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If a pastor loses faith? Resign first.
If pastors lose their faith, or no longer agree with the tenets of the faith that their congregants hold (or most of them anyway), I think they have to act in accordance with their conscience and resign. Of course they can preach and argue and debate.
But, in the end, if a pastor loses his/her faith, or a rabbi or imam for that matter (though it's a bit different), they must offer to resign and perhaps should do so,and then work out how they wish to take their changed faith, or lack of faith, or agnosticism, forward personally. But to believe one thing personally and to proclaim another publicly seems to me to be very wrong.
By
Julia Neuberger
|
March 22, 2010; 11:19 AM ET
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Posted by: ddansab | March 23, 2010 7:28 PM
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I'm not sure I agree with your appeal to the conscience as it relates to this issue, as though these men are all ignoring theirs. There seem to be serious consequences in both retaining their positions and resigning from them. I think that all five of the men interviewed have weighed these consequences with personal honesty, and are doing what they feel to be most right.
I got the impression that the moment any of the first four interviewees (the fifth one is just waiting until he can afford it to resign) feels that their sense of moral obligation to leave the church outweighs the consequence of this action, they will resign. But since they believe that they are currently doing what is morally best (with ongoing, internal revaluations), they are still acting in accordance with their consciences.