Atheist ministers struggle with leading the faithful

[Faithfree]

Atheist Ministers Struggle With Leading the Faithful

Two Active Ministers Say They No Longer Believe in God but No One Knows

By DAN HARRIS
Nov. 1, 2010

"I am an atheist," says "Jack," a Southern Baptist with more than 20 years in ministry.

"I live out my life as if there is no God," says "Adam," who is part of the pastoral staff of a small evangelical church in the Bible Belt.

The two, who asked that their real identities be protected, are pastors who have lost their faith. And these two men, who have built their careers and lives around faith, say they now feel trapped, living a lie.

"I spent the majority of my life believing and pursuing this religious faith, Christianity," Jack said. "And to get to this point in my life, I just don't feel like I believe anymore."

"The more I read the Bible, the more questions I had," Jack said. "The more things didn't make sense to me -- what it said -- and the more things didn't add up."

..... snip .....

The rest of the article here: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/atheist-minist ... d=12004359

I'll bet this is way more common than most people think. Having spent all your career being a minister and with all or most of your friend, family and associates being theists, and looking up to you for guidance, you feel absolutely trapped. Living a lie is the easy way out.

[Thinking Aloud]

This must be the hardest thing to deal with. My mother had the priesthood lined up as a not-quite-tongue-in-cheek potential career path for me (but being a Catholic, and having found the opposite sex rather attractive, I made my own mind up on such things). As someone who only really dropped the concept of God in their 30s, I can imagine the kind of dilemma a minister would find themselves in. It's easy to say, "Haha! Serves them right!" but faith, if you're brought up with it and without any alternative perspective, is part and parcel of your nature. It was all so utterly true that there would never have been a question of the alternative. And then to come to realise it was wrong, having devoted your entire life/career to it ...

[klr]

There's a skit in Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister about most of the CofE clergy not believing in God ...

Hold on, I think this is it:

[Pappa]

The guy who wrote "Don't Sleep there are Snakes" was a missionary who lost his faith as a direct result of some of the people he stayed with in the Brazilian Amazon. When he admitted he no longer believed in god, he lost everything he had previously held dear. His wife left him and took his kids. His whole family disowned him, and everyone he was close to were connected with the church.... so I can understand why these ministers would carry on pretending.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

If you're at all intelligent, you'll learn enough in seminary school to make you doubt. That doubt has to grow when you see no amount of praying works better than pure random chance or hard work. So they have to be either stupid or seriously conflicted.

[Thinking Aloud]

If you're at all intelligent, you'll learn enough in seminary school to make you doubt. That doubt has to grow when you see no amount of praying works better than pure random chance or hard work. So they have to be either stupid or seriously conflicted.

Well put me in that category too then. I studied geology, but still there was a disconnect between that and faith.

Sometimes the doubt never occurs - it's just not something you stop and think about. The presumption is just there the whole time. It's not until it occurs to you that you might be wrong that the critical analysis starts, and I suspect many never even consider that during their training.