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.
Marvin Upton, pastor of Crofton Pentecostal Church in Crofton, Kentucky, was sentenced to two years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, on three counts of bank fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns
A former Christian County pastor was sentenced last week at U.S. District Court in Paducah to more than two years in federal prison for fraud and tax offenses, the U. S. Attorney’s office for the Western District of Kentucky announced on Thursday.
According to court documents, Marvin Upton, 58, received two years and three months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, on three counts of bank fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns. Until recently, Upton was the pastor at Crofton Pentecostal Church in Crofton, Kentucky.
Prosecutors say the bank fraud charges arose from Upton’s scheme during the years 2013 to 2016 to defraud one of his elderly congregation members who suffered from dementia. During that same time frame, Upton also submitted multiple false tax returns which omitted the income he received from the fraud scheme.
Upton was also ordered by the Court to pay restitution in the amount of $500,000 to the victim’s estate and another $222,037 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). There is no parole in the federal court system.
The case was investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation office, while Assistant U.S. Attorneys Madison T. Sewell and Corinne E. Keel prosecuted the case.
This matter was investigated and prosecuted as part of the National Elder Justice Task Force and the Kentucky Elder Justice Task Force. The Department of Justice’s mission of its Elder Justice Initiative is to support and coordinate the Department’s enforcement and programmatic efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect and financial fraud and scams that target our nation’s older adults.
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.
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.
Samuel McKinney, an Evangelical pastor at an unnamed church in Kentucky, was recently convicted of first-degree rape against a child under 12 years of age.
A former Kentucky pastor has been found guilty in a decades-old rape case.
According to Attorney General Russell Coleman, 60-year-old Samuel McKinney was found guilty Wednesday by an Estill County jury on the charge of first-degree rape against a child under 12 years of age.
The victim alleged the abuse occurred about once a month from May 1982 to December 1985 and stopped when she was about 11 years old.
The woman, now 50, reported the abuse in 2023 after learning her abuser was a pastor at an Irvine church.
“In our Commonwealth, there is no statute of limitations for felony charges, which allowed this courageous woman to come forward and report her abuse after all these years,” said Attorney General Coleman. “Her bravery was critical to putting this criminal behind bars, and we hope her example will encourage others in similar situations to come forward.”
The jury recommended a sentence of 20 years. Under Kentucky’s law, McKinney will be required to serve 85% of the sentence before he is eligible for parole. McKinney will also be required to register as a Sex Offender for the rest of his life.
He will be sentenced on June 3.
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.
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.
Waymon Jordan, Sr., pastor of Greater Blessed Hope Baptist Church in Waxhaw, North Carolina, stands accused of sexually assaulting a minor girl.
A pastor in Union County was arrested this week after he was accused of committing child sex crimes, the sheriff’s office said.
The pastor, 79-year-old Waymon Jordan Sr., was arrested on March 5. He is listed online as the founder and senior pastor at Greater Blessed Hope Baptist Church in Waxhaw.
The sheriff’s office said that in February, its special victims unit began investigating a report of a child sexual assault. Over the course of several weeks, detectives conducted numerous interviews and eventually named Jordan a suspect.
Upon his arrest, Jordan was charged with four counts of statutory sex offense with a child. An arrest warrant said that he engaged in a “sexual act” with a minor who was 15 years old or younger. The child’s exact age was not given.
The warrant indicated that the alleged crime happened in 2022.
Jordan was initially denied bond but then had it set at $200,000. He was released from jail on March 6. Court documents said that upon his release, he is not allowed to have any contact with the victim. He is scheduled to be back in court on March 25.
Greater Blessed Hope Baptist Church was contacted for a statement regarding Jordan’s arrest, but no response has been given.
A week after his arrest, Jordan allegedly committed suicide.
North Carolina pastor was found dead a week after he was charged with multiple child sex crimes, the Union County Sheriff’s Office today confirmed with The Roys Report (TRR). Waymon Jordan Sr., the senior pastor at Greater Blessed Hope Baptist Church in Waxhaw, North Carolina, was arrested on March 6, according to an earlier statement from the police on Facebook.
