The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Tag: True Christian

  • What and Who is a True Christian?

    true christians
    Cartoon by David Heyward

    It is common to hear devout Evangelical Christians talk about “true Christians” or “true believers.” Most Americans claim to believe in God; particularly the Christian God. They may not regularly attend church or read the Bible, but millions of Americans say they believe in the Christian deity when asked. More than a few Evangelicals fall into this category. They occasionally attend church, throwing a few bucks in the offering plate when they do. Their Bibles largely go unread outside of opening them at their pastor’s direction during his sermons. Prayers are occasionally uttered, especially in times of trouble, but they rarely “pray without ceasing.” These nominal Christians make up the majority of Evangelical church memberships. Are they “true Christians?”

    Typically, it is Christian apologists who differentiate between true and nominal Christians. It is important to them to divide fake Christians from real Christians. However, when asked to define the term “true Christian,” apologists rarely agree with each other over how the term is defined. Is it right beliefs alone that determine whether a person is a “true Christian?” Or is how a person lives their life the standard by which professing believers are judged? Or, perhaps, a “true Christian” is someone who has prayed the sinner’s prayer, putting his faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation? Or maybe, just maybe, a true Christian believes the right things and lives the right way. Of course, what, exactly, are the right things that must be believed (orthodoxy) or practiced (orthopraxy) for one to be a “true Christian?” Who decides what beliefs must be believed to be a “true Christian?” What beliefs, if any, are optional? Who decides what constitutes the behavior of a “true Christian?”

    I grew up in the Evangelical church, making a public profession of faith in Christ at age fifteen. For the next thirty-five years, I lived my life as one who was a committed follower of Jesus; one who followed the teachings of the Bible. I was, in every way, a “true Christian.” Those who knew me best believed I was a “true Christian,” yet, today, countless Evangelical apologists say otherwise; that I was a fraud, a deceiver, a follower of Satan; that I led thousands of people astray, damning their souls to a Christless eternity. Nothing in my lived life suggests that this narrative is true. Critics will search in vain to find people who knew me that would justify their opinions about my life. By all accounts, I was a devoted follower of Jesus. Sure, I sinned just like any other Christian, but the bent of my life was towards holiness. As one woman who knew me well said, “If Bruce is not a Christian, nobody is.”

    Apologists use the “true Christian” label to differentiate themselves from the rest of Christians. Much like Calvinists who call themselves “elect” or “predestined,” “true Christians” want everyone to know that they are not like those fake Christians. Read their blogs and websites and you will find substantial verbiage devoted to rooting out from their midst those who are not “true Christians.” No two apologists say the same thing about who and what a “true Christian” really is. You would think God would deliver the same “true Christian” message to Evangelical pastors and churches, but he doesn’t. Christians can’t even agree on the basics: salvation, baptism, communion.

    “True Christians” want to be viewed as special; people who believe the right things and live the right way. “True Christians” are God’s chosen ones, not like the unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines of the world. However, while it is certainly true that unbelievers have different beliefs from “true Christians,” their lifestyles are often different from and superior to that of many “true Christians.” Revival Fires, John, James, Dr. David Tee, and others who claim to be “true Christians,” behave in ways that are contrary to the teachings of the Bible. While believing the right things is important to what makes one a “true Christian,” so is living by the teachings of Christ. In fact, I would argue that behavior is superior to belief. When Jesus summed up the law and the prophets, he said:

    Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40)

    Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. That’s it. Jesus said nothing about right beliefs. Love God, love your neighbor. During the end stage of my ministerial career, I often reminded church members that if we didn’t love our neighbors, we didn’t love God. Such thinking is uncommon in Evangelical churches. What matters to most Evangelicals is right beliefs, and right interpretations of the Bible. How else do we explain how vicious and hateful many Evangelicals are? Oh, they have the right beliefs — proudly so — but their behavior suggests that they don’t love their neighbors as themselves. And if they don’t love their neighbors as themselves? They don’t love God. I didn’t say this, God did. 🙂

    Don’t tell me that you are a “true Christian,” show me. I know all I need to know about Christian beliefs. If you want to convince me that Christianity is true, I suggest you show me by how you live your life. Talk is cheap. It is unlikely that I will ever be convinced that Christianity is true. Still, I might come to admire and appreciate the followers of Jesus if they dared, you know, to actually practice the teachings of Christ, starting with those found in the Sermon on the Mount.

    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 can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • The Intolerant Christian God as Found in the Cult Classic Mars Attacks!

    mars attacks

    There’s a scene in Mars Attacks! — one of my all-time favorite movies — where the Martians meet with the President of the United States. The President, played by Jack Nicholson, says to the Mars ambassador:

    Why… are you doing this? Why? Isn’t the universe big enough…for both of us? Ha ha ha ha. What is wrong with you people?

    We could work together. Why be enemies? Because we’re different? Is that why?

    Think of the things that we could do.

    Think how strong we would be. Earth…and Mars… Together.

    There is nothing that we could not accomplish. Think about it. Think about it.

    Why destroy…when you can create? We can have it all, or we can smash it all.

