So, the unasked question is: Why would one choose a career in the clergy, if he/she did not believe in the Creator?
Good pay and benefits.
Seriously, I knew an atheist who was ethnically Jewish who was studying to be a Jewish chaplain so he could help people with their life issues. He was pretty comfortable that this was a reasonable career path.
Apparently now not unasked. One answer about "Why" is that with a silver tongue, a well-shellacked mane, and a TV camera, it's a great way to wind up with a beautiful home with an air-conditioned doghouse and some real nice clothes. Ask Jim Bakker.
Sure, that’s the question that’s begged. But the larger point is that people are people.
Some no doubt choose a career in the clergy purely for the financial benefits. I knew one fellow who died a few years ago who went from being a Catholic priest to being a Southern Baptist minister and was attending a Methodist church when I met him, I don’t think he was ever a Methodist minister though. He obviously did not take religion very seriously considering some of the things he said to me. He claimed to be an independent politically but he toed the liberal line closely enough that he agreed with the absurd idea that the only reason anyone would not vote for Obama was racism. He was really strange, if you agreed with him on something he would change his own position so that he could have the pleasure of disagreeing with you. I only knew him from seeing him in the gym I attended and I tried to ignore him but he singled me out as someone he wanted to argue with apparently. I remember him saying something once and asking me, “What does that tell you?” I replied that it told me that I was living in the real world and he was living in a fantasy. He went nuts but when he calmed down he came back begging for more so every now and then I would tell him what an idiot he was.