Jordan, 79, was charged with four counts of statutory sex offense with a child, the statement said. Following his arrest, he was released on a bond of $200,000, police said.
The pastor was found dead last week — about a week after being released, Lieutenant James Maye told TRR. Jordan was discovered behind his church with a weapon nearby.
While a cause and manner of death could not be revealed, Maye said police suspect no foul play in Jordan’s death. Police said that no other suspects are being sought in connection with his death.
“Everything on scene indicated this was an isolated event,” Maye said. “We can’t officially say this was a self-inflicted gunshot wound at this time because the medical examiner has still not made their findings public, so we are waiting on that. But we can say, like I said, that we do not believe that foul play was suspected.”
Maye noted that there is still an “active sexual assault investigation and an active death investigation into Mr. Jordan at this time.”
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.
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.
Jeffery Summers, former pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, and employee of Horizon Elementary School, stands accused of two felony charges of obscene communication with a minor, traveling to meet after using a computer to lure a child, and he has additional charges of obscene communication-use of a computer to solicit/lure a child.
A former South Georgia pastor has been arrested along with 16 others on Child Sex Crimes in Volusia County, Florida.
Jeffery Summers was a pastor at Maranatha Baptist church in Plains from 2005 to 2013. The Port Orange Police Department in Volusia County reports, he was arrested as part of a child sexting called “Operation Full Throttle”. In the sting, suspected child predators believed they were talking to underage children online but were in fact talking officers.
….
According to the incident report, “The defendant knowingly used a computer, the internet, or a cell phone to solicit a child whom the defendant believed to be a 14-year-old male with the intent to engage in some form of unlawful sexual activity with that child.”
52-year-old Jeffery Summers was arrested and now has two felony charges of obscene communication with a minor, traveling to meet after using a computer to lure a child, and he has additional charges of obscene communication-use of a computer to solicit/lure a child.
The police report also listed Horizon Elementary School as Summers’ employer. Horizon Elementary and the Volusia County School Board have been made aware and are taking appropriate action.
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 cartoon correctly shows how many Evangelicals perceive the transgender/bathroom issue. Their perceptions, however, are categorically wrong.
What should we make of Evangelical Christians who are obsessed with human biological sex, gender, genitals, and what people do with them? I peruse scores of Evangelical blogs and websites every day. Without fail, one or more of these defenders of the one true penis will write an article disparaging LGBTQ people. Rare is an article about the peccadilloes of heterosexual people, even though their sexual sins and crimes are far more common than those found among LGBTQ people.
Some Evangelicals are, in particular, obsessed with transgender people. Take Dr. David Tee, whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen. Week after week, Thiessen churns out articles attacking, disparaging, and demeaning transgender people. Between Thiessen’s defense of preachers who commit sex crimes and his obsession with hating LGBTQ people, it makes me wonder what lies buried deeply in his proverbial closet. Regardless, Thiessen’s unhealthy obsession with transgender people is disturbing, to say the least. If a transgender woman was beaten and killed near where Thiessen lives and law enforcement found his hate-filled writing about transgender people, he would quickly become a person of interest.
Today, Thiessen wrote another article about transgender people titled, If You Still Think It is Fair. Thiessen said things like:
How humiliating was it when a fake [transgender] woman was sent to the Miss Universe pageant in 2018? Of all the women in Spain, a fake one was deemed to be the most attractive? and qualified for a female beauty pageant??
….
It is not normal behavior to reject one’s actual gender and pretend to be a gender one is not. There is nothing fair about this inclusion in any women’s event or activity. What makes it worse is the fact that a female [U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe] is opposing Trump’s Executive Order banning fake women in women’s sports and activities.
….
There is nothing right or fair about including transgender in women’s activities. You will find that there is no historical foundation for these inclusions. It may have taken place in Sodom and Gomorrah but God destroyed those cities so we will never know.
….
