1973 –Teen Singing Group Trinity Baptist Church, Findlay, Ohio. Delores Sparrow, Cindi Baldridge, Stella Echavaria, Chris Armstrong, and Bruce Gerencser
In March 1973, my dad packed up his three children, stepdaughter, and wife and moved them from Findlay, Ohio to Tucson, Arizona. Bill collectors were knocking on the door, so Dad sold our household goods in an auction before moving west, hoping to avoid having furniture and other financed goods repossessed. Two months after our move, finance companies found out where we lived and repossessed Dad’s automobiles.
After finishing tenth grade, I hopped on a Greyhound bus and returned to my mother’s home in Bryan, Ohio. Restless to get back to my church, Trinity Baptist Church, and friends, in August 1973 I returned to Findlay, living first with Bob and Bonnie Bolander, a young couple with two girls in Mount Blanchard, and then with Gladys Canterbury. Gladys was an older woman, a divorcee, and a strict disciplinarian.
So that Gladys would receive a monthly check for my care and I would have Medicaid insurance, I was made a ward of the court. This meant that my parents were stripped of their legal rights and the “court” was, in effect, my parent. I thought nothing of this at the time. I was busy with church and attending my eleventh year of school. From playing sports, to working a part-time job, to chasing girls, uh I mean Jesus, I had a busy life filled with activity.
I usually walked or rode my bike to school — three miles, one way. Occasionally, when the weather was bitterly cold, I would ride the bus. I attended classes until 11:30 am or so every day. No study halls or downtime. After classes, I would ride my bike to Bill Knapp’s, where I worked as a busboy for the lunch shift, taking a break to eat and do my homework before working the evening shift. Afterward, I would ride my bike or walk home. On days with inclement weather, I would call a cab to pick me up.
I never missed a day of school — not one — but by May 1974 I was homesick and wanted to move back to my mother’s home in Bryan. I knew that Gladys (and the church) would forbid me from doing so, so I skipped the last week of school, preparing for my mom to come and get me on the appointed day.
I left Gladys a note, thanking her for her help and telling her I was moving back in with my mom. That night, she called me and told me that I had to return to her house, and if I didn’t she would have me arrested. This, of course, was a bluff, which I called, and that was the end of that. I remained a ward of the court until my eighteenth birthday, but having reached the age of seventeen, dropping out of high school, and working a full-time job, I suspect the powers that be thought forcing me to return to Findlay was a waste of time.
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.
Recently, Democratic President Joe Biden gave a political speech before a historically black congregation at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. You may remember, that in 2015 White supremacist and neo-Nazi Dylann Roof murdered nine Mother Emanuel members while they were gathered for prayer. Democrats have often used Black churches to give political speeches — contravening the separation of church and state and the Johnson Amendment.
Democrats have long objected to Republican political candidates giving speeches at Evangelical churches. Republicans show no regard for the rule of law. How dare the government tell them who can or can’t give speeches in churches? However, religious sects, parachurch organizations (who increasingly claim they are churches), and churches are tax-supported institutions — exempt from most taxes. U.S. law requires tax-exempt religious institutions to refrain from endorsing political candidates (though they can endorse/support issues). Choosing to do so anyway can lead to religious institutions losing their tax-exempt status. Though to be honest with you, I can’t remember a time when the IRS revoked a church’s tax exemption. A cursory Google search showed that IRS tax revocations since the inception of the Johnson Amendment can be counted on one hand. The IRS has stopped enforcing the law, allowing Democrats and Republicans alike to use churches for political campaigning. Pastors freely endorse candidates, knowing that nothing will happen if they do. (Personally, I support revoking tax exemption for all religious institutions; that churches who claim to be tax-exempt charitable institutions must prove it.)
Liberals love to scream about Republicans giving political speeches at Evangelical churches, yet are silent when Democrats do the same at liberal, mainline Black churches. Democrats are hypocrites if they refuse to call out liberal Black churches for doing the very same things as Evangelical churches do. One liberal writer said “Yes, Biden shouldn’t have given a political speech at Mother Emanuel, but, hey, the Republicans are doing it, so, so should we.”
As long as churches are tax-supported to the tune of billions of dollars a year, the IRS MUST enforce the Johnson Amendment and laws governing the separation of church and state. If the government is no longer willing to enforce the law, then it is time for Congress to put an end to the tax-exemption scam, taxing churches as the businesses they most certainly are. If congregations want to be tax-exempt, they must justify and prove their exempt charitable status. If churches cannot show that the majority of their income is spent on genuine charitable activities — and not just on programs and ministries that primarily exist to make fat sheep fatter — then they must pay taxes just like other businesses do. This means they must file annual income tax returns. (Churches are not required to file tax returns, including informational forms.)
If President Biden wants to speak to the members of Mother Emanuel, he should stand on the public sidewalk in front of the church and do so. On the sidewalk, Biden is free to say whatever he wants. However, once the President walks in the church’s doors, he and the church must abide by the law. That they don’t is disheartening and discredits attempts to hold Republicans accountable for their own violations of the separation of church and state and the Johnson Amendment.