    Why can’t we…work out our differences? Why can’t we…work things out?

    Little people…why can’t we all just…get along?

    “Why can’t we all just get along?” The ambassador, with tears in his eyes, shakes hands with the President, only to have the hand disconnect and stab the President in the heart, killing him instantly.

    Video Link

    Prior to killing the President, the Martian Ambassador and his entourage met with Congress. The Ambassador gave a rousing Ack! Ack! Ack! speech, concluding with him and his support staff whipping out their ray guns and vaporizing Congress. Where are the Martians when you need them, right?

    Video Link

    Quite intolerant, these Martians. Every time I watch Mars Attacks! I can’t help but think of the Christian God and his intolerance towards any religion but his own. Jesus — who is God — is the Martian Ambassador in this story. Any other religion but the Christian faith is false, an affront to the thrice-holy God of the Bible. Instead of practicing the time-honored art of toleration, God the Father, and his son Jesus, command their followers to murder everyone who worships other deities (or no deities at all).

    Christianity has a deep, vibrant, antisemitic, anti-Islamic stream running through its body. Evangelicals, who increasingly support ex-President Trump’s anti-Muslim bigotry, justify their hatred by pointing to how Muslim extremists harass, attack, kidnap, and murder Christians and other non-Muslims. I don’t disagree with their assessment of groups such as ISIS, Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda, and numerous other Muslim extremists. However, in becoming so fixated on Islam, Christians forget their own religion’s violence, their God’s command to slaughter all unbelievers, and the rise of violent (and deadly) white Christian extremism in the United States.

    The inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God says in Deuteronomy 13:1-16:

    If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,

    And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;

    Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

    Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.

    And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

    If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

    Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

    Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

    But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

    And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

    And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.

    If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying,

    Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known;

    Then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you;

    Thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.

    And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the Lord thy God: and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again.

    But, Bruce . . . Don’t bother. Whatever attempt you plan to make to defend your God won’t work. This passage of Scripture is quite clear. No ambiguity here. The intolerant, genocidal God of Christianity commands his followers (the Israelites, at the time) to slaughter anyone — men, women, children, the unborn — who doesn’t worship him. It’s in the Bible, buddy, and you just need to own it.

    So much for the unconditional love of God. So much for God loving and accepting people where and how they are. No, God commands his followers to whip out their ray guns and vaporize anyone who doesn’t bow in fealty and devotion to him.

    Time to sing, What a Mighty God We Serve.

    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 can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • Are Christian Nationalists Real “Christians”?

    christian nationalism 2

    A common ploy used by Evangelical gatekeepers — also known as keepers of the Book of Life wherein God writes the names of True Christians® — is to say that certain groups of believers are false Christians or cultural Christians. This subterfuge is used to cull from the Christian herd anyone who doesn’t meet certain theological, political, or social standards. Thus, people who deconvert from Evangelical Christianity are labeled as false or cultural Christians; people who never truly understood the gospel and core teachings of the Bible. Of course, study after study suggests otherwise; that atheists are better versed in the teachings of the Bible than many Christians — especially those of us who were Evangelicals before deconverting.

    Presently, Christian Nationalism is in the news, and predictably, Evangelical gatekeepers say that Christian Nationalists are not real Christians. However, a recent article on Baptist News Global about the results of a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) study on the matter suggests otherwise:

    • 30% of Americans are Christian Nationalism adherents (10%) or sympathizers (20%)
    • 55% of Republicans are Christian Nationalism adherents (21%) or sympathizers (34%), compared to 16% of Democrats
    • Highest states with Christian Nationalist populations: North Dakota (50%), Mississippi (50%), Alabama (47%), Louisiana (46%), West Virginia (47%), Tennessee (45%), Wyoming (45%), Nebraska (45%) Arkansas (44%), South Carolina (42%)
    • Lowest states with Christian Nationalist populations: Oregon (17%), Massachusetts (18%) Maryland (19%), New York (19%), Washington (20%), New Jersey (20%), Nevada (20%), California (22%), Connecticut (23%), Virginia (23%)
    • 66% of White Evangelicals are Christian Nationalism adherents (30%) or sympathizers (36%)
    • Most supporters of Christian Nationalism read the Bible weekly (55%) and attend church weekly (52%)

    Robert P. Jones, the president and founder of PRRI, had this to say about this study:

    Why should we be worried about this?

    There is of course the obvious: The idea of America as a promised land for European Christians — a powerful idea that predates the founding of the country — is fundamentally anti-democratic because it establishes a de facto ethno-religious state. Beyond that, it raises the stakes of political contests exponentially, transposing political opponents into existential enemies.

    Politics is no longer understood to be disagreements between fellow citizens of good will but apocalyptic battles over good and evil, fought by agents of God against agents of Satan. Political opponents should not just be defeated in fair electoral contests but should be jailed, exiled, attacked or even killed.

    Indeed, this erosion of democratic and civic norms is just what we find in this survey. Christian nationalists are more likely than other Americans to think about politics in apocalyptic terms and are about twice as likely as other Americans to believe political violence may be justified. Nearly four in 10 Christian nationalism Adherents (38%) and one-third of Sympathizers (33%) agree that “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country,” compared with only 17% of Skeptics and 7% of Rejecters.

