comments_image Comments  Major Threat to Religion? Clergy People
Coming Out as Atheists  A burst of media attention has been
focused on atheists of an unexpected stripe -- clergy members.
Could non-believing clergy change how we see religion?  Photo
Credit: Monika Wisniewska/ Shutterstock.com   What happens when
a clergy person -- a minister, a priest, a rabbi, an imam --
realizes he doesn't believe in God?    That's what the Clergy
Project is finding out. In recent months and years, atheists
have been all over the news. But over the last few weeks, a
burst of media attention has been focused on atheists of an
unexpected stripe: clergy members. And in particular, attention
is going to the Clergy Project, an online meeting place and
support group that exists specifically for these unexpected
additions to the ranks of the godless.  The project was inspired
by the 2010 pilot study by Daniel C. Dennett and Linda LaScola,
"Preachers Who Are Not Believers" (PDF), which exposed and
explored the surprisingly common p