Posted by Sean Pitman
Excerpts from an interesting and relevant article published in the Adventist Review titled, “Pastors Who Don’t Believe”:
Wes, a Methodist [minister], lost his confidence in the Bible while attending a liberal Christian college and seminary. “I went to college thinking Adam and Eve were real people,†he explained. Now, he no longer believes that God exists. In his rendering, God is a word that “can be used very expressively in some of my more meditative modes†and “a kind of poetry that is written by human beings.â€
His church members do not know that he is an atheist, but he explains that they are somewhat liberal themselves. His ministerial colleagues are even more liberal: “They’ve been de-mythologized, I’ll say that. They don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead literally. They don’t believe Jesus was born of a virgin. They don’t believe all those things that would cause a big stir in their churches. 
Darryl is a Presbyterian who sees himself as a “progressive-minded†pastor who wants to see his kind of non-doctrinal Christianity “given validity in some way.  “I reject the virgin birth. I reject substitutionary atonement. I reject the divinity of Jesus. I reject heaven and hell in the traditional sense, and I am not alone.â€
Amazingly, Darryl is candid about the fact that he remains in the ministry largely for financial reasons. It is how he provides for his family. If he openly espoused his beliefs, “I may be burning bridges in terms of my ability to earn a living this way. 
Adam ministers in the Church of Christ, a conservative denomination… After reading a series of books, he became convinced that the atheists have better arguments than believers. He has moved fully into an atheist mode, yet he continues to lead his church in worship. How? “Here’s how I’m handling my job on Sunday mornings: I see it as play acting. I see myself as taking on the role of a believer in a worship service, and performing.â€
This “atheistic agnostic†stays in the ministry because he likes the people and, “I need the job still.†If he had an alternative source of income, he would take it. He feels hypocritical, but no longer believes that hypocrisy is wrong.… [emphasis added]
If they will not remove themselves from the ministry, they must be removed. If they lack the integrity to resign their pulpits, the churches must muster the integrity to eject them. If they will not “out†themselves, it is the duty of faithful Christians to “out†them…
If you think that the SDA Church is immune from this kind of unbelief and unethical activity from pastors and teachers who stand as paid representatives of our Church, to the point of suggesting that, “there’s nothing wrong with hypocrisy”, you are in for a very rude awakening.
Many of our own SDA pastors and teachers are in a very similar boat as those non-believing “pastors” described above. They stay for the money (what little it often is), or for other personal reasons; not because they believe in or are willing to promote the Church’s pillars of faith on the Church’s dime. They are willing to sell their moral character for a few dollars, a bowl of lentil soup really, rather than do the right thing and seek honest employment elsewhere…
Our SDA Church, in particular, should hold these men (and women) to a much higher standard. They simply should not be allowed to continue on in their employment while promoting ideas and concepts that fundamentally counter the pillars of the SDA faith.
And, if our pastors should be held to this standard (a standard of actually saying and doing what they are being paid to say and do), why shouldn’t our own teachers who teach in our own schools, like La Sierra University in particular, be held to such a basic self-evident standard of conduct as well?
Why do we, as a Church organization, continue to fund those teachers who are as blatantly and publicly opposed to fundamental elements of the faith, goals, and ideals of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as are most of LSU’s science and even religion professors?
Are we not shooting ourselves in our collective foot, as an organization, by continuing to ignore this problem like it isn’t significant or like it will somehow go away all by itself? It won’t. Something must be done in a very direct manner to check this corrosive influence within our own Church organization or there will be very little left to salvage within a very short time…
