ACA Lecture Series -- Jerry DeWitt: "Laughing through the Apocalypse!" 2012-06-03 Former Pentecostal minister Jerry DeWitt’s personal story of coming out as a non-believer, the Identity Suicide that followed, and how he has learned to love life outside the Church.Jerry DeWitt realized he was an atheist after more than twenty-five years of Pentecostal ministry in his home state of Louisiana. His ministry experience begin at the early age of seventeen and included evangelizing across the United States and being the assistant pastor of two United Pentecostal churches and one Apostolic church. During his dilemma with doubt, Jerry ultimately held the senior pastorate of two very unique congregations, one charismatic dominionist and the other non-denominational fundamentalist.Jerry also holds the distinction of being the first graduate of, and a spokesman for The Clergy Project (clergyproject.org), a private, invitation-only “safe house” community of current and former ministers who no longer hold the supernatural beliefs of their religious traditions. The Clergy Project was started by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and former minister and author Dan Barker.Recently, Jerry was appointed Executive Director of Recovering from Religion (recoveringfromreligion.org) which was founded by Dr. Darrel Ray, author of The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture. The RR mission is to coordinate and facilitate face-to-face meeting for those who desire support in leaving their religion. RR also facilitates on-line forums and resources in cooperation with other secular organizations and groups, and tries to connect those in need with secular therapists in their local community.The ACA Lecture Series (http://www.atheist-community.org/lectures/) is a monthly event in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. Lectures are generally free and open to the public. The ACA Lecture Series is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin (http://www.atheist-community.org/) is organized as a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals.
The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at a non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin. The Atheist Community of Austin is organized as a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals. DVDs of the Atheist Experience can be purchased via atheist-community.org/products. More shows and media types can be found in our archive and our fan page.