When female athletes do not stick up for their real female counterparts, then you know there is something really wrong with many people. Maybe the problem is that many men and women think that since they are not involved in those activities, it is not their problem.
However, many problems are solved by those who are not involved. They have the advantage of not having emotional conflicts, should see the situation clearly, and can suggest proper solutions. Those outsiders can still champion right over wrong as eventually, the sinful behavior will reach their activities soon enough.
As Christians, we need to continually speak out and hold our ground.
….
It is not normal, it is not right, and it is not moral. Christians can do something with God’s help. When they address this problem, they just need to remember that Transgenders are God’s creation also, and are under severe attacks from evil.
They need to be rescued from this sin and the people who are locking them inside this sin. This is a spiritual warfare battle and Christians need to go into it armed with sincere prayer, the right attitudes, and the right knowledge. Wisdom will help apply that knowledge correctly so that God wins the day.
This is not something we can do on our own. We need Go’d help in this and other spiritual warfare issues. We are just not equipped with the right tools to handle spiritual problems on our own.
As Christians pray and get prepared for this battle, they can still speak out telling the world that has lost sight of the difference between right and wrong, what is right and what is wrong. Without the Christian testimony and witness, those godly standards are lost as no one else has them.
Stop the unfairness and humiliation of women and show Christian love to the real women of the world.
In what way do transgender people materially affect the lives of Theissen and others like him? None that I can think of. No, Thiessen is transphobic, and he rails against transgender people because he finds them disgusting. Or perhaps he is sexually attracted to transgender people, and God, Jesus, the Holy Ghost, and the Bible can’t stop Thiessen from thinking lustful thoughts about what people have in their pants or under their skirts.
Less than one percent of Americans are transgender, yet according to Thiessen and other Evangelical zealots, they are an existential threat to the human race. In the past, Thiessen has said transgender people should be arrested and put in internment camps, much like the United States did with Japanese and German people during World War II. Bigotry is bigotry regardless of the clothing it wears.
Transgender people were disgustingly used as a political prop for Donald Trump and other MAGA politicians during the last election. Based on the ads, you would think transgender people are lurking in the shadows on every corner, hoping to find a defenseless child to rape or assault. Some ads focused on transgender women playing women’s high school and college sports. Keep in mind that few transgender people play organized sports. According to one news report, ten transgender women played college sports last year. Ten. A whopping ten transgender women out of thousands of female athletes. At the high school level, last year in the state of Ohio, only two transgender girls played sports, Yet, we are to believe that a total of twelve transgender women are destroying high school and college athletics. Child, please. This doesn’t mean that there are not issues to resolve when transgender people play sports. There are, and it is up to league administrators to determine what constitutes fair play. However, this is not a simple issue to solve. If it is just a matter of testing for testosterone levels, what will happen to heterosexual women who have high testosterone levels? As a former player of high school and college basketball, we used to joke about the jumping capabilities of White people; you know, “white people can’t jump.” Generally speaking, Black athletes run faster and jump higher than Whites. Should Black athletes be penalized for having genetic superiority? So it is with transgender women. If being trans gives them an unfair competitive advantage, then it may be necessary to adjust the rules — based on science and not because of bigotry. So few transgender students play sports that it is impossible to know whether they have a physical advantage, and, if they do, how much advantage they have. This is an issue that must be addressed by science, and not the shrill, hysterical rants of Evangelical preachers. (I should note that many transgender people want this issue addressed too.)
Rarely does Thiessen write a post for his site without mentioning BG and MM, also known as Bruce Gerencser and Ben Berwick (Meerkat Musings). His latest post disparaging transgender people mentions both of us. Here’s what “Hetero D” had to say:
We know that there will be those who disagree with us, for example, MM and BG, but their minds are confused and deceived so their opinions do not matter. This issue is a product of deception and confusion as the people allowing this humiliating act are just as deceived and confused about life and gender.