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.
The most common question my wife and I get as former Christians is “What church do you go to?” or “Have you found a church yet?” We used to be involved and my ******* is a pastor so people make assumptions or are trying to disciple us (which I recognize as someone who used to do it too). How do respond politely?
This is a great question, one that many of us have had to deal with ourselves. I live in rural northwest Ohio — the land of God, Guns, and the GOP. Everyone is a Christian, even though on any given Sunday over half of them do not attend church. Asking someone where they go to church is as common as talking about the weather or the latest high school football game.
When I first deconverted, many local Christians were not aware that I was no longer a believer. Some of them thought I was still a pastor. They would ask me, “Where ya going to church these days?” or “Where are you preaching, Bruce?” I would reply, “We haven’t found a church home, yet” or “I am still looking for a church to pastor” — both of which were lies. We were done with church, and I certainly had zero interest in pastoring a church again. Yet, I didn’t want to get into discussions with people about my loss of faith — especially in the middle of a grocery store or a restaurant.
These days, locals know I am the outspoken village atheist. They know I am the guy who regularly writes letters about religion and politics to the editors of the local newspapers. An increasing number of locals read this blog, so they know firsthand about my godlessness. Gone are questions about church attendance. I get “looks” and whispered discussions, complete with glances and finger-pointing instead. Fourteen years in, I have yet to have a local Christian ask me why I am no longer a Christian. Maybe my blog or my letters to the newspapers tell them everything they need to know. Whatever the reason, I never get questions about my unbelief. I am more than happy to have such discussions, but I suspect many local believers (and pastors) aren’t up to the task of defending the faith once delivered to the saints.
I take a pragmatic approach to questions such as, “What church do you go to?” or “Have you found a church yet?” What benefit is there if I answer these questions honestly? How will my answer affect the relationship I have with the person asking the question? Will answering honestly negatively affect my reputation or employment? Like it or not, coming out as an atheist or agnostic can have deleterious effects. (Please see Count the Cost Before You Say “I am an Atheist.”) Sometimes, it is better to either say you are taking a break from church or are still looking for a good church than to say that you are no longer a Christian. I know, I know, all of us should be free to be our authentic selves, but in the real world, we face societal pressures and obligations. I wish it were different, but it’s not.
I have found the best way to derail the church questions is to deflect, changing the subject. “Bruce, where are you and Polly going to church?” “Well, hey where do you attend church? Is Brutus Pearlclutcher still your pastor? Didn’t you guys build a new building last year?” Turning the discussion around on the questioner puts the focus on them instead of you. Often, they will forget what they asked you. Mission accomplished. And once they answer my questions, I typically say, “Hey, Bob, it sure was good to see you again. I have to go. I have ______________to do.” And before he can say anything further, I politely turn and walk away.
I have lived in rural Ohio for almost sixty of my sixty-six years of life. I enjoy country living, even with its flaws and problems. Everyone knows your business — or at least their version of it, anyway. How you answer church attendance questions eventually gets around. Several years ago, I had a woman come up to me at one of my grandchildren’s ball games and say, “I always wondered what you looked like.” She had never seen an atheist in the wild. I chuckled, and replied, “No horns.” 🙂 Of course, she was wearing a t-shirt advertising her love for Jesus. I didn’t need to ask her any questions. Her shirt told me everything I needed to know about her Evangelical faith.
Do the letter writer and his wife owe others the truth about their spiritual condition or where they attend church? The short answer is no. Contrary to what we may have been taught in Sunday school, we are not obligated to tell the truth or answer every question. We control the narrative. Generally, I tell the truth, but there are times when I don’t want to answer a question (because of the motivations of the questioner or the consequences of answering it). My life is pretty much an open book, but some things have happened in the past that I have no interest in sharing with others. All of us have the right to control what information we give to others. If the letter writer and his wife don’t want to answer church questions, they have no obligation to do so. How to deflect such questions is the issue.
Or you could reply, “My wife and I are members of the Satanic Temple.” Let that rumor get around for a bit. 🙂 Oh, the fun we could have with this question, that is if answering it didn’t have real-life consequences.
Have you been asked, “What church do you go to?” or “Have you found a church yet?” How did you respond? What advice would you give this couple? Please leave your 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.
Recently, an Evangelical (IFB?) man named Nate Beck stumbled upon this site and left the following comment:
I agree with some of the criticisms of the fat preacher Corle. However, I balk at the whole rejecting Christ reason for this website. I doubt people who claim they once believed in Christ ever truly believed in Him at all. It truly takes a real loser to reject Jesus Christ, in my opinion. Just sad.
In 2022, I wrote a post detailing my experiences with Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) evangelist Dennis Corle. Beck agreed with some of my criticism of Corle — calling him “fat.” Yes, Corle is obese — as are many Baptist preachers — but what his weight has to do with anything is unknown.
