Live question and answer chat with Jerry DeWitt, the author of Hope After Faith, the true story of a fundamentalist Christian minister who became an atheist.
June 18, 2013

Welcome to an exclusive C&L live blogchat with Jerry DeWitt, author of Hope After Faith, which we reviewed yesterday.

A quick recap: For twenty-five years, Jerry DeWitt was a deep south Pentacostal evangelical preacher. A little over two years ago, he became an open atheist. As a result, his home town of DeRidder, Louisiana, has been rather unforgiving: friends deserted him, most of his family shunned him, his wife left him, he was kicked out of his ministry, fired from his secular job and he is still struggling to hold on to his house after bankruptcy. He regularly receives hate mail and threats. Walking away from his fundamentalist Christian faith was not a trivial decision.

Over the next two years, DeWitt became the first graduate of The Clergy Project, is the former Executive Director of Recovering From Religion, and wrote a fascinating book about his experiences as he lost his belief in God but rediscovered his faith in humanity as an atheist. Please join me in welcoming Jerry DeWitt to C&L where our readership can engage in real time questions and answers.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon