It sounds like you are due for some big shifts in your life. I'm sure you'll rest easier when you are living a life of personal integrity. May all go well for you.

Congratulations and welcome to the world of reality.

It's never too late to start all over again. The transition can be a little rocky but it is better to go through the fire and come out the other side a better person than to stay stagnant in a life without meaning or love.

Congratulations for finding your way from the dark side. Hopefully sleep will come easier once released from your shackles.

Hallelujah and Ra'men! Stay strong

I hope you are aware of the clergy project. If not check it out. It is a very closed group that helps pastors escape the church.

Congratulations I hope the rest of your escape goes well for you. As a former JW ans at one time an elder i have an idea of how you feel I stood on the pkatform with my mouth quoting the bible and saying how wonderful jehovah is etc etc my head was saying what a load of crap.

That must be a incredible relief, being able to break two very corrupt relationships, to climb out of the rut and head for the high ground. It doesn't necessarily mean you'll be happier but at least you will again have the potential to be happy. Good luck mate.

I'm happy for your upcoming freedom. Enlightenment is better late than never ! Good luck !

Good luck with your life in July. You should check out "The Clergy Project", they help people like you with support.

Wow! You're an atheist clergyman? You pulled that off? You should sell used cars. Maybe you can get a job with Goldman Sachs selling worthless bonds to your customers as AA rated.

If your looking for insight from someone who's already walked your path, Dan Barker is an atheist and former Evangelical preacher. He's also an excellent author.

Congratulations for crossing from the dimness and shadows of religion into the light and brilliance that is Reality.

Congratulations and good luck.

Very awesome. I admire your efforts. As pretty much a lifelong non believer in a non religious family I can only imagine what your life might be like. I hope utter success in your efforts to live the life you want.

Congratulations & good luck! Keep your preacher's license - you can pick up a few $$ from a fill-in gig now & then.

I can’t imagine how you have managed to hold it all together all this time. I have heard one or two clergymen on TV (from the Anglican C of E) admit that they have lost their faith in god, I thought it was curious that they were still holding down jobs as vicars and hadn’t resigned. I suppose there are monetary factors involved, I can understand that, but that you managed to maintain that level of subterfuge and pretence must have taken a big toll on your mental health. I wish you well for the future.

I am relieved and happy for you. Keep us posted.

Good for you! My own departure from christianity to atheism was devastating. I was studying for a Bachelor in Theology only to discover that it was all based on myth at best or outright lies at worst. I discovered that most of my professors were hanging in by their fingernails, and then one of the said to me ‘You are god’. Applying reason to that statement resulted in the knowledge that I have everything I need to live in this world is within me, and that god is in fact a figment of human imagination. I was in a deep abyss for about two years, came out the others side a strong capable woman. It has been over 20 years now and I am freer now than I ever was for the first 40yrs of my life.
Hope you continue to go from strength to strength in your new found freedom.

I applaud you in your endeavor to finally free yourself from the gilded cage of faith. I never really participated extensively in church. I was baptized as a boy of six and just believed because my family did, so when my time came I was twelve and simply told my mom I didn’t want to go to church anymore and she was great about it despite being a believer to this day. My faith wavered for years until I just let it go around 18. I can’t imagine how difficult your predicament is/was but now you can return to who you were when you were born into the world, innocent but this time you are free to make your own way. Congratulations.

This is not uncommon nowadays. Ordained minister Dan Barker of Freedom From Religion Foundation is the first one I think of. Also John Shuck declared his atheism and continued to pastor a Presbyterian (USA) church.

Wow, congratulations on getting through your last major church service. Was it televised from your home? I'm wondering what your plans are for exiting stage left. Will you come clean with your congregation? They might feel disappointment, maybe anger that they've been lied to, manipulated, duped. Do you think you will remain in contact with some of the people you got close to? It sounds like you are on the verge of an incredibly empowering experience, one that will allow you to get real with yourself about who you are and what you believe.

Good luck to you.

It isn't even rational to believe that a crucified man would be given a tomb, and especially when contemporary history of the time says nothing about him. That's right. No mention of poor Jesus from Romans or his own people. No mention of his name by anyone who lived in his timeline. No mention of anyone outside of the bible reference who was tried and crucified in this manner and the bible is not history. If a man was important enough to have an audience with Pilate, history on both sides should have said something. The reality is that Pilate most likely would not have cared and chances are he and Jesus could not speak the same language. Those that want you to believe in Jesus had to fabricate a story about why he died.

Did you enjoy your tax-free church, property, and income? Almost debt-free? Must be nice. A life lived ALWAYS for the truth is much better than one lived for the truth only when it's convenient.

Keep your clergy license plate