Beck takes issue with the “whole rejecting Christ reason for this website.” Hmm . . . is rejecting Jesus really the reason for this site? Is my goal to lead as many people as possible away from Christianity? The short answer is NO. Hardcore atheists often accuse me of being too friendly towards religion in general, and Christianity in particular. I have been accused of being a “secret Christian.” Hardcore Christian Fundamentalists, on the other hand, say that I never was a Christian; that I am lying about my past and my love and devotion for Jesus. Both parties refuse to let me speak for myself, building a strawman Bruce Gerencser, and burning him to the ground. Left standing, of course, is the real Bruce Gerencser — a man very different from the one who is portrayed by his critics. (I am open to and even encourage honest, thoughtful debate and criticism, but when atheist and Christian zealots alike refuse to accept my story at face value, I know that their presuppositions keep them from seeing me as I am.)
I am not an anti-theist, nor am I anti-Jesus. Anyone who reads my post Why I Hate Jesus knows I object to the Western Jesus; to the Evangelical Jesus; to the IFB Jesus; to the culture war Jesus. In my mind, Fundamentalism is the problem, and that is true in every arena of thought and life. While I do not think the central claims of Christianity are true and cannot be rationally sustained, I have no axe to grind with Christians, in general. My focus is on Evangelical Christianity and the harm it causes not only to our society, but to individual people — not only psychological harm, but physical harm too. I make no apology for desiring the death of Evangelical Christianity. Evangelicalism impedes social progress, harms families, and retards intellectual maturity. Think I am being too harsh? Millions of Americans — including people in political power — believe the Bible is inerrant and infallible; that the universe is 6,025 years old; that God created the world in six literal 24 hours a day; that every miracle recorded in the Bible is factually true. Is this not an example of impeded intellectual growth — be it from a lack of knowledge or because of Fundamentalist conditioning and indoctrination?
Beck says I am a real “loser.” Evidently, if you don’t believe in Beck’s peculiar version of Jesus and Christianity, you are a loser. That means that 7+ billion people on planet Earth are “losers.” Of course, those of us raised in Fundamentalist sects and churches know this thinking well. Only our little band of followers of Jesus are “True Christians.” All others are lost, doomed, and damned.
Beck’s answer to my story is that I never was a real Christian; that I spent the first fifty years of life living a lie; that when I share my story with others, I am lying. Of course, Beck has no evidence for his claim. Anyone who takes an honest look at my life will conclude that I was a committed, devoted, sold-out follower of Jesus. Not perfect, to be sure, but the bent of my life was towards holiness. Instead of taking my story at face value, Beck is forced to disparage me because he can’t square my life with his peculiar theology. That is his problem, not mine.
Why do so many Evangelicals have such a hard time accepting that some people once were saved and now they are lost; that some people, after carefully examining the claims of Christianity decided that they were false? Married couples divorce all the time. The reasons are many, but one reason often given is “irreconcilable differences.” Does that not best describe why many of us deconverted? We simply could no longer reconcile the differences between what we were told and taught and what we eventually learned was actually the truth. For me, the question is not the existence of God. I rarely engage in such debates. Quite frankly, I find them boring and uninteresting, if for no other reason than that such arguments cannot prove that the God of their arguments is the God of the Bible. I have yet to have someone argue successfully for the existence of a particular Christian deity — and there are many.
Beck “needs” Jesus, I don’t. I have all I need with my partner of almost 46 years, our six grown children and their significant others, our sixteen grandchildren, and our three cats — Joe Meower, Socks, and Petey. We are close to our family — never does a week go by when we don’t see some of them. My family is all I need. I find no value in worshipping a dead man. I do find value in some of his teachings, but I don’t worship the man. I find value in Marcus Aurelius’ writings too, but I don’t worship him. How silly would that be, right? The only God I worship is Polly. I have watched her work countless miracles with $25 for a week’s worth of groceries. I have watched her selflessly raise six children, never bitching or complaining about doing without. She is God, in my book.
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.
The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Trent Rogan, a youth pastor at Community Church at Hendersonville in Hendersonville (Gallatin), Tennessee, was recently convicted of raping a seventeen-year-old boy.
A once prominent community leader who was serving as a children’s pastor at a Hendersonville church when he was charged in 2022 with having sex with a 17-year-old male, was found guilty on Thursday of five counts of Statutory Rape by an Authority Figure and four other charges.
A jury convicted Trent Rogan, 31 of Gallatin of nine charges that included two counts of Especially Aggravated Exploitation of a Minor and two counts of Exploitation of a Minor by Electronic Means, after a three-day trial in Sumner County Criminal Court.
Assistant District Attorneys Nathan Nichols and David Vorhaus presented testimony from several witnesses, including the victim who is now 19.
Although the victim testified in open court and spoke openly with a reporter after the verdict, the Hendersonville Standard does not identify victims of sex crimes.
The victim testified that he met Rogan in the fall of 2021 after applying to and being accepted into the Leadership Sumner Youth Program, a leadership development program for high school juniors that is no longer in operation.
