I've updated this Meetup. For more details, see the full listing:
http://www.meetup.com/atheists-24/events/59095602/

When: Sunday, May 13,[masked]:00 PM

Where: PRESS BOX
932 SECOND AVE. (49/50)
NEW YORK, NY 10017
[masked]

This Meetup repeats on the 2nd Sunday of every month.

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How One Pastor Left the Ministry and Became an Atheist

With the Help of ‘The Clergy Project’

Jerry DeWitt became a Pentecostal minister at age 17 after he was “saved” at a religious youth camp by, of all people, the evangelist Jimmy Swaggert.   Recently, at 42, after 25 years of preaching, Jerry DeWitt came out publicly as--surprise!--an Atheist.

What happened in those 25 years that led Jerry to leave behind his small church in De Ridder, Louisiana, his birth family, his religious friends, even his day job (he was fired from his job as the city’s building inspector when he told his boss he had become an Atheist)?

What happened was “The Clergy Project”:  Jerry DeWitt is the first-ever graduate of  The Clergy Project, a “safe house” community of current and former ministers who no longer hold the beliefs of their religious traditions.

Escape from Religion

The  Clergy Project was founded by Tufts professor and Atheist author Daniel Dennett, author Richard Dawkins and former minister Dan Barker, head of Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) with his wife, Annie Laurie Gaylor.  The purpose of the Clergy Project is to help preachers who have doubts about their faith plan an exit strategy and find jobs in the secular world. (See clergyproject.org)

DeWitt is also the newly appointed executive director of  Recovering From Religion (RR), a nationwide organization dedicated to establishing local support groups for people  who are leaving their religion. RR was founded several years ago by Dr. Darrel Ray, a psychotherapist and author of “The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture.”

DeWitt was raised in a Pentecostal family, so getting saved by Swaggert was just “coming home to United Pentecostals,”  he says. This is an old style sect that embraces a 1940s dress code and does not allow TV, movies or sports. He married at 20 and for some years early in the marriage, he and his wife traveled from town to town as itinerant ministers in the deep South as he preached in small country churches.

Photo with Dawkins Goes Viral

The couple then settled down and De Witt became the pastor of his own small Pentecostal church in De Ridder, LA, a deeply faith-driven community of 40,000 residents--”39,999 of whom were religious.” He excludes himself from 40,000, confessing that doubts plagued his mind from the very beginning: Was there really a hell? And some parts of the Bible contradicted themselves. Still he preached, moving as a senior pastor into the more charismatic aspect of the sect: those who speak in tongues and believe in healing and miracles.

But several years ago, a friend lent him some Atheist books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Almost simultaneously, he found out about the Clergy Project on the internet.  He attended an Atheist convention in Texas and posed for a photo with Dawkins, which he posted on Facebook. The Facebook photo went viral in his town.

“As far as I know, I am the only openly Atheist person within our parish. It was shocking to them. My boss, who had become my best friend, fired me,” says DeWitt.  “Actually, I was being groomed to run for Mayor of the town, so I sacrificed two careers.”

A New Brand of Pioneer

These days, Jerry DeWitt has a new career: He is traveling the country once again, but now he’s speaking about his retreat from religion.  This time he’s trying to save people from religion rather than for religion.

Come and hear Jerry speak about his strange journey from revivalist preacher to nonbeliever.  He is still the dynamic, entertaining speaker that he was as a preacher;  it is his subject that has changed.

Come and support those ministers who have had the courage and strength to leave behind their religion, their faith and their communities and face the sometimes harsh reality of a life without gods. This is a new brand of pioneer, and the new world they are conquering is that of reality and reason. Let’s give these courageous few a big hand and our support!

EVENT SUMMARY

WHAT:      “FROM HOLY ROLLER TO ATHEIST IN FIVE

SIMPLE STEPS,” a talk by ex-Pentecostal pastor

Jerry DeWitt.

WHEN:       SUNDAY, MAY 13 at 12 noon

WHERE:    THE PRESS BOX

932 Second Ave. (Bet. 49th & 50th Streets.)

Second Floor

COST:        BRUNCH IS $20, which includes a selection

of Buffet entrees, salad, a soft drink, coffee,

tax and tip.  We are avid fans of the Eggs

Benedict.