
Spanish: 
¿Qué pasa cuando
los miembros del clero
deciden declararse ateos?
Es una situación difícil porque
de por sí es difícil siendo
una persona cualquiera
que piensa:
"Me parece que ya no creo en Dios".
Tienes que lidiar con
tus propios problemas pero,
al menos los puedes
trabajar tú mismo.
Cuando eres pastor
y te ganas la vida,
tal vez no una gran vida,
pero te ganas la vida
como pastor,
predicando en una iglesia,
y de repente te das cuenta 
de que tienes dudas,
las cosas se ponen feas, porque
ahora tu sustento está en riesgo.
Si te declaras ateo,
pierdes tu trabajo.
Y no solo se trata de ti. Tal vez
tienes una familia que depende de ti
para tener ese poco de ingreso.
Es muy difícil ser un pastor ateo.
No es solo eso, es extraño como asunto moral,
porque tienes que predicar sobre cosas
en las que quizás
ya no crees.
Las veces que he hablado con pastores
que sienten ser ateos,

English: 
So, what happens
when members of the clergy
decide that they're atheists?
This is a tough situation to be in
because, you know,
it's hard enough when
you're just a random person
who thinks, "Oh, I don't think
I believe in God anymore".
You gotta deal with your own
set of issues, but
at least, you know, you'll be able
to work through them yourself.
When you're a pastor
and you make a living,
maybe not a great living,
but you make a living
as a pastor,
a preacher at a church,
and all of a sudden you start
to realize you have doubts,
now things are scary because
now you're putting your own livelihood at stake. 
If you come out as an atheist,
you would lose your job.
And it's not just about you anymore.
You might have a family that is dependent on you
to bring in that
little bit of income.
So, it's really hard when you're a pastor
who is an atheist.
Not only that, it's weird on a moral issue,
because you have to preach about things
you may not
believe in anymore.
So, when I've talked to pastors
who think they're atheists,

Spanish: 
me cuentan historias
sobre cómo
pasan de tener una
relación personal con Jesús
a pensar:
"Jesús era un buen tipo
y Dios es alguien con quien
estoy conectado". Y luego pasan a:
"Dios está en algún lugar
por ahí."
"Es una linda historia.
Es una buena filosofía."
Hasta que llegan al otro lado del espectro
que dice que nada de eso es cierto.
Y sucede que sus sermones
siguen el mismo camino.
En vez de decirle
a la gente:
"Tienes que hacer lo que dice la Biblia, porque la Biblia es infalible, es la Palabra de Dios".
empiezan a decir:
"Hay buenas historias aquí".
"Usemos un criterio más amplio en lo que
nos dicen estas historias bíblicas".
Y más adelante dicen:
"Solo sé bueno. No necesitas la Biblia para saber eso. Es la naturaleza humana, sigue la regla de oro".
Y a la larga, sus sermones
no contienen nada de la Biblia.
¿Qué pasa si eres un pastor
que se vuelve ateo?

English: 
they will tell you stories
about how
they go from having, you know,
this personal relationship with Jesus
to thinking:
"Oh, Jesus was a good guy
and God is someone who I am connected with".
And then they go to:
"Oh, God's somewhere out there."
"It's a nice story.
It's nice philosophy."
Until they finally get to this other side
of the spectrum that says none of that's true.
And what happens is their sermons
kind of follow that path as well.
Instead of telling people,
you know,
"You have to do what the Bible says because the Bible's",
you know, "infallible. It's the Word of God,"
they start saying,
"Oh, there's some good stories in here."
"We should try to look for the bigger picture
in what these Bible stories are telling us."
And then down the line
it's like,
"Well, just be a good person. You don't need the Bible
to tell you that. It's human nature. Follow the Golden Rule."
And eventually, their sermons have like
no Bible stuff in it at all.
What happens if you're a pastor
who becomes an atheist?

English: 
For a long time the answer was: "Don't do anything.
Just suck it up and keep preaching."
But now we actually have seen
there are some options
which is, you know, lately there's--
The big thing has been the Clergy Project,
which is specifically reaching out to pastors
who are still in the pulpit,
but don't think they believe in God or maybe
have gone the full step and said, "I don't believe in God."
And what the Clergy Project does is they vet you.
They make sure you're really who you say you are.
But all of a sudden, you get admission
into this secret anonymous forum
where you can talk to other people
that are in the same position you are.
You can ask them, you know, "What do you
preach about? What do I do with my livelihood?
"Is there any other job
where I can use these skills?"
Because, you know, for a lot of pastors,
they didn't go to a college.
They might have gone to seminary,
but those skills are not necessarily transferable.
And they need some help.
They need some money
to kind of help them transition
into a different way of life.
It's tough for them to do

Spanish: 
Durante mucho tiempo, la respuesta fue: "No hagas nada. Trágatelo y sigue predicando".
Pero ahora vemos que hay opciones
Útimamente lo máximo ha sido
el Proyecto Clerical,
que específicamente llega a los pastores
que siguen en el púlpito,
pero no sienten que creen en Dios, o tal vez han dado
el paso final y han dicho: "No creo en Dios".
Lo que hace el Proyecto Clerical es evaluarte.
Se aseguran de que seas quien dices ser.
Pero de repente tienes acceso
a un foro secreto anónimo
donde puedes hablar con otros
en la misma posición que tú.
Puedes preguntarles: "¿Sobre qué predicas?
¿Qué hago con mi sustento?
"¿Hay algún otro trabajo
dónde puedo usar
estas habilidades?"
Porque muchos pastores
no fueron a la universidad.
Tal vez fueron al seminario, pero las habilidades
no son necesariamente transferibles.
Y necesitan ayuda. 
Necesitan dinero
que les ayude en la transición
a otra forma de vida.
Es difícil para ellos

