Last week on a CNN Tonight TV segment, controversial news anchor and reporter, Kyra Phillips, promoted her documentary on atheism.

Screening excerpts from the documentary titled Atheists: Inside The World of Non-Believers, when quizzed by Anchor Don Lemon about a Christian preacher that recently turned atheist, the liberal journalist stated that “a lot of these atheists compare themselves to gay and lesbian – saying, it’s just like that. It’s living in the closet – not able to be my real self – and it’s torturous.”

Phillips buttressed her stance by pointing out that there is a lot of stigma attached to the word “atheist,” adding that there is so much negativity associated with its mention. “People think devil worshiper – no moral compass,” she stated.

Kyra Philips went ahead to underscore the metamorphosis and transformations that the term has gone through all through the years.

“There was a time where they just used the word ‘atheist.’ And now, you are hearing ‘humanist,’ ‘nons,’ ‘skeptics,’ ‘free-thinkers’…this is all the same thing. These are people that don’t believe in God,” she stated on the show.

Phillips rounded up revealing how she has “talked to preachers who don’t have the guts to come out – and they’re preaching every Sunday, and their congregation doesn’t know that they don’t believe.”

She made mention of a program called “The Clergy Project,” which she said is about more than 600 spiritual heads in the faith community who are struggling with the fact that they are preaching what they don’t believe in – God.

“We talked to one of those preachers,” Philips said – referring to the Christian preacher that turned atheist which she earlier talked about.

Wee y Kip kwayet RT @cnnkyra: my doc airs tonight!! Atheists are coming out of the closet. http://t.co/M5GHa1dRd0 pic.twitter.com/2bBUw1GQXx — Mr. Oreo (@SHIAMANI) March 25, 2015

From the video excerpt that Philips played, here is the conversation that took place between Philips and the said Pastor-turned-atheist, as posted on News Busters:

KYRA PHILLIPS (voice-over): Three years ago, Jerry DeWitt lost his faith.

: It felt like living a lie.

PHILLIPS: And made the hardest choice in his life.

DEWITT: The real heartbreak – soul-crushing heartbreak – was realizing I had to give up the ministry.

PHILLIPS: The news that DeWitt had become an atheist sent shock waves through the community, and the fallout was like a punch to the gut.

PHILLIPS (on-camera): You lost it all-

DEWITT: Yes-

PHILLIPS: Your job, your congregation – your wife left. You lost all your money. So, why stay here in Louisiana? Why not go somewhere that’s more progressive – open-minded?

DEWITT: If we’re going to make things better, we got to make things better where things need to be made better.

PHILLIPS (live): And you go into his church, and you feel like you’re in church. But instead of, ‘can I get an Amen;’ he says, ‘Can I get a Darwin?’ (Lemon laughs)

Resources

Follow the Conversation on Twitter