Warning. Snark Ahead! Easily offended Evangelical preachers should NOT read this post. You have been warned.
Much like Evangelical pastor Mark Hodges, Pastor James Thompson thinks I am sick because God is judging me; that it is likely that I am still a Christian and God has afflicted me with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis, degenerative spine disease, herniated discs, peripheral neuropathy, and gastroparesis to get my attention — all because he wants me to love him again. Talk about a violent, jilted, pathetic ex-lover. And much like Hodges, the lazy Pastor Thompson made no effort to understand my story. Thompson, hailing from the Dallas area, read all of one post. To Thompson I say — quoting the book he believes is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Words of God — Answering before listening is both stupid and rude (Proverbs 18:13).
Thompson left the following comment on the post titled Evangelical Pastor Grant Hodges Says I am Sick Because God is Judging Me. My response is indented and italicized. All grammar and spelling are in the original. As you shall see, the good pastor is grammar challenged, but, hey, he knows God is going to roast me like a pig on a spit or refuse to let me play with the nice toys in Heaven.
I sure hope you did genuinely accept Christ years ago and have just fell [sic] into deep deception from the enemy.
Yes, I genuinely accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior at the age of fifteen. I’ve even been cicrumcised and baptized — three times — the baptism part, anyway. I can’t imagine getting circumised three times. I don’t have that much to work with. 🙂
I spent the next thirty-five years devotedly and unreservedly following Jesus. At the age of fifty, I left Christianity and I am now an agnostic atheist. The only deception was the lies I was told by my parents, pastors, and college professors, lies I spent twenty-five years repeating as a preacher. What I have found since divorcing Jesus is new life, the old life has passed away and all things have become new. All praise be to reason, skepticism, and science — the Holy Trinity.
If that be true then you have only loss [sic] rewards at the judgement instead of your soul.
What would I really lose? I still get to go to Heaven. I will still have a pain-free resurrected body. I will still get to eat at the Heaven location of Golden Corral. I am trying to figure out what it is you think I will lose by being a “saved” atheist? Maybe you will think I will lose rewards. What rewards? No pool pass? No preferred parking? No lawn service by Hey-Zeus? Or maybe my room in God’s Trump Hotel will only have a double bed instead of a California King?
If you were trusting in something else other than Christ then you were lost as a minister and still are as [sic] Anti-Christian agnostic “atheist”.
Well, I wasn’t, so we can dispense with that line of “logic.” I was every bit as much of a Christian as you are, probably more so. Would you like to compare theology and good works?
By the way, I am not anti-Christian. I am anti-Evangelical, anti-Fundamentalist, anti-IFB, anti-Asshole. Oh wait, I suppose that you think your peculiar brand of Christianity = True Christianity®?
Hell is real and is the eternal place for those who have chosen to reject Christ. Have you ever accidentally touched a hot stove or pot? I have! It hurts!
Hopefully that experience is at 5 seconds or less.
Imagine burning in torment for all eternity in your sins in a body that cannot die or be destroyed.
What evidence do you have for your claim that “Hell” is real? I would love to take a tour of Hell so I can know what my accommodations will be after I die. Is Hell listed on VRBO? Maybe I can look Hell up on the Internet and take a virtual tour.
What I am not going to do is take Pastor Thompson’s word for it. Hell is a religious construct, one used to elicit fear. People fearing judgment and Hell are more likely to seek out a remedy for their fear by going to the charlatans who sell the cure for the disease they have caused.
Like most Evangelical preachers, Thompson is into torture porn. In what other setting is threatening people with violence and death acceptable? Thompson has likely been trying to scare the Hell out of people for years. Sorry, that won’t work with me.
Thompson fails to understand that threatening me with Hell is a waste of time. Even Gawd, the Father, Hey-Zeus, and the Holey Ghost can’t reach me. I am an apostate, a reprobate. Not only don’t I fear Hell, I don’t fear Thompson’s God either. Both are myths, and I am not in the habit of fearing fairytale characters. I do, however, fear my wife. She wields a mean cast iron skillet.
Pastor Hodges is correct. You are likely sick because of the deception you have swallowed.
That I hope shows you were genuinely saved [sic] at Christ is giving you another chance to repent.
Because he could have just pulled the plug already and taken you.
What evidence do you have for your claim that I am “sick” because of the “deception I swallowed”? Most of my diagnoses predate my loss of faith. Snap, so much for that baseless assertion. Further, what evidence do you have for your claim that I am “deceived”? Perhaps you would like to discuss your beliefs, especially your claims about the Protestant Christian Bible, and then we can see who has been “deceived.” Time for you to throw some pearls down before swine. I think you will find I am quite conversant in all things Evangelical.
In Christ
Rev James.
What’s with the Rev. bit? Is Thompson trying to make me see him as a man of Gawd or a great theologian? Is he trying to assert his superiority over me? Child, please. I hated title mongers when I was a Christian, and I hate them even more now. (For the record, I am a Rev. too — ordained three times. See, James, my dick is bigger than yours. Email me for pics.)
Thompson read all of one post on this site before backing up his truck and dumping a load of shit on my doorstep. He made no effort to understand my story before passing judgment, threatening me with Hell, and saying I am sick because God is judging me.
Thompson cannot see that his “In Christ” is speaking loud and clear; that he is a terrible representative of the lamb of God, the Prince of Peace, the man filled with the fruit of the Spirit (which Thompson is not). To James Thompson I say, I heard you loud and clear.
Saved by Reason,
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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