In July I took a big step publicly and came out of the closet about being a secular humanist. I wrote about it at the Chronicle of Higher Education (“Losing Faith in Religious Higher Education: What happens when a seminary professor joins the religiously ‘unaffiliated’?”) and in The Guardian (“When we give up a faith, we grieve for the community we leave behind”).

This week I was invited by Rational Doubt at Patheos—a blog by founding members of The Clergy Project—to write about what it is like now that I’m out. Of course, I haven’t been out that long yet, so it is too early to have a full retrospective on the experience, but there are some important things I’ve learned so far. As a writer who likes to be public about his views, particularly since I live in a country that allows this sort of thing, I think that documenting this journey is a helpful exercise not only for me, but for others who might also be on the verge of leaving religion behind.

So for those who might be on their way there, here you go:

“Depending on who you talk to, my departure from Christianity was either a sudden and shocking twist that seemed to occur quickly overnight or a predictable plot line. For my close friends and those who have followed my publishing career it was the latter…” Read the full post at Rational Doubt.