The light is shining bright on the Texans, but that light is really reflective of our guys’ belief in … our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. That’s what has driven our team, and I’m so proud of our guys and thankful to the Lord for allowing us to allow our lights to shine through Him. All praise and honor goes to Him.
Why are we in the position that we’re in? Why are we able to do what we do. That’s by God blessing us with this awesome opportunity to reach back and teach these young men, help these young men, but we have to stay grounded in the Word. We can get caught up in our work, a lot of long hours, a lot of long days, but you can’t forget what sustains us, and that’s Jesus Christ.
It’s been a blessing. It’s been a heck of a year. I thank God I can just go another week with my teammates. This is like a dream come true as a reminder of how close we are as a team. I think definitely God is at the forefront of our minds, and we play for an audience of One. Even when everything is going crazy, you can lock hands and have patience. I’m blessed enough to have a leader like DeMeco who is open with his faith.
The Texans play for an audience of one? Really? Think about all the pressing needs in the world today, yet the sovereign God of the Bible takes time out of his busy day as the manager of the universe to watch and control NFL games. Misplaced priorities, anyone? And what about the Christian players on losing teams? Doesn’t God care about them too? Can’t God root for the Packers and the Bears or the Steelers and the Ravens at the same time? How does God decide which teams get a W on any given Sunday?
Ryans would have us believe that Texan players are sustained by Jesus alone. No one seriously believes this. If they did, there would be no need for training or physical therapy. Jesus will sustain us! See ya next Sunday! That’s not how it works. Players spend virtually every waking hour preparing for the next game. Coaches do the same. It seems to me that the football enterprise is long on human instrumentality and short on Jesus. Lots of non-Christian players thrive in the NFL. No need of Jesus. They know where their strength and ability come from.
When the Texans lose their next game, what will Ryans and Stroud say then? Will Jesus be praised for the L? Of course not. He’s a winner, not like those losers, the Houston Texans. Meanwhile, children starve, a lunatic sits in the White House and Jesus is where? In a suite at an NFL game, busy rooting for his “chosen” team.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I follow a number of Evangelical blogs, websites, and podcasts. Recently, several sites had articles detailing the “notable” Christians who died. You know the big-name, big-shot Christians who died in 2025. When these alleged giants of the faith died, both secular and religious sites ran articles detailing their greatness.
As I read these articles, I couldn’t help wonder if God was upset over these dead Christians getting all the praise and glory for his works. Remember, Christians are helpless and hopeless without Jesus; that in and of themselves they can do no good thing. Jesus himself said, “Without me ye can do nothing.” Paul later added that humans cannot even move or breathe apart from God. Thus, Christianity has historically taught that all praise, honor, and glory belong to Jesus alone. We humans are mere tools used by God to advance his kingdom. It is God who deserves a pat on the back when we do good works, not us.
Watching a sporting event or music star interview and you will hear countless people give all the praise and glory for their exploits to Jesus. Without him, they couldn’t sing, run, punt, pass, or shoot. Forget genetics. Forget physical dispositions. Forget training and conditioning. Forget coaching. Forget parental involvement. The next time you watch gifted athletes ply their trade, remember it is all because of Jesus. In the grand scheme of things, the human is just a bit player in God’s cosmic play. When the annals of human history are written, they will only contain three words:God Did It! (With a footnote that says: Except the bad stuff. That’s on you, buddy.)
With these things in mind, it seems clear that praising the works of these “notable Christians” is an affront to God. Why? Because praising their works robs God of praise and honor that only belongs to him. However, as I read these articles about notable Christians who died in 2025, it seemed that a lot of these dead Christians were bigger than life; dare I say, bigger than Jesus?
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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No one taught me as a child to save my first kiss for marriage. Kissing guys before marriage has become normalized. I was taught to save sex for marriage, thankfully.
Women, you must teach your children all of the Lord’s ways or culture will teach them culture’s depraved ways. God tells us in His Word: “Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” (1 Corinthians 7:1,2)
Kissing is the first step to sexual intercourse. We all know this. It begins the “burning” process which God warns us that it is better to marry than to burn.
