A Note On Former Clergy Project Acting Executive Director Teresa MacBain

Due to the active and public presence of one of The Clergy Project’s former leaders, we make available the following statement:

Teresa MacBain had been a valuable member of The Clergy Project since joining our private online community in 2011. Back then we only knew her by her pseudonym “Lynn” and that she was a closeted Methodist pastor in Florida. In March of the following year, MacBain came out publically as a nonbeliever while attending the American Atheists convention and subsequently resigned from her religious occupation. She was then named American Atheists’ “2012 Atheist of the Year” and went on to spend the next years working in several secular organizations, including American Atheists, Humanists of Florida, and Recovering From Religion. Along the way, Teresa briefly served as The Clergy Project’s first Acting Executive Director from March through July, 2012 and had served in various leadership roles here at TCP, eventually holding a seat on our Board of Directors until earlier this year.

After not hearing much from Teresa over the last few months, The Clergy Project discovered yesterday [October 15, 2016] that she has now returned to the Christian faith and is again active in Christian church ministry. Upon reaching out to her and participating in a friendly yet detailed conversation, Teresa made it clear that she has, in fact, returned to belief in the existence of the supernatural. Subsequently resigning her Clergy Project membership, Teresa’s access into our private online community has been deactivated. Due to security of information concerns, it may also be worth noting that Teresa had not logged into the online forum since January of this year.

Some of our membership and of the larger freethought community may feel frustration over this turn of events. But we remind ourselves that such is the nature of freethought itself. Life is a long and winding journey, and our personal experiences and perceptions of the world around us are ever-evolving. Just as we are free to leave supernaturalism for atheism, so we are free to shift our embrace the other way as well. We at The Clergy Project may be disappointed to see Teresa leave our ranks, but we nonetheless wish her well and thank her for her years of friendship.

TCP Communications
October 16, 2016