Shortly after the two met, Rogan, who was a chaperone and co-director of the program, initiated a sexual relationship with the victim, and often supplied him with drugs and alcohol, the victim testified. The sexual abuse occurred on five separate occasions – including twice in Rogan’s Gallatin home.
After the victim cut ties with Rogan and divulged the two’s encounters to a friend, the Gallatin Police Department and the Department of Children Services opened an investigation in April of 2022.
Rogan was arrested and charged with five counts of Statutory Rape by an Authority Figure and two counts of Exploitation of a Minor by Electronic Means on June 6, 2022. A grand jury returned a nine-count indictment in August of that year that included two counts of Especially Aggravated Exploitation of a Minor.
Rogan was working at the time as the Kids Pastor at Community Church of Hendersonville. He has since resigned. Before that, he was the NextGen Ministry-Children’s Director at Gallatin First United Methodist Church from Dec. 2017-Feb. 2020. Rogan also served on the boards of several non-profit organizations including Gallatin Cares and the Gallatin Chamber of Commerce where he was the board’s chairman-elect.
In his closing arguments to the jury, Nichols pointed out that the victim identified himself as a member of the LBGTQ community on his Leadership Sumner Youth application and that as one of the co-directors Rogan helped select the victim for the program.
The victim applied to the program to better himself while Rogan saw it as an opportunity to prey on him, Nichols added.
“He didn’t join [the program] to have sex with Trent Rogan but Trent Rogan saw that application and saw it as an opportunity to have sex with him,” he told jurors.
Rogan’s attorney Paul Walwyn acknowledged the two had sex and sent pictures to each other, but argued that Rogan was not an authority figure to the teen.
“This case is about whether or not he used his authority or power to control [the victim] – and the answer is no,” argued Walwyn. “There’s nothing except for a title. [The victim] never said he felt compelled or coerced or anything to be in a relationship with Mr. Rogan… There’s nothing about control in this case.”
Jurors disagreed, convicting Rogan on all nine counts.
Nichols said after the verdict that the case is “the very poster child for why these cases should be prosecuted vigorously and why General [Ray] Whitley and all the other prosecutors and myself are dedicated to prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law.”
“This young man had his life altered in an extremely negative, terrible way because of Mr. Rogan’s actions and it set his life on a course that he never intended for it to go,” Nichols added.
Vorhaus said the case needed to be prosecuted not just for the victim but for the collateral damage Rogan did to the community.
“He did a lot of damage to the community,” agreed Nichols. “He did a lot of damage to his church, and to Leadership Sumner Youth, which doesn’t even exist because of him.”
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.
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 titled Chick-fil-A Human Resources Department by John Crist.
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.
To the average Gen Z woman, oh how far you have fallen! The average modern Gen Z woman has, as far as anything of meaning or substance goes, absolutely nothing to offer a man. They have fallen for the scams of feminism and materialism which removes all but the slightest reminisce of value.
You can blame your parents; you can blame society, or you can blame social media, but the buck stops with you! You are a woman operating with extreme self-importance and delusion, a woman operating not even close to your intended purpose, and it will never, ever make you ultimately happy.
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Entitlement and Selfishness are the modern woman’s Modis Operandi, and boy is it serving them well. The modern Gen Z young woman, overall, when looking at the average’s, have the following attributes,
Independent
Materialistic
Self-value from Sexual objectification
Promiscuous
Immodest in their behaviour and Dress
Entitled
Selfish
The modern woman knows nothing of their role, their purpose, the reason they exist, or what indeed will lead to an enjoyable and content life. They have been fooled by the post-modern movement into thinking that experience, sexualization, materialism, money, and class is their ultimate path to happiness.
Gen Z’s live for the experience, no matter how unGodly or evil it might be. Living day to day with their minds consumed of nothing more than a hot dress and a cocktail party.
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Gone are the days where a woman reaches adulthood under her parents, finds a valuable man and begins to build a moral, valuable and purposeful life. Gen Z woman are now marrying much later in life, after going through a decade of adulthood single, and enjoying the pleasures of this world that ultimately have irreversible damage for their long term happiness, It is very hard to “unexperience” immoral experiences! When they do marry, their marriages have a foundation that is causing divorce/Separation at rates never seen in the history of humanity.
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It is no wonder then, when we look at how Gen Z’s have removed God and morals from marriage, combined with what they base their sentiments of marriage on, that they are failing at these astronomical rates.
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If you have read our article on Feminism, you will know that the data is in, and its conclusion is undeniable. The way women are choosing to live their lives in the modern world is not making them happy. Women’s happiness is in terminal decline in the modern world of equality.
A common theme that almost everyone in society held until the 1970’s was to find a valuable woman, that will be a good wife and a good mother for you and your family. Partner selection has always been critical for a happy and purposeful life! Men up until the waves of feminism used to seek, and find the following qualities in a potential woman for a wife,
Modestly Dressed
A chaste woman
Loyal, with eyes only for her husband.
