Atheist Leader Comes from the Pulpit

Here's another sneak preview of major piece coming in this Sunday's NYT Magazine (the paper quietly starts posting some pieces during the week but not many know about this):  How a former "Bible Belt pastor," Jerry DeWitt, became an atheist leader.   Too bad Hitchens didn't live to see it.

DeWitt quickly repurposed his preacherly techniques, sharing his reverse-conversion story and his thoughts on “the five stages of disbelief” to packed crowds at “Freethinker” gatherings across the Bible Belt, in places like Little Rock and Houston. As his profile rose in the movement this spring, his Facebook and Twitter accounts began to fill with earnest requests for guidance from religious doubters in small towns across America. “It’s sort of a brand-new industry,” DeWitt told me. “There isn’t a lot of money in it, but there’s a lot of momentum.”