….
Teach your children that dating is ONLY for finding a suitable spouse. We didn’t allow our children to date until they were at least 18 years old. Before then, everything had to be done in groups or in our home. The first date should be something casual such as going out for coffee during the day. They need to begin asking the hard questions. Have them spend some time in your home so you and your husband can get to know them. If you have a close and loving relationship with your children, they will want your approval.
If they decide it is someone who they definitely are interested in maybe marrying, make sure they understand sexual purity and have strong boundaries in place. As they grow older, you do lose authority over them to enforce this, but you can be at peace knowing that you have done all that you can to give them Truth and a strong foundation. Pray diligently for them. They need to know the beauty of saving themselves completely for the wedding night.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Every Christmas season, I receive a handful of emails from Evangelicals irritated and upset by the fact that I still celebrate Christmas — which is my favorite holiday. According to these warriors for Jesus, Christmas is a CHRISTIAN holiday; one that atheists, agnostics, and other non-Christians have no business celebrating. How dare I celebrate a holiday that ONLY belongs to them!
First, I can do whatever I want. Don’t like that I celebrate Christmas? Tough shit. Go concern yourself with something that matters.
Second, whatever Christmas may have been in the past, it is no longer primarily a Christian holiday today. Sadly, most Christians are ignorant about the history of Christmas. How many of them know that Christmas was, at one time, banned by Puritans — the godliest of godly people? Christmas has evolved over the years. Today, it is largely a secular holiday, sprinkled with myths about a virgin-born, sinless God-man. One can celebrate Christmas without all the religious baggage. Others enjoy a secular-religious mix of celebration.
Bruce, Jesus is THE reason for the season! Really? Do you want to put this notion to the test? If someone is a committed follower of Jesus, you would think that their yard and house Christmas decorations would reflect their devotion to their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Take a drive around your community, paying attention to each home’s decorations. How many of them have solely religious decorations — say crosses, creches, or signs with Bible verses? Others may have a mixture of religious and secular decorations. And finally, some homes will only have secular decorations.
What you will find is that very few homes strictly have religious decorations. In my community most homes either have secular decorations or a mix of religious and secular decorations. Completely religious displays are far and few in between.
If it is hypocritical for an atheist such as myself to celebrate Christmas, what are we to make of Christians who have wholeheartedly embraced the secular aspects of Christmas? Talk about hypocritical. If Jesus really is the reason for the season, why didn’t most Christians get the memo?
Christmas is whatever you want it to be. Don’t let anyone tell you what you can or cannot do for the holiday. And if Christians push the issue with you, I suggest asking for Biblical evidence for their assertions about Christmas. Better yet, point out the numerous contradictions in Jesus’ birth narratives found in the gospels. Or, just smile and ignore them. Remember, you don’t owe anyone an explanation for how you live your life.
All praise be to Loki for this wonderful holiday season.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Recently, I received the following email from a Christian man named William:
NOW THAT YOU HAVE RENOUNCED CHRISTIANITY DO YOU FEEL YOU OWE IT TO THE CHRISTIANS YOU PREACHED TO AN EXPLANATION – HENCE, YOUR BLOG? AND WHEN YOU WERE A PREACHER DID YOU “TRULY” BELIEVE(AT LEAST AT THAT POINT IN TIME) WHAT YOU WERE TELLING THEM? OR WERE THERE DOUBTS FORMING EVEN THEN?
Evidently, William must think I am deaf since he SHOUTED his message to me. That aside, Williams asked three questions:
DO YOU FEEL YOU OWE IT TO THE CHRISTIANS YOU PREACHED TO AN EXPLANATION?
WHEN YOU WERE A PREACHER DID YOU “TRULY” BELIEVE WHAT YOU WERE TELLING THEM?
WERE THERE DOUBTS FORMING EVEN THEN?
