At this point in my life and faith, knowing too little about God feels healthier than knowing too much.

Stories of clergy losing faith don’t just exist in the realm of fiction. They also exist in real life. I know because I talk to such clergy all the time. Many have retired. Some have found new careers. Others remain in ministry, struggling to navigate strained faith with Christian vocation.

Revisioning ancient faith for the modern world is not an easy task. No simple answers exist. The process will be long, complicated, conflicted, and uncertain.

Healthy doubt can save people from many toxic beliefs. For example, Christians need to doubt the horrific idea that God eternally torments people in the flames of hell for holding erroneous beliefs.

Progressive Christians are perfectly comfortable holding faith and science in harmony. For example, they believe God created the world but did so through the process of evolution.

I recently queried readers of my Doubter’s Parish website concerning their relationship with institutional religion. I specifically asked if they were (1) staying in church, (2) leaving, or (3) undecided.

Most traditional Christians believe in an all-powerful and all-knowing, loving heavenly father who supernaturally intervenes in the world, who can be experienced directly through prayer, and who performs miracles. My small group of seven unorthodox persons no longer believe in that kind of personal, supernatural, and interventionist God.

Almost two decades ago, during a combined Holy Thursday/Good Friday worship service, I told a true story from the Holocaust. The story involved a Polish army sergeant named Franciszek Gajowniczek and a Franciscan priest named Maximilian Kolbe.

In January and February 2022, I communicated with several dozen clergypersons across the country, seeking their perspective on pastoral morale after two years of serving churches during a pandemic. Participants included a diverse mix of gender, age, location and denomination. Almost all of them said that clergy morale, including their own, stood at an all-time low.

before long, my grandchildren will be vaccinated, and I’ll be able to go back to church. But the haunting truth is, I’m not sure I want to return to an institution that consistently untethers itself from the life, example, spirit, and teachings of Jesus.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the evangelical church saved me in every way a person can be saved. They introduced me to Jesus. They became the family my childhood family could not be. They loved and affirmed me. They educated me. They gave me a vocation. And they gave me exceptional opportunities of service. Although I left the evangelical church years ago for a more progressive expression of faith, I’ve always appreciated the gifts they gave me.

For millions of people across the globe, God (as we have historically known God) is no longer a working number. Neither is traditional theology or the institutional church. In response, many of these spiritual skeptics have given up on religion altogether. However, plenty of them are still searching for a faith that can work in the modern world.

Some orthodox believers argue that the flames of hell should not be taken literally since hell is also described as a place of utter darkness. The point is, they argue, hell is a bad place, a place where God is not to be found, and a place where there is no hope. Literal flames or not, the traditional doctrine of eternal punishment should be an unacceptable belief for followers of the one who ate with sinners, blessed little children, and forgave his executioners.

I talk to a lot of people who grapple with religious doubts. Many of them harbor doubts about traditional faith, including a personal, supernatural, providential, and interventionalist God. An even larger number of them express doubts about institutional religion.

In recent decades, tens of millions of Americans have left their churches and other places of worship, and that trend shows no sign of abating. Instead, it’s almost certain to accelerate. Although motivations for departing organized religion are numerous, doubts about God, institutional religion, and traditional beliefs lead the pack.

Retired United Methodist pastor Martin Thielen reaches out to skeptics and struggling Christians, offering help and solidarity through his website, Doubter’s Parish. Photo courtesy of the Rev. Martin Thielen.

The American church has enjoyed many successes. Unfortunately, it’s also been guilty of numerous failures.

I became a Christian believer as a teenager in a conservative evangelical church. Since then I have lost much of my youthful faith. For example, I have lost faith in a literal Bible. It’s beyond me how people in the twenty-first century can still believe everything in the Bible should be taken literally.