NPR’s religion correspondent Barbara Bradley Haggerty tells this touching story of a Methodist pastor whose spiritual searching led her to conclude that she’s an atheist.
Of course, that’s anathema in a traditional Christian church.
So Teresa MacBain played her ministerial role hypocritically. After the internal conflict became too much to bear and she declared her true belief — or lack of — she had to resign and face ostracism from her church community.
Had she been a Unitarian Universalist, her questioning would have been encouraged, her atheism accepted, her spirit nurtured.
[...] Lerude highlights an NPR story about the Rev. Teresa MacBain, a Methodist minister who recently “came out” as an atheist. After the internal conflict became too much to bear and she declared her true belief—or lack [...]
At risk of stating the obvious, Ms. McBain needs to be ordained as a UU and become the clergy for a UU Humanist congregation.
Another option might be for her to become a hospice chaplain specifically for atheists and agnostics.