Unbelieving Preachers "Come Out"

I read an article today that should have surprised me, but didn't.  I saw it at cnn.com, and its title was "Unbelieving Preachers Get Help to 'Come Out' as Open Atheists."  If you're interested, you can read it here.  The article talks about pastors who have become atheists, and how hard it is for them to confess their loss of faith.  Many of these pastors have had careers in ministry, leading churches large and small, comforting people, worshipping and praying, yet have found, over time, that their faith has dwindled away.  It is a particularly sad commentary on how faith seems to be waning in our time.

What happened that made these pastors' faith wane, especially in light of the fact that they originally felt called by God to this exacting and difficult occupation?  One pastor said that he "was first confronted with his disbelief when he 'became the person who got the burden of preaching about hell,' he said. 'I really loved the people I preached to, I loved them like family. So imagine preaching that if you don’t do this, you are going to burn in hell. That wasn’t easy for me.'

This pastor then began to research other theologies about God and belief, which led to doubts about translations of the Bible, and about healing.  He states, "'The next big issue was the failure of prayer,' DeWitt said. 'People are passing away, whenever we pray for them to live. People aren’t getting jobs, whenever we pray for them to have jobs.  The harder we tried to alleviate suffering within our church, it seemed like the worse things got,' he said. 'It didn’t seem like prayer made any difference. It just continually crushed my heart.'"

These comments are probably thoughts we have all wrestled with.  Questions about hell, the Bible, healing, and prayer.  Are there answers for the questions and doubts we have about them?  I'd like to think so, and I've decided to walk through some thoughts about this over the next few days.  If you're interested, check back and we'll see what transpires.