According to Theissen, our opinions on this issue don’t matter. Why? Our minds are confused and deceived by a mythical being, Satan himself. What, exactly, are we confused about? It is Thiessen who refuses to accept what consensus science tells about biological sex and gender. The Line, owned by Jimmy Snow, features a weekly call-in show hosted primarily by transgender people. If you want to understand the plethora of issues surrounding transgender people and the challenges they face living in a world increasingly hostile to them, I encourage you to tune in to their program.
Matt Dillahunty, whose significant other is transgender, also has several programs on The Line. Matt is a good source for those who want to understand transgender people. I will give you fair warning, Matt has zero tolerance for bigots like Thiessen. Honest, thoughtful discussions are welcome, but disparaging and attacking transgender people will bring upon you the wrath of Almighty Matt, and rightfully so. I should note, it is almost always Evangelicals who call into these programs to attack transgender people. They are not interested in learning about biological sex and gender or making good-faith efforts to understand transgender people. In their minds, as with Derrick Thomas Thiessen, transgender people are e-v-i-l. For you who regularly comment on this blog, you have read the comments of several transgender people. Do they seem “evil” to you? Of course not. If anyone seems evil, it is Theissen, but even with him, I don’t think he is actually evil. He has been conditioned and indoctrinated his whole life to hate LGBTQ people. In recent years, Thiessen’s hatred has focused on transgender people, though it is unlikely that he personally knows anyone who is transgender
I remember thinking just like Thiessen about LGBTQ people. My hatred and bigotry were driven by not only my Christian Fundamentalism but also the fact that I didn’t know any LGBTQ people. Oh, there were people I suspected were “gay,” but I wasn’t friends with any of them. It took actually meeting and befriending LGBTQ people for my views to change. Today, I have friends all across the sexual and gender spectrum. My life has been enriched in every way by knowing them.
For you who are former Evangelicals, how did you view and treat LGBTQ people? Were you a bigot like Thiessen? What caused you to change your mind about LGBTQ people? Do you know or are you friends with transgender people? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section.
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.
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.
Daniel Menelaou, a youth pastor at the Alpharetta, Georgia campus of the sixteen-campus Australian global megachurch Futures Church (formerly Influencers Church), stands accused of child pornography possession. Futures Church is affiliated with the Assemblies of God.
Officials at Futures Church headquartered in Australia were left in shock last Wednesday after Daniel Menelaou, a youth pastor with the Alpharetta, Georgia, campus of the global megachurch, was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography.
Arrest records from the Roswell Police Department lists six counts of possession “or control any material depicting minor in sexually explicit conduct,” against Menelaou who began working at the Alpharetta campus of the church in August 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile.
A report from Fox5 said Roswell Police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation raided 28-year-old Menelaou’s home after receiving a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
“During the course of that search warrant, we seized several electronic devices that will be analyzed for additional evidence,” Roswell Police Officer Tim Lupo told the news outlet.
Investigators said the youth pastor, who also worked as a student mentor at Temple Christian College in Australia prior to his work in Georgia, uploaded multiple videos that “depict a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct” and shared the images using the messenger app called Kik.
“Our hearts are heavy as we share heartbreaking news with you. In recent days, one of our youth [pastors] working overseas, Daniel Menelaou, was arrested and charged with possession of materials depicting minors in sexually explicit content. Like you, we are deeply shocked, grieved, and blindsided by this news. We also want to be absolutely clear that these charges have no connection to anyone in our church community,” wrote Pastor Tony Cornbridge of Futures Church in Australia.
“We understand that this is difficult to process, and our hearts go out to all those affected, as well as Emma and their families. In moments like these, we lean into the grace, wisdom, and justice of God, trusting Him to bring healing, clarity, and comfort.”
Futures Church, which is formerly Influencers Church, is a Pentecostal church affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination. According to the church’s website, it has 16 campuses located in Australia, the United States and Indonesia.
Reacting to the charges, another spokesperson for the church said in a statement to The Christian Post that they condemned Menelaou’s actions in “the strongest possible terms.”
