[franklyn4]

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/o...e_pastors.html

The above link is to an article in Newsweek's religion section. The article deals with Clergymen who are secretly atheist, but the overall spirit of the article is about men in the pulpit who dont believe in what they are preaching and teaching but refuse to speak out and inform their congregations and denominations about their true views.

While reading i saw some of the parallels in my own life as i was in that boat as well. So yes, while i was reading i really saw myself a few years back, not on the atheist track but just questioning many things inwardly that i have been taught from a child and reinforced in bible college.

While i was teaching and preaching the "company line," inwardly I was frustrated because in studying the bible for myself, the contradictions and conflicts became obvious. There were certain beliefs and convictions that i couldnt reconcile with scripture. I was between a rock and a hard place. Either preach and teach what i was indoctrinated with or teach and preach what the Bible says knowing the fall out that would ensue. So for about two years there were some subjects i didnt speak on or teach about all together and there were some activities i didnt get involved in.

A few times when i tried to talk about my concerns i saw then and there that the blow back would be fierce, so in the end i just walked away from ministry all together for a while until i figured things out in my own mind.

[I dont want this post to be misconstrued as taking a shot at any one denomination. Its just that while reading the article it brought back to my mind those days when, i too, was in a similar position and wanted a safe place to air out my thoughts and questions without being labeled as this or that.]

It is a long article, but its a good read. Here are two paragraphs that i hope will wet your appetite and spur you to read the entire article.

The ambiguity about who is a believer and who is an unbeliever follows inexorably from the pluralism that has been assiduously fostered by many religious leaders for a century and more: God is many different things to different people, and since we can't know if one of these conceptions is the right one, we should honor them all. This counsel of tolerance creates a gentle fog that shrouds the question of belief in God in so much indeterminacy that if asked whether they believed in God, many people could sincerely say that they don't know what they are being asked.

In other words, some theologians and denominations have embraced a theology so fluid and indeterminate that even an atheist cannot tell the believers and unbelievers apart.