Pastor tries experiment: Gets backlash and support

[Anonymous]

I thought this article on cnn.com today was interesting about a pastor who decides to try a year of not believing, and to read how some people react to him about that.

Here is the article: Link

There are some interesting positions by the 7th Day Adventist church which are interesting to me, and one colleague writes:

Quote:

“There is no honest person of faith who doesn’t have doubts, and Ryan is being courageous enough to take a step back and assess his life. This is bold stuff.”

…sounds like a good friend who doesn’t agree with him, but can acknowledge the guy’s sincerity with what he is doing, and acknowledging that we all doubt.

It is also interesting to see support he receives.

His journey sounds familiar. At the end of the day, it becomes a personal thing to work through faith issues, and realistically, others who care will react to influence us, one way or another. But the journey is personal.

[Anonymous]

I don’t buy this.

It’s not really something you can switch on and off.

There is an ex-Anglican bishop round here who makes a big deal of his atheism. He still takes that church’s money, and claims that he was atheist for most of his tenure. That makes him a big hypocrite IMHO. It’s a bit different from this.

[Anonymous]

Sam, I also think this guy is a little different from the ex-Anglican bishop you said still took money…this guy lost his job from it and sounds like he is doing things in the open.

It will be interesting to see if after a year, can he “turn on” the faith again, once it has been turned off and tried without it.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it’s something you can switch on and off. It’s a bit like meditation it’s not something you can do by concentrating. Of course, if you expose yourself to enough of the right stuff, you’ll go one way or the other, but then there’s the problem of getting back into faith again. It’s never something I’ve had complete control of, strangely enough.

I don’t think he is profiteering or attention seeking like the other guy…

[Anonymous]

I found the corresponding Dereret News article interesting:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865594277/Former-pastors-experiment-with-atheism-examined-as-sincere-or-a-stunt.html

My impression is that it aims to dismiss Ryan Bell as a stunt.

Quote:

Bell could have been starving for some attention.

It is so interesting the qoutes that they choose to include and also the details that were included in other articles that they left out. News reporting has interesting parralells to story telling.

[Author]

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