“Until his arrest, we had no prior knowledge of any allegations or indication of wrongdoing. The details outlined in the arrest warrant are deeply disturbing and stand in total opposition to our unwavering commitment to protecting children,” the spokesperson said.
“Our hearts go out first and foremost to any victims who have been harmed. We remain committed to standing with all survivors of abuse, particularly children, whose suffering should never be ignored or minimized,” the spokesperson continued.
“Futures Church has a zero-tolerance policy regarding any form of abuse. The moment we became aware of Daniel Menelaou’s arrest, we placed him on immediate administrative leave. However, the full extent of these charges was unknown to us until the last few hours and his position has now been terminated. Let us be unequivocally clear this behavior is reprehensible and has no place in our church.”
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.
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.
In 2023, Paul Coleman, pastor of Good Samaritan Outreach Ministries in Wichita Falls, Texas was indicted on one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child by sexual contact.
A pastor of a Wichita Falls church has been indicted on one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child by sexual contact.
The indictments alleged the sexual assault occurred on November 19, 2022, and the indecency on October 1, 2022.
Investigators said the 11-year-old victim’s family attended his church, Good Samaritan Outreach Ministries on East Carolina Street.
According to the arrest warrants, the girl made an outcry at the hospital and Patsy’s House Children’s Advocacy Center. She said Coleman began by kissing her at the church and in his home on Perrigo Street.
The victim said on November 19 she had gone to the bathroom at the church and came out to find Coleman with his pants down around his ankles and then he sexually assaulted her. She said he threatened to kill her if she told anyone what happened.
One of the girl’s siblings was also interviewed at Patsy’s House and said he saw his sister against a wall and heard her telling Coleman to get off her.
He said Coleman told him to get out and not tell anyone, or he would do something to him.
In 2024, additional sex crime charges were levied against Coleman.
Just over a year since he was released on a lower bond, a former Wichita Falls pastor is back in jail with new child sex crime charges and bonds.
Paul Andrew Coleman has bonds totaling $300,000 on new indictments alleging continuous sexual abuse of a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child.
The anonymous victim in the continuous abuse charge is different from the female victim listed in Coleman’s first indictments in March of last year.
With two new charges and being reindicted, Coleman now has four counts filed.
Coleman was first arrested in December 2022 with bonds of $300,000. They were lowered to $120,000 in March 2023, and he posted bonds the next month and was released with the stipulation he wear a GPS monitor at all times.
The first two offenses are alleged to have occurred November 19, 2022, and October 1, 2022. The additional offenses are alleged to have occurred June 1, 2022, and Nov. 30, 2022.
The first offense allegedly involved an 11-year-old girl who attended his church, Good Samaritan Outreach Ministries on East Carolina Street, with her family.
She said Coleman began kissing her at the church and in his home on Perigo Street and sexually assaulted her when she came out of the bathroom at the church.
She said he threatened to kill her if she told anyone what happened.
The girl’s brother told interviewers he witnessed the assault and was also threatened.
More than two years after a former Wichita Falls pastor was first accused of sex crimes against young girls in his congregation, a date has been set for his impending trial.
Paul Andrew Coleman, 68, of Wichita Falls, stands accused of one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, and one count of indecency with a child by sexual contact.
On March 4, 2025, an order was signed by 78th District Court Judge Meredith Kennedy, who specially set Coleman’s trial to begin on May 19, 2025.
Coleman, the founder and former pastor of Good Samaritan Outreach Ministries on East Carolina Street, has been held in the Wichita County Jail on bonds totaling $425,000 since May 17, 2024.
The charges against Coleman stem from between June 1, 2022, and November 30, 2022, when he was alleged to have sexually assaulted two girls who had attended his church and were both preteens at the time.
….
According to statements made by the victim’s family members and a forensic interviewer, the assaults of the two girls occurred at his residence and the church.
Other court documents alleged that Coleman had been sexually abusing the alleged child victims since September 2020.
The prosecution also accused Coleman of grooming one of the victims and her family by buying them things, dropping food and gifts off at their house, and buying a victim a phone. They also say Coleman would come to the victim’s home when adults were not home.
