Reply #5: I am an ex-clergy member--

[Mrs. Overall]

I studied with priests, nuns, and Protestant ministers at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. Catholic and Protestant clergy came from all over the US and many parts of the world to study there, and in my experience, many of them did not believe in the stereotypical "God" but had a much more humanistic approach. Most of us thought of "God" and "Christ" as the potential within all of us to better ourselves and to contribute to the betterment of the planet.
I think another common concept was to think of the Bible not as historical fact but as a spiritual guide--stories (myths) that have something to teach on a spiritual and human level, and to see the Bible as a legacy of a desert people who lived over 2000 years ago--it's really about them, not us.
What I saw among the clergy were a lot of hard working people who simply wanted to help others with a social justice emphasis and who wanted to be part of a spiritual community for support.
By the way, there were no fundamentalists there. They often accused us of being secular and pagan.