A keeper of the home
A sober woman
Nonmaterialistic
High confidence / Self Esteem
Free from tattoos / Maladaptive Identity
Hard working “A woman who does not want a free ride”
Proverbs 31:27 She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
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.
Most Evangelicals believe humans are born sinners; that from the moment of conception, humans sin in thought, word, and deed; that humans don’t become sinners, they are sinners. Further, the Bible tells us humans are the enemies of God; haters of holiness and truth. Labeled, “natural (unsaved) men,” the Bible says unregenerate people CAN NOT understand the things of God
Salvation (deliverance) from sin requires the active work of God on behalf of people who are dead in trespasses and sin. Humans have no power to save themselves. Salvation requires regeneration and faith, both of which must be given to unsaved people for them to be saved.
Most Evangelicals are cradle Christians, meaning they were born into and came of age in Evangelical churches. Typically, Evangelical congregants come to faith between the ages of four and fourteen. Ninety-eight percent of Evangelicals come to faith in Christ by age thirty. Simply put, most Evangelicals are saved before developing mature, rational thinking skills. It is much harder for someone to be saved once they develop the skills necessary to distinguish truth from bullshit.
Dr. David Tee, whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen, was raised in an Evangelical Christian home. The only religion he knows is Evangelicalism. Thiessen believes the words “Evangelical” and “Christian” are interchangeable. In his mind, Evangelicalism — his peculiar version of it, anyway — is True Christianity. Thiessen has a Christian Missionary and Alliance background. The CMA sect is a garden-variety Evangelical denomination. Within the sect, you will find believers who believe once a person is saved, he can never, ever fall from grace, and other congregants who believe a Christian can lose their salvation. What Thiessen actually believes on this issue is unclear. He has espoused both views, and has, at times, promoted works-based salvation. His viewpoint is determined by the particular theological point he is trying to justify.
Recently, Dr. David Tee, who is neither a doctor nor a Tee, wrote a post titled We Are Against Deconstruction. Here’s an excerpt from we’s post: 🙂
The issue here is the word ‘skepticism’. This is where many believers go wrong. Their skepticism should have been done long before they made a decision to follow Christ. All doubts should have been dealt with prior to that same decision.
There is no need to be skeptical about Christ or the Christian faith once one has been redeemed by Christ. That experience alone should tell them that God is real and that the Bible is true. Having second thoughts after you have been living the Christian life is wrong.
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If one has doubts about a doctrine or practice of the church, they should search scripture to get the truth, like the Bereans did in Acts, and then follow the truth. No one should be deconstructing their faith as they did that before they became a Christian.
No one is born a Christian either so they should not live under a false assumption. Do your deconstructing before accepting Christ as your savior for then you still have a chance to be saved.
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Doubts and skepticism after you have become a Christian is evil doing spiritual warfare against you and you need to do spiritual warfare against those attacks. Deconstruction is throwing up the white flag and surrendering. That is just the wrong thing to do after you believe.
According to Thiessen, children are supposed to deconstruct their Christian beliefs BEFORE they become Christians. All doubts and skepticism should be dealt with before a person is saved. This, of course, is impossible. The unsaved person, according to the Bible, cannot understand the things of God. They are dead in trespasses and sins, alienated from God, without hope in this present world. Yet, unbelievers are supposed to have a comprehensive understanding of Christianity BEFORE they are saved. How is this even possible, knowing that most Evangelicals are saved when they are children?
Most Evangelicals are saved BEFORE they have a full understanding of all that Christianity teaches. I heard scores of evangelism experts say that when winning sinners to Christ, soulwinners should tell them just enough to get saved; that they should avoid questions and stick to the plan of salvation. There will be plenty of time for their questions after they are saved! Most Evangelicals become Christians without thoroughly investigating the central claims of Christianity, and, sadly, many saved Evangelicals never take a hard look at what they believe.
How can a six-year-old child, raised in Evangelicalism by Evangelical parents, possibly determine whether Christianity is true? They do not have the rational thinking skills to do so — in a comprehensive way. Children “believe” because their parents, family, and tribe “believe.” Rarely, does skepticism play a part in their decision to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. One can’t be skeptical if they have no understanding of the world’s religions. How can one choose if he or she is only given one choice? Deconstruction requires choices. How can anyone possibly deconstruct Evangelicalism until they have first been exposed to non-Evangelical religions, beliefs, and practices? Choice requires knowledge, but most Evangelical children are deliberately sheltered from any other religion but Evangelicalism. And when these sheltered believers are exposed to the “world,” what often happens? They start asking questions, beginning their travel on the path of deconstruction.
Deconstruction is not the enemy — simplistic, untested faith is. Thiessen thinks his site exists to promote Biblical Christianity; a place where doubters and questioners can find answers. The problem is that Thiessen only has one answer for every question: believe and practice what the Bible says. The B-i-b-l-e, yes that’s the book for me, I stand alone on the Word of God, the B-i-b-l-e. BIBLE!