They also accuse Coleman of grooming the other alleged victim and her family by helping to “discipline” the victim and her siblings by getting isolated contact with them, giving them attention, playing games with them and kissing the victim.
According to the state’s notice, Coleman allegedly threatened to kill one of the victims if she told anyone how he was touching her. He’s also accused of threatening to “do something” to the victim’s brother if he told anyone what he saw.
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 series, titled Trump Dump, features outlandish, untrue quotes from Donald Trump, MAGA supporters, and Right Wing media. If you come across a quote for this series, please send it to me with a link to the news story that contains the relevant quote.
A lot of people forget that Gaza was once a place inhabited by both Jews and Palestinians until 2005 when Ariel Sharon decided to give it all away.
And the result we saw October the 7th. President Trump did something bold. He looked into the future and said kind of a what if. We don’t know exactly what might happen in Gaza, but here’s what could have happened in Gaza.
Gaza could have been Singapore. Instead, Hamas turned it into Haiti.
And I’m very optimistic that with his leadership, his bold and innovative thinking, he doesn’t think like the other politicians and diplomats have thought. I heard somebody say he’s thinking outside the box. That’s ridiculous. He’s not thinking outside the box. He throws the box away and says, let’s start with a blank slate and see where this could go. That’s leadership.
I will use this term, Maria. I think we will see something of biblical proportion happen with his leadership in the Middle East.
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.
Having engaged in discussions and debates with Evangelical apologists over the years, I’ve found that many of their arguments are irrational, inconsistent, and contradictory. Take the “law of God.” According to Matthew 5:17-20:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5-7 records what is commonly called The Sermon on the Mount. Preached by Jesus himself, the Son of God told the gathered crowd that until heaven and earth pass, every letter and stroke of a letter of the law remains in force. Jesus was clear, the Law of God remains in force until heaven and earth pass away. Have heaven and earth passed away? No, so that means the Law of God is valid, binding, and in force. Disagree? Take it up with God. 🙂
The problem, of course, is that Evangelicals don’t agree with one another as to what, exactly, the Law of God is. When Jesus allegedly uttered these words, the Law of God was the Old Testament; the 613 laws of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). According to the aforementioned quote, are all of these laws in force today? Most Evangelicals say “no”; they are New Covenant (New Testament) Christians, so only the laws in the New Testament are binding today. When pushed on this matter, you will quickly find that most Evangelicals ignore the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, picking and choosing which laws apply to them today. Evidently, what Jesus said doesn’t matter.
Some Evangelicals think the Law of God is the Ten Commandments. There are several renderings of the Ten Commandments, none of which agrees with the others. Typically, Evangelicals consider the Exodus 20 rendering of the Law to be the official Law of God, ignoring the irreconcilable discrepancies between the versions.
Do Evangelicals really believe and practice the Ten Commandments? Of course not, silly boy. I have yet to meet an Evangelical that keeps all ten commandments. I am sure they exist, but I just don’t know any. Ask yourself, do you know of a Christian that keeps these commands?
Then God spoke all these words,
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.
Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
I don’t know of anyone who keeps all of these laws. I know, as an Evangelical Christian, I was moral and ethical, but I did not keep all ten commands. I suspect Christians who frequent this site will say the same.
Many Evangelicals believe the Ten Commandments are the law of God written on the hearts (consciences) of all humans; that all of us intuitively know to keep God’s laws. Why, then, are Evangelicals, who allegedly have God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, living inside of them as their teacher and guide, lawbreakers? Only ten commandments. How hard can it be, right? Evidently, too hard for Evangelicals to practice and obey.
Certainly, moral and ethical teachings can be found in the Bible, including the Ten Commandments. However, in this modern age of the printed page and the Internet, we have many sources of moral and ethical wisdom and teaching at our disposal. All of us pick and choose what laws apply to us. I don’t know one Evangelical who keeps the law to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.” The “Sabbath” in Jesus’s day was a twenty-four-hour period of work cessation and worship. This is far different from what Evangelicals do today: two hours of church on Sunday mornings, and then off to Bob Evans to eat before going to work, shopping, or the ball game. If this law is written on the hearts of Evangelicals, why don’t they practice it?
