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I saw this story on the news tonight about ministers that have been in the ministry for 20+ years, have lost their faith, and are unable to "come out" for fear of losing their friends, family, and only job they've ever known.
One of them said "Reading the Bible is what led me not to believe in God"
"....when speaking to parishioners, they tried to stick to the sections of the Bible that they still believed in -- the parts about being a good person. Both said that they would like to leave their jobs though they can't afford to. "
What do you guys think? Can ministers who no longer believe, still meet the needs of their congregation?
I saw this story on the news tonight about ministers that have been in the ministry for 20+ years, have lost their faith, and are unable to "come out" for fear of losing their friends, family, and only job they've ever known.
One of them said "Reading the Bible is what led me not to believe in God"
"....when speaking to parishioners, they tried to stick to the sections of the Bible that they still believed in -- the parts about being a good person. Both said that they would like to leave their jobs though they can't afford to. "
What do you guys think? Can ministers who no longer believe, still meet the needs of their congregation?
The acceptance and retention of our ancestors' primitive ignorance has reached critical mass because any revision of understanding has been deliberately prevented. The build-up of knowledge against the tenacity of ignorance as a sign of "faith" should have caused this to happen much sooner than it has. If we had incurred the small revisions that were possible over the 2000+ years of evolution of spiritual understanding . . . we would not be at this critical mass. It is producing this over-reaction . . . to a complete rejection of God . . . instead of just rejecting the stupid religious interpretations of God using fables, myths, and superstitious magical thinking fostered by literal reading of our primitive ancestors' ignorant understanding of God.
Daniel Dennett wrote something about this subject matter, you can read it here.
I think at this point, it's just a day job to them and can't break from it because, like OP mentioned, it's all they know. Is it that hard to go back to school and educate yourself on a different trade? Or perhaps being self-taught through the internet? Seems rather cowardly to live in hypocrisy and laziness, day in and day out.
Yes. The rejection of Christian "revelation" is not the same as the rejection of belief in God.
1 Cor 11:
"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me."
Maybe the fact that they are missing out on a paycheck? I mean seriously, what racket better than certain religious movements to make a fat $$$ wallet? Not to say that ALL ministers are like that but I have met many who were only in it for the money....
What do you guys think? Can ministers who no longer believe, still meet the needs of their congregation?
Sure. The belief in a deity is not required to be a good mentor or counselor. It's too bad they have to live a lie, I'd have issues with that since I think that in general, most lying is wrong. But I can see why they do it, out of fear of losing their families and jobs.
Too bad christians don't love everyone like they claim to do, or this wouldn't be such an issue.
Can ministers who no longer believe, still meet the needs of their congregation?
Of course they can. They are salesmen. How many salesmen don't have 100% confidence in the products they sell?
They tell people what they want to hear. That's how any salesman is successful. The other way is to take advantage of a person's insecurities. You want to make money? Convince a fat person they'll be skinny if they buy your product for example. Same for religion.
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