<h1 class="cnnBlogContentTitle"><a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/13/unbelieving-preachers-get-help-to-come-out-as-open-atheists/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link:Unbelieving preachers get help to 'come out' as open atheists">Unbelieving preachers get help to 'come out' as open atheists</a></h1>
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<p class="cnn_first">By <strong>Dan Merica</strong>, CNN</p>
<p><strong>(CNN) </strong>– 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p><span id="more-30439"></span>During his speeches, he talks about the process of leaving his preacher job. “If you don’t believe, then you will be like me <strong>–</strong>
you’ll suddenly find yourself where you only have two choices,” DeWitt
told a group in Johnson County, Kansas, earlier this year.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>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 <a href="http://recoveringfromreligion.org/">Recovering from Religion</a>,
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.”</p>
<p>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 <a href="http://www.atheists.org/">American Atheists</a>, the <a href="http://ffrf.org/">Freedom From Religion Foundation</a> and the <a href="http://richarddawkins.net/">Richard Dawkins Foundation</a> helped launch the <a href="http://clergyproject.org/">Clergy Project</a>, which is aimed at giving doubting and atheist preachers a community in which they can talk about their disbelief.</p>
<p>The program's ultimate goal: to help unbelieving preachers to “come out” in real life.</p>
<p><strong>A safe online community</strong></p>
<p>The Clergy Project’s key component is a private online community of
active and former pastors discussing their conversions to lives of
active disbelief. It lets congregational leaders come out anonymously,
using an alias.</p>
<p>“It is important to focus on any group of people who are in a lot of
pain,” said Linda LaScola, a co-founder of the Clergy Project. “That is
why the Clergy Project exists, and it wouldn’t be growing if there
wasn’t a need for it.”</p>
<p>When it launched last year, 52 clergy signed up for the online
community, according to LaScola. A little more than a year later, 270
members are contributing to the message boards and connecting
anonymously with one another.</p>
<p><br></p>
<p>According to LaScola, the community includes some rabbis, imams and Catholic priests, but the majority are Protestants.</p>
<p>Members are barred from disclosing what is discussed on the boards,
but DeWitt said it’s a blend of humor, advice and encouragement.<strong> </strong>DeWitt, who left his congregation just over a year ago, is considered the group’s first graduate.</p>
<p>“It gave me confidence to come out,” DeWitt said of the Clergy
Project. “Knowing that I was not alone, that I was not a fluke, that I
was not a freak of religious nature, but that this is a process; it most
definitely gave me confidence and a purpose.”</p>
<p>DeWitt said that after connecting with people on the message boards,
he realized he faced fewer obstacles than some others who are trying to
leave the ministry. For example, DeWitt's wife and son already knew
about his disbelief, while other questioning preachers had not yet told
their families.</p>
<p>“I think it is important when you are struggling that you talk it
out, that you write about it, that you find support,” said Teresa
MacBain, acting executive director of the Clergy Project. “I still try
to reach out to people who are questioning, who are doubting, clergy
people and laypeople alike, and let them know they are not alone, that
there are people who care.”</p>
<p><strong>How does he feed his family?</strong></p>
<p>For 44 years, MacBain was involved in some sort of ministry, from
organizing worship music to being a senior pastor at a Methodist church
in Florida.</p>
<p>At a recent American Atheists convention in North Bethesda, Maryland,
MacBain first publicly announced her atheism, inspiring a roaring round
of applause. American Atheists President David Silverman walked onstage
and hugged her as MacBain began to cry.</p>
<p>"I was the one on the right track, and you were the ones that were
going to burn in hell," MacBain told the crowd. "And I'm happy to say as
I stand before you right now, I'm going to burn with you."</p>
<p>She said she sees plenty of growth potential in the Clergy Project.
In the near future, she said she hopes to incorporate it as a nonprofit
and begin raising funds for clergy who have decided to leave ministry
jobs. She also wants to compile a group of employment recruiters to help
former clergy find new jobs.</p>
<p>DeWitt, for his part, is struggling financially and said his house could be foreclosed on in the next few months.</p>
<p>For former preachers in search of work, their old skills can be hard
to translate into new fields. What references do former ministers use if
they have disappointed their congregants by leaving the pulpit?</p>
<p>MacBain said that some “formers,” as she calls ex-clergy, have left
their hometowns for new jobs in fields ranging from radio to counseling.</p>
<p>To aid those transitions, Recovering from Religion has started the
Clergy Professional Relief Fund, dedicated to “helping ex-ministers have
a soft landing after coming out of the ministry.” Though little money
has been collected so far, the hope is to help former ministers with job
training and relocation expenses.</p>
<p>“Even if you have a degree in divinity, that doesn’t really mean
anything,” DeWitt said. “That is the biggest fear that a nonbelieving
clergy member has. How does he feed his family?”</p>
<p><strong>Losing faith, losing friends</strong></p>
<p>As a young fresh-faced minister, DeWitt was first confronted with his
disbelief when he “became the person who got the burden of preaching
about hell,” he said. “I really loved the people I preached to, I loved
them like family. So imagine preaching that if you don’t do this, you
are going to burn in hell. That wasn’t easy for me.”</p>
<p>After doubt about hell, DeWitt began to research other schools of
thought about God and belief. He began to develop other doubts, about
certain biblical translations and about healing.</p>
<p>“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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>When DeWitt decided to come out as an atheist, some in his congregation appeared shocked.</p>
<p>“I was very heartbroken actually because his family means so much to
me; they are actually like family,” said Natosha Davis, 30, who attended
DeWitt’s church for four years. “I was very heartbroken for him that he
had to go through that and struggle.”</p>
<p>Many congregants were less charitable. “Some people where he lives
just totally turned their backs on him,” Davis said. “He was ostracized,
excommunicated. It is like he has a disease, but he doesn’t.”</p>
<p>When DeWitt runs into people he used to preach to, he still averts
his eyes. Going to the post office and to Walmart, he said, can be
stressful because of the possibility of running into a former
congregant.</p>
<p>“It is because places in which you were once admired now you are
suddenly scorned or pitied,” DeWitt said, who admits not having many
friends anymore. “It makes for an extremely uncomfortable life.”</p>
<p>And yet DeWitt said his atheist life mirrors his old religious one in
some key respects. In some ways, he said, he’s still a minister.</p>
<p>“The origin of the symmetry is me, is my personality, my love for
people, my love for ministering,” DeWitt said. “What I have always tried
to do is to minster from where I personally am at.</p>
<p>“When I was 17, I preached what I believed was best for people at the
time; when I was 20, it was a little different; at 25 it was different,
too,” he said. “And now at 42, I am still the same guy preaching what I
see is best for people.”</p>
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