    In my recent book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future, I made the case that Christian nationalism is best understood as a term describing the new incarnation of an old claim: that America is a God-ordained promised land for European Christians, where they alone occupy the highest positions of power and where laws are judged to be valid based on their particular interpretation of the Bible.

    We’ve never fully resolved the contradictions between the regressive fantasy of America as a white Christian nation and the aspirational vision of America as a pluralistic democracy.

    This survey illustrates how strongly white Christian nationalism is driving support for Donald Trump and the MAGA movement and how thoroughly it has established itself as an ideological keystone in today’s Republican Party. Until we fully vanquish this dangerous, authoritarian political theology, it will continue to undermine the potential for a truly democratic American future.

    No matter how much Evangelical gatekeepers protest and suggest otherwise, most Christian Nationalists are Bible-reading, church-attending Christians; these crazy uncles are every bit as Christian as the gatekeepers (who often have their own Christian Nationalism tendencies, but just hide it better).

    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 can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • Evangelical MMA: Cultural Christians Vs. “True” Christians

    true christians
    Cartoon by David Hayward

    Evangelical response to news that American “nones”– atheists, agnostics, and people indifferent towards religion — now outnumber Evangelicals has been predictable. Instead of looking in the mirror and seeing who to blame for their decline, Evangelical talking heads blame attendance loss on their churches being emptied of “cultural Christians.” Their numbers are smaller these days, the thinking goes, but more congregants are “true Christians.”

    Does Evangelicalism really have a “cultural Christian” problem, or is this just an excuse preachers and parachurch leaders use to obfuscate their culpability in the decline of Evangelicalism?

    Captain Cassidy writes:

    Former SBC President J.D. Greear thinks he knows exactly how to give the troops back their optimism: Insulting those who’ve left the denomination’s increasingly polarized and tribalistic ranks. He told Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN; archive):

    Much of that [lack of interest in spirituality], the pastor said, is likely connected to the shrinking acceptance of Christian norms within American culture writ large.

    “[A] lot of the decline in those numbers is cultural Christianity,” explained Greear. “But, if you look at the statistics in the amount of what I would consider true disciples, those numbers are actually encouraging.”

    Insulting departing members by calling them cultural Christians is an old SBC strategy—it dates back to at least 2012, when another then-SBC leader, Ed Stetzer, began using it to explain away the SBC’s declining membership and baptisms. He went so hard on this talking point that I strongly suspect someone handed it to him with orders to use it everywhere.

    In a 2012 column he wrote for Christianity Today, he declared: “Christianity isn’t dying, cultural Christianity is.”

    You see, many in the USA who identify as Christian do so only superficially. These “cultural Christians” use the term “Christian” but do not practice the faith. [. . .]

    Christian nominalism is nothing new. As soon as any belief system is broadly held in a culture, people are motivated to adopt it, even with a low level of connection. Yet, much of the change in our religious identification is in nominal Christians no longer using the term and, instead, not identifying with any religion.

    So cultural Christians aren’t really super-dedicated to Jesus. Not like Ed Stetzer is. Not “true disciples,” like good little Christians should be. No, Christianity is just the culture these fakey-fake fake fakers grew up in and inconceivably consider their own. The moment the religious fat sizzles in the pan, these ickie fake Christians flee for more comfortable surroundings while the real Christians hunker down and Jesus harder.

    Evangelicals still use this myth to cope with their decline, too!

    ….

    In May 2015, Stetzer repeated these talking points in two separate places: Church Leadership (archive) and USA Today (archive). That year’s very important. It’s the year that Pew Research released their Religious Landscape Study, mentioned above. And it’s the year that evangelicals as a group finally became aware of their decline. They’d been able to ignore the signs for years—and I had the comment-box arguments to prove it. Finally, the Religious Landscape Study tore their veil of willful ignorance away. It forced them to face facts at last.

    So that year, the accusation Stetzer insinuated in 2012 became explicit. On May 13, 2015, Stetzer’s post title and subtitle at USA Today said it all:

    Survey fail – Christianity isn’t dying: Ed Stetzer
    Fakers who don’t go to church are just giving up the pretense.

    Later in his post, Stetzer tells his readers that The Big Problem Here really is that less Jesusy denominations, meaning those ickie, grody mainline and progressive ones, were finally losing all their fakey-fake fakers. That’s all! Nothing to see here! The future was for sure evangelical!

    ….

    And, of course, we’ve already seen J.D. Greear’s galaxy-brain take on the report. Over at CBN, he huffed pure copium as he further declared:

    “What we’re after here is not demographic increase; what we’re after here are real followers of Jesus,” the pastor told CBN News, noting, “Unfortunately, a lot of [people] are not reached in the church by just doing great music, great guest services, and a relevant sermon.”

    My, my. How sour are those grapes, J.D. Greear? They must be very sour indeed. You didn’t want them anyway, right?

    Bear in mind that out of all evangelicals, the SBC was the least interested in making sure every one of their recruits was a true-blue, 100% all in, gung-ho “true disciple” or “real follower of Jesus.”

