Source: Religion News Service
NEW YORK, U.S., 2010: For some clergy, it is the problem that dare not speak its name. Affected pastors say they cannot be themselves among their congregations or colleagues, sometimes even with their own families. It’s a huge and burdensome secret with the potential to destroy their careers, they say. They think they’re not the only ones, but feel terribly lonely. Their big secret — a loss of faith.
Daniel C. Dennett, co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University outside Boston, and Linda LaScola, a Washington-based clinical social worker, researcher and psychotherapist,
are the authors of a recent study entitled “Preachers Who Are Not Believers” in the journal Evolutionary Psychology. They used an admittedly tiny sample — just five pastors, all Protestants — of clergy who tell their congregations one thing, but secretly believe another.
“One of the things that was striking was how much like gays of the 1950s these pastors are,” Dennett said.