From Minister To Atheist: A Story Of Losing FaithApril 30, 2012 | npr
...she started asking sharper questions. She thought they'd make her faith stronger.
"In reality," she says, "as I worked through them, I found that
religion had so many holes in it, that I just
progressed through stages where I couldn't believe it."
The questions haunted her: Is Jesus the only way to God? Would a loving God torment people for eternity? Is there any evidence of God at all? And one day, she crossed a line.
"I just kind of realized — I mean just a
eureka moment, not an epiphany, a eureka moment — I'm an atheist," she says. "I don't believe. And in the moment that I uttered that word, I stumbled and choked on that word — atheist."
On March 26, at the American Atheists' convention in Bethesda...
"My name is Teresa," she begins. "
I'm a pastor currently serving a Methodist church — at least up to this point" — the audience laughs — "
and I am an atheist."
Hundreds of people jump to their feet. They hoot and
clap for more than a minute. MacBain then apologizes to them for being, as she put it, "a hater."
"I was the one on the right track, and you were the ones that were going to burn in hell," she says. "And I'm happy to say as I stand before you right now,
I'm going to burn with you."
A few minutes later, MacBain strides off the stage into a waiting crowd. One man is
crying as he tells her that her speech is "one of the most moving things I've seen in years." Another woman says she, too, had been a born-again Christian. "Join the club," she says as she
hugs MacBain.
"I have never felt so appreciated and cared for, you know?" MacBain says later, noting that she has left one community — Christianity — for another. "New member, just been
born — that's what it feels like."
...it went
viral...The local TV station, WCTV, ran a series of stories about MacBain...
"...overnight you're the
bad guy..."
MacBain tried to see the church's district superintendent to explain, but he canceled the meeting. She was immediately
locked out and
replaced...
"I believe in God," says her husband, Ray...But he says he adores his wife and
defends her right to disbelieve.
"I miss the
music," she says. MacBain sang in church choirs and worship bands most of her life, and even though she no longer believes the words, she still catches herself singing praise songs.
She says she also misses the
relationships...and...the
ritual and
regularity of church life....
Alex's comment: A very moving story of a clergy-turned-born-again Atheist. 循道衛理牧師靈命進深致成為無神論者。非常感人的牧師得道重生成為無神論者的故事。她的丈夫雖然仍然是有神論者，但尊重及維護她的新信仰決志，非常窩心，非常美麗。
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