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Black Collar Crime: Ohio IFB Pastor George Bell Pleads Guilty to Raping a Child Under the Age of Ten

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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.

“Dr.” George Bell, founder and pastor of Anchor Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, was accused in 2024 of four counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition involving a minor under the age of 10. Anchor Baptist is an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation.

The Columbus Dispatch reported:

A former pastor who resigned from the Columbus church he founded earlier this year has been charged with sexually assaulting a child.

George Bell, 72, of Grove City, appeared Tuesday for arraignment in Franklin County Common Pleas Court on four counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition involving a minor under the age of 10. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released on a $20,000 recognizance bond, according to court records.

Bell was formerly the pastor at Anchor Baptist Church, located at 3699 Clime Road on the city’s Far West Side, which he founded in 1989.

Court records say the alleged assaults occurred between 2021 and June 2024. The sexual assault charges do not involve a member of Bell’s congregation, authorities said.

….

A statement on the church’s website said he resigned in front of the congregation in June, citing personal reasons.

Anchor Baptist released the following statement:

As a church, we are committed to full transparency and to the truth throughout this process. We have been and continue to fully cooperate with any law enforcement and the justice system. We invite you to join us in prayer for and support of victims, their families, and individuals involved. We continue to remain loyal to God’s Word and the principles established in Scripture. We sincerely desire your prayers for us to have Godly wisdom and clear direction as we move forward. We were previously informed by law enforcement that there was no evidence of any incident on church property or involving any church member. Recent events have verified this. Colossians 1:18 “… that in all things he might have the preeminence.”

And then released another statement:

Our former pastor, George Bell, submitted a resignation letter which was read to Anchor Baptist Church after the Thursday evening service on June 27, 2024. Pastor Bell cited personal reasons for his immediate resignation and did not go into details. To our knowledge there was nothing untoward involving church members or church property. We are grateful for his and Mrs. Bell’s years of service to Anchor Baptist Church and ask for your prayers for them during this difficult time. Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

Anchor Baptist Church will continue forward for the cause of Christ. Please pray for church leadership as we seek God’s will and follow our Constitution, By-Laws, and Statement of Faith. The deacons and staff have unanimously selected Bro. Peter A. Cordrey to serve as the interim pastor. During this transition, we will maintain the same schedule and activities. We will act with integrity and transparency in this process. Colossians 1:18 “… that in all things he might have the preeminence.”

And another:

Due to new information that has come to our attention, we are amending our previous statement released on July 3. Our testimony in this community is of the utmost importance to us. We now know that there was more to the unexpected resignation of our former pastor, George Bell, than we were originally led to believe. It breaks our heart to discover that there have been serious allegations and an indictment that have been brought. Any conduct that is contrary to the Bible and our laws as citizens are unacceptable and not tolerated. In light of this new information, we endeavor to make clear our stand to our church family and to our community.

  1. We have been and will be cooperating fully with law enforcement and the justice system.
  2. We are committed to full transparency and to the truth throughout this process.
  3. As a church, we are loyal to God’s Word and the principles established in Scripture.
  4. We sincerely desire your prayers for us to have Godly wisdom and clear direction as we seek God’s help and guidance.

We get it, your pastor is a pervert and you say you didn’t know ANYTHING about his proclivities. In time, the truth shall be known — no prayers or “understanding” needed. My advice? Stop making statements and carefully consider whether the church was in any way culpable in Bell’s crimes. Quoting Bible verses rings hollow when sexual abuse against children is the crime. Readers of this site are familiar with rampant IFB cover-ups of criminal misconduct by pastors, evangelists, missionaries, youth pastors, bus drivers, music directors, choir directors, and Christian school administrators and teachers. Your commitment to “full transparency and to the truth” remains to be seen. I do hope you are true to your words.

Bell had this to say about himself on a now-deleted page on the church’s website:

I was born in the very poor and crime-ridden area of North Columbus, Ohio. Of four girls and two boys, I was the second youngest. My only brother was to play a key part in my life as a sinner and a Christian.

My parents were not close. I never heard my dad and mom exchange an “I love you” or show much affection at all. My dad never had much time for us kids, and I personally never heard my dad say to me, “I love you” or “I am proud of you” while I was growing up. My parents were not Christians and never attended church, though my mother and grandmother tried taking us to a Seventh-day Adventist church for about a year. We were not taught to pray anything more than a bedtime prayer and never read the Bible. No church people ever stopped by the Bell house to present the Gospel. No bus workers ever stopped by to see if the Bell children could go to church.

I was eleven years old. A woman I did not know was standing in our living room. My mother was there, and all of us kids were ushered into the room. The woman stranger then asked us if we wanted to live with our dad or our mom. I could not understand what was really going on, but I heard the others say, “Mom,” so I did, too. Not long after, my mom and dad were divorced after twenty-one years of marriage. As I grew older, it did not surprise me as to the reason why: my dad was a drunkard, a womanizer, and abusive to my mom and us kids.

That event seemed to open the floodgates of tragedy. The family continued to fall apart. For the first time in twenty-one years my mother had to get a job. My sisters began to date, go to slumber parties, and run with other bad kids. My brother, Bill, started fighting, drinking, and gambling. He was good at it, and I emulated him. By age thirteen I was already smoking, drinking, and running the streets. After having several altercations with the police, my mother thought it would be best to leave the small suburb where we lived and move to the west side of Columbus.

….

I was seventeen-and-a-half years old. In September of 1969, I volunteered for the Army. Because I was very physically fit and tough, I liked basic training. In A. I. T. (advanced individual training) at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, I met my first airborne sergeant. As a result of our meeting, I determined I wanted to be an Airborne Ranger. From a worldly viewpoint, I thought I was finally on track at the age of eighteen. I found something I was good at that those around me appreciated me doing. Like any other teenager, I was starving for attention, and if being a “gung-ho” soldier would do it, then why not?

