Clergy, Congregations and Me with Dr. Sam Hamstra

Losing My Religion. That was the title of a book written in 2009
with this subtitle: “How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in
America and Found Unexpected Peace”. It was a great read. It
ended up being the atheist book of the year and certainly one of
my favorites. It was well written, a fast read, thoughtful, and
seemingly quite authentic.


 


I’d love to have the Author William Lobdell on this show
sometime, but let me ruin the plot of the book so you can buy
something more encouraging. After positive and apparently
life-changing experiences with authentic evangelical men, Lobdell
gave his life to Christ. Then after being one the key people to
really explode the news stories about sex abuse replete in the
Roman Catholic priesthood, he was overwhelmed by the pain of the
victims and concluded, no good God would allow that. This world
is out of control, quite incompatible with any notion of a Benign
Deity.


 


I bring this up today, not to jump into the field of apologetics
and refute the arguments of Lobdell which are really just another
rendition of the problem of evil, but rather to remember at
Church Hurts And that for many people the Hurt of Church is quite
often located specifically at the intersection of clergy and
congregation.


 


Two years ago Forbes listed Clergy and the 8th most trusted
profession right beneath Judges, which I remind you are usually
attorneys and right above auto mechanics. Imagine. The World
Economic Forum in 2018 found that clergy weren’t even in the top
ten.


 


Pastors, Ministers, Priests, Preachers, call them whatever you
want, are key to our perceptions good and bad of church today and
in our personal experiences. I think this is worth another look
and to get that we have a specialist in the subject, which in and
of itself makes him a scary dude. Sam helps match congregations
with the right clergy to try to avoid some of what I am talking
about. Sam Hamstra, welcome to Church Hurts And.


churchhurtsand.org