Atheist Ministry...?

“How can you be a religious educator, direct a program, and contemplate ordination when you don’t believe in God?”

The son of a preacher man, who recently came out of a new closet as Atheist, has been inundated with questions about my calling. I wish I could attribute my conversion or rejection of God to the Transcendentalists of my faith’s history or to my colleague Greg Epstein and his awesomely spectacular book, Good Without God. I wish I could credit my mentor, Rev. Kim K. Crawford Harvie, but alas, I cannot.

When I teach the course Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography, and I ask people essentially to look at what their religion of the past looked like, the religion of their present is, and from those observations, articulate where they hope to see their relationship with religion and spirituality in the future to be. My past is predicated on the notion of selling salvation on the backs of fear and guilt, that unless we conform to an archaic value system only then can we inherit the kingdom of heaven. But what is heaven, but an abstract of God. The larger picture, for me is articulating God.

For many, God, as immanent is omnipresent, and all-powerful. That God affirms a fragmentation of people's natural tendencies to be apocalyptic. That is to say, the reason the truth as titled by Al Gore, is "inconvenient" is because it forces people to be accountable. It is easier to lay blame in God, or use God as the driving force. When in doubt, millions turn to prayer. When the world seems chaotic many turn to God, instead of turning towards our self. How many million however are praying in doubt?

I do not believe in that God, or in God as an abstract. But Atheist does not mean against the religious, or against community, or even against that which binds many followers of a God induced faith. Religion from its Latin root religio, to revere what is sacred, and ligare, to bind. As a religious educator I am helping people to express faith, (whether with or without God) and to ask them how does faith create the sacred and bind them to a greater purpose.

I teach people to articulate at faith. I invite a sense of calling and purpose, and drawn on the wisdom of world religion, not on dogma, I challenge people to challenge themselves. I do not espouse God as the driving force of my faith, but affirm and support those whom do.

For example: Love came down at Christmas, writes English poet Christina G. Rosetti, Love, all lovely, a love divine. Stars and angels gave the sign. Unitarian Universalists affirm that the love that came down at Christmas is Jesus, but not Jesus the messiah, but Jesus the prophet, the teacher, the man. He was called the Emmanuel. His resounding teaching is love, to love the neighbor as you love yourself. Therefore, for some Emmanuel means savior, but in fact it means of God, I see that God as Love.

I believe in mankind. I believe in the power of self as divine, and I believe that the love that came down at Christmas is the driving force behind mankind. When the bible articulates that Jesus said, “This is my body and this is my blood, take and drink in remembrance of me” It is not the divine speaking, but the message, take of me, of my love. If we take of Jesus, his love, it is for me, love that saves us. Some say you are “saved by God’s sacrifice and grace” I say we are already saved, unto today. That this day is perfect, that when filled with love, this day is heaven. Sofia Lyons Fahs, wrote that every night a child is born is a holy night. Every night, not just Christmas, every day.

Ministry is not about pursuing my own destiny. God, or even a church does not call me by the spirit. I am called by love, and it is my overwhelming love for mankind that calls me to ministry.