After several conversations with this former minister, he agreed to respond to several questions.  His story isn’t that different from my own exit from ministry and faith.

An excerpt from this weekend”s column entitled, “Missing Potlucks and Singing [in Choir], but Not Theology”

I asked a minister who has served for years as a chaplain and counselor, how he would frame the development of his religious views. He responded with a description of his journey from being an evangelical Christian in the South, to a moderate Christian in college and seminary, before choosing to be ordained as a liberal-minded pastor. Serving in ministries with adults and children, he says quite poignantly and pointedly: “I gravitated to being a liberal thinking Christian and then a fed-up Christian.” I was glad he had more to say about that! “I was fed-up with self-serving exclusivist and exceptionalistic theology that excludes people in the name of God and the Church.”

I find it significant that he didn’t become a church-hater, or angry anti-religionist. He chose a more positive, constructive path forward.”

Look for the whole column in your local paper, or here.