Thiessen believes deconstruction leads to Hell:
Yes, deconstruction does lead to hell because Christians are following and listening to unbelievers over God and his word. Peter talks about leaving the faith and it is not pretty. There is only one truth, one true faith, and deconstruction does not lead you to either.
In other words, rationalism and skepticism lead to Hell, ignorance leads to Heaven. My, what an advertising slogan.
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.
While writing The Deconstruction of Christianity with Alisa Childers, we discovered some fundamental beliefs that undergird the deconstruction process. Moreover, these ideas are antithetical to the Christian worldview. This helps explain why so many who deconstruct their faith end up leaving the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3). Here are three reasons why I changed my mind about deconstruction.
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First, deconstruction has no correct destination.
A defining feature of deconstruction is that there’s no right way to do it and no right destination.
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Why isn’t there a right place to land in deconstruction? The answer is that deconstruction is a postmodern process. What I mean is, deconstruction isn’t about objective truth. It’s about personal happiness.
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Notice how deconstruction assumes there is no objective truth when it comes to religious beliefs. That’s why it doesn’t matter how you do it or where you end up as long as you’re happy.
I want you to notice two things. First, Jesus mentions two ways. There is a narrow way and a broad way, a right way and a wrong way. Second, Jesus mentions two destinations. The right way leads to a good destination: life. The wrong way leads to a bad destination: destruction. According to Jesus, there is absolutely a right place to land, and he tells us how to get there.
Second, the deconstruction process never ends.
Imagine you deconstruct your beliefs. Now what? Well, you construct new ones. However, once you construct new beliefs, you have to deconstruct those too. See how this works? There’s no finality to this process. Deconstruction requires a never-ending skepticism about your beliefs and the beliefs of others.
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Third, deconstruction has no biblical authority.
In deconstruction, there is no external authority to tell you what your faith should look like. You are the ultimate authority.
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Deconstruction isn’t about submitting to biblical authority; it’s about choosing to be your own authority.
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I changed my mind about deconstruction. After researching this topic, I’ve come to see that deconstruction isn’t merely asking questions or a synonym for doubt. Rather, it’s a process with no correct destination, no ending, and no biblical authority.
As you can easily see, Barnett is against deconstruction because it can and does lead to what he believes is a bad outcome — deconversion. Left unsaid is that Barnett is likely against deconversion because it leads to people leaving Evangelicalism for kinder, friendlier, more hospitable churches and faiths. In other words, since deconversion results in Evangelical churches hemorrhaging members — many of whom were committed followers of Jesus — the answer is to ignore WHY that is, informing restless, thoughtful Evangelicals, “God says, thou shalt not deconstruct.” And with proof texts uttered, deconstruction has been put to bed. Or so Barnett thinks, anyway.
My correspondence with deconstructing people suggests far different reasons for their deconstruction than postmodernism, or, Loki-forbid, the desire to think for themselves and be happy. Their emails suggest that Evangelical churches and preachers need to look in the mirror if they want to see why people are deconstructing (and deconverting). Many of the people deconverting have gotten a whiff of Evangelicalism’s rotting corpse and want nothing to do with it. They see the hatred of LGBTQ people and immigrants. They see the racism, bigotry, and misogyny. They see the extreme politics and social views — especially support of Donald Trump. They see the news stories about sex crimes committed by Evangelical preachers, yet never hear their pastors say a word about the abuse scandal. They see the fancy suits, designer clothes, and Rolex watches as their pastors preach about the humble Jesus who had no place to put his head. They hear the rumors and know what goes on in secret in the homes of their pastors and other church leaders. Worse, many of them are preacher’s kids. They have seen the hypocrisy firsthand.
Barnett is against skepticism when it comes to the claims of Christianity. I suspect he doesn’t take this same approach when it comes to non-Christian religions. In other words, be skeptical about all the other religions of the world, but when it comes to Christianity, just believe; read the Bible, pray, and trust that your pastor will tell you the truth. (Can you really trust anyone who hasn’t or won’t deconstruct their beliefs?)
Barnett is right in one regard; deconstruction can be driven by a desire for happiness –as if that is a bad thing. You bet. Once you leave Egypt and break the bonds of Evangelicalism you have a newfound freedom. That freedom can lead to increased happiness. Sounds like a pretty good selling point for skepticism and rationalism. 🙂
As Evangelical apologists are wont to do, Barnett reminds those considering deconstruction that HELL awaits those who follow this path. Only those who “question” their faith within the safe confines of the Evangelical box shall be saved! Deconstruction leads to Hell, just look at that Bruce Gerencser guy.
Checkmate. 🙂
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.
