Atheists Help Pastors "Move Beyond Faith"

"We know there must be thousands of clergy out there who have secretly abandoned their faith, but have no-where to turn" says Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher who now serves as the co-president of the atheist Freedom From Religion Foundation.

With money from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Science and Reason, Dawkins, Barker and other atheists have launched an out reach to help clergy who have abandoned their faith.

Dawkins website says, "The last place you might think to find an atheist or agnostic would be in the pulpit leading a congregation, but you’d be wrong."

"Unbelieving clergy exist. In fact, we are even organized," Dawkins writes on his website.

"The Clergy Project," they say, "helps religious leaders who have chosen to move beyond faith."

Here's how many and who they say have already joined.

Dawkins and Barker say they believe clergy need help in exiting the ministry saying, "It is near to impossible to leave."

If you read the article linked above, you get the notion that they feel the pastors who have left the faith are some how victims, and must be helped into atheism or its equivalent.

The Clergy Project claims they have nearly 100 members already and they are giving them "a true sanctuary for those of us who have replaced faith and dogma with reason and human well being."

They say their members ask to remain anonymous, but they have not only liberal clergy, "But many evangelical Christian pastors, Southern Baptists and a number of Pentecostal preachers."

Those finding anonymous sanctuary with this group are ask to affirm a testimony that they, "No longer hold supernatural beliefs and choose to identify as non-believers", as they continue in their pulpits until they can make a transition.

New Testament teaching describes one of the signs of the last days as a "falling away" from the faith (2 Thessalonians Chapter 2) .

There are many voices speaking in our culture today but we are reminded, "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

At a time when we desperately need to hear God's Truth spoken into our hearts and our culture, we experience silence from too many pulpits. And now this.

God help us.