    I do not remember ever hearing once about any SBC pastor kicking tithes-paying members out of a single church. Nor do I remember ever hearing about any purity tests administered to the flocks to ensure that only unsullied TRUE CHRISTIAN™ bottoms warmed those hallowed pews and donated money.

    ….

    If evangelicals really had that huge a number of fakey-fake fake Christians floating around in their churches, they sure didn’t care at all about addressing that problem until their membership rolls began to shrink. And their method of dealing with it, so far, seems to be just to use it as an excuse for decline.

    ….

    Since evangelicals have never figured out how to recruit and retain people who have no obligation to be part of their groups, all they can do is try to negate and vilify those who are leaving. In doing so, they’re sending a message to the flocks still warming church pews: If you leave too, this is what we’ll say about you.

    Years ago, I ran into a former church member at the local McDonald’s. He and his family moved on to a Bible church pastored by a Bob Jones graduate. He piously shared with me the difference between the people I pastored and his church: We are focused on quality, not quantity.

    His church only wanted “true Christians.” The problem with this thinking, of course, is that if Evangelical churches relied on all those “quality” Christians to fund their work, they would go out of business overnight. Greear, Steltzer, and other megachurch leaders know that without the money “quantity” Christians give, their churches would go bankrupt.

    I predict that Evangelicalism will continue to hemorrhage members, and as sure as the sun comes up in the morning, “true Christians” will blame everyone but themselves for the decline.

    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 can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • What is TRUE Christianity?

    the greatest commandments

    Ask one hundred Christians to define “True Christianity,” and you will end up with dozens of definitions. Put Church of Christ, Baptist, Pentecostal, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Reformed, and Apostolic preachers in the same room and ask them to define “True Christianity” and you will hear all sorts of explanations for what it means to be a “True Christian.” Each sect defines “True Christianity” differently. Who is right? How can we possibly know who is right? The aforementioned preachers each will appeal to the Bible and church history to justify their claim that they represent “True Christianity.” However, their interpretations widely differ from one another. They can’t all be right. Must one be baptized to be a Christian? Must one speak in tongues and be baptized to be a Christian? Is having faith all that matters, or must good works accompany faith? Is Calvinism or Arminianism “True Christianity?” How can any of us determine which sect, if any, represents, reflects, and teaches “True Christianity?”

    I daily read many Evangelical blogs and websites. Rarely does a week go by without an Evangelical preacher opining on “True Christianity.” I have always found this odd since their target audience is people who are already “True Christians.” Why must the already saved be reminded of their status with God? Supposedly, the Holy Ghost lives inside of EVERY Christian. The Holy Spook is their teacher and guide, giving them everything they need for life and godliness. Or so says the Bible, anyway. Yet, Sunday after Sunday, Evangelical preachers stand before their congregations, reminding them of the requirements of “True Christianity.” Preachers repeatedly chastise congregants for not practicing what they believe are the basics of Christianity: daily Bible reading and prayer, regular church attendance, giving tithes and offerings, sharing your faith with unbelievers, and practicing the teachings of the Bible (as interpreted by your sect/church/pastor.) Most Evangelicals fail to follow and practice the basics of “True Christianity.” Does this mean that they aren’t “True Christians?” Some Evangelical talking heads will say, “Yes, Evangelical churches are filled with fake Christians; people who are posers, not possessors; people who have head knowledge and not heart knowledge of “True Christianity.”

    I contend that these proponents of “True Christianity” — however they define it — preach a bastardized gospel that distorts what it means to be a true follower of Jesus. Right beliefs trump right behavior. Certain external behaviors such as those mentioned in the previous paragraph are valued far more than others in the Bible, such as helping the poor, sick, hungry, and dying. Could it be that Evangelicals have missed the mark and are preaching a gospel contrary to the teachings of Christ?

    In Matthew 22:36-40, we find the Pharisees and Sadducees trying to trip up Jesus by asking him questions. One Pharisee, a lawyer, asked him: Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus replied:

    Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

    Jesus told those gathered to hear him that the entirety of the Old Testament hangs on two commandments:

    • Loving God with all my heart, soul, and mind (or might)
    • Loving my neighbor as myself

    When was the last time you heard an Evangelical preacher sum up “True Christianity” by saying, “The True Christian loves God with all his heart, soul, and mind, and loves his neighbor as he loves himself?” I preached it during the latter years of my time in the ministry, but I can’t recall another Evangelical preacher emphasizing that these two commands are the sum, the essence of what it means to be a Christian.

    I always reversed these commands, saying you don’t love God if you don’t love your fellow man. Think of how Evangelical zealots treat me and other unbelievers, thinking that atheists, agnostics, pagans, and other non-Christians aren’t their neighbors, so they don’t have to treat them with love, compassion, and kindness. Long-time readers of this blog know that some of the meanest, nastiest sons-of-bitches in all of Christendom are Evangelical Christians. “But, Bruce, atheists can treat Christians poorly too.” Yep, but just because they do doesn’t mean you get to treat them in kind. Jesus told his followers to love their enemies and turn the other cheek. When was the last time you felt “love” from an Evangelical Christian?