I deconverted from Christianity almost seventeen years ago. One of the first things I had to do, and continue to do today, is determine the moral and ethical foundation for my life. The Bible was no longer a sufficient guide, and I had come to see that more than a few of God’s commands were immoral. Other commands were contrary to my values. The Bible spends a lot of time talking about sex; who can do it with whom, when, where, how, and why. Those of us raised in Evangelical churches heard a lot of preaching about sex. And I, as a pastor, preached a lot of sermons about the subject. Today, as a humanist, I reject what the Bible says about sex. Instead, values such as consent and bodily autonomy govern my views on human sexuality. What two (or more) consenting people do sexually in the privacy of their homes is their own business. Not mine, not yours, not the local preacher’s, and not God’s.
My moral and ethical views continue to evolve to this day. My list of thou shalt’s and thou shalt not’s is quite small. I subscribe to the Humanist Manifesto:
Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.
The lifestance of Humanism—guided by reason, inspired by compassion, and informed by experience—encourages us to live life well and fully. It evolved through the ages and continues to develop through the efforts of thoughtful people who recognize that values and ideals, however carefully wrought, are subject to change as our knowledge and understandings advance.
This document is part of an ongoing effort to manifest in clear and positive terms the conceptual boundaries of Humanism, not what we must believe but a consensus of what we do believe. It is in this sense that we affirm the following:
Knowledge of the world is derived by observation, experimentation, and rational analysis. Humanists find that science is the best method for determining this knowledge as well as for solving problems and developing beneficial technologies. We also recognize the value of new departures in thought, the arts, and inner experience—each subject to analysis by critical intelligence.
Humans are an integral part of nature, the result of unguided evolutionary change. Humanists recognize nature as self-existing. We accept our life as all and enough, distinguishing things as they are from things as we might wish or imagine them to be. We welcome the challenges of the future, and are drawn to and undaunted by the yet to be known.
Ethical values are derived from human need and interest as tested by experience. Humanists ground values in human welfare shaped by human circumstances, interests, and concerns and extended to the global ecosystem and beyond. We are committed to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity, and to making informed choices in a context of freedom consonant with responsibility.
Life’s fulfillment emerges from individual participation in the service of humane ideals. We aim for our fullest possible development and animate our lives with a deep sense of purpose, finding wonder and awe in the joys and beauties of human existence, its challenges and tragedies, and even in the inevitability and finality of death. Humanists rely on the rich heritage of human culture and the lifestance of Humanism to provide comfort in times of want and encouragement in times of plenty.
Humans are social by nature and find meaning in relationships. Humanists long for and strive toward a world of mutual care and concern, free of cruelty and its consequences, where differences are resolved cooperatively without resorting to violence. The joining of individuality with interdependence enriches our lives, encourages us to enrich the lives of others, and inspires hope of attaining peace, justice, and opportunity for all.
Working to benefit society maximizes individual happiness. Progressive cultures have worked to free humanity from the brutalities of mere survival and to reduce suffering, improve society, and develop global community. We seek to minimize the inequities of circumstance and ability, and we support a just distribution of nature’s resources and the fruits of human effort so that as many as possible can enjoy a good life.
Humanists are concerned for the well-being of all, are committed to diversity, and respect those of differing yet humane views. We work to uphold the equal enjoyment of human rights and civil liberties in an open, secular society and maintain it is a civic duty to participate in the democratic process and a planetary duty to protect nature’s integrity, diversity, and beauty in a secure, sustainable manner.
Thus engaged in the flow of life, we aspire to this vision with the informed conviction that humanity has the ability to progress toward its highest ideals. The responsibility for our lives and the kind of world in which we live is ours and ours alone.
