Atheist Ex-Pastor Jerry DeWitt’s Mission to Red America

[rug]

Louisiana pastor Jerry DeWitt unexpectedly became an atheist celebrity when he lost his faith. But he decided to stay put and create a haven for secularists in his hostile hometown.

By David Masciotra
November 17th 2013, 6:45 am

Last Sunday, several hundred atheists gathered in a Hollywood auditorium for the inaugural meeting of the Los Angeles Sunday Assembly, the latest blossoming of the atheist “church” movement slowly spreading across the country. Thanks to a fundraising tour by the British comedy duo who launched Sunday Assembly in the U.K., America is suddenly hearing about new “atheist megachurches” that have cropped up in several major cities.

But far away from the hype cycle of social media and the cultural freedom of metropolitan America, a former Louisiana pastor is struggling with a similar project deep in the small towns of the evangelical South. On June 23, Jerry DeWitt led the first service of the Community Mission Chapel in Lake Charles, Louisiana—a product of his own painful journey from beloved local pastor to abandoned outcast. His decision to stay in a hostile rural environment sets him apart from most other clergy members who embrace atheism—and from the burgeoning atheist church movement.

“Everyone else who did what I did left where they lived,” DeWitt said, referring to other Christian pastors he’s met who took public positions of atheism. “Someone had to stop that. Someone had to be the first not to move, so that the next person doesn’t have to move.”

DeWitt served as a pastor for two churches in DeRidder, Louisiana, but could not overcome the inescapable questions of doubt that haunted him after realizing there was no theological explanation or justification for the suffering of innocent people, the triumph of science over superstition, and the divisiveness of dogmatic doctrine. Reading the popular books of atheistic argumentation by Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins was like throwing gas on the fire of his internal transformation.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/16/atheist-ex-pastor-jerry-dewitt-s-mission-to-red-america.html

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1. DeWitt interviewed on a recent "Reasonable Doubts" podcast.

Church for atheists (Download link at link.)

After 25 years of ministry, Pentecostal preacher turned atheist, Jerry Dewitt, finds himself behind the pulpit once again. He’s still singing, teaching and calling upon his congregation to share testimonials…but this is no ordinary “church.” The Community Mission Chapel, where Dewitt now serves, spreads a humanist message to a congregation of atheists. But do atheists really need a church? Dewitt joins us in the studio to tell us about his church, the challenges of ministering to atheists and to share his thoughts on why some skeptics desire a more traditional form of fellowship. Also on the episode: sorry, but Jesus was not made up by the Roman aristocracy no matter what biblical pseudo-scholar Joseph Atwill tells you. We’ll tell you why for this episodes Skeptics Sunday School.

[cbayer]

2. Say what? He has gotten more publicity that just about anybody doing this.

I still think he's a con artist.

[dimbear]

3. When Saint Paul wasn't preaching, he made tents.

Still good advice.