The Clergy Project

The Clergy Project
Abbreviation TCP
Motto Support | Community | Hope
Formation 2011
Type Non-profit
Legal status 501(c)3 Educational Organization
Region served
Worldwide
Membership
Approximately 770 Online Community Participants
President
 Terry Plank
Key people
 Co-Founders: Dan Barker, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Linda LaScola, Carter Warden aka "Adam Mann", and "Chris"
Parent organization
 Freedom From Religion Foundation, Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science
Website clergyproject.org

The Clergy Project (TCP) is an international non-profit organization based in the United States that helps current and former religious leaders who no longer believe in the supernatural. The group's focus is to provide a secure, private online community of forums for its participants,[1] while also providing further assistance as able, such as aiding members in employment transition.[2]

About

The Clergy Project is managed by a board of directors who establish the “overall philosophy, policies and procedures of The Clergy Project." They also ensure that The Clergy Project committees implement decisions made by the board.[3]

Members and those applying to become members must be currently or formerly a vocational religious professional.[4] Lay leaders are not eligible due to a lack of professional status in a ministry.[1] There are some rabbis, imams and Catholic priests, but most current members are Protestants.[5] Members must have rejected a supernatural worldview which is defined as “accepting an order of existence that is beyond the visible observable universe, appearing to transcend the laws of nature or what can be explained by nature, accepted scientific understanding, or the application of the scientific method.”[1]

History

Dan Barker Richard Dawkins Daniel Dennett Linda LaScola Carter Warden

The Clergy Project traces its origins to the 2006 International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) Convention in Reykjavik, Iceland where Dan Barker, a former preacher, met with scientist and activist Richard Dawkins.[6] At the convention, Dawkins expressed interest in Barker's history as a former member of vocational ministry and the challenges that come with leaving the clergy. Many pastors have degrees that are religious in nature, such as a Masters in Divinity and trying to find a job in the corporate world isn’t as easy with that educational background. Also, because when a person is working in the clergy, their whole world revolves around their religion and they need help to find new support.[7]

Dawkins wanted to find a way to help others in situations like Barker's, but a solution did not immediately present itself.[6] In 2010, philosopher, Daniel Dennett and researcher, Linda LaScola, published a pilot study called "Preachers who are Not Believers."[8] Barker had assisted them in locating three of their five original participants. A larger study was conducted with 30 additional participants. Some of these people, along with others who had contacted Dennett and LaScola, as well as people from a list of former clergy that Barker had been gathering for years, were contacted to see if they would be interested in a private online community for non-believing clergy. This laid the groundwork for The Clergy Project. Richard Dawkins provided the funding to create the online community which launched on March 20, 2011.[6] The Freedom From Religion Foundation also provided some initial support.[9] At first, The Clergy Project started with 52 members and was founded by Barker, Dawkins, Dennett, LaScola, Carter Warden (aka "Adam Mann" - a participant in the pilot study) and anonymous member "Chris".[10] Jerry DeWitt is considered the first "graduate" of The Clergy Project because he was the first member to publicly give up his anonymity and reveal his name.[11]

Services

Online community

A “key component” of the Clergy Project is that they have a private community of people who have been clergy or are still active who are willing to share their experiences. Clergy leaders can come out “anonymously, using an alias” before they are ready to come out completely.[5] Members can ask for help, seek information and find themselves in a community where they are not being judged. Access to the forum is “invitation only”.[12]

Many of the individuals use the online community to find support that they are lacking in their day-to-day lives.

The online community also provides the kind of support that former clergy need because of the sense of loss that many feel when leaving their religion. The process of coming out of theology is often compared to experiencing the death of someone because research shows that there is a sense of loss and a real loss of community support.[13]

Transitional Assistance Grants

Many former clergy members are very concerned about leaving their jobs in the clergy because they aren’t sure where to find jobs and they still need to take care of their families.[5] In order to help clergy obtain secular employment, The Clergy Project, aided by the Stiefel Freethought Foundation provide funds for a Transitional Assistance Grant (TAG).[3] The grant provides 6 months of outplacement services which help former clergy in their search for new employment. Costs for services which include “skills assessment, resume assistance, linkages to job opportunities and access to professional career advisers” is paid directly to their Outplacement services agency, RiseSmart.[2] Founder Carter Warden was the first recipient of an outplacement grant in 2013. He publicly announced his atheism at the Freedom From Religion Foundation Convention in Pittsburgh in October, 2016 (FFRF News Release and FFRF video of speech) .[14][15]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Joining Private Online Community". The Clergy Project. 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Transitional Assistance Grant". The Clergy Project. 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Who We Are". The Clergy Project. 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  4. ↑ Erickson, Doug (18 March 2013). "The Wisconsin State Journal In the Spirit Column". Wisconsin State Journal. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 Merica, Dan (13 June 2012). "Unbelieving Preachers Get Help to 'Come Out' as Open Atheists". Cable News Network (CNN). Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 "The Clergy Project History". The Clergy Project. 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  7. ↑ Hagerty, Barbara Bradley; Conan, Neal (7 May 2012). "When Religious Leaders Lose their Faith". Talk of the Nation (NPR). Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Dennett, Daniel; LaScola, Linda (2010). "Preachers Who Are Not Believers" (PDF). Evolutionary Psychology. 1 (8): 122–150. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  9. ↑ "Groups Support Pastors, Priests Leaving the Pulpit". Freedom From Religion Foundation. 14 October 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  10. ↑ Merica, Dan (4 June 2013). "Atheists to start 1-800 hotline for doubters". CNN: Belief Blog. Cable News Network, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  11. ↑ Worth, Robert (22 August 2012). "From Bible-Belt Pastor to Atheist Leader". New York Times. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  12. ↑ Hallowell, Billy (10 May 2012). "Atheists Launch Scholarships for Clergy Who Want to Escape the 'Supernatural' & Abandon the Pulpit". The Blaze. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  13. ↑ Simpson, William David (1 May 2013). "When God Dies: Deconversion from Theism as Analogous to the Experience of Death". Western Kentucky University Masters Theses and Specialist Projects. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
  14. ↑ Warden, Carter (October 18, 2016). "Freedom From Religion News Release". Freedom From Religion Foundation. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
  15. ↑ Warden, Carter (October 18, 2016). "FFRF Video of Carter Warden". Freedom From Religion Foundation.


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