Preachers Leaving The Ministry…

[SpiderHerderParticipant 3759]

From Wikipedia’s Mother Teresa entry.

Privately, Teresa experienced doubts and struggle in her religious beliefs which lasted nearly 50 years (until the end of her life); according to her postulator, Brian Kolodiejchuk, “She felt no presence of God whatsoever … in her heart or in the eucharist”.[128] Teresa expressed grave doubts about God’s existence and pain over her lack of faith:

Where is my faith? Even deep down … there is nothing but emptiness and darkness … If there be God—please forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul.[129]

[Gravel PitParticipant]

LOL. exactly Spider Herder! I loved when Christopher Hitchens would routinely wreck Mother Teresa! buwhwahwhawha! rotten old Trout was a closet agnostic!

Im fvcking p~~~ed that Youtube erased SOPH’s channel. Im fixing to leave Youtube forever. Fvcking had enough. I will lose access to a lot of good channels though. Soon I will not care though. Youtube must be boycotted.

[Gravel PitParticipant]

[AutoliteParticipant]

Gravel Pit wrote:

Im not stirred by their experience. They changed jobs, so what? Not trying to diminish your posts at all bro, just saying.

Did you watch any of the videos? Dewitt talks about being shunned by his whole community, receiving death threats, getting fired from his secular job and his wife leaving him. In the first video in the OP, they talk about a former Muslim Atheist who ‘chickened-out’ on joining The Clergy Project because he feared ‘losing his head’… literally!

This is some pretty serious shhit…

[AutoliteParticipant]

SpiderHerder wrote:

From Wikipedia’s Mother Teresa entry.

Privately, Teresa experienced doubts and struggle in her religious beliefs which lasted nearly 50 years (until the end of her life); according to her postulator, Brian Kolodiejchuk, “She felt no presence of God whatsoever … in her heart or in the eucharist”.[128] Teresa expressed grave doubts about God’s existence and pain over her lack of faith:
Where is my faith? Even deep down … there is nothing but emptiness and darkness … If there be God—please forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul.[129]

It’s easy for Theists to just blow off Dawkins, Hitchens, Carrier et al. It’s a whole ‘nother ball game when we have preachers, ministers and those who had made religion their whole life calling bullshhit on Theism…

[Secret Agent MGTOWParticipant 22510]

Autolite wrote:

Secret Agent MGTOW wrote:

For me, mgtow is confirmed in the bible. There are plenty of warnings not to be involved with all types of women with chronic negative traits.

I concede that the bible spouts some healthy ideas. Things like don’t murder, steal or covet thy neighbor’s wife’s ass or something. But do you really need religious belief to know that you shouldn’t be doing this kinda stuff???

Look around at all the people all over the world not doing the stuff you say they should know they shouldn’t be doing. Without an external absolute authority, people are left to subjectively create moral systems that are in conflict with each other. Chaos and conflict are the name of the day and no one can appeal to any higher moral authoriy argument save “because i want to do it” or “this many people agree/mob rule”. It turns right and wrong into whatever anyone wants to do without requiring anything other than “do what thou wilt”. Recipe for destruction because not everyone lives by the golden rule, and maybe what they think is ok isn’t ok by you. Further no one can live their own moral system perfectly even one day either, even if they get to define it. So they aren’t any better than Christians who admit they can’t live perfectly, at least the Christians know they fail and ask for forgiveness. Like even in america today the socialists have succeeded in screwing up and dividing people so much with insane ideas you can’t be sure another person has the same common sense views you do. Try and meet up with a person who believes the 57 genders idea and deal with that insanity without them screaming at you how wrong you are.

Women want everything, but want responsibility and accountability for nothing.

[AutoliteParticipant]

Listening to this podcast you’ll hear preachers who are nonbelievers talk about their ‘exit strategy’. This is becoming a real eye-opener for me! I’m really starting to wonder how deep this actually goes! How many ‘Atheist Preachers’ could there possibly be out there? I mean it’s not like the majority of them are going to boast about it.

This guy is saying that god is real but the bible is totally fake! He sounds like he just might really be an Atheist who’s maybe afraid to take that one last little baby step…

[AutoliteParticipant]

Ex-preacher Dan Barker

[bstoffParticipant 4863]

While this certainly goes on, and is being widely reported now, I think this is still about average for clergy and other believers to doubt their faith or change their minds about something they’ve committed to.
I’ve changed from the religious “affiliation” I grew up with, to another one, based on my knowledge and experiences.
I still don’t fully agree with the particular group I’m with, and don’t attend a church anymore.
I think religion is a man-made thing and subject to all of man’s fallacies and misrepresentations.
Being only “spiritual” doesn’t fully represent how I feel called, and I’m not exactly sure what is calling me, but I know a higher power exists and it has a personal relationship with me.
I think many people here are painting with a very broad brush and making generalizations to support heir own belief structures.

[AwakenedParticipant 35201]

Secret Agent MGTOW wrote:

at least the Christians know they fail and ask for forgiveness.