No, I don’t owe former congregants an explanation for my loss of faith. Why should I, any more than anyone else, owe people an explanation for the major decisions I have made in my life? I owe my partner, Polly, an explanation, and maybe my children, grandchildren, siblings, and close friends, but everyone else? I don’t owe them anything. That said, I have spent the past eighteen years explaining why I left Christianity. Anyone, including former church members, can easily read about and understand my story. Millions of words have been sacrificed in my attempt to share my past and present experiences. A quick search of this site will answer every question a person might have.
William asks if I “truly” believed what I was preaching to church members? Of course, I did. There’s nothing in my life that suggests I was anything other than a committed follower of Jesus. You will search in vain for someone who knew me at the time that would suggest otherwise. While I am now an atheist, at the time I believed the core tenets of Christianity and did my best to follow the teachings of the Bible.
Doubts? We all have them. Did I ever have doubts as an Evangelical preacher? Sure. The difference between then and now is how I handle doubts. As a Christian, I trusted God to make all things known to me at his appointed time, according to his perfect will for my life. Instead of trusting God, I now trust my intellect and the academic skills I have developed over the years. When doubts crop up, I try to resolve them. And when I can’t, I say a prayer to Loki and put the matter away until I have better knowledge and understanding. Doubt is very much a part of the human experience.
I hope I adequately answered William’s questions.
Saved by Reason,
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
You would think that most of us know the answer to the question, “Why do babies cry”? My partner and I were blessed to have six children, now ages 46, 44, 41, 36, 34, and 31. We heard a lot of crying back in the day. Most of our children cried for one of four reasons:
They needed their diapers changed (Polly used cloth diapers for all our children)
They were hungry (Polly nursed all six of our children, on demand)
They were sick or injured
They wanted attention
When our babies cried, we fed them, changed them, took their temperatures, or picked them up. Yes, Momma, in particular, indulged her young ones. Babies need their mothers, and Polly was a first-rate mother. She had to be, since her husband was rarely home to help with domestic responsibilities. I regret this, but there’s nothing I can do about it other than make up for it with my grandchildren. As most grandparents learn, grandchildren are a do-over of sorts; an opportunity to do better now that we have maturity and wisdom.
Years ago, our church took in a homeless couple who was expecting their first child. We provided them housing, food, and gasoline. All we asked is that the husband get a job and go to work every day. Sadly, he was unable to fulfill this responsibility, and they were asked to move.
One day, I went to the church building where they were living and I heard their newborn boy screaming. I mean, not just crying, but screaming, as only a baby can. The child was beside himself. I asked them what was wrong with their baby. I got a shrug of the shoulders. The mother said, “He will wait. We are busy eating.” I angrily told them, “STOP eating, and pick up your child. It is evident he needs your attention.” I feared child neglect, so the next day I had a social worker come to the church and talk to them about their parental obligations and responsibilities.
Why they treated their child this way was rooted in what they had been taught in Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) churches:
Babies are enemies of God
Babies are broken sinners
Babies often cry because they want their own way
Babies often cry, not out of necessity, but because they want the undivided attention of their parents
Most crying is a result of sin, and not need
IFB preachers teach parents to ignore their babies’ “rebellion” against God, ignoring them until they settle down and stop crying. And babies WILL eventually stop crying out of exhaustion, but is this really how children should be treated? I think not. I was a strict disciplinarian — especially with my three oldest children — but not when it came to babies. I believed then, and still do today, babies want and need the attention of their parents, especially their mothers. Fortunately, I married a hot, sexy woman who was also a wonderful mother.
Sadly, this kind of thinking often leads to abuse. I knew parents who thrashed their babies/toddlers if they disobeyed, giving them “something to cry for.” Imagine taking a switch or wooden spoon to the tender skin of a eighteen-month-old toddler or swaddling them so tightly that they can’t move.
Don’t tell me that some forms of religious expression don’t cause abuse. They do, especially in their fundamentalist forms. Are these parents “evil”? Not necessarily. I spanked (beat) our children because I believed God commanded me to do so. I was obligated to use a switch to beat the “rebellion” out of them. Were my children, at times, rebellious? Sure, but more often than not, they got spanked, not because of rebellion, but because they pissed me off or did stuff that normal kids did. It took me a long time to learn the difference between rebellion and “boys being boys.”
