Page 10 - Jerry Dewitt News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Your congregation. your wife left. you lost all your money. >> everything. >> this was the house in the foreclosure. >> at one point, we literally sat down and began to google how to live in your car. >> why did you continue down this path? >> because it's right. the only thing that's different is theologically, i no longer believe in god. outside of that, almost everything is identical. >> abandoned by family and friends, ostracized from his hometown, dewitt feared for his life after receiving a string of threatening calls. >> we completely stopped leaving the house. it's hard to sleep. i was...

Atheism. the first people to come out were very angry, very militant. but i think the people that are coming out now tend to be calmer. they want to genuinely have discussion and exchange ideas. >> you give me a short summary of why you don't -- ♪ ♪ i can see clearly now the rain is gone ♪ >> come on now, sing it. you know this song. >> like atheist minister jerry dewitt, who is already doing that in the deep south. preaching peacefully, hoping for normalcy. ♪ >> the place wasn't firebombed. we didn't have protesters outside. we enjoyed ourselves and now we're living happily ever after...

Your congregation. your wife left. you lost all your money. >> i didn't think it would be everything. >> this is the house that went into foreclosure. >> at one point, we literally sat down and began to google how to live in your car. >> why did you continue down this path? >> because it's right. the only thing that's different is theologically, i no longer believe in god. outside of that, almost everything is identical. >> abandoned by family and friends, ostracized from his hometown, dewitt feared for his life after receiving a string of threatening calls. >> we completely stopped leaving th...

Good church is, for jesus. >> shake the hand of the person next to you. >> is it hard to find a place to hold a service because you are considered running with the devil? >> atheist and satanist is the same thing down here and that's all we're asking for. someone to give us a chance. >> a limited time. have a seat. >> for now, a rented home an hour away in lake charles, louisiana, will have to do. >> the world is actually getting better. >> dewitt saved his marriage, his house, and his cautiously optimistic about what's next. >> the evidence is that you've got better days ahead of you than wha...

It was that the reality is prayer doesn't work. >> for dewitt, as religion became more troubling, atheism looked much closer to the truth. eventually in 2011, dewitt quit preaching altogether. he took a job as a building inspector and hoped to live a quiet life. >> that's when your aunt comes. >> 85-year-old aunt grace on facebook. >> yes, aunt grace spotted a facebook photo of dewitt at a gathering of skeptics standing right next to the father of atheism, richard dawkins. >> bob posted this picture of me and my son with professor richard dawkins. >> the news that dewitt had become an atheist ...