Spanish: 
y sólo unos pocos
han recorrido
la ruta completa, de los que he conocido,
que han pasado de predicar
la palabra de Dios
a decir: "No creo nada de esto, ni 
quieron que crean en nada de esto."
Y vuelven a su iglesia y dicen:
"¿Recuerdan todas las cosas que dije durante años?
Me equivoqué, no me hagan caso.
"Me retracto de todo lo que dije."
Solo algunos han salido
y han dicho eso.
Han dicho:
"Este soy yo, es lo que soy".
"Yo solía predicar
y ya no creo en Dios."
Y les ponen muchas etiquetas.
La gente en seguida dice:
"Nunca fueron verdaderos cristianos".
Pero todos
te dirán que eran totalmente cristianos.
Algunos podían hablar en lenguas.
Tenían conversaciones con Dios.
Ellos creían
plenamente en Dios.
Estuvieron inmersos en ese estilo de vida
toda su vida.
Es difícil entender por qué
alguien los acusaría
de no ser cristianos
cuando claramente lo eran.

English: 
and only a few people
have actually
gone the full route -- that I've ever met --.
Who have gone from preaching
the word of God
to saying: "I don't believe any of this and
I don't want you all to believe any of this."
And they will go back to their church and say,
"You know all that stuff I told you all those weeks and years,
I was wrong,
don't listen to me," like
"Take back--
I take back everything I said."
Only a few of them have actually
come out and said that.
And said, you know,
"This is me. This is who I am."
"I used to preach and
I don't believe in God anymore."
And they get called a lot of names.
I mean, people will
immediately say, "Well, they were
never really Christian to begin with."
But all of them
will tell you they were fully Christian.
They could speak in tongues in some cases.
They were fully having those
conversations with God. They believed
fully in God. They were
immersed in that lifestyle
their entire life.
So, it's hard to understand
why anyone would accuse them
of not being Christian
when they clearly were.

Spanish: 
Pero empiezas
a ver dinero de subvención.
Recuerdo que la "Stiefel Freethought Foundation" está patrocinando una subvención para pastores
que quieren dejar sus empleos
y encontrar otra línea de trabajo.
Pero requieren habilidades
y dinero para sustentarse
hasta adquirir esas habilidades.
Algunos grupos
están dando dinero
para ayudarles con eso.
Pero ese es el último
oficio donde,
no creer en Dios
es un problema.
Si eres político, o maestro
como yo, o cualquiera,
¿a quién le importa
si no crees en Dios?
Pero cuando eres pastor
y has estado diciendo...
Y convenciendo a otros
de que Dios existe y
deben confiar en Dios,
¿qué pasa cuando
tú te vuelves el escéptico?
Es una situación
tan retadora, pero
creo que hay muchos más
de lo que creemos.
Fueron criados en esas iglesias
donde te dicen: "No dudes."
"Dudar es malo.
Es una mala palabra."
"Debes poner tu fe en Dios."
Y de repente, la gente
que solía decirte eso
son los que hoy tienen dudas
y están empezando

English: 
But you're also starting
to see grant money.
I remember the Stiefel Freethought Foundation
is sponsoring a grant for pastors
who want to leave their jobs
and find some other line of work.
But they need skills
and they need money to tide them over
until they can acquire those skills. And so,
some groups are actually
giving money
to help them do that.
But that's really--
It's the ultimate
position where,
you know, not believing
in God is an issue.
Because if you're a politician,
if you're teacher like me or someone,
who cares if you
don't believe in God?
But when you're a pastor
and you've been saying
and convincing other people
that God exists and
they should trust in God,
what happens when,
you know,
you become the doubter?
It's such a challenging position
to be in, but
my guess is there's a lot more
of them out there than we think.
And they've been raised in these churches
where they tell you, "Don't doubt."
"Doubt is a bad thing.
Doubt's a four-letter word
and you should just put
your faith in God."
And all of a sudden, the people
who used to say that to you
are the ones having those doubts
and they're starting to

Spanish: 
a dudar de sus propios sermones.
Hay muchos de ellos
allá áfuera.
No se conocen entre sí
necesariamente.
Pero creo que lo más honroso
es darles
un ambiente donde
se sientan seguros de expresar esas dudas
y decirle a su congregación:
"No sé si creo en esto,
pero así es como lo interpreto".
Y ojalá la congregación apoye al pastor
que los apoyó durante tanto tiempo.
Lamentablemente,
eso no siempre sucede,
pero es lo que se espera. Que si es una
buena iglesia cristiana, apoyarán a su pastor
incluso si piensan
que ya no es cristiano, pero
por desgracia, no vemos eso a menudo.
Soy Hemant Mehta
y escribo en FriendlyAtheist.com
Si tienes alguna pregunta que quieres
que te respondamos en este canal,
por favor, déjala en los comentarios
y trataremos de llegar a ella.

English: 
second-guess, you know,
second-guess their own sermons.
There's a lot of them
out there.
They don't know each other
exist necessarily.
But I think the most honest
thing to do is to give them
an environment where
they can feel safe in expressing those doubts
and telling their congregation:
"Hey, I don't know that I believe this,
but here's my interpretation of it."
And hopefully their congregation will support
the pastor who's been supporting them for this long.
Unfortunately,
that doesn't always happen,
but that's kind of the best hope. You would think
if they were a good Christian Church, they would support their pastor
but that's kind of the best hope. You would think
if they were a good Christian Church, they would support their pastor
even if they think
he's no longer a Christian, but unfortunately
we don't see that happen all that often.
I'm Hemant Mehta
and I write at FriendlyAtheist.com
If you have any questions
you'd like us to answer on this channel,
please leave those in the comments as well
and we will try to get to those.
