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Hope After Faith: An Ex-Pastor's Journey from Belief to Atheism |
Hope after Faith: An Ex-Pastor's Journey from Belief to Atheism - Jerry DeWitt
Most of the better-known faces of atheism have belonged to secular academicians like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens as opposed to author Jerry DeWitt, who happened to be a Pentecostal preacher before turning into an atheist, when his dialogue with faith over more than two decades failed to give him satisfying answers. His book titled Hope after Faith is an account of that transformation.
As a 17-year-old boy, DeWitt became a pulpit-pounding pastor in the town of DeRidder in Louisiana. Over 25 years, DeWitt dutifully ministered to his Pentecostal following, despite him often doubting his own faith. One night in 2011, when a member of his flock called seeking prayer for her brother who had been injured in a grave accident, speech failed DeWitt as he realized that the faith to which he had devoted so much time, had somehow managed to dwindle away. Upon sharing his revelation with those around him, he found himself ostracized by those who looked up to him once, even his employers and his wife.
With both atheism and agnosticism entering the mainstream, one in five Americans claim no religious affiliation today and thus there is a growing need for a voice that will be respectful of traditional religious practices yet warmly embrace a life free of religion. The struggle for identity that DeWitt faced mirrors that faced by millions of atheists around the world. Hope after Faith may be the story of one man’s evolution toward committed and considered atheism but it does echo the thoughts and inhibitions of many others who seek a profound moral dimension and wish to be driven by humanism.
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I always like to read this kind of story even if it is just to see what the catalyst for their loss of faith was. This one I might avoid though, it seems to much like the rest and that raises some red flags to me as far as the validity of the story or it's purpose.