Key to Evangelical soteriology is the belief that all humans are inherently broken — evil, vile, sinful, enemies of God. The only way that people can gain salvation and inherit eternal life is to admit that they are broken and in need of fixing. It is through Jesus alone — the great fixer – that sinners can be saved. Older readers might remember the days when every community had a one-stop fix-it shop. GE toaster stop working? Black and Decker drill power switch broken? Motorola radio tuner on the fritz? Take it to the local shop, and Bob will make it as good as new. So it is with Jesus. Is your life broken? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way. The Bible SAYS your life is broken, end of discussion. You might be the kindest, most loving person in the world, you are still broken. According to Evangelicals, deep in your black heart of hearts lies sin and corruption. You might not be a drug addict, alcoholic, prostitute, homosexual, adulterer, fornicator, or New York Yankees fan, but you are still a sinner who is headed for eternal hellfire and damnation unless you admit your brokenness and let Jesus “fix” you.
No person can become a Christian, according to Evangelicals, unless they come clean to God about their brokenness. None of us is without sin, so, as the old hillbilly Baptist preacher said, “You might as well cough it up and admit it.” Of course, God already knows you are broken. He created you that way. I know, I know, crazy stuff, but it is in the Bible, so it’s true! God knows every sin you will ever commit — past, present, and future. All Jesus wants from you is for you to grovel before him and admit your brokenness. Just admit that you are a worthless piece of shit who deserves eternal torture in the Lake of Fire, and then, and only then, is it possible for Jesus, the Fix-it Man®, to apply the super glue of eternal salvation to your life.
And here’s the thing, even after Jesus fixes you and you become a full-fledged member of the One True Faith®, you are still broken. Bruce, I thought Jesus was the divine fix-it man? In what can only be described as a first-rate con job, Jesus doesn’t fix all of you when he repairs you. Sure, you have been regenerated and redeemed, but you still have what Evangelicals call a “sin nature.” Thought your sin nature would go away when Jesus wonderfully, gloriously saved you and washed you from head to toe in his Precious Moments® blood? Think again. In fact, as a newly minted Christian, you will find that the very same “sins” you struggled with before you became a Christian are still very much alive. That’s why Evangelicals “sin” just as often and to the same degree as the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the world. One need only read the posts in the Black Collar Crime Series, to see how true this is. The very “men of God” who stand in front of church congregations on Sundays preaching against sin, often commit the very same sins during the week. I pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years. I preached thousands of sermons during that time. Before every sermon, I would silently pray, confessing my sins to Jesus, and asking him to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. That way, my “heart” was always right with God as I preached. Or so I told myself, anyway. How could I call out sins, name names, and step on toes if my own sin slate hadn’t been wiped clean? I preached three and four times a week, and without fail I prayed to Jesus, asking him to zero out my sin account. The late Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) evangelist John R. Rice believed in the frequent confession of sin, thereby, in his words, “keeping your sin list short.” I am not sure how “short” my sin list was compared to Rice’s, but I did what I could to keep my sinning down to what would fit on a yellow 8.5″x14″ legal pad. 🙂
Evangelicals, then, go through life broken, always in need of fixing. Not only that, but many Evangelicals practice a form of self-flagellation called “brokenness.” Spiritually aware Evangelicals beg God and plead with him to “break” them. Taught to see sin within every crevice of their mind and life, Evangelicals ask God to rip away their pride and self-worth, exposing their sinful behavior. The goal is to reduce believers to tears; to reduce them to piles of ashes; to leave them prostrate before the thrice Holy God. You see, according to Evangelicals, God doesn’t want or need you or anything you can do. His goal is to break you down and turn you into a needy, helpless child. It is only then that God can use you. Christians are mere vessels through which God, through the power and work of the Holy Spirit, does whatever he wants. Sounds like a SYFY show, does it not? Aliens inhabit human corpses and use them to take over the world.
According to the Bible, followers of Jesus are his slaves. In a 2007 sermon titled, Slaves for Christ, Evangelical megachurch pastor John MacArthur said:
Being a slave of Christ may be the best way to define a Christian. We are, as believers, slaves of Christ. You would never suspect that, however, from the language of Christianity. In contemporary Christianity, the language is anything but slave language. It is about freedom. It is about liberation. It is about health, wealth, prosperity, finding your own fulfillment, fulfilling your own dream, finding your own purpose. We often hear that God loves you unconditionally and wants you to be all you want to be. He wants to fulfill every ambition, every desire, every hope, every dream.
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Well, if you read the New Testament in its original text, you would come away stunned, really, by how different the original text is from any English version that you’ve ever read, whether King James, New King James, New American Standard, ESV, NIV and you can name all the rest. All of them, virtually, have found a way to mask something that is an absolutely critical element of truth. In fact, the word “slave” appears in the New Testament 130 times in the original text. You will find it once in the King James, once the Greek word “slave” is translated slave. You will find it translated “slave” a few other times in other texts, like the New King James text and even the New American Standard text. And it will be translated “slave” when, one, it refers to actual slavery, or two, it refers to some kind of bondage to an inanimate reality.
