus did. The first claim is absurd. People live and people die. No one, including Jesus, escapes death.
Jesus told several other lies, which I will cover in the future.
Justin, a former Evangelical preacher, covered this subject on a live stream on his channel, The Deconstruction Zone. Watch as an Evangelical apologist goes nuts over the suggestion that Jesus lied. An epic meltdown, to say the least.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
Baby Christian Donald Trump — who spent Easter Sunday honoring the resurrected Jesus by golfing all day — and his feckless band of Evangelical and Roman Catholic gatekeepers, made it known that his administration will actively go after anti-Christian bias in the federal government. Question: is there anti-Christian bias in the government to start with? No evidence is provided for bias. Christians are absolutely FREE to worship God as they wish. Christian pastors are free to preach whatever they want from the pulpit. Outside of occasional skirmishes over building codes and the Johnson Amendment, Christian churches are left alone, free to preach superstition and nonsense.
Until the early 1960s, Christians ruled the cultural roost. Then came U.S. Supreme Court rulings that banned teacher-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in public schools. Many Christians were outraged over these court rulings, saying that their religion was being persecuted. This, of course, is laughable. Public schools are secular institutions. The separation of church and state requires schools to refrain from promoting sectarian religions. When schools permit teacher-led Bible readings and prayers, they are promoting a sectarian religion — namely Christianity. Over the past five decades, Evangelical parachurch organizations have found ways to weaken the wall separating church and state by establishing student-led programs such as Lifewise Academy and Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Non-Christian organizations are permitted to offer programs to students, but so far, few do so, and those who do — such as the Satanic Temple — face pushback from Christians who do not understand the freedom of religion, free speech, and the separation of church and state. These objectors wrongly think that only Christianity should be taught in public schools. However, as things currently stand, if Christian groups are given access to school children, non-Christian groups must be given the same access.
Sadly, many school administrators, either out of ignorance or bias, support and promote Christian organizations, giving them preferential access to students. Groups such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation, American Atheists, American Humanist Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the American Civil Liberties Union spend countless hours writing letters to schools that think they can ignore the law, filing lawsuits against schools that ignore their demands. Most of the time, school districts back down and end discriminatory practices. If left unchecked, schools with Christian administrators would allow unfettered evangelization and indoctrination.
I live in rural northwest Ohio, home to God, guns, and Donald Trump. There are hundreds of Christian churches in a three-county area. I live in Ney, a town of about 356 people. There is at least seven churches within a few miles of my home. Countless local businesses have Christian kitsch hanging in their stores or tracts on their counters. Some businesses are decidedly evangelistic in their business model. One local barber claims his barber shop is a “ministry.” Get your hair cut by this barber, and you should expect to hear a sermon. Everywhere I look, I see Christianity. Maybe it is different in other places, but I don’t see anti-Christian bias anywhere.
As I type this post, I am listening to Matt Dillahunty’s Wednesday program on The Line. Matt talked about the difference between anti-Christian bias and anti-Christianity bias. Christians should be governed by the same laws as atheists. Government should be neutral when it comes to religion. Government = we the people. Not just people who meet certain political or religious standards, but all people. As citizens, however, we are free to have anti-Christianity bias. While I generally treat all religious people with respect (or with as much respect as they give me), when it comes to the organizations themselves, I am definitely anti-Christianity. I am anti-Evangelicalism, anti-Catholicism, anti-IFB church movement, and anti-any sect that causes harm to other people. I can respect my Evangelical neighbor while despising his religion at the same time. As a private person, I have the right to oppose, criticize, and condemn religious groups and their teachings. It is not anti-Christian bias if I speak out against particular sects. While it is often hard to separate the skunk from its smell — the Christian from his chosen sect — I do my best to distinguish between the two.
Donald Trump is using anti-Christian bias nonsense to curry favor with Evangelicals, Mormons, and conservative Roman Catholics. These followers of Jesus, however, are using the claim of anti-Christian bias to advance their theocratic agenda. Their goal is God rule; a nation state where Jesus rules supreme and the Bible (as interpreted by them) is the law of the land. Trump is a blowhard, but these theocratic Christians are an existential threat to our Republic. If left unchecked, the next thing we will be talking about is anti-non-Christian bias. And we already see this bias rearing its ugly head in government policies and statements made by Christian government officials.