Whom exactly are they asking forgiveness from???

I do believe that they are only asking “forgiveness” from THEIR GOD……and isn’t a lil much to be able to know that you can do whatever, and all you have to do is ask “forgiveness”, and then all is well again????

In a World of Justin Beibers Be a Johnny Cash

[AutoliteParticipant]

bstoff wrote:

I think this is still about average for clergy and other believers to doubt their faith or change their minds about something they’ve committed to.

As I understand it, having certain doubts and questions about your faith is pretty much universal among believers. I watched another video where some preacher claimed that this was common and quite normal for everyone who is religious.

However, what we are now seeing here with The Clergy Project are those who are supposedly the strongest supporters and advocates of Theistic belief completely rejecting their religion. We have those who have studied religion, made it a vocation, and who are now saying that’s it’s total bullshhit!

It’s sending a pretty strong message. Theists can simply dismiss people like Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris because they are outsiders. But it’s not so easy when it’s one of their own like Dewitt, Aus and Barker…

[bstoffParticipant 4863]

They are asking forgiveness from their God.
Many, but not all of them, do think they can sin endlessly and only ask for forgiveness to regain their free pass.
Grace is widely misunderstood by both believers and non-believers.
Indulgences were sold by the Vatican to the wealthy during the Holy Roman Empire, enabling people to sin without even feeling guilty, because they already “paid for their sins”, themselves.
This is one of the primary grievances for the Protestant Reformation.

[AutoliteParticipant]

bstoff wrote:

I still don’t fully agree with the particular group I’m with, and don’t attend a church anymore.

Apparently this is a growing trend today among Western believers. They’re calling it “dechurching”. It’s how many choose to deal with their cognitive dissonance. They suspect that religion is really all bullshhit but they just can’t yet bring themselves to the point of fully acknowledging it…

I think religion is a man-made thing and subject to all of man’s fallacies and misrepresentations.

Of course it’s completely a man made fabrication just like all gods. This is exactly what the Atheists have been trying to say…

[Gravel PitParticipant]

good posts, watched some the videos too.
My Muslim room mate asked me to explain the difference between Protestant and Catholic. I told him it was like Sunni and Shi’ite, mainly political particulars…

I said that Protestants will allow for birth-control and divorce, whereas Catholics dont.
I admit, I had trouble explaining the difference. You just think you know the difference but its hard when you get asked to explain it LOL

[AutoliteParticipant]

Gravel Pit wrote:

I said that Protestants will allow for birth-control and divorce, whereas Catholics dont.
I admit, I had trouble explaining the difference. You just think you know the difference but its hard when you get asked to explain it LOL

I believe the Protestants have newer, betters arms and munitions whereas the Catholics are more prone to fabricating their own weaponry, importing older second hand stuff and using IEDs. I believe that those are the primary differences…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_Irish_Republican_Army_arms_importation

[AutoliteParticipant]

Losing Our Religion

FYI for anyone who might be interested in this topic. Apparently there is a documentary that was produced in Canada about preachers who turned Atheist. I want to try and get it on DVD…

http://www.losingourreligion.ca/buy

[sidecarParticipant 35837]

Autolite wrote:

as many as 25% of current ministers not really believing what they preach.

I’m not surprised.

Just take a look at the flock they are supposed to tend. Consider that their faith, scriptures, and belief say one thing, but their female (and feminist) congregations and church organizations demand they preach the exact opposite.

Is it any wonder they end up believing nothing?

[bstoffParticipant 4863]

Another thing I’ve noticed a lot is that many “churches” are running themselves like a business, with marketing, fund-raising, and subsequently, stealing from the church.
Most churches are only doing sermons about, and discussing “safe” topics that won’t offend anyone.
Watered down faith.
It’s no wonder so many are seeing the weakness within their faith.

[AutoliteParticipant]

sidecar wrote:

Just take a look at the flock they are supposed to tend. Consider that their faith, scriptures, and belief say one thing, but their female (and feminist) congregations and church organizations demand they preach the exact opposite.

Is it any wonder they end up believing nothing?

That actually have ‘Atheist’ preachers now! People like Gretta Vosper and Bart Campolo who no longer believe but continue to preach. It’s like there are people who want to continue to cling to everything that religion has to offer except for the ‘believing in a god’ thing. It really makes you wonder how many people there are out there who maintain a facade of religious belief but who are really closet Atheists. I am thinking that these ‘preachers’ who are coming out might only just be the tip of the Atheist iceberg. I have only now just learned that there is a thing called ‘Christian Atheism’…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_atheism

[AutoliteParticipant]

bstoff wrote:

It’s no wonder so many are seeing the weakness within their faith.

It seems to me to be more of a deliberate rejection of faith. But what is faith really but a belief in something that our rational mind tells us just isn’t so? ‘Faith’ means that you are acknowledging and accepting something for which there is just no evidence…

What is Faith

[Author]

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