But whenever it is personalized, the translators seem unwilling to translate it “slave.” For example, in Matthew 6:24 Jesus said this, “No man can be a slave to two masters.” What does your Bible say? “No man can serve two masters.” The favorite word for slave is servant, favorite English word. Very often bondservant is used, which tends to move in the right direction but is not exactly slave. You have a word used 130 times in the New Testament. You have other uses of that word with a preposition, sundoulos, which means fellow slaves, used about a dozen times. You have the verb form used another approximately a dozen times. So you have at least 150-plus usages of just three of the words and there are others in the group with the root doul, D-O-U-L in English for doulos.
There are about twenty established English translations of the New Testament, about twenty. Only one of them, only one of them always translates doulos slave, only one and it is a translation of the New Testament written by a formidable scholar in New Testament Greek who studied the original papyri, and things like that, by the name of E.J. Goodspeed. Have you ever heard of Goodspeed translation? Goodspeed is a well-known scholar. For fifteen years he was a pioneering professor of New Testament Greek at the University of Chicago. The Goodspeed translation always translates doulos as slave. And when you read it, it gives you an entire different sense of our relationship to Christ. You do have a personal relationship to Jesus Christ, you are His slave. That’s putting it as simply as I can put it.
There are six words, at least, for servant, doulos is not one of them. There is diakonos from which we get deacon; oiketēs related to oikos, house, a house servant; Pais, having to do with one who serves by instructing the young; hupēretēs, a low-level, third level, under servant, literally an under-rower, the third level on a galley slave, someone who pulled an oar down at the bottom of a great ship; leitourgos, another kind of service usually associated with religion; paidiskē and maybe misthios that can be translated minister.
There are plenty of words for servant. There’s only one word for slave, doulos and sundoulos. Yet, in the history of the evangelical translation of the Greek into the English, all the translators consistently have avoided the use of the word. Now you might suggest that, therefore, it’s disputed, that maybe doulos isn’t quite as clearly slave. But that’s not the case. But they avoid it nonetheless. Doulos is not at all an ambiguous term. They are trying to avoid something. It’s not about a lack of linguistic information, it might well be a lack of courage, conviction.
As I said, they will use slave if it literally refers to a slave, a physical slave. Or if it refers to bondage to an inanimate object, like being a slave of sin, or a slave of righteousness. But when it comes to being a personal relationship with God or Christ, they back away from the word slave inevitably and use some form of the word servant. This is a matter of preference in all cases to accommodate. And we ask; to accommodate what? Well I suppose to accommodate the stigmas attached to slavery.
You would understand that. When you give somebody the gospel, you are saying to them, “I would like to invite you to become a slave of Jesus Christ. I would like to invite you to give up your independence, give up your freedom, submit yourself to an alien will, abandon all your rights, be owned by, controlled by the Lord.” That’s really the gospel. We’re asking people to become slaves. I don’t hear a lot of that slave talk today, do you? We have, by playing fast and loose with the word doulos, managed to obscure this precise significance and substantial foundation for understanding biblical theology.
Think, for a moment, about all I have written in this post; how I’ve described how Jesus views humans before and after they become Christians. If the only worth someone has comes from Jesus, why would anyone want to become a Christian? The only reason I can think of is the fear of Hell. We humans wonder what, if anything, awaits us after death. Christianity seizes on this question and turns it into a way to control people, keep church coffers filled, and clerics employed. Evangelical preachers emphatically say — without knowledge — that there is a Heaven and a Hell, that all of us have eternal souls, and we will spend eternity in one place or the other. Want to spend eternity with Jesus, his angels, your dead loved ones, and Donald Trump? You have to bow before the invisible Jesus and admit you are a wretched, broken sinner. Refusing to do so will land you in Hell with the Devil, his angels, and Barack Obama. And after tapping out MMA-style to Jesus, the greatest fighter of all-time, you then must be willing to serve as his slave until you die. And here’s the kicker: even after you die and go to Heaven, you will still spend your time in worshipful servitude to God. That’s right, it was never about you in this life, nor will it be about you in the life to come. It’s all about J-e-s-u-s. Hard not to call Jesus a narcissist, isn’t it? What’s with needing people to continually fawn over you and praise your awesomeness? You’d think that having millions of angels singing your praises day and night would be enough.
I am sure this post will cause more than a few Evangelical zealots to reach for their Preparation H. How dare I paint Jesus/salvation/Christianity in such a negative light! Just remember, John MacArthur, a preacher many people believe is the best Bible expositor of our time, said that to be a Christian is to be a slave. Ask yourself, is that the kind of life you really want; one devoted day and night to slavish service of a thirty-three-year-old single man? No thanks.
Let me conclude this post with the lyrics and a video of the gospel song, Fix Me, Jesus:
Fix me Jesus, fix me Oh fix me, oh fix me, oh fix me Fix me Jesus, fix me Fix me for my home on high Fix me Jesus, fix me Fix me for the by and by Fix me Jesus, fix me Fix me for my starry crown Fix me Jesus, fix me Fix me for a higher ground Fix me Jesus, fix me Oh fix me, oh fix me, oh fix me Fix me Jesus, fix me Fix me Jesus, fix me (Fix me Jesus) Oh fix me
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.
