A support group for hypocrites

Ann Althouse commented today on this article:

Atheists recently went public with a new website aimed at creating a community for clergy who have lost their faith. ....

“We know there must be thousands of clergy out there who have secretly abandoned their faith but have nowhere to turn,” Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher who now serves as co-president of FFRF, said in a statement Friday.

“Now they do have a place to meet, a true sanctuary, a congregation of those of us who have replaced faith and dogma with reason and human well-being.”

The Clergy Project is the brainchild of outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins, philosopher Daniel Dennett, researcher Linda LaScola and Barker. ....

Dawkins and Barker believe clergy need help in exiting the ministry, saying it is "near to impossible" to leave.

"If a farmer tires of the outdoor life and wants to become an accountant or a teacher or a shopkeeper, he faces difficulties, to be sure. He must learn new skills, raise money, move to another area perhaps. But he doesn't risk losing all his friends, being cast out by his family, being ostracized by his whole community," Dawkins writes on the website.

"Clergy who lose their faith suffer double jeopardy. It's as though they lose their job and their marriage and their children on the same day."

Althouse notes:

A farmer who "tires of the outdoor life" is not a fraud, is not deceiving the people he cares about telling the truth to. It's funny that Dawkins didn't put that problem first. That says something about Dawkins, no?

Atheists Form Support Group for Nonbelieving Pastors, Christian News, Althouse: "We know there must be thousands of clergy out there who have secretly abandoned their faith but have nowhere to turn."