Unbelieving Preachers Get Help to 'Come Out' as Open Atheists

CNN ^ | 6/13/12 | Dan Merica

[marshmallow]

(CNN) – Jerry DeWitt entered the ministry when he was 17, launching a 25-year career as a Pentecostal preacher. He traveled all around his home state of Louisiana, preaching and ministering wherever he could.

All these years later, DeWitt, 42, is still on the road, and now takes his message all over the United States. But the nature of that message, along with his audience, has changed dramatically.

DeWitt is now an avowed atheist, and his audiences are made up of religious “nones,” the growing number of Americans who are atheist, agnostic, humanist or just plain disinterested in identifying with a religion. Today, DeWitt preaches a gospel of disbelief.

During his speeches, he talks about the process of leaving his preacher job. “If you don’t believe, then you will be like me – you’ll suddenly find yourself where you only have two choices,” DeWitt told a group in Johnson County, Kansas, earlier this year.

“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 called faith.”

The transition from preacher to outspoken atheist has not been easy, and DeWitt is trying to smooth the way for other former believers. He is executive director of Recovering from Religion, an organization founded in 2009. Its slogan: “Thousands of organizations will help you get INTO religion, but we’re the only one helping you OUT.”

But a relatively new effort goes a step further than his own group by focusing on helping clergy in particular. In March 2011, a coalition that includes national groups such as American Atheists, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Richard Dawkins Foundation helped launch the Clergy Project, which is aimed at giving doubting and atheist preachers a community.....

[OrangeHoof]

I could not help but think of the story about Job when i read your comment.

God led me to read the last five chapters of Job this morning. In my case, I've been unemployed the past eight months and watching my savings dwindle away.

I understand the whole point was to draw me into a deeper relationship with God but I'm so ready to move on and yet I am left to wait and my patience and faith are being tested more than I can sometimes bear. I know He is in control.

In this thread, my point is that I understand those who fall away but I understood when I accepted Christ that my life apart from Him was already pointless. Now I'm suffering hardship and sometimes not handling it very well.

Thank you, all, for your words.

[ravenwolf]

I understand the whole point was to draw me into a deeper relationship with God but I’m so ready to move on and yet I am left to wait and my patience and faith are being tested more than I can sometimes bear. I know He is in control.

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I would believe your patience is being tested for sure, but your faith? it don,t sound like it to me.

Good luck