As you can see, the Humanist Manifesto III conflicts with how Evangelicals interpret the Bible; that its moral and ethical teachings are different from what’s found in the Ten Commandments and other Biblical laws. Generally, I govern my life by four maxims: Don’t be an asshole, Do good to others, Lessen suffering for all living things, and love others (in thoughts, words, and deeds) as much as lies within me.
I don’t need the Bible or the Ten Commandments to know how to live and treat others. I spent fifty years in Evangelicalism, so even though I no longer believe in the existence of the Christian deity, what I learned at church and from the Bible still informs my morals and ethics. The difference now, of course, is that the Bible alone is no longer the foundation of my life; not that it ever was. All of us frame our moral and ethical structure based on a variety of experiences. That’s why none of us has the same moral and ethical foundation. Morality is inherently subjective, even if one is a Christian. The best we can do is to agree on a basic moral and ethical framework by which we govern our society.
How do you determine what is moral and ethical? Does the Bible and/or religion play a part? If you are no longer a Christian, have you found it difficult to determine your moral and ethical values? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
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.
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.
Robert Morris, former pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, stands accused of five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child.
The founder of a Texas megachurch who resigned as senior pastor last year after he admitted “inappropriate sexual behavior” in the 1980s has been indicted on five criminal counts involving a child, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday.
Robert Morris, 63, who founded Gateway Church in Southlake, is charged with five counts of lewd or indecent acts with a child, the attorney general’s office said in a statement.
The abuse began in December 1982 when Morris was visiting the Hominy, Oklahoma, home of the victim, the attorney general’s office alleged. He was 21 and she was 12 at the time.
It continued for four years, the office said.
It was not clear whether Morris had an attorney in the criminal case announced Wednesday.
Gateway Church in Southlake, which is in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is the one of the largest megachurches in the United States.
In June, after Cindy Clemishire came forward to accuse Morris of sexually abusing her as a child, Morris said he engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying” in a statement to the evangelical news site The Christian Post.
“It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” he said.
Three days later, he resigned as senior pastor, and the church’s Board of Elders said it had not been aware of the girl’s age or the length of the alleged abuse.
“The elders’ prior understanding was that Morris’s extramarital relationship, which he had discussed many times throughout his ministry, was with ‘a young lady’ and not abuse of a 12-year-old child,” the board said at the time.
A voicemail left with the church’s administrative offices was not immediately returned after business hours Wednesday evening.
A multicounty grand jury returned the indictment against Morris, the attorney general’s office said.”There can be no tolerance for those who sexually prey on children,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in the statement.
“This case is all the more despicable because the alleged perpetrator was a pastor who exploited his position,” Drummond said. “The victim in this case has waited far too many years for justice to be done.”
The indictment, which refers to the girl only as C.C., alleges that Morris inappropriately touched the girl, beginning around Dec. 25, 1982, when she was 12, and again on other occasions when she was 13 to 14 years old, including once when he rubbed himself on her. He also on one occasion took off the girl’s clothes when she was 12, the indictment says.
Clemishire told NBC News last year that the abuse started when Morris, an evangelist, was staying at the family’s home on Christmas Day.
Clemishire said Morris told her: “Never tell anyone about this. It will ruin everything.”
In a written statement Wednesday, she said she was grateful to authorities for their work on the criminal case.
“After almost 43 years, the law has finally caught up with Robert Morris for the horrific crimes he committed against me as a child. Now, it is time for the legal system to hold him accountable,” she said.
In 2007, Clemishire hired Drummond to represent her in seeking restitution from Morris to cover the cost of her counseling. The negotiations fell apart when Clemishire was not willing to sign a nondisclosure agreement, she has told NBC News.
Morris was a member of President Donald Trump’s spiritual advisory committee during his first term.
After the allegations were made public last year, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said Trump had not been aware of the allegations.
Morris was not in custody Wednesday, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said. Charges will be entered Thursday in Osage County, and a judge will set an initial appearance and bond.
“The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office will work with Morris’ attorneys for him to surrender himself,” the attorney general’s office said.
The charge of lewd or indecent acts on a child is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, the office said.
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.
