...One has to wonder, if he actually KNEW the true and living God, why would he even want to consider taking time off?
These old threads might have the answer:
He used to lead a congregation in Southern California, but in March [of 2013], he was asked to step down after voicing some of the doubts that led to this decision to "try on" atheism. Just a few days into the new year, after announcing his resolution, Bell was asked to leave the teaching positions he held at the Christian Azusa Pacific University and Fuller Theological Seminary...."I feel like I lost my church leadership position and then I really didn't have any compulsion to go to church internally, like I just didn't feel like participating in church. I tried a number of times."We also got these tidbits from CNN on January 8th:
-- from the thread Former Pastor Decides To Spend A Year Without GodBell had announced his experiment to "try on" atheism for a year in The Huffington Post on New Year's Eve, saying he was struggling with his faith and had difficulty reconciling it with the treatment of homosexuals and women in the Adventist Church. "For the next 12 months I will live as if there is no God. I will not pray, read the Bible for inspiration, refer to God as the cause of things or hope that God might intervene and change my own or someone else's circumstances," he said, clarifying that he was not an atheist ("at least not yet").
Ro Os, a friend of the ex-pastor, warned against the pitfalls of Bell's experiment on the fundraising campaign's page. "Ryan is a personal friend. I support anyone honestly wrestling with questions of belief and unbelief, as any half-thoughtful person must. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's move toward 'religionless Christianity' comes to mind. I am disheartened, however, by performative aspect of this campaign, which is not honest in the way that it paints Ryan as the victim of heartless Christians who abandoned him in his time of need," wrote Os.
-- from the thread Atheists Donate to Former Pastor, Ryan Bell, Who Lost Jobs for Trying Out Atheism for a Year
He’s 42 and has been a pastor or in seminary for most of his adult life. Now he faces the prospect of poverty and taking odd jobs to feed his two daughters, 10 and 13....He had advocated for the church to allow gay and lesbian leaders, campaigned against California’s same-sex marriage ban and disputed deeply held church doctrines about the End Times....Bell said he bears no ill will toward the church or the schools that let him go, though he wishes they would tolerate, if not support, his atheism experiment. The loss of income has led to some family stress, he said. “I have kids to support and utilities to pay and the rent is due,” Bell said. “At this point I’m willing to do almost anything.” Bell said he and his wife are divorcing, though not because of his atheist experiment.Smells like someone is having a mid-life crisis.
-- from CNN
>>Bell had announced his experiment to “try on” atheism for a year
It’s interesting that he chose atheism when he could’ve chosen to pluck the vestigial religious plumage off his spirituality instead.