Terea MacBain appointed as public relations director for American Atheists poses for this undated pho
Posted on 07/12/2012 9:34:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A former Methodist worship and teaching pastor who served in ministry for 20 years before becoming an atheist has been appointed as the American Atheist's public relations director. In an interview with The Christian Post, she revealed that despite initially being ostracized by friends, she is now happy and at peace with her decision.
"No it was very, very gradual. Actually there's not really one single moment where I can look back and say ah, that was the moment. It was kind of a slow progression," Teresa MacBain shared about her loss of faith with CP in a phone interview on Tuesday.
After leaving her ministry earlier this year, MacBain, a Florida resident, also served as executive director of the Clergy Project, which offers support to former clergy members who have lost their faith and become secularists.
"My husband and kids were fine, they knew that things had changed for me, but extended family, I lost those relationships. I lost all of my friendships except for one couple. I have one maybe from the church that I'm still in contact with, but initially they were all just very angry. They locked me out of the church and it took me some months to collect my belongings. It was a very difficult situation," MacBain explained about reaction to her initial announcement.
There were those from the church who tried to reach out and speak to her, but those discussions did not go far.
"One pastor that was a former colleague of mine did reach out immediately and I went and sat down and talked to him. He discussed everything and let me share. It was kind of an intense conversation, but after that I haven't heard from that person anymore. I'm not really sure, I guess he just wanted to find some answers," she said.
Unable to point to one specific incident that made her change her mind about God and the Bible, MacBain chronicled the train of thought that led her from the Christian faith to her secularist reasoning today.
"It's just theological. I had no problems with the church or the structure or the organization. There are basically four steps that occurred over a long period of time. One was the contradictory nature of the Bible; the lack of scientific or historical foundation or accuracy, which took me a very, very long time to come to terms with. That was the starting point I guess when I realized that that wasn't true, that the Bible wasn't true. From there I moved to thinking about all of the religions in the world and how people basically associate, in most cases, with one religion or another based upon their own culture and how they were raised," she said.
"So I kind of moved into a position where I thought that all religions were equally valid and that it kind of depended on who you were and how you were raised but that we were all on the same journey. From there I moved to the question of the existence of hell and trying to understand how a supreme being could create humans that according to the Christian Bible are very weak and finite, as compared to God. How that creature, being, entity, whatever you want to call it, could punish them eternally in such a horrible and torturous place as hell. So that was kind of a third discovery."
While the former teaching pastor confessed that often during her ministry she had doubts about her faith, now as an atheist she feels more secure about her views in life.
"I feel secure. I feel peaceful. I just kind of clarified the doubts. All the while I was having those doubts and trying to struggle with those issues, I always felt that it would make me a stronger Christian. That it would make me a better pastor. It wasn't until it really hit home for me, where I was at, that I realized that instead of that I had actually grown much further away from my faith to the point of I no longer had faith."
In her new position as public relations director for American Atheists, which is one of the largest secularist organizations in the U.S., she says that her main goal is to defend First Amendment rights and continue fighting for the separation of church and state.
"I think one of the misunderstandings about what the term atheist means is that all of us think we're 100 percent certain that no one can change our minds about the belief in God, which isn't completely accurate. An atheist as far as what I believe means that we don't see any evidence; we don't think there is a God. We're very skeptical about it and choose to live our lives without God," MacBain said.
"Instead of looking to an outside source for the solution to humankind's problems, we see that responsibility as [our own]. We have to reach out and support each other. We can't say a prayer to an invisible being somewhere and expect that to be the solution. The solution has to be when one human reaches out to another."
The Clergy Project, with which MacBain serves in a voluntary role, was created in March 2011 as a private, invitation only, website for "for active and former clergy who do not hold supernatural beliefs." Starting with 52 members, it now has more than 300 members, according to the website.
-- CP reporter Brittney R. Villalva contributed to this report.
Did she ever really believe in Jesus?
Good way to cancel out any validity in her story. No way to really tell.
I don’t think she ever had FAITH to begin with. She has no true religious insight. The worst part of it is the effect on her immediate family - really bad.
In light of scripture’s teachings against women assuming a public role in congregational worship (cf I Corinthians 14 & I Timothy 2), her faith couldn’t have been too Bible based anyway. That’s the problem. Once Christians, quasi Christians and pseudo Christians start ignoring plain Bible teaching, there is no logical stopping point.
Psalm 14:1
“The fool[a] says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.”
I’d say that about covers this one!
—One was the contradictory nature of the Bible;—
IOW, she had no personal relationship with Christ. The Bible is not the foundation of the relationship. It enhances it.
Do I stop believing my wife exists if I find apparent contradictions in her diary?
—Did she ever really believe in Jesus?—
This.
I’ve read stories of long time servers in the ministry, some even relatively famous that completely gave up the faith. The real question is, “did they REALLY believe, or were they just going along with something that seemed to make sense - at first”.
She gives the appearance of a tolerant and reasonable person. However history has shown that when people like her (former religous people turned athiest)obtain power they can become nasty terrible people. The Mexican, Russian. and Cuban revolutions were full of born again athiests who tortured and killed the people they had once worshipped with and even their own families. It will be interesting to follow her career.
I would guess, no.
“she is now happy and at peace with her decision.”
She will be until she faces Christ at the White Throne Judgment.
How many people have wrestled with the notion that the God that Jesus worshiped would torture people for eons and that after setting up them up for failure and such things.
But this was a pastor, a shepherd and as such had a responsibility not just for their own faith but those she taught to vigorously seek out the truth of the Bible and it is evident this simply never took place.
A soldier who doesn't practice constantly with their sword soon looses its protection.
Sounds like she had a flawed notion of God from the beginning. God isn't there to 'solve our problems'. He made us rational beings to do that for ourselves. However, if we have no moral underpinnings for our actions, our problems will never be solved.
I guess she needs to ask herself, in the absence of some sort of morality, which is, at its base, religious teaching of some sort, how are humans supposed to 'reach out to each other', and solve any of our problems in a just manner?
Probably had a lot to do with the fact that she was acting directly contrary to God's Word.
She didn’t say much about Him, did she? She used the word “Christian” but never used the word “Christ”.
I suspect Mizz MacBain’s problem wasn’t so much that the Bible is “contradictory,” but that it was contradicting HER.
Nothing left to explain....."she" doesn't believe anything in the bible if "she" thinks "she's" ever qualified to be a pastor.
“The solution has to be when one human reaches out to another.”
Name me one atheistic charity.
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