Teresa McBain, (former) pastor of Tallahassee, Florida’s Lake Jackson United Methodist Church
Posted on 08/08/2012 4:14:07 PM PDT by fishtank
Pastor Became Atheist. Why?
by Brian Thomas, M.S. | Aug. 8, 2012
Teresa McBain ministered in the Methodist church for twenty years. She formerly pastored at Lake Jackson United Methodist Church in Tallahassee, Florida, but today she ministers as the public relations director of the American Atheists.1 She says that she used to believe in the God of the Bible, but she recently changed her mind: "I know it's a lie. I know it's false."2 Why has she rejected God?
She explained her reasons to the Christian Post, saying, "One [reason] was the contradictory nature of the Bible; the lack of scientific or historical foundation or accuracy, which took me a very, very long time to come to terms with."3
It makes sense to reject the God of the Bible if the Bible contained errors and lacked scientific or historical foundation. But it doesn't. Analyzing and teaching the amazing ways that true science confirms Scripture is what motivates the ministry of ICR—evidence for the veracity of science and Scripture abounds.
While McBain may represent those who are unfamiliar with or reject the truth of Scripture, scientific and historical confirmations of the Bible exist in abundance. A summary of ICR News reports during the month of June 2012, a small sampling of evidence, provides just a snapshot of recent examples:
Gene control regions are protected from tampering, which means that assuming that evolution tampers with them is a faulty conclusion.4 Evolutionists turned a blind eye to original dinosaur red blood cells when they claimed that Otzi the Iceman's red blood cells were the oldest preserved. Red blood cells in dinosaur fossils fit with the biblical young world.5 A clay seal with the oldest inscription of the word "Bethlehem" confirms that it had been a village before Micah prophesied that the Lord would be born there.6 Squid ink, made of original, unmineralized biochemical melanin, cannot possibly be as old as its 160-million-year age assignment, confirming the Bible's historical time line as well as its account of the great Flood.7 The precisely arranged body parts of rorqual whales were all required to coexist simultaneously for them to eat and survive, confounding whale evolution and confirming Genesis 1:21.8 Whoever arranged the molecular machines that perform plant photosynthesis understood quantum mechanics far better than any physicist.9 A 1984 Bible-based model for the origin of planets predicted that Mercury's crust would contain remanent magnetism from its recent creation. This was confirmed by MESSENGER's most recent survey in 2012.10 The newly published bonobo genome has a hallmark of special creation—its gene sequences do not match any evolutionary tree, but comprise a well-integrated mosaic of gene systems.11 The idea that the Bible has contradictions and lacks scientific or historical confirmation is popular, but it is wrong.
In a dramatic moment at the 2012 Annual Convention of American Atheists in Bethesda, Maryland, MacBain apologized to her new atheist friends for having been one of those "crazy fundamentalists."12 Believing in the fundamentals of the Bible would be crazy if the Bible were not internally, scientifically, and historically reliable.13 But because its verifications are so overwhelming, refusing to believe it is crazy.
References
Former Pastor Teresa MacBain New Public Relations Director. American Atheists. Posted on atheists.org July 3, 2012, accessed July 23, 2012.
Hagerty, B. From Minister To Atheist: A Story Of Losing Faith. National Public Radio. Posted on npr.org April 30, 2012, accessed July 23, 2012.
Zaimov, S. Ex-Pastor Turned American Atheist Director Tells How She Lost Faith. Christian Post. Posted on christianpost.com July 11, 2012.
Tomkins, J. Gene Control Regions Are Protected—Negating Evolution. ICR News. Posted on icr.org June 11, 2012, accessed July 23, 2012.
Thomas, B. Are Iceman Blood Cells Really the Oldest? ICR News. Posted on icr.org June 13, 2012, accessed July 23, 2012.
Thomas, B. Artifact Confirms Ancient Bethlehem. ICR News. Posted on icr.org June 18, 2012, accessed July 23, 2012.
Thomas, B. Fresh Fossil Squid Ink 160 Million Years Old? ICR News. Posted on icr.org June 20, 2012, accessed July 23, 2012.
Thomas, B. Organ Discovery Shows Why Whales Didn't Evolve. ICR News. Posted on icr.org June 22, 2012, accessed July 23, 2012.