Anti-Christian bias does not exist, but anti-religion bias does. As a secular state, the United States should not give any religion preferential treatment, but by setting up anti-Christian bias offices, the government is giving Christianity a preferred seat at the table. In a pluralistic society, every religion — including humanists, atheists, and pagans, to name a few — should be treated equally — not just Christians.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
Evangelical apologists attempt to argue and debate me back to faith by using philosophical arguments or quoting Bible verses. Apologists are perplexed by why their gold standard argumentation doesn’t work with me. Maybe I am an apostate or have been turned over to a reprobate mind by God. What apologists refuse to do is look at the likelier reasons for my lack of faith — namely, how they treat people who believe differently from them.
While I think the arguments given by apologists are lacking intellectual weight, one of the primary reasons I have no interest in the Evangelical God is how they treat me and other godless heathens. These apologists act in ways that reflect that they actually know very little about the moral and ethical teachings of Jesus. Either that, or they deliberately ignore Christ’s teachings. I’m inclined to think that it is the latter. Evangelicals such as Dr. David Tee, Revival Fires, John, and countless others claim they have read the Bible; that they know and understand its teachings. If this is so, why do they behave the way they do?
The Bible has much to say about the fruit (good works) Evangelicals produce in their lives. While I know Evangelicals who treat others with decency, kindness, and respect, and don’t try to bully people into faith in Jesus, most of the Evangelicals who send me emails or comment on my writing are anything but. If Christianity can’t transform the lives of its biggest fans, what good is it? It is a salt that has lost its savor and is good for nothing. Jesus said to throw such salt into the streets to be trampled underfoot (Matthew 5:13)
Don’t tell me Evangelicals, show me. You are not going to tell me anything about the Bible, God, and Christianity that I do not already know. What I want to see is change and transformation in the lives of people who say they worship Jesus. So far, all I see are people who value being right, getting certain politicians elected, and returning prayer and Bible reading to public schools more than they do loving their neighbors and helping the least of these.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
Atheists often ask Evangelicals for evidence for the existence of God. Some Evangelicals will quote prooftexts from the Bible, as if this proves the existence of God. Of course, these quotes do no such thing. The Bible is a book of claims. It claims Jesus is God. It claims Jesus was born of a virgin. It claims Jesus worked miracles, including raising the dead. It claims Jesus resurrected from the dead. It claims Jesus ascended to Heaven. What evidence is provided for these claims? None. Unbelievers are just supposed to take Evangelicals at their word. The Bible says . . . end of discussion. If the Bible is the gold standard for evidence, Evangelicals shouldn’t expect many atheists to become Christians.
Many Evangelicals think personal testimonies are evidence for the existence of God. Again, much like the Bible, personal testimonies are claims, not evidence. Claims of healing and deliverance are just that — claims. How do we know God healed or delivered someone? We can’t. Evangelicals are free to believe that a cosmic being of some sort miraculously healed them or delivered them from adversity, but they shouldn’t expect skeptics to believe them.
What is evidence? Evidence is “the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.” By all means, Evangelicals, please use the comment section to provide facts or information that justify your faith claims. Telling us a personal story or quoting prooftexts will not suffice.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
We don’t hate them, LGBTQ people, Sage. If we hated Because we hate LGBTQ people, them we would let them go go hell unearned and unprayed for without the gospel! hope these sexual deviants burn in Hell. Dr. David Tee and I, and many others bring them the gospel! will not rest until LGBTQ people are rounded up and sent to internment camps.
Sadly, those caught in lgbtq trans demonic homos snare who attack and condemn LGBTQ people are going to realize too late that the “haters” those who shared the gospel with them were the ones that really LOVED THEM! it is they who will land in Hell someday for hating other people who have literally done nothing to them. And those who approved of, supported, and celebrated with them in their sin were the ones that HATED them LGBTQ people will be rewarded by God for loving their neighbors as themselves, while Revival Fires and Dr. David Tee will be And driven the through the gates of Hell on a Trump-driven, Musk-built rocket sled. 😭😭
“HE SHALL BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOKY GHOST AND WITH FIRE” MATTHEW 3:11. Put your left foot in, and put your left foot out, and shake it all about, do the Hoky Ghost, and turn yourself around, that’s what it’s all about.
MAY GOD BRING MANY TO JESUS!!! SPARKE A REVIVAL FIRE!!!! 🔥 May Revival Fires and Dr. David Tee repent of their wicked, hateful ways before it is too late and they land in Hell.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 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.
