Hope After Faith

I just finished reading Hope After Faith, an autobiography written by Jerry DeWitt a Pentecostal preacher turned atheist.

Mr. DeWitt grew up in DeRidder, a deeply religious town in Louisiana (as he puts it). His family was very religious and, naturally, that faith was passed on to him.

Mr. DeWitt's childhood wasn't all that rosy. He was a sickly boy. As well, he was a loner, never engaging much with the other kids at school.

To top things off, his biological father ended up killing himself after crashing his car while driving drunk. His mother remarried a car salesman named George. His job required him to move his family quite frequently. Not the most stable of situations for young Jerry.

The big turning point in his life was when he attended a Jimmy Swaggart revival with his elementary school teacher, Ms. Blair,  and her husband. Not only did he find acceptance amongst his fellow Pentecostal brethren, but he was greatly inspired by what he heard. It was at that time he knew he had to spread the Word of God to the masses.

The next part of his life was more tumultuous than you could ever imagine. He attended a seemingly endless string of churches. First as a member of the congregation and later on as an assistant pastor. All this with the hope of one day starting a revival that would bring the Holy Spirit to all mankind.

This goal of his brought incredible hardship on the now married young man and his family. He kept his wife, Kelli, and young son, Paul, constantly on the move. First from town to town in his home state of Louisiana, then to Des Moines, Iowa. This move necessitated the selling of all their belongings and basically starting afresh sans family and friends.

Jobs pastoring were infrequent. They were interspersed with low paying non-religious work. He did whatever it took to keep them afloat financially. That being said, they were dirt poor for the majority of his early years.

What broke Mr. DeWitt was not only the nagging doubt he always had of the doctrine of Hell (how a loving God could send people there to live in torment for all eternity), but the many ne'er do well pastors he met over the years while preaching the Word. Some of them were like cult leaders more than anything else.

Then there was the problem of so many good people dying around him. He lost his grandfather as well as his dear cousin, Gary, a fellow pastor. As well there were many other members of congregations he pastored to that passed on from various causes. His fervent prayers of healing as well as those of many others went unanswered. Was God really in control? If he was, did he even care?

These things combined with the fact that he toiled so hard over the years trying to spread the Word, only to end up failing miserably, pushed him to the point where he could no longer believe in an omnipotent God.

In the end he renounced his faith, his marriage fell apart, and he was shunned by his community.