After airborne training, while waiting to get on a list for Green Beret (the next step before getting into Ranger school), I again fell in with the wrong crowd. I was living in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I was eighteen with no dad to call for answers, no paster with whom to get counsel, and no Christian friends upon whom to rely. With my security level and self-confidence basically non-existent, it was easy to follow a strong voice of any kind. The wrong crowd began to convince me that the government and military were all against me and giving my best to them was a joke. They taught me to rebel, disobey, make fun of authority and look for an opportunity to get out of the Army. They introduced me to illicit drugs. I had smoked cigarettes since I was eleven and drank since I was thirteen, but now I encountered marijuana and LSD. The early success of my military career notwithstanding, since nothing I had ever wanted, tried or was good at last long, it was not surprise that my life continued to go down. Because of never having a Christian background and never being witnessed to of Jesus, I assumed my condition was just bad luck and that it was bound to change sooner or later. But it did not. Without going into detail, I got into deep trouble while at Fort Bragg. Once again, I came before a judge and was told that if I was found guilty, I could receive a maximum sentence of 15 to 25 years in the penitentiary.

I had nowhere to turn. Because I was in trouble, I called my brother Bill, thinking he would understand. I really did not want help; I wanted help out of trouble. On the phone he said, “I can’t help you live like that. I go to church now.” And he hung up. He had gotten saved. My idol and example changed directions on me. The person I thought would always understand and side with me had abandoned me.

At eighteen my life had added up to zero and now I was looking at prison time. Don’t ask me why people do it or where it comes from, but it seems whenever people are in real trouble in life, they somehow find themselves in a church house. While walking across a parade field on base, I noticed a small while church house situated there on a hill. I opened the door, walked inside, sat on a pew, and through tears got down on my knees and pleaded with God, “If you get me out of this mess, I will never do it again.” Of course, the prayer was nothing more than selfish plea-bargaining. I remember when I was done, I felt as lonely and as empty as I was before I knelt. Oh, had a real Baptist preacher or soul winning been there to guide this blind, hurting, and lost soul!

….

I never met a Christian while in Vietnam. No one ever talked to me of Christ, and no one spoke of church. But one day while being re-supplied in the jungle, word was spreading that a chaplain was coming out. I remember many men went over to him. He spoke to us, and though I do not remember what he spoke, he prayed for us and gave all of us a little Bible. Though I did not read it, I thought it was incredibly nice of him to do that for me. Oh, but had someone, anyone, interrupted my life! Had someone spoken up and at least shared the Gospel with this young man seemingly doomed for Hell, but “no man cared for my soul.”

Still in the Army but back in America at age nineteen, my rebellion and hatred grew for everyone and everything. Little did I know I was about to come face to face with two people, Jesus and my brother Bill, who were not afraid of me and were determined to change me.

I came back to America just before I was discharged from the Army. At that time I met a girl whose daddy preached at a small by fiery Baptist church out in the country. Her dad said that if I wanted to see her I had to come to church. I did not know that it was the same church that my brother had gotten saved in and was attending. No one knew I was coming that night. I had never been in a Baptist church before, and though it was not a fundamental Baptist church, they believed in fiery preaching and sinners getting saved by Jesus.

A young man who had recently been called to preach was preaching that night. As I sat there I was dumb-founded that he seemed to know all I had been doing, and then he was telling everyone! I honestly believe that at the age of nineteen, for the first time in my life I heard about sin, wickedness, Jesus dying, and men needing to get right. They did not teach soul winning in that church. They believed folks should be saved, but they just believed the Holy Spirit and the sinner would work it all out when they met at the altar. So at the end of the church service, with my brother pleading with me to come back in and pray, I walked out. Between that first time I attended a Baptist church and the second time I attend (which is when I got saved), I had gotten busted four grades in the military, almost killed two people in a car accident, was almost sent to prison again, and was numb to the world and everything in it.

At twenty years of age, I was discharged from the military and found myself back in Columbus. More trouble with fighting, drugs and jail had inundated my life. Now I had lost everything. I literally had no friends, no job, no money, no car, no drugs or booze and no place to live. My mother said I could move back home until everything got better. And who lived behind my mother’s house? My brother, Bill, “the preacher.” It seemed that every evening he was over at my mother’s house talking to my mom and sisters about the Bible and telling them that they should be saved. He would beg and plead with them to come to church. I would stand by the back door and ignore the whole thing, wanting nothing to do with it. But each time he left to go back home after being turned down again by the family, he would stop and invite me to go to church with him. As always, I would turn him down.

Then came April 14, 1972. That evening I was once again standing and staring out the back door of my mother’s home when once again my brother came over to invite everyone to church. Once again, they all turn him down. And as usual, on his way out, he stopped to talk to his little brother. “Would you like to go to church with me tonight?” he said. “There is no preaching, just singing.” I told him, “I don’t have a shirt.” He said, “I’ll get you one.” “Well, I don’t have any dress pants.” “Would you quit worrying about it and just go?” he pleaded. There was one statement my brother always used when trying to get me to come to Christ. He would say, as he said that night, “I know someone Who will help you if you just let Him.” Finally, I relented and said, “Okay.”

As soon as we walked into that Baptist church on that cool Saturday night, I felt unclean and dirty. I thought this was no place for a guy like me. Before the service even started, I was overwhelmed with guilt. We found our place on the fourth row to the pulpit’s right. Outwardly I tried to return the friendliness the people showed to me. People who did not even know me acted as though they cared about me. I shook their hand. I gave a nod and a “hello.” Yet as I quietly sat there, an immense struggle began inside me.

The service began. We stood and began to sing a full-throated congregational song. Unhindered tears began to run down my face. I wanted to hide my face. We sat down and I buried my face in my hands questioned and reasoned: “What’s going on?” While an average church service continued, two voices raged in my mind. One rehearsed the same old routine of promises: “Don’t give in! Remember that party? That girl is waiting. What about your friends?” The other promised nothing, it said, “Come on. It’s the right thing to do. Come on.”

There seemed to be no one else in that room but me. Like a rush it dawned on me that the old voice was lying to me. I thought, “I have no friends out there. No one wants me around anymore. What do I care what they think?” I had heard the preacher say (yes, there was preaching that night), “You who need to be saved need to pray and ask Jesus to forgive you.” I did not know what to do. He said to pray. I had never been taught to pray. I did not know how, but I made up my mind to do whatever it would take to find relief. I was broken. With my heart breaking, my lips trembling, and my cheeks dripping with tears, I turned to my brother and said, “Bill, what do I do?” He simply stepped into the aisle and pointed toward the altar.

My heart was bursting inside. I ran to the altar and in a child-like trust begged Jesus in the only words I could form, “Oh, Jesus, forgive me; forgive me; forgive me; forgive me; I’m sorry; I’m sorry; I’m sorry…” This was the simple prayer of a lonely, empty, sinful man. I knew nothing of Bible doctrine or Christianity.

….

I am now Dr. George E. Bell, pastor and founder of Anchor Baptist Church and schools in Columbus, Ohio. The church started with ten people (six of whom were my own family) in a recreation center, on July 30, 1989. Currently (2002), our average Sunday morning attendance is over 550. We run six bus routes, average 110 soul winners out each week, average 100 baptisms a month, and have over 40 Sunday school classes. We have just built a 6,000 square foot education building and have property worth well over a million dollars. Our church has led our state in baptisms for the last four years.

Bell recently pleaded guilty to rape and was sentenced to at least fifteen years in prison.

WBNS reports:

A former Columbus pastor accused of raping a juvenile pleaded guilty and was sentenced to at least 15 years in prison, according to Franklin County Court of Common Pleas documents.

George Bell was indicted last year on four counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition with the alleged crimes reportedly happening between 2021 and 2024. According to the indictment, the victim was under the age of 10.

Bell pleaded guilty to two counts of rape. The other charges were dismissed.

He was sentenced to 15 to 20 years in prison and must register as a Tier III sex offender.

Bell was a pastor at Anchor Baptist Church in Columbus at the time of the incidents.

The church said in a statement last year that Bell had resigned in front of the church on June 27, 2024, citing personal reasons.

Bell founded Anchor Baptist Church in 1989 and served for almost 35 years as pastor before he resigned.

Back in my IFB days, I was a casual acquaintance of Bell. Our paths crossed at preacher’s meetings and conferences in Columbus.

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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Bruce, Do You Know Biblical Hebrew and Greek?

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I came of age in the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement of the 1970s. After high school, I enrolled for classes at Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan — a strident IFB institution. While attending Midwestern, I met a beautiful, darkhaired IFB pastor’s daughter. We married and embarked on a ministerial career that took us to churches in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. One constant in our lives was the Bible. We believed the Bible was a supernatural book; written by God, the Bible was inerrant and infallible. For most of our adult lives, we were King James Only, believing the KJV was God’s word for English-speaking people. Further, we believed God “preserved” his Word throughout history, guaranteeing humanity that they would always have the perfect Word of God.

Midwestern offered rudimentary one year classes in Biblical Greek. Taught from the perspective of King James Onlyism, the focus was on the underlying Greek texts that gave us the King James Bible. I planned to take Greek my senior year of college, but we withdrew before I could take the class. Whatever I learned about Biblical Greek I learned on my own. The same can be said for Hebrew. I was able to cobble together a plethora of books and software that helped in my study of Greek and Hebrew, but I never considered myself proficient in either language.

I determined early on that I would know the English Bible well. I spent 20,000 hours reading and studying the Bible. This seemed like a good approach to take, but I now know that not being proficient in the original languages hurt my ability to understand exactly what the Bible said. Contrary to what many IFB preachers will tell you, competency in Greek and Hebrew are essential to understanding the Bible. At the very least, pastors need to have books and software that will help them dig out the actual meaning of the text. Never consulting the original languages, make no mistake about it, will bite a preacher in the ass, especially if he has educated congregants who can spot his ignorance.

Christians wrongly assume that pastors are properly educated in the Bible. Go look at the average curriculum at an Evangelical Bible college, and you will quickly learn that pastors-in-training take a lot of classes that have nothing to do with preaching and teaching the Bible. Church marketing, anyone? Most Evangelical preachers graduate without receiving instruction on all of the Bible’s books. Imagine “preaching the whole counsel of God” without taking classes on all the books of the Bible. Talk about being ill-prepared for the work of a pastor. Colleges cover up this lack of comprehensive training by offering Bible survey classes. Anyone who has ever taken a survey class knows how shallow they are, offering very little knowledge of the text.

Is knowing Greek and Hebrew essential to preaching and teaching the Bible? Yes. And a hundred years ago sects and churches understood this. Pastors took several years of Greek and Hebrew to adequately prepare for the ministry. Those days, for the most part, are long gone.

The good news is that the Internet gives people access to tools that can help them understand the English Bible and its underlying original texts. Church members can verify the truthfulness of their pastors’ sermons by using these tools, but I suspect more than a few preachers won’t like congregants checking up on them. Many pastors believe their sermons come straight from God, so you can imagine how challenging something they preached might be viewed as a challenge to their pastoral authority. This is especially the case in the IFB church movement.

Are you a former Evangelical pastor? Were you conversant in Biblical Greek and Hebrew? Are you a former Evangelical church member? Did your pastor know and understand Greek and Hebrew? Did he regularly mention the original languages in his sermons? Please share your experiences 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

A Few Thoughts About “Christian Persecution”

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Recently, I received the following email about Christian persecution from an Evangelical reader:

I have an important question that cannot be ignored…because it is going on today. Christians are being savagely persecuted, limbs being cut off, being beheaded, all across Nigeria and other African nations. There have been more Christian martyrs in this last 30 years alone, all across the Middle East, the Far East and especially in Africa. In the 1990s, under Idi Amin in Uganda, mothers were getting their breasts chopped off so that they could not feed their babies. Babies were being thrown into the air in order to have them fall on a sword and be split in two. Unspeakable violence against innocent people. Christians being told to renounce their faith, or face persecution, torture and death. Why, if there were no transformative, undergirding power in Christ, would people choose torture and death and not recant? Where does such courage come from? If they aren’t getting comfort and fortitude from a greater power within them? These are important questions, and should not be ignored in an honest, unbiased search for truth. If people are truly seeking for truth, and trying to help and support one another on the journey, such questions need to be asked.

Evangelicals believe that, historically, Christians have been persecuted for their faith; that persecution is common experience, a sign of truth faith. This thinking is so deeply embedded in Evangelical thinking, that to suggest that Christian persecution is largely a myth is met with outrage and accusations of minimizing oppression believers have faced over the past two thousand years.

Let me be clear, Christians have, on occasion, suffered persecution for their faith. This can be said of Muslims, Buddhists, Mormons, pagans, and atheists too. When people have beliefs outside of cultural norms, they can face opposition and persecution from people who will not or cannot understand or accept beliefs different from their own. That said, MOST claims of Christian persecution lack evidentiary warrant or are lies. Have you ever had an Evangelical confidently claim that all twelve apostles were martyred for their faith? Sure you have, and this lie has become so fixed in Evangelical thinking that no one bothers to ask whether it is true. It’s not. At best, we have some evidence that suggests two or three of apostles might have been executed, but there is no evidence outside of church tradition for the martyrdoms of all of the apostles.

jon stewart christian persecution

Few Evangelicals bother to ask WHY these alleged martyrs were killed. Were they really executed because of their faith? No. Much of the persecution believers faced was due to breaking the law, and not because of personal belief. When Christians refused to obey the law, they forced government powers to act; to punish, and if necessary, execute them for disobedience. Ask yourself, why was Jesus executed? Was it because he was a Jew rabbi? Was it because he preached morality and virtue? Or did the Roman government kill Jesus because he was a lawbreaker; a threat to Roman society?

In 2013, Dr. Candida Moss, then a professor at Notre Dame, wrote a book titled “The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom.”

Moss wrote:

The Sunday school narrative of a church of martyrs, of Christians huddled in catacombs out of fear, meeting in secret to avoid arrest, and mercilessly thrown to lions for their religious beliefs is a macabre fairy tale. When Christians appeared in Roman courtrooms, they were not tried as heretics, blasphemers, or even fools. Christians had a reputation for being socially reclusive, refusing to join the military, and refusing to swear oaths. Once in the courtroom Christians said things that sounded like sedition. They were rude, subversive, and disrespectful. Most important, they were threatening. Even if the actions of the Romans still seem unjust, we must admit that they had reasons for treating Christians the way they did. The fact that religion and politics were so intimately blended with one another means that it is difficult to parse the motivations of Roman administrators as either religious or political. But from a Roman perspective and from the perspective of members of most ancient religious groups and political organizations, the Romans had the moral high ground. They were protecting the Empire from the wrath of the gods and its effects. That Christians were executed should not surprise us, this is a world in which people paid the “ultimate price” for seemingly small offenses.

As we have seen in the past two chapters, a close look at the evidence shows that Christians were never the victims of sustained, targeted persecution. Even the so-called great persecutions under emperors Decius and Diocletian have been vastly exaggerated in our Christian sources. In general, when Christians were executed, it was for activities that were authentically politically and socially subversive. In the case of the emperor Decius , it seems that the so-called persecution of Christians wasn’t aimed at Christians of all. It was a way of bringing about social and political unity in the Empire, something more like a pledge of allegiance then religious persecution.

In the chapter titled Borrowing of Jewish and Pagan Traditions, Moss wrote:

Even a brief study of early Christian martyrdom literature reveals that Christians were influenced by ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish traditions about death. The heroes of the classical world were reshaped into soldiers for Christ. When people admit that Christians were heirs to this legacy, they do so selectively. Many acknowledge the Christian martyrs inherit or at least claim to inherit the mantle of martyrdom from ancient Judaism. The references to and comparisons with the Maccabees provide incontrovertible evidence that Christians saw their martyrs as part of this tradition. This much is acknowledged or at least implicitly acknowledged in most scholarly and religious treatments of the subject.

When it comes to the Greek and Roman influences, however, things are very different. We would be hard-pressed to find any modern denomination of Christianity that admits Greek and Roman heroes and heroines in their canon of martyrs, even if Christians like Justin Martyr were willing to revere Socrates as a Christian before Christ. Why the difference? The distinction is not based on the evidence, but on the way that people think about the relationship between Christians and Jews. For Christians, the Old Testament is believed to contain a series of prophecies about Jesus and the church. If Christian martyrs seem to be like figures from the old and new Testaments, it is because their deaths are fulfillments of prophecies. They are seen as being part of a single unbroken tradition, a single witness to truth.

In the case of Greek and Roman examples, the connection between Christian and pagan martyrs is more problematic. There is no prophetic or divine time between Christianity and Greek and Roman religion and philosophy. On the contrary, the adaptation of paganism and Christianity threatens the idea that Christianity alone has the truth. Those who reject the classical tradition for religious reasons and hold Christian martyrs in high esteem tend to ignore Greek and Roman antecedents to martyrdom.

This is a game of cultural favorites. There’s a theological explanation for the fact the Christian martyrdom stories are similar to biblical narratives of persecution, but there is no such explanation for the similarities with pagan traditions. That Christianity might have borrowed from pluralistic, polytheistic religious traditions is difficult for those who conceive of themselves as part of an unbroken singular tradition. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that Greek and Roman religious practices no longer exist. The idea that Christianity borrowed from or was dependent upon morally questionable failed religions ruffles feathers and prayer books.

The truth of the matter is that as we have seen, Christians adapted their ideas about martyrdom and sometimes even the stories about the martyrs themselves from both ancient Jewish and pagan writers. We cannot help but note the irony here. Christians are thought to be unique because they die for Christ, but the stories by which they communicate their uniqueness are borrowed from other cultures. Clearly Christian martyrdom is one of a number of ancient varieties of martyrdom. Even though early Christians adapted, augmented, and otherwise contorted ancient models in their own stories, they were nonetheless dependent upon earlier literature. To be sure, Christian martyrdom stories depart from classical examples of noble deaths, but toying with, trumping, reversing, and usurping are not the same as inventing. Early Christians consciously and deliberately harnessed the cultural power of Greek, Roman, and Jewish heroes for their own ends.

The letter writer goes on to ask a rhetorical question (in her mind, anyway) that Evangelicals commonly ask me: Would Christians be martyred for lie? The short answer is yes! People are willing to be martyred for all sorts of reasons, including those that have no foundation in truth. Why, then, are some Christians willing to have their heads lopped off for Jesus?

Evangelicals are taught that this present life is transitory; that this life is preparation for the afterlife; that this life is nothing compared to what awaits them in Heaven after they die. Thus, it is not surprising that some Christians are willing to stand for Jesus, even if it means losing their lives. Sure, they will be dead, but they will awake in Heaven, free from the evils of this world. Sadly, those who are martyred will receive praise and honor among their fellow Christians, even though there is no evidence for the existence of the resurrected Jesus. Evangelicals think a dead man is coming to save them. He’s not, and unfortunately, they will never know that. Christians die no differently than atheists. Last breath, lights out, that’s all folks! (Picture the end of Loony Tunes cartoons back in the day.)

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Romans 13 commands Christians to obey the laws of the land. If the government prosecutes churches and believers for breaking the law, is it persecution? No. Persecution is when people are punished by the government for their religious beliefs and practices; not when believers refuse to follow the laws the rest of us do and suffer the consequences. If a missionary smuggles Bibles into North Korea and he is arrested and incarcerated for doing so, is he being persecuted? No, he broke the law. The same goes for smuggling Bibles into countries that ban Bible distribution or evangelizing people in countries where proselytization is a crime. By all means do what “God” has laid upon your heart, but don’t scream “persecution” when you are punished for your crimes. Instead, endure your “persecution” as a faithful servant of God, awaiting the day when prayers are answered and your prison door is miraculously unlocked, setting you free. Or you and your Christian supporters can plead with the State Department, your elected representatives, and even the President of the United States to get you out of the slammer. Make sure they emphasize that you are a poor, humble servant of Christ who is being persecuted for your faith. Not a pigheaded lawbreaker; but a meek, mild liar for Jesus.

Religious persecution is real, but it is nowhere near as widespread as Evangelicals suggest. Many Evangelicals have read John Foxe’s classic sixteenth century book, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. They wrongly conclude that the stories in the book are true, and that persecution is a normal part of Christian existence. The book is, in fact, an admixture of facts and errors, as modern historians will attest. Only Evangelicals treat the book as an infallible account of Christian persecution. In the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church movement I grew up up in, Foxe’s book was considered essential reading, right next to the King James Bible, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, and the 1828 edition of Webster’s Dictionary.

christian persecution

Bruce, is there anything you are will to die for? Sure, I am willing to protect my partner, children, and grandchildren from harm, even if it causes my death. I am willing to defend my home if the Huns are at the gate or Herr Trump’s Gestapo is trying to round us up for trip to extermination camps. If I saw someone trying to harm or kill someone else, I would try to intervene. That said, would I die for atheism? Hell, no. If a gun was put to my head and I was given a choice between death and converting to Christianity, I would convert immediately. I wouldn’t “really” get saved, but being a Christian is easy to fake. My partner, Polly, and I have not been to a church service in seventeen years — outside of funerals and weddings. That said, I have no doubt that we could fake being Christians, so much so that we could easily fool preachers. In fact, I am confident that I can still deliver a rousing sermon, give an altar call, and lead people to Christ — all without a “greater power within.”

Were you raised in Evangelical churches? What were you taught about Christian martyrdom? Did your pastors encourage you to read the cult classic, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs? Did you fear that you might be martyred someday? Please share 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Quote of the Day: Why Evangelicals Are Such Bad Christians

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quote of the day

Yesterday, I read an article about vertical and horizontal morality; that most Evangelicals practice vertical morality. I found this to be the best explanation for the bad behavior we see from Evangelicals. How do we explain their overwhelming support of Donald Trump? How do we explain trolls such as Revival Fires, Dr David Tee, Jaisen, and John, to name a few? These under overpass dwellers have all the right beliefs, but treat people they disagree with like shit. Why? They have vertical morality. The problem, of course, is that Jesus primarily taught his followers horizontal morality.

Caroline Bologna writes:

For many Americans, the gap between Christian teachings and MAGA politics is baffling. How can people profess faith in Jesus ― who preached love, mercy and care for the oppressed ― while supporting policies that punish immigrants, demonize LGBTQ people and glorify cruelty?

The key to understanding this apparent contradiction might lie in something called “vertical morality.”

This ethical framework measures righteousness not by goodness to others, but by something more simplistic. Below, Christian advocates and former fundamentalists break down what vertical morality means and how it explains our political landscape today.

….

“Vertical morality teaches that authority, power and a moral code of right and wrong, or acceptable and unacceptable, come from ‘above’ ― an external superior who designates rules, systems and tenets that must be obeyed by those beneath,” said Tia Levings, a former Christian fundamentalist and author of “A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy.”

In the context of religion, the superior is God. In politics, it might be an authoritarian dictator. In a cult, it would be the controlling leader. Whatever the circumstances, the idea is that behaviors are only right or wrong based on what the figure in power says.

“Vertical morality in Christianity is the idea that our ethics and behaviors have a duty to please God alone. We get our morals from God and we must obey him, furthering the will of God no matter the cost,” said April Ajoy, author of “Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding A True Faith.”

….

“Vertical morality is just how I describe what’s called ‘divine command theory’ in metaethics,” she said. “I’m a teacher, so I’m always looking for ways to make complicated concepts a little more simple. It’s basically the idea that morality comes from authority above, which is what I was taught when I was raised within conservative Christianity.” [Rachel Klinger King]

Vertical morality stands in contrast to the concept of horizontal morality, another term Klinger Cain has broken down in her videos. 

“Horizontal morality prioritizes the well-being of our neighbors, communities and personal relationships,” Ajoy explained. “We act in ways that cause the least amount of harm to those around us, regardless of beliefs. Someone with vertical morality may help someone in need because they believe that’s what God wants them to do, versus someone with horizontal morality may help that same person for the benefit of the person that needs help.”

Rather than unquestioning obedience and superficial optics, this approach focuses on genuine empathy, compassion, and love toward others, recognizing the actual effects our actions have on people.

….

In Matthew 25, Jesus describes people who fed and clothed those in need, who welcomed the stranger, who took care of the sick and visited those in prison,” she noted. “He then says, ‘What you did for the least of these, you did for me.’ He equates loving our neighbors (horizontal morality) with loving Christ (vertical morality).” [April Ajoy]

….

“Evangelicals are taught that all morality comes from God and therefore true goodness can only be spread by obeying God, even if it harms people around us,” Ajoy said. “This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if pleasing God manifests by following the teachings of Jesus ― loving our neighbors, loving our enemies, promoting peace and taking care of the poor, the widow, the immigrant and standing up for the marginalized. It becomes dangerous when Christians weaponize this vertical morality for power, which is exactly what we’re seeing with the Christian nationalism in the Trump administration.” [April Ajoy]

“What’s interesting is that Jesus taught a compassionate, flexible, grace-filled view of what it means to live a life loving God,” Levings noted. “But today’s conservative Christianity is less influenced by Jesus and more by the Old Testament and Paul.”

She pointed to theonomy, the belief that Old Testament laws should be applied to modern society, as an influence on Christian nationalist politics.

ummarizing the role of vertical morality in the Old Testament, Klinger Cain highlighted the story of Abraham, who was commended for his willingness to obey God’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac, despite the act’s inherent immorality.

“What should happen if you have a horizontal moral system is, you should go, ‘I’m not murdering someone, even if an authority figure has told me to do that,’” she said. “But under vertical morality, that would be a sin because you’re disobeying God.”

Drawing from the most violent and extreme chapters of Biblical history, this approach frames unquestioning obedience as the highest virtue, even when it demands actions that defy compassion or common sense. And what might’ve once been a religious debate has now become a broader cultural conflict thanks to the role of conservative Christians in writing Project 2025 and otherwise shaping public policy.

“The problem with MAGA Christians is that they promote policies that often go against the teachings of Jesus,” Ajoy said. “They justify it by promoting a view of God that is vengeful. They demonize all immigrants as criminals, all queer people as predators, all leftists as violent and all Democrats as satanic ― with no evidence to back these claims. And because they believe in a literal hell and a God-ordained calling to make the nation Christian, they justify cruelty in the name of ‘tough love.’”

Under a vertical moral system, the worst thing you can do is disobey God’s laws, and this perspective has bled into politics as well. Klinger Cain offered the example of the rather callous response to “Alligator Alcatraz” and the extremely punitive treatment of immigrant detainees from MAGA Christians.

“On one side, we’re looking at people who are undocumented, so yes, they’ve broken a rule. But for the most part, there are no victims ― so why is our government being so harsh?” she said. “But the other side, with this fundamental Christian worldview, sees every broken rule as deserving a super harsh punishment. You don’t have to be a murderer or a rapist to go to hell. Every broken rule leads to hell ― even just taking a bite of an apple cursed all of humanity.”

This religious viewpoint desensitizes people, so inhumane immigrant detention feels fine and deserved. Klinger Cain added that, for people with this perspective, the only way to escape the fate of hell is not through good actions but simply by being on the right God-ordained MAGA team.

“Vertical morality has caused white conservative, MAGA-aligned Christianity to completely abandon the core of Christ’s teachings because their focus is on self-interest and perceived moral purity,” Hale said. “To them, they are Christians and haven’t abandoned the faith at all, but their framework measures righteousness in a way that can excuse behaviors that the general public knows and sees aren’t Christlike at all.”

This system also demonizes empathy. Some conservative authors have even written books describing empathy as sinful or “toxic.”

“If Abraham had empathized too much with his son and chosen not to kill him, then that empathy would have been a sin,” Klinger Cain said. “We’ve seen this concept play out in Christianity with pastors telling parents not to allow their children to be gay, even if it hurts them. The idea is don’t allow your empathy to support sin in this way.”

….

“Vertical morality feels safe in chaotic times, when ‘figuring things out’ or ‘learning from past mistakes’ feels daunting,” Levings said. “It’s also easier to comply with when the bottom-dwelling citizens feel like they have little power or agency to resist an authoritarian system. Sometimes, compliance is a matter of survival, and agreeing with it is a necessary means of getting along and staying safe.”

Hale agreed that vertical morality feels easier and less complicated than actually confronting systemic issues and the complexities of social justice. 

“It’s easy to measure your faith by private devotion or rules that you think are in the bible, rather than by how you show up in the world,” she said. “The unfortunate part is that it can blind people to injustice and sometimes cause them to justify harmful behavior. When your focus is on individual righteousness rather than collective responsibility, you don’t learn how to show up for others ― you only care about your own journey.”

As a result, Hale added, you risk fostering a society where people aren’t held accountable for harmful actions and can be cruel and exclusionary, as long as they are “good Christians.” Rather than social responsibility, it’s all about personal salvation.

“We’re seeing vertical morality weaponized today in the Trump administration,” Ajoy said. “If they can convince people that they are ‘of God,’ then it doesn’t matter who they hurt in the process. They say Christian things. They quote scripture. But they are wreaking havoc on the very people Jesus calls us to love and care for. It reminds me of another verse in Matthew 15 that says, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”

“Vertical morality can’t take into consideration modern advancements or needs, evidence of failures, new research and information and human progress in civilization,” she explained. “Those with a vertical structure aren’t inclusive or accepting of other worldviews. Diversity can’t exist because it threatens the high contrast right-wrong rigidity found in fundamentalist authoritarianism.”

— End of Quote —

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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Is Jesus Coming to Earth Again?

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rapture

Jesus told a whopper of a lie when he said there were people alive who would see him return to earth after his execution, resurrection, and ascension to Heaven. This, of course, did not happen. Everyone who lived in the first century eventually died, all without Jesus returning to earth. Since then, twenty centuries have come and gone without Jesus splitting the eastern sky. False prophet after false prophet has said that Jesus was coming back on such and such a date, without success. According to the Bible, these lying prophets should be executed for their false prophecies. Imagine if this sort of punishment actually happened? Why, the predictions would stop overnight. As it stands now, there’s no punishment for lying about the second coming of Christ.

Since the nation of Israel was established in 1948, countless Evangelical preachers have predicted certain dates and times for the Lord’s return. Passions are stirred, books are sold, prophets get rich, all without Jesus’s return to earth. And no matter how many times these prophets fail, gullible believers will give them more chances to lie, thinking that someday they will hit the winning numbers.

Just because Jesus lied and these false prophets lied, apologists say, doesn’t mean that Jesus is coming back to earth again. True, but after being told over and over and over again that the rapture is “imminent,” it’s not our fault if we think these preachers are frauds. The burden of proof rests on the shoulders of the apologists who say Jesus will soon return to earth. If a friend of mine repeatedly told me that he was coming to visit me and never showed up, I would be justified in concluding that he is a liar. So it is with every preacher who has falsely claimed the rapture was nigh. And if they are willing to lie about this, why should we believe anything they say?

