So, what happens when members of the clergy
decide that they're atheists?
This is a tough situation to be in because, you know,
it's hard enough when you're just a random person
who thinks, "Oh, I don't think I believe in God anymore".
You gotta deal with your own set of issues, but
at least, you know, you'll be able to work through them yourself.
When you're a pastor
and you make a living,
maybe not a great living, but you make a living
as a pastor, a preacher at a church,
and all of a sudden you start to realize you have doubts,
now things are scary because
now you're putting your own livelihood at stake. If you come out as an atheist,
you would lose your job.
And it's not just about you anymore. You might have a family that is dependent on you
to bring in that little bit of income.
So, it's really hard when you're a pastor who is an atheist.
Not only that, it's weird on a moral issue, because you have to preach about things
you may not believe in anymore.
So, when I've talked to pastors who think they're atheists,
they will tell you stories about how
they go from having, you know, this personal relationship with Jesus
to thinking: "Oh, Jesus was a good guy
and God is someone who I am connected with". And then they go to:
"Oh, God's somewhere out there."
"It's a nice story. It's nice philosophy."
Until they finally get to this other side of the spectrum that says none of that's true.
And what happens is their sermons kind of follow that path as well.
Instead of telling people, you know,
"You have to do what the Bible says because the Bible's", you know, "infallible. It's the Word of God,"
they start saying, "Oh, there's some good stories in here."
"We should try to look for the bigger picture in what these Bible stories are telling us."
And then down the line it's like,
"Well, just be a good person. You don't need the Bible to tell you that. It's human nature. Follow the Golden Rule."
And eventually, their sermons have like no Bible stuff in it at all.
What happens if you're a pastor who becomes an atheist?
For a long time the answer was: "Don't do anything. Just suck it up and keep preaching."
But now we actually have seen there are some options
which is, you know, lately there's-- The big thing has been the Clergy Project,
which is specifically reaching out to pastors who are still in the pulpit,
but don't think they believe in God or maybe have gone the full step and said, "I don't believe in God."
And what the Clergy Project does is they vet you. They make sure you're really who you say you are.
But all of a sudden, you get admission into this secret anonymous forum
where you can talk to other people that are in the same position you are.
You can ask them, you know, "What do you preach about? What do I do with my livelihood?
"Is there any other job
where I can use these skills?"
Because, you know, for a lot of pastors, they didn't go to a college.
They might have gone to seminary, but those skills are not necessarily transferable.
And they need some help. They need some money
to kind of help them transition into a different way of life.
It's tough for them to do
and only a few people have actually
gone the full route -- that I've ever met --. Who have gone from preaching
the word of God
to saying: "I don't believe any of this and I don't want you all to believe any of this."
And they will go back to their church and say, "You know all that stuff I told you all those weeks and years,
I was wrong, don't listen to me," like
"Take back-- I take back everything I said."
Only a few of them have actually come out and said that.
And said, you know, "This is me. This is who I am."
"I used to preach and I don't believe in God anymore."
And they get called a lot of names. I mean, people will
immediately say, "Well, they were never really Christian to begin with."
But all of them
will tell you they were fully Christian. They could speak in tongues in some cases.
They were fully having those conversations with God. They believed
fully in God. They were immersed in that lifestyle
their entire life.
So, it's hard to understand why anyone would accuse them
of not being Christian when they clearly were.
But you're also starting to see grant money.
I remember the Stiefel Freethought Foundation is sponsoring a grant for pastors
who want to leave their jobs and find some other line of work.
But they need skills
and they need money to tide them over until they can acquire those skills. And so,
some groups are actually giving money
to help them do that.
But that's really-- It's the ultimate
position where,
you know, not believing in God is an issue.
Because if you're a politician, if you're teacher like me or someone,
who cares if you don't believe in God?
But when you're a pastor and you've been saying
and convincing other people that God exists and
they should trust in God,
what happens when, you know,
you become the doubter?
It's such a challenging position to be in, but
my guess is there's a lot more of them out there than we think.
And they've been raised in these churches where they tell you, "Don't doubt."
"Doubt is a bad thing. Doubt's a four-letter word
and you should just put your faith in God."
And all of a sudden, the people who used to say that to you
are the ones having those doubts and they're starting to
second-guess, you know, second-guess their own sermons.
There's a lot of them out there.
They don't know each other exist necessarily.
But I think the most honest thing to do is to give them
an environment where
they can feel safe in expressing those doubts and telling their congregation:
"Hey, I don't know that I believe this, but here's my interpretation of it."
And hopefully their congregation will support the pastor who's been supporting them for this long.
Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen,
but that's kind of the best hope. You would think if they were a good Christian Church, they would support their pastor
even if they think
he's no longer a Christian, but unfortunately we don't see that happen all that often.
I'm Hemant Mehta
and I write at FriendlyAtheist.com
If you have any questions you'd like us to answer on this channel,
please leave those in the comments as well and we will try to get to those.