It can’t be easy going from being a preacher to preaching atheism so I’m glad to see that there are programs out there to help support non-believers in this transition.
The article focuses on Jerry DeWitt – a man who spent twenty-five years as a Pentecostal preacher but is now a proud atheist who travels and speaks to crowds about his journey from faith. He is also the Executive Director of Recovering from Religion, an organization designed to help people get out of religion.
In the article DeWitt says a couple things in particular that I liked:
On doubting your beliefs:
“You can either be honest that you don’t believe … or you can pretend that you do,” he said. “Which is what so many people are doing and that is slots online spielen called faith.”
On prayer:
“The next big issue was the failure of prayer,” DeWitt said. “People are passing away, whenever we pray for them to live. People aren’t getting jobs, whenever we pray for them to have jobs. The harder we tried to alleviate suffering within our church, it seemed like the worse things got,” he said. “It didn’t seem like prayer made any difference. It just continually crushed my heart.”
The article also discusses a confidential online group The Clergy Project which helps preachers, ministers, etc., find help dealing with their lack of faith. It sounds like an outstanding project and along with Recovering from Religion it is making a difference helping people stuck in religion get out and realize that it’s ok and that they are not alone.
This is the stuff that I love to read. I can’t imagine how trapped a preacher who lacks faith must feel. So knowing that our community is strong enough and helpful enough to reach out and give those who need a hand some support makes me proud.
I also hope church goers who have doubts or lack faith get inspired by these brave preachers and ask themselves some hard questions about religion and why they attend church every Sunday.