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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Knocking on Doors for Jesus

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knock on door

Most of us are familiar with Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Independent Fundamentalist Baptists (IFB) knocking on our doors, hoping to share their version of the Christian gospel with us. If you are anything like me, you find such intrusions into your privacy to be irritating. These God-bothers mean well — thoroughly convinced that they are right. “Hell is real, death is certain,” their thinking goes. I knocked on countless doors in nondescript rural communities as an IFB pastor. I hated the practice, but I was taught by my pastors and college professors that it was essential for me to knock on every door where I pastored. And so I did, for years, taking a handful of loyal church members with me. Spring, summer, winter, and fall, we knocked on doors, hoping to share the gospel with sinners. I taught classes on soulwinning, teaching congregants the most effective way to knock on doors and evangelize people. I even had “specialists” come in to teach church members tricks they could use to reach people with the gospel. Year after year, we knocked on doors, without success. Oh, people would listen to us, and even get “saved,” but few of these converts ever walked through the doors of the church, and those who did rarely stayed.

Fortunately, I eventually outgrew Baptist Fundamentalism and its evangelism practices. In the late 1980s, I became a Calvinist. This change in theology delivered me from the need to bother people with my version of the Christian gospel. “God is sovereign, and he alone saves,” I believed. While I still preached on the street (please see My Life as a Street Preacher — Part One, My Life as a Street Preacher — Part Two, My Life as a Street Preacher — Part Three, and Bruce, the Street Preacher), my focus was on the message instead of evangelism techniques. While there were still people “saved” as a result of my preaching, my focus had changed. I saw that it was my duty to preach the Word and let God do the “saving.”

Did you knock on doors as an Evangelical Christian? Please share your experiences 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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

If Evangelicals Really Believed What They Preach

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the rapture 3

According to most Evangelicals, the Bible is the inspired (God breathed) Word of God, inerrant and infallible in all that it says. “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it for me,” Evangelicals often say. “We are people of the book!” Supposedly, Evangelicals are True Christians, people who take seriously the teachings of Christ. Yet, when careful attention is paid to how Evangelicals live, we find that most believers preach one thing and practice another

Some Evangelicals believe Jesus is coming again on September 23, 2025. Yet, if you look at their lives, you see little difference between them and the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the world. If I believed Jesus was returning tomorrow, I would be doing all I could to win my family, friends, and neighbors to Christ. Instead, most Evangelicals live as if Jesus is NEVER coming back, even though they believe his return is imminent.

Thirty-seven years ago, Edgar Whisenant predicted Jesus would return between September 11 and September 13, 1988. Whisenant wrote a small book titled 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. Five million copies of the book were sold and distributed. At the time, I pastored the Somerset Baptist Church in Mt. Perry, Ohio. I still remember the big crowd we had at church on September 11. Most church families had read Whisenant’s book, frightened, yet excited, that the rapture was about to happen. As their pastor, I felt it my duty to minister to them, telling them what I believed the truth to be about the rapture. The title of my sermon was oh-so catchy: Why Jesus Won’t Return in 1988. My sermon relieved some and angered others. As you know, Jesus did not return in 1988.

Now we have yet another prediction of Christ’s return:

South African pastor Joshua Mhlakela predicted the Rapture, or Second Coming of Jesus, will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, or Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025. Mhlakela’s claims, which have gone #RaptureTok viral on TikTok and social media, state that the revelations came to him in a dream, with Jesus telling him he will “come to take my church.”

….

The dates of Sept. 23, 2025, or Sept. 24, 2025, that Mhlakela has marked the “Rapture” coincide with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish Feast of Trumpets, which many Christians associate with the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy.

….

A TikToker with over 1 million followers said people are selling their cars and houses, leaving items behind for those who “don’t get Raptured.” Tiktoker Sonja (@sonj779) has shared multiple videos on “Rapture Trip Tips,” which have garnered tens of thousands of views. Her posts have led to confusion over whether it’s satire or truth: Among her tips, she urges people to buy new underwear before the Rapture, suggesting that the last impression of you” should not be your old underwear.”

Sigh. (Please see Why I Use the Word “Sigh.”)

As with past predictions, scores of believers will really believe Jesus is coming to earth, and come Wednesday, they will be sorely disappointed. No rapture, and all the stupid decisions they made thinking Jesus was coming again now come due. Most Evangelicals, however, will continue living their lives just as they always have — giving lip service to the teachings of the Bible. Imagine if you were an Evangelical Christian and you KNEW the rapture was happening tomorrow. How would you respond? Everywhere I look, I see Evangelicals acting more like the people talked about in Matthew 24:

Who, then, is the faithful and wise slave whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly, I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. But if that wicked slave says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:45-51 NRSV)

Here’s what I know: watch how people live, and they will reveal what they really believe. Most of the people I pastored were good people. However, their lives were so filled with the present — jobs, family, church — that they had little time to ponder the imminent return of Christ. It was no different for me, as their pastor. Between ministry and family obligations, I had little time to think about the return of Christ. I thought that if I were busy working in God’s vineyard when Jesus returned, all would be well. Whether my thinking was justified or not, one thing was certain then and is still certain today: Jesus is not coming back to earth. Why? Jesus is dead. That’s why, 2,000 years after Jesus was executed by the Roman government, he remains buried somewhere in an unknown grave.

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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Bruce, Were You Happy in the Ministry? — Part Two

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bruce and polly gerencser 1978
Bruce and Polly Gerencser, in front of our first apartment in Pontiac, Michigan, Fall 1978, with Polly’s Grandfather and Parents

If you have not done so, please read Bruce, Were You Happy in the Ministry? — Part One.

When I write posts like Leaving the Ministry: Dealing with Guilt and Regret, I am always concerned that someone might conclude that I was unhappy while I was in the ministry or that I felt I was trapped in a job I didn’t want to be in. Neither of these conclusions would be an accurate assessment of the twenty-five years I spent in the ministry.