    In Matthew 25 and other passages in the Bible, Christians are reminded that they are duty-bound to love their neighbors and care for the least of them. Most Evangelicals vote Republican and support Donald Trump, a party and presidential hopeful who despises people of color, immigrants, widows, orphans, and the marginalized of society. They vote for and enact policies and laws that show they don’t love their neighbors. According to Jesus’ own words, this means that they don’t love God.

    Words are cheap. Jesus said, “Show me your faith. Show me what you really believe.” James reiterated this when he said, “Faith without works is dead.” Jesus told his followers that we show what we love by how we spend our money. Churches spend boatloads of money feeding the flock, choosing to make fat sheep fatter. How much money is actually spent on “loving your neighbor as yourself?” That’s a rhetorical question — but in reality, not much. And if you object to my broad characterization of Evangelicalism, please send me your church’s annual budget. The real budget; the one that lists the actual expenditures of the church. Most churches spend less than ten percent of their income on “the least of these.”

    The next time an Evangelical tries to explain “True Christianity” to you, ask him about the two greatest commandments: love God, love your neighbor. He will likely hem and haw, saying “Who is my neighbor?” Or he might say that they show their “love” for their neighbor by evangelizing them.” Most likely, the Evangelical will ignore you, saying that unbelievers don’t know anything about the Bible.” How hard can it be to understand what Jesus is saying in Matthew 22? Even a third grader can understand that “True Christianity” is defined by love for God and love for your neighbor.

    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 can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • True Christians

    one true religion

    Dr. David Tee, whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen, is a Christian Missionary & Alliance trained preacher. As Evangelical preachers are wont to do, Tee has cobbled together his own peculiar version of Christianity and what it means to be a True Christian®. I have read enough of Tee’s posts to know that he can, at times, promote heretical beliefs — heretical when measured by core Evangelical beliefs about salvation by grace. There are times when it seems he is preaching salvation by works — a soteriology that can certainly be justified with the Bible (as all soteriologies can).

    In a post titled Can Christianity Help With Politics? Tee posits that “There are many benefits to having true Christians run governments.” Tee goes on to give his definition of a True Christian®:

    By true Christians, we mean those that correctly follow Christ.

    According to Tee, a True Christian® is someone who “correctly” follows Christ. What does it mean to “correctly” follow Jesus? What does Tee mean when he uses the word “correctly?” I assume he thinks a person must believe and do certain things to be a True Christian. I know he believes transgender people can’t be True Christians®, but Evangelical preachers who rape and sexually molest children are just True Christians® who need to humbly say “my bad, Jesus.”

    Tee has made it clear that he is absolutely certain he is right in doctrine and deed. No one can correct him, especially unwashed, uncircumcised Philistines such as Bruce Gerencser. The moment I deconverted, I magically lost everything I know about the Bible, theology, and Christianity. Evidently, Gawd gives a Men in Black mind wipe to Christians the moment they deconvert. Of course, this is absurd.

    There’s no such thing as True Christianity®. According to Pew Research, there are about 2.4 billion Christians in the world; 279 million in the United States. I suspect these numbers are grossly inflated, but we can conclude from them there are a lot of Christians in the world and in the United States. I live in rural northwest Ohio — the land of God, Trump, and Guns. God said humans can’t hide from him. Even in the depths of Hell, he is there. I feel the same way about Christianity. While American Christianity is in decline, there are few places I can go to escape Jesus and his merry band of followers. They are like a rash you can’t get rid of. (I am primarily speaking of Evangelicals and conservative Catholics. When I go out to dinner with the pastor of the local United Church of Christ, my rash magically goes away.)

    Put one hundred Christians in a room and ask them to define core Christian beliefs and you will get a plethora of answers. You will find disagreement on salvation, sin, baptism, communion, creation, and other beliefs. Yet hardcore Fundamentalists such as Tee are certain that their beliefs and practices are straight from the mouth of God; that their interpretations of the Bible are absolutely right; that their beliefs are the standard by which all (alleged) Christians are measured.

    These disagreements and internecine wars over what constitutes a True Christian® are a sure sign that Christianity is a human invention, or whatever Christianity might have been has been so obscured and adulterated by 2,000 years of organized Christianity that its essence has been lost.

    Jesus told his followers that there were two great commandments: love God with all your heart, soul, and might, and love your neighbor as yourself. Pray tell, where can such a Christianity be found? Where can we find a preacher or church that takes seriously Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount or his words in Matthew 25? From 1995-2002, I pastored Our Father’s House in West Unity, Ohio. I remember telling the congregation that Christianity (and the world) would be better served if we focused our energy on living out the teachings of Jesus found in the Sermon on the Mount; that we had become distracted from the essence of faith.

    As Evangelicals and conservative Catholics wage unholy war against anyone and everyone who is different from them, I wonder if they stop to consider that maybe, just maybe, in their attempt to “Christianize” the world they have lost all sense of what it means to truly be a follower of Jesus (or a decent human being)?