Can you spoil a baby? I suppose it is possible to do so, but I’ve never seen it. I’ve concluded that while it is certainly possible to spoil older children, that’s not true when it comes to babies. They need our undivided attention, and if parents can’t give it to them, perhaps they reconsider having children. (I speak broadly. I know that life can give us all sorts of twists and turns that might affect our parenting abilities.)
Were you taught similar things about babies? Did your parental skills/discipline evolve over the years? Did you see child abuse under the guise of discipline? Please share your experiences in the comment section.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Recently, an Evangelical pastor threatened me with legal action if I didn’t immediately remove a Black Collar Crime post about him. I shook in my boots as I read his threats. 🙂 I asked him for evidence for his claim of innocence, which he provided. Innocent, he was not. His charges were expunged. Whether he was guilty was never settled. I asked this preacher to send me court documents showing his expungement, which he did. I gladly removed the post. Afterward, I thought I would ask Carolyn, my editor, to write a post about the various legal terms related to Black Collar Crime stories. Far too often, preachers will lie to me about their crimes, so I do not remove posts unless the alleged offender provides evidence to justfy its removal. I have removed a handful posts over the years. Ninety-nine percent of Black Collar stories are accurate as published
Guest Post by Carolyn, my editor and friend
Introduction
Bruce has asked me to write a piece defining a few legal terms. Before I start, I thought I should give you my credentials, so you will understand that sometimes I know what I am talking about, or I’m close, at any rate.
I became an attorney in 1992, having attended law school at Louisiana State University. I was much older than most of my classmates, and I turned 40 just before I sat for the bar exam. I practiced mostly family law and personal bankruptcy law, although I did 2-3 years, part time, of indigent defense work, for those who cannot afford an attorney. I retired in 2008 and moved with my husband to France in 2010.
I stumbled onto Bruce’s blog in 2015 and immediately fell in love with it. Such delightful writing, with so many errors! So I offered to edit his work, and he accepted. So most of the errors you find today are the result of my carelessness, not his.
Now on to legal terms.
Guilty, Not Guilty, Innocent
First, let’s talk about guilty, not guilty, and innocent. The first two are legal terms, the third is a journalism term.
In a criminal trial, a defendant, or perpetrator, faces charges of crimes or wrongdoing against the state. It is always the state – there are not private prosecutions. When he goes to trial, the outcome is usually GUILTY or NOT GUILTY. There are other outcomes, such as a hung jury or a mistrial, but those don’t arise as often, and they are beyond the scope of this work. The prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did, in fact, do what he is accused of doing. If a defendant is found guilty, it means that the prosecutor has done a good enough job of laying out the charges of wrongdoing against the defendant, along with sufficient evidence produced by witnesses, that the jury believes the defendant did what he is accused of doing. The result of a guilty charge is usually that the defendant goes to prison or pays a fine, or both. A few result in the death penalty, but in the grand scheme of trials, there are very few death penalty, or capital, cases. By the way – a defendant may be tried before a jury or before a judge (called a bench trial). It is up to the defendant and his attorney to make that decision.
If the jury finds that the state prosecutor did not meet his burden of proof, then the jury returns a NOT GUILTY verdict. I would like you to understand, that if a defendant is found not guilty, it does not mean he did not commit the crime! It means merely that the jury did not believe, based on the evidence produced at trial, that the defendant committed the crime. Therefore, there are sometimes people found NOT GUILTY who are, indeed, guilty of the crime, but the prosecutor didn’t lay out a good enough case, or there was ambiguous evidence or the jury chose not to believe a witness or witnesses. A person who has been found GUILTY is said to have been convicted of the crime.