In October 1979, Polly and I, along with our newborn son Jason, packed up our meager belongings and moved from Montpelier, Ohio to Newark, Ohio. Polly’s parents lived in Newark. Her father was the assistant pastor at the Newark Baptist Temple, an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) church pastored by her uncle James Dennis. (Please see The Family Patriarch is Dead: My Life With James Dennis.) For a few months, until we could find a place to live, Polly and I lived with her parents. Our first home in Newark was a duplex several blocks from Polly’s parents’ home. Living in the other half of the duplex was an older couple who attended the Baptist Temple. Later, we would move to a two-story home across the street from Polly’s parents. We lived there until we moved to Buckeye Lake, Ohio in 1982.

Both Polly and I agree that our time spent living in Newark was one of the most difficult and challenging times we have ever faced in our forty-seven years of marriage. Polly started working at Temple Tots — the unlicensed daycare “ministry” of the Baptist Temple. In the fall of 1980, Polly found out she pregnant with our second son, Nathaniel. By then, she had started teaching first grade at Licking County Christian Academy (LCCA) — an unlicensed, unaccredited school operated by the Baptist Temple. (Polly was paid less money than male employees because she wasn’t her family’s breadwinner.)

I busied myself working in the church’s bus ministry, hoping that Pastor Dennis would make me the director of the bus ministry. He did not, telling me that it wouldn’t be right for him to give a family member the job. (Numerous family members would later work for the Baptist Temple.) James Dennis and I spent the intervening years in a love-hate relationship, with major conflicts seemingly bubbling to the surface every few years. While Polly’s family puts the blame for this squarely on my shoulders, a fair accounting of our conflicts shows that both of us bore responsibility for our inability to see eye-to-eye. Our history is long, complex, and littered with buried secrets that, even at this late date, could prove to be embarrassing. (Please see The Family Patriarch is Dead: My Life With James Dennis.)

After working for the local cable company repairing push-button cable boxes and working at several factories, in early 1980, I accepted a managerial position with Arthur Treacher’s — a large fast-food seafood restaurant chain located in Columbus, Ohio. My starting pay was $144 a week, or about $423 a week in today’s dollars. After my training and a few months as the assistant manager of the Heath, Ohio store, I was promoted to the general manager position of the Brice Road store in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. I would spend the next eighteen months daily driving back and forth from Newark to Reynoldsburg — about 27 miles one way. I worked long hours, six, sometimes seven, days a week.

bruce and polly gerencser 1985
Bruce and Polly Gerencser, Sweetheart Banquet, 1985

With Polly busy raising young children and teaching at LCCA, and me working long hours at the restaurant, we found ourselves estranged from one another. For a time, Polly and I were like two ships passing in the night. Polly, ever the awesome mother, focused her attention on our two boys, figuring that our marriage would be just fine. In her mind, the kids came first. I, on the other hand, ever the workaholic, poured myself into my job, often leaving for work early in the morning and returning late in the evening. Conflict with Polly’s parents and Pastor Dennis increased during this time, so I used my long work hours as a way to avoid interaction with her family. I was able to avoid family gatherings by saying, I have to work, sorry. Polly’s family didn’t seem to mind that I was absent, believing then, as they do today, that I was “different.”

While Polly and I never talked about the dreaded D word — divorce — both of us recognized that our marriage was in trouble. We were deeply committed followers of Jesus and active in the machinations of the Baptist Temple. Despite my long work hours, I still worked in the bus ministry, went on visitation, and attended church services on Sunday. Polly helped with the nursery and sang in the choir. While we were busy, our lives were not what we expected they would be when we left Midwestern Baptist College in 1978. Both of us believed God had called us to the ministry, so as long as we weren’t in full-time service for the Lord, our lives were not in line with the will of God. Polly and I saw this as one of the reasons we were having marital troubles. Decades later, now an old married couple with grandchildren, we now know that our root problems were immaturity, fanciful expectations, and religious demands. Our focus should have been on family and building financial security. Instead, we yearned to be a Pastor and a Pastor’s wife. In our minds, Jesus and the ministry came first. Wholeheartedly believing this would plague us for much of our married life.

Late in 1981, Mrs. Paul’s bought out Arthur Treacher’s. Mrs. Paul’s made all sorts of stupid changes, and after several months of working for them, I decided I had had enough and turned in my resignation. Several weeks later, I started working for Long John Silver’s as an assistant manager. Long John’s was rapidly expanding in the Central Ohio area, and I was part of a team of managers that helped open new stores. Polly had, by then, stopped teaching and returned to working at Temple Tots. Towards the end of the year, Polly’s Dad decided to leave the Baptist Temple — a long story in and of itself — and start an IFB church in nearby Buckeye Lake. He asked if Polly and I wanted to come along and help him with the new church. We quickly agreed, and I became the assistant pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Buckeye Lake, Ohio. Finally, Polly and I thought, we are back on track, doing that which God had called us to do. Unfortunately, she was fired from her job because she was no longer a member of the Baptist Temple

Though much turmoil and heartache would await us in the years to come, we were happy to be in the ministry once again. Outside of a few months here and there when I was between churches, we would spend the next twenty or so years pastoring churches in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. No matter what trials and adversities came our way, we were happy to be serving the Lord. The Apostle Paul wrote that he had learned, regardless of the state of his life, to be content (Philippians 4:11). Over time, Polly and I became quite stoic about life. No matter what came our way, we smiled, put our trust in the Lord, and practiced the contentment Paul spoke of. Our commitment to Jesus gave us what the Bible calls, a “peace that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). Life wasn’t easy for us, but it was satisfying. Difficult times were seen as tests from God (James 1:2-4) or loving correction (Hebrews 12:5-8) from our Heavenly Father. All that mattered was that we were in center of the perfect will of God for our lives (Romans 12:1,2). Believing that the calling of God was irrevocable (Romans 11:29), being in the ministry was what mattered most to us. Over time, the “ministry” swallowed up Bruce and Polly Gerencser, leaving us with no self-identity. We spent much of our marriage denying self and sacrificing ourselves for the cause. After leaving the ministry, and later leaving Christianity, Polly and I had no idea who we were. Our post-Jesus years have been spent reacquainting ourselves with who we really are. This process has been painful, yet satisfying. While we were happy in the ministry, our happiness was derived from “doing.” These days, we continue to learn that happiness most often comes from being, not doing.

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.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.