    As I have said countless times in my writing, certainty breeds arrogance. When Evangelicals are certain that their versions of God and Jesus are the right ones, and their interpretations of the Bible are infallible, there’s no way to reach them. But, Bruce, you were a Fundamentalist, and now you are not! Certainly, that is true, but it wasn’t until I entertained the possibility that I could be wrong that my mind was open to the possibility of change. Until then, I was certain I was right. Change is hard, and unless we humble ourselves before our own ignorance, we will never know how much we don’t know.

    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 can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

  • Bruce, You Never Knew the REAL Jesus

    who is the real jesus

    I have been accused hundreds of times over the years of never having been a True Christian®. The gist of this accusation is that I met, worshiped, and followed a counterfeit Jesus. If I had encountered the REAL JESUS and put my faith and trust in him, I would have become a True Christian® and would still be a follower of Christ to this day. The Bible gives cover for this argument when it says:

    For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

    They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (I John 2:19)

    According to Evangelicals who say I never met the REAL JESUS, the angels of light in my life — parents, pastors, professors — were actually tools of Satan used by him to deceive me. And true to my training, I then became a false angel of light too — deceiving the churches I pastored and pulling the wool over the eyes of my colleagues in the ministry; that is, if any of them knew the REAL JESUS themselves.

    The fact that I no longer profess to be a follower of Jesus is further evidence that I never met the REAL JESUS. Had I met the REAL JESUS, I would have continued in the faith; I would have continued pastoring churches. That I now stand in opposition to Christianity and the teachings of the Bible is clear evidence to Evangelicals that whatever Jesus I followed over my fifty years in the Christian church, he was not the REAL JESUS.

    A good example of this thinking can be found in the recent blog comments by Rod Rogers [all spelling and grammar in the original]:

    Yes, but you now claim that you are not a christian and therefore you never were a christian, right? You have painted your self into a corner. Either you were a liar for years or you are lying now; but you have to choose. My point is that God is always God or there never was a god. You have claimed both. Very sad.

    Bruce, you don’t go from preaching God’s word, studying and praying daily and then wake up one day and say God never existed. That never happens. Somewhere you came to a place where God didn’t meet your expectations. I don’t know where that happened but it happened.

    “Each aspect of my life must be judged in its context.” Ok, YOU said you were a Christian, said you were a preacher. In that context, were you preaching the truth or preaching a lie? Preaching a lie makes one what? “All I am saying is that I once was a Christian just like you, and now I’m not.” And all I am saying is that by your own admission you believed in once saved always saved. Now you don’t believe in God at all. By you own theology you yourself believed either you were not saved to begin with or you preached a lie. You are in a corner.

    Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? Matthew 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Either you never were a child of God or you still are.

    Bruce, it doesn’t matter what happened when. The only thing I am assuming is that you are telling the truth when you say that you were an IFB. If you were ever IFB then you believed in OSAS. You just don’t want to admit the truth. Your comment, “It’s like saying, I’m divorced now, so that means I never was married”?”, has nothing to do with my comment; its Non Sequitor.

    I’m 64 years old and have met a lot of people and you are the only one who claims to have lived at the foot of the cross and woke up one day and renounced it. Sorry, I don’t believe that.

    Rod is an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB). As such, he believes in the doctrine of “once saved, always saved.”  According to this doctrine, once a person is saved, he can never, ever fall from grace; never, ever lose his salvation. Built upon a foundation of intellectual assent to a set of theological propositions, most proponents of “once saved, always saved” believe that I am still a Christian; that I am just backslidden or out of the will of God. I say most, because some “once saved, always saved” believers can’t bear to fathom that someone who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done despite unto the Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29) can still be a Christian. If I am not now a Christian, in their minds that means I never was a Christian; that in decades of pastoral experience I never came in contact with the REAL JESUS.

    Calvinists fall into “once saved, always saved” crowd, albeit they believe that a person must endure to the end (death) to be saved; and even then, some people who thought they were saved will wake up in Hell, realizing that they never were one of the elect. What a con job, right?  Much like many in the “once saved, always saved” IFB crowd, the Calvinists who knew me have concluded that I never met the REAL JESUS. If I had met the REAL JESUS, I would still be in church, availing myself of means of grace. That I am now an outspoken opponent of True Christianity® is proof to them that I was a false Christian.

    In 1994, I was the co-pastor of Community Baptist Church — an independent Calvinistic congregation — in Elmendorf, Texas. While at Community, I became friends with Jose Maldonado, pastor of Hillburn Drive Grace Baptist Church. I had met Joe in the fall of 1993 when he and Pat Horner — my soon-to-be co-pastor — came to preach a conference at the church in Ohio I was pastoring at the time.

    I resigned from Community in the fall of 1994. You can read more about that debacle in the series titled, I Am a Publican and a Heathen. After leaving Community, I had no further contact with Maldonado. Imagine my surprise, then, to hear that Maldonado, sixteen years after our last contact, took to the pulpit to let people know that I was now an atheist; a man who never knew the REAL JESUS.