Thomas, B. Photosynthesis Uses Quantum Physics. ICR News. Posted on icr.org June 25, 2012, accessed July 23, 2012.
Thomas, B. Mercury's Magnetic Crust Fulfills Creation Prediction. ICR News. Posted on icr.org June 29, accessed July 23, 2012.
Tomkins, J. Anti-Evolutionary Secrets of the Bonobo Genome. ICR News. Posted on icr.org June 29, 2012, accessed July 23, 2012.
Teresa MacBain - coming out - American Atheists Conf. March 26, 2012. You Tube. Posted on youtube.com March 29, 2012, accessed July 23, 2012.
For hundreds of articles that confirm the Bible in every major discipline, see Evidence for Creation. Institute for Creation Research. Posted on icr.org.
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on August 8, 2012.
Teresa McBain, (former) pastor of Tallahassee, Florida’s Lake Jackson United Methodist Church
For hundreds of articles that confirm the Bible in every major discipline, see:
Institute for Creation Research. Posted on icr.org.
I thought all UMC pastors were already atheists? What’s the big deal?
God Caused Love
Unlike affection, only humans are capable of receiving, giving, refusing, and rejecting love.
Animals (including chimps) are not able to provide any assistance to other creatures they are not related to, and even seem to be unable to recognize the needs of other animals. Although some animals (especially mammals like dogs, cats, and horses) can and do appreciate affection, only humans are capable of receiving, giving, refusing, and rejecting love.
Humans are driven by an entirely different kind of love. We love our children when they are disobedient. We can love our enemies and sacrifice our lives for our friends (like soldiers do). The highest, truest kind of love is that which consciously seeks and takes practical action to do good for someone else, valuing that other person as higher than one's self, even if providing such good requires self-sacrifice. This is what separates us, practically, from love expressed by animals.
Of course, if God did not create us, how would we ever know what real love is, much less learn to practice love ourselves? The very fact that we can love and be loved (by God and by others) is yet another proof of a Creator's love. Because of His own nature of infinite love and grace, it was God's good pleasure to create things in whom He could bestow His love and grace and who, being made in His image, would be capable of reciprocating and responding to that love.
"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
Must be a lesbo.
Nobody becomes a Minister with so many doubts about God and the Bible.
I smell a Trojan Rat!
Her statements appear scripted not sincere to boot.
is there any doubt?
I honestly have no inside info on that.
The book of Daniel shows amazing understanding of 6th century BC History and linguistics (both Aramaic and Hebrew) not to mention deep understanding of Babylonian Mythology and customs.
This woman must be historically illiterate!
One of the first things my parents taught me as a very small child was, “God said it, I believe it and that settles it.”
If is just difficult for some people to believe what you can’t see. Life is so much easier when you take Him at his word and let Him handle all the stuff.
The truth is, she did not give up her faith for reasons presented to her by logic. She gave it up because it’s inconvenient.
It’s real easy for an apostate denomination to “ordain” an apostate ‘minister’.
Happens all the time...........
Satans latest concubine. Some people just fight to have their name removed from the Book Of Life. She no longer has to worry about eternity so she better live this life to the hilt.
All Praise, Honor and Glory to my Lord and Savior.
Maybe, but I'm thinkin' she's toast.
A belief in "nothing" is a strong belief worthy of acceptance of "something" to believe in.
The same marvelous technology that brought this story to you allows you to find out more about it. If you learned how to use it, you’d find out that she’s been married for over 20 years to a career military man who’s now a police officer and has at least one child, a son who’s currently in the Army. So is she a lesbian? Unless you’ve got some special insight into these things it’s not as likely as you think.
Because she didn’t believe in the Truth of the Gospel, she would rather chose to reject Jesus (how sad) than to accept that God Had to Save Her, instead I am sure she chose her sin.
Pray that God still has mercy and changes her heart!
There are a more pastors who are non-believers than people realize.
A friend of mine who went to seminary told me that he overhead other students say “there’s good money in the God business” quite often as their reason for being there.
It made him so disgusted that he basically doesn’t believe in having a professional paid clergy any more. He thinks it should all be voluntary.
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