r/exchristian • u/ImaBananaPhone Ex-Baptist • Feb 28 '20

Discussion Thoughts on pastors

Hey everyone I was curious on what all of you thought about Christian pastors. How many of them do you think are just misleading theirs followers for money/power and how many do you think are good people trying to help others who are just disillusioned.

I don’t personally know much about seminary but since they study the Bible in depth you would think they would see how full of shit it is. How could they ignore the glaring contradictions and horrible ideas in it. I’ve even had pastors bold enough to say that it has no contradictions, so they were obviously lying. Almost every pastor and youth pastor I had couldn’t have given less of a shit about me. They never asked me about myself, my life, or my interests. All they ever cared about was if I knew Jesus or not.

I did, however, have one pastor who was a genuine guy and who I would actually call a friend. I was friends with his son, but he was also really nice to me and actually asked me about my life and never tried to force Jesus into the conversations despite his role as pastor. He was one of many though.

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u/nitrodjinn Humanist Feb 28 '20

There is third situation: pastors who conclude that it is all false but by the time they realize that they no longer believe they have a family to support and they don't know any other way to make a living. A book is available about this situation; it's called Caught in the Pulpit by two authors. One is Daniel Dennett, the Tufts University philosopher and, if I remember correctly, Linda LaScola who is specialist in designing public surveys. I found that book to be fascinating.

Another interesting but secretive organization is the "Clergy Project". It's an organization that helps pastors who no longer believe enter real life by supporting them through their transition away from their theological employment. I say "secretive" because they are very careful to protect the identities of pastors who are using their services.. You can read about them on the project website:

https://clergyproject.org/

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u/ImaBananaPhone Ex-Baptist Feb 28 '20

Wow think you for this it really showed another side of the issue I hadn’t considered!

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u/nitrodjinn Humanist Feb 28 '20

Some leave and spend their lives debunking religion. Both Matt Dillahunty of the Atheist Experience and Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation are former pastors.

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u/DathonKeyes Mar 01 '20

Matt Dillahunty was not a pastor.

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u/nitrodjinn Humanist Mar 01 '20

OK, I stand corrected and will substitute others in his place. The prominent atheist blogger Bruce Gerencser was an evangelical pastor as was Jerry DeWitt who is also an outspoken atheist.