    Here’s a short audio clip of Maldonado “exposing” me as a false prophet:

    You can listen to Maldonado’s four-part sermon series or read transcripts of his sermons here.  You also might find interesting the post titled, Gone but Not Forgotten: 22 Years Later San Antonio Calvinists Still Preaching Against Bruce Gerencser.

    The hilarious thing in the whole “Bruce met a false Jesus” saga, is that “once saved, always saved” Baptists and Calvinistic Baptists bitterly oppose one another, each believing the other preaches a false gospel. In other words, each side believes the other has never met the REAL JESUS.

    As you can see, the core theological problem for both groups is that True Christians® are eternally saved. The Bible says in John 10:27-29:

    My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

    Those who hear the voice of Jesus and follow after him are given eternal life and are held safe in his hand. No man is able to pluck Christians out of the hand of Jesus. The problem with this argument, of course, is my life as a Christian clearly shows that I heard the voice of Jesus and followed after him. There’s nothing in my storyline that remotely suggests that I was following after a false Jesus; that I was a wolf in sheep’s clothing; that I was a false prophet. Yet, here I am today, having safely jumped out of the hand of Jesus, an out-and-proud apostate. “How can these things be?” Evangelicals ask themselves. Zealots such as Rod refuse to accept my story at face value, suggesting that there is some part of my story I am not sharing lest I give away the “real” reason I am no longer a Christian. This leads people to concoct all sorts of conspiracies about my loss of faith.

    How about we let Occam’s Razor tell the story here. Occam’s Razor is a philosophy which suggests that if an event has two possible explanations, the explanation which requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct: I once was a Christian and now I am not; I once was a follower of Jesus and now I am not; I devotedly loved Jesus and now I don’t; the telling of my story is an honest, forthright reflection of my life as a Christian and an Evangelical pastor — theology be damned.  Christians holding to Arminian theology believe followers of Jesus can and do fall from grace. In their minds, I am just one more sad example of someone who chose not to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Works for me.

    Here’s what I know for sure, I once was saved and now I am not. It really is that simple. It is not up to me to help Evangelicals square their theology with my testimony. Can’t make my story fit in the narrow confines of your rigid theological box? Tough shit, not my problem. I have no doubt I met numerous times the REAL JESUS. A mythical being, to be sure, but I most certainly had a torrid love affair with this Jesus for most of my adult life. Just as I would never doubt a sincere Christian’s testimony of faith, all I ask is that Evangelicals grant me the same courtesy. This will never happen, of course, because their theology bars them from doing so. Their intransigence reveals the real truth behind this discussion; that the question has never been about meeting the REAL JESUS; that what really matters is believing the right sectarian doctrines; that Evangelicalism is inherently a text-based system; that what really determines entrance into Heaven is checking off the right boxes on the Beliefs Checklist. The Evangelical gospel is this: BELIEVE THESE DOCTRINES AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED. It’s never been about the REAL 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.

    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.

  • Robin Schumacher is Dead Wrong About the Number One Reason “True Christians” Leave Their Churches

    why

    Recently, Robin Schumacher wrote an article titled The No. 1 Reason True Believers Leave a Church for The Christian Post. Schumacher’s bio states:

    Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master’s in Christian apologetics, and a Ph.D. in New Testament.

    Schumacher thinks he knows exactly why “True Christians” are leaving leaving Evangelical churches in droves:

    True Christians leave a church when they’re unable to properly worship God.

    ….

    These folks are solid, mature believers who prioritize God in their lives and aren’t ruffled by trivial matters that go on in a local body.

    For them (and me) it’s all about being enabled to submit to God an acceptable form of worship while they’re present in the assembly. When that can’t happen, the Spirit within them demands action.  

    ….

    While the juvenile come to church for what they can get, mature believers attend for what they want to give, which is true worship to God. And when they’re disabled in that pursuit, they’ll seek a different setting.

    Thousands of former “True Christians” read this blog; people who loved Jesus and followed his teachings; people who gave their time, talent, and money; people who attended church every time the doors were open; people who daily read the Bible and prayed; people who evangelized others and worked to advance the Kingdom of God; people who lived and breathed Jesus, the church, and the Bible. Yet, scores of them walked out of their churches and never returned. Some moved on to mainline churches, while others stopped attending church altogether. Many of them embraced agnosticism or atheism. What happened?

    Schumacher would have us believe that these conscientious Christians left because they couldn’t “properly” worship God. As a poster child for people who were once “True Christians” and are now unbelievers, I can confidently say that most people who walk away don’t do so because they can’t “properly worship God.” This seems to me to be a shallow, superficial answer to a deeper, systematic problem. Of course, this is what Evangelical talking heads do. They rarely have extensive, thoughtful discussions with people who exit stage left. Evangelical churches don’t do exit interviews. Instead, they often take a “don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out” attitude.

    I certainly understand becoming disillusioned with church. I was part of the Evangelical church for fifty years. I pastored Evangelical churches in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan for twenty-five years. Evangelicalism flowed through my veins. I was all in, a true believer who loved Jesus with all his heart, soul, and mind, and who followed his teachings and commands. Years ago, a woman who had known for years, upon hearing of my loss of faith, said, “If Bruce isn’t a Christian, nobody is.” Countless Evangelicals tell me that I was never a “True Christian.” However, they will search in vain to find one person who knew me as their pastor or colleague in the ministry who is willing to say, “oh, I knew Bruce was never a real Christian.” Not one.

