Gungor met McHargue in 2013. McHargue had grown up in the heavily conservative Southern Baptist church in Tallahassee, Florida, and, like Gungor, was a lifelong Republican. As a kid, he was bullied because of his weight and found refuge in science, computers, and talking to Jesus in the woods. In 2007, he was married with two children and working in advertising when his father announced he was leaving his mother.
Their sudden divorce, which went against the family’s evangelical beliefs, shattered him, and for once the Bible offered no real answers. With help from Richard Dawkins and Carl Sagan, McHargue watched his belief in God disintegrate.
For three years he lived as a closeted atheist, not even telling his wife, all while serving as a deacon in their church.
He met Gungor at a party in Denver hosted by the left-wing pastor and writer Rob Bell, who has been condemned by traditional evangelicals for questioning the existence of hell, and other controversial stances. McHargue knew Bell through a mutual friend and had attended one of his conferences in Los Angeles, after which he’d had a mystical experience on the beach. (God had spoken to him, he said.) He was in the process of reassembling his faith, one that leaned more heavily into science, meditation, and social justice. These days, he and his family attend an affirming Methodist congregation in Pasadena.
= new reply since forum marked as read