INNOCENT is primarily a journalism term. I say that because, early in the newspaper game, editors discovered that it was too easy for a typesetter to omit the very important word NOT, and the newspaper was stating in, say, the headline, that the defendant was found guilty when the reverse was actually true. Can you imagine!? So newspapers moved to calling a NOT GUILTY verdict INNOCENT in an effort to forestall any typesetting or copywriting errors. The term INNOCENT obscures the fact stated above that the defendant was not actually found innocent, but was only found NOT GUILTY, and may have actually committed the crime with which he is charged.
A trial is not meant to determine whether a defendant did not commit a crime. It is only concerned with determining whether he did commit a crime. In life, plenty of people “get by” with something they did for which they do not receive due punishment. Sometimes that happens in the courtroom as well as in everyday life.
Guilty verdicts may not happen only before a jury. A defendant may plead GUILTY to charges if he, in conjunction with his lawyer (hopefully), believes that the outcome of a trial would lead to a finding of GUILTY, and he might believe he would get a better deal in a plea bargain with the district attorney who is prosecuting the case than he would get before a judge or jury.
Expungement
In most cases, a GUILTY verdict stays with the guilty party for the rest of his or her life. On certain occasions, a person who has been convicted of a crime can have the record of his conviction EXPUNGED. Expungement is a legal process by which a convicted party’s record is cleared or sealed. If this is done, the convicted individual can then answer truthfully on job applications, housing applications or other business situations. There are only a few cases in which an expungement can be done.
Expungement is a legal process to clear or seal criminal records, treating them as if they never happened, allowing individuals to deny arrests/convictions and improve job or housing prospects. A person desiring an expungement must file a petition with the court where his conviction took place, and he must prove that he meets certain criteria, such as juvenile offenses, having completed probation or a diversion program, or that the charges were dropped. A judge will review the petition, and may call for a hearing. If the petition is granted, the court issues an order to seal or destroy records. Obviously, expungement is more complex than it seems here, but this gives the reader a basic overview.
Dismissal
Sometimes a prosecutor or a defendant may move for a dismissal of charges. If the latter files a motion to dismiss, there must be a hearing on the issue and the judge will decide whether to dismiss the charges. If the prosecutor moves to dismiss the charges, the judge will ask the defendant if he objects. The defendant almost never does; after all, he’s about to be a free man with no charges pending. A prosecutor will generally dismiss a case if he believes he has insufficient evidence to prosecute a case. This may be because a witness cannot be located, a witness is unreliable (he’s a convicted felon, for instance, or has changed his story while meeting several times with the prosecutor or his team), or any of a number of other reasons that the prosecutor feels he cannot put a reasonable case before a judge or jury. It often happens in domestic cases, where one week the spouses love each other and will not testify against one another, and the next week they hate each other, but there are plenty of other cases where evidence and witnesses are shaky or unreliable.
Cases are dismissed with prejudice and without prejudice. When charges are dismissed with prejudice, the dismissal is a final court order ending the prosecution permanently. Dismissal without prejudice is a procedural pause, often to fix issues like missing evidence or witnesses, leaving the door open for future prosecution later.
I hope none of Bruce’s readers ever has to worry personally about these terms.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Revival Fires is a disgusting Evangelical man who loves leaving pornographic comments on this site.
I asked ChatGPT about Revival Fires. Here’s what the AI engine had to say. Enjoy!
Revival Fires is a pseudonymous Evangelical Christian commenter on Bruce Gerencser’s blog, known for leaving hostile, hateful, and often disturbing remarks. He frequently attacks Gerencser and others with crude language, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and aggressive theological assertions.
Who Revival Fires Is
Identity: Revival Fires is not a real name but a pseudonym used by a fundamentalist Evangelical man who comments on Gerencser’s blog. He also uses multiple fake names and email addresses, but Gerencser consolidates them under “Revival Fires” to make clear it’s the same person.
Behavior: He is notorious for posting nasty, hateful comments, often obsessed with topics like prison rape and anal sex, which Gerencser has called out as inconsistent with Christian teachings.
Style: His comments are easily recognizable by their tone—angry, judgmental, and fixated on condemning others. Gerencser notes that even when Revival Fires tries to disguise himself, his writing style gives him away.