    That said, my wife, Polly, and I went through a period of several years when we became disillusioned with Christianity. By this time, I was done with the ministry. Whether tired, sick from my increasing health problems, or burned out, I decided that it was time for me to move on to a new chapter in life. I pastored my last church in 2003, Victory Baptist Church in Clare, Michigan. In the spring of 2005, I decided to reenter the ministry. I sent my resume to several Southern Baptist area missionaries in West Virginia. I quickly received numerous inquiries from churches with open pulpits. I decided to candidate at two churches: New Life Baptist Church in Weston and Hedgesville Baptist Church in Hedgesville. New Life demanded that I only use the King James Version. I quickly said no, knowing that I wanted nothing to do with people who put Bible translations above ministry. Hedgesville was a wonderful church, positioned in an area that was growing by leaps and bounds. The church paid well and owned a nice trilevel parsonage. I thought the church would be the perfect place for me to reestablish my career. The church had an interim pastor, a man who was a police officer. They were not considering him because he lacked the educational requirements they were looking for. Besides, he never said he wanted to pastor the church permanently. After spending two days with the man, it became evident to me that he wanted to pastor the church. The pulpit committee expressed interest in me becoming their next pastor, but I declined and told them they needed to talk to the interim pastor. They did, and the church decided to make him their permanent pastor. This was the right decision for them to make. I preached a couple more times for friends of mine, and by the summer of 2005, I officially “retired” from the ministry.

    Polly and I wondered, “now what?” We had celebrated our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary the year before. We had spent every waking hour in the ministry. It’s all we knew. From 2002-2008, we decided to find a church to attend; one where we could serve Jesus and lend our support. During this time, we attended more than 125 churches, everything from Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Methodist, and Lutheran to Baptist, Mennonite, Church of Christ, and non-denominational — and other sects in between. (Please see But Our Church is DIFFERENT!) Our goal was to find a church that took the teachings of Christ seriously. We took a minimalist approach, willing to jettison secondary matters for a church that loved God and loved their neighbors; a church that oozed devotion to God. Sadly, our search came up empty.

    I call this period of time our “disaffected years.” We were still committed followers of Jesus. We still believed the Bible was the Word of God and lived our lives according to our interpretation of its teachings. By the time we reached the fall of 2008, it was evident that we were in serious trouble faith-wise. We started doubting and questioning our sincerely-held beliefs. Our nightstands and end tables were littered with books written by Bart Ehrman, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and other contrarian authors. I started reading books written by Emerging Church authors and liberal/progressive theologians. The more I read, the more questions I had. And then it happened: I came to the conclusion that the Bible was not inerrant and infallible. This led to more and more questions about my beliefs. I finally arrived at the place where I had to admit that the central claims of Christianity could not be rationally sustained; that many of the claims found in the Bible were false. On the last Sunday in November, 2008, Bruce and Polly Gerencser, and their three teenage children walked out of the doors of the Ney United Methodist Church for the last time. At the age of fifty, I was done with Christianity. In early 2009, I sent out my infamous letter, Dear Family, Friends, and Former Parishioners to several hundred family members, friends, ministerial colleagues, and former parishioners. This was my (our) coming out letter. I said to all who knew me that I was no longer a Christian. Not long after, I publicly embraced atheism.

    I suspect my story resonates with many ex-Evangelicals. We didn’t leave Christianity, as Schumacher alleges, because we were “unable to properly worship God.” Our problems with Evangelicals were much deeper and more extensive than the inability to worship God as we pleased. What bothered us was indifference and incestuous behavior that focused on feeding fat, lazy sheep instead of ministering to “the least of these.” What bothered us was all the attention paid to the man of God instead of the needs of the congregation and those outside of the church. What bothered us was the constant demand for loyalty, obedience, and money. Damn, it all seemed to be about money. And most of all, what bothered us was the inattention paid to our doubts and the shallow, cliche-driven answers to our questions. We read, studied, and prayed, desperately seeking ways to hang on to our faith. In the end, what bothered us the most was the silence. When we stopped attending church, to put it frankly, no one gave a shit. Or worse yet, our pastors sent us stern, judgmental letters or preached about us. They couldn’t be bothered to talk to us, choosing instead to use us as sermon illustrations or warnings. Once out the door, we were abused and marginalized. Even if our questions could have been answered, why would we ever want to return to places that treated us like shit?

    I am sure Schumacher means well, but I encourage him to actually talk to people who left the church, never to return. Read their blogs and listen to their podcasts. The real reasons “True Christians” divorced the church are there for all to see. Seek and ye shall find. Of course, Schumacher might think there is no need to do this; that people such as I were not the “True Christians” he’s talking about; that “True Christians” would never walk away from Jesus and his church. After all the Bible says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (1 John 2:19)

    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 can email Bruce via the Contact Form.