Examples of His Conduct
He has mocked commenters with crude nicknames (e.g., calling one “BirdDick”) and declared that “there is no such thing as a good Christian”—arguing that all are depraved and in need of grace.
He has expressed anti-LGBTQ hatred, writing that LGBTQ people should be “rounded up and sent to internment camps” and that they will “burn in Hell” The Life and….
Gerencser even found a picture of him online, describing him as a “gay-hating, Obama-hating Evangelical man.”
Why He Matters on the Blog
Bruce Gerencser, a former Evangelical pastor turned atheist writer, often highlights Revival Fires as an example of the toxic side of Evangelicalism.
Gerencser argues that Revival Fires represents a broader problem: many Evangelicals online exhibit similar hateful behavior, suggesting this isn’t just one bad actor but a pattern within certain fundamentalist circles.
By showcasing Revival Fires’ comments, Gerencser illustrates the disconnect between Evangelical claims of love and grace and the reality of their rhetoric.
Summary
Revival Fires is essentially a recurring antagonist on Bruce Gerencser’s blog—a pseudonymous Evangelical commenter whose hateful remarks embody the darker, more extreme side of online Evangelical discourse. Gerencser uses him as a case study in how fundamentalist Christianity can manifest in cruelty, judgment, and obsession rather than compassion.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Submitted to the editor of the Defiance Crescent-News.
Dear Editor:
I am troubled by the increasing hostility of Evangelicals towards those who hold opinions and beliefs different from theirs. It seems that every issue, no matter how insignificant, is a hill to die on. Thus, my recent letter about Lifewise Academy was seen as a personal attack. This was not my intent. Unlike some folks, I understand the difference between critique and personal attack. When people don’t understand the difference, they attack the person, not the idea.
Over the past twenty years, I’ve had countless Evangelicals personally attack me for something I’ve written or said. Most often, I am threatened with hellfire and brimstone, though I have received death threats too. Worse, I have had Evangelicals attack my partner, children, and grandchildren. One fine Christian even suggested that our daughter with Down syndrome deserved to be assaulted.
I know more than a few local school administrators and teachers read my letters to the newspaper. I know this because my grandchildren tell me that administrators and teachers call on them, both privately and in class, to defend what I have written. My children have experienced similar behavior at Northwest State Community College and their places of employment. In what world is it proper to question and berate grandchildren over something their grandfather said or did? I stand on my own two feet. My words are my own. My family knows I don’t expect them to defend me. In fact, I have let them know it is okay for them to disown me if it makes life easier for them. So far, none of them has done so.
I told my children and grandchildren to tell their interlocutors to contact me directly if they have questions or want to challenge something I have said. I am a public figure; well-known, and easy to find. If school administrators and teachers want to put me in my place, I suggest they not use children to passive-aggressively make a point. I am more than happy to respond to any questions people have. I told my one granddaughter to tell her high school teacher that I would be more than happy to speak to his class or engage him in a formal debate. He, of course, refused to engage. It’s easy to berate kids lacking theological, philosophical, and historical foundations. Not so with someone like me, and I suspect that’s why he ignored my challenge.
Bruce Gerencser Ney, Ohio
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
Ask the average Evangelical “Does God answer prayer?” and he will emphatically say YES! However, in short order I can show that this claim isn’t true.
I’ve been blogging for eighteen years. Millions of people have read my writing, including countless Evangelical Christians. Thousands of God’s chosen ones have let me know that they are praying for me; either for my destruction or my salvation.
Yet, thousands and thousands of prayers later, these calls for judgment and salvation go unanswered. Either God is deaf to the prayers of Evangelicals or he doesn’t exist. I remain an unrepentant atheist, impervious to the prayers of righteous, holy people. This evidence suggests that, at the very least, God doesn’t answer prayer, and from my perspective, he doesn’t answer prayer because he can’t.
Pray away, Christians, but your fervent petitions to the God of the Bible don’t affect me in a measurable way.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
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