Former Pastor Ryan Bell Suggests He May Leave Faith For Good

A former Seventh Day Adventist pastor who left the church for a year has reportedly hinted that he may be leaving the church permanently.

Former pastor Ryan Bell made headlines one year ago when he said he was embarking on an "intellectual experiment" by giving up God for a year and becoming an atheist following his divorce.

Bell now says that following a year in atheism, he will announce where he stands on his faith after the New Year. The former pastor told the Los Angeles Times that currently he feels displaced regarding his religion.

"It feels like I am now a pastor to the irreligious," he told L.A. Times in a recent interview. "Not that I want that role, but the way people are responding to me, it's pretty revealing. It feels like I've touched some sort of cultural nerve. There's just a lot of people questioning everything these days."

"Being with the atheists, they can have the same sort of obnoxious certainty that some Christians have, and I don't want to be a part of that," Bell continued to tell the California-based media outlet. "It feels like I'm stuck in the middle. I want to be for something good, but I don't want boundaries, and religion just feels like a very bounded thing."

The former pastor added to the Los Angeles Times that he will celebrate Christmas with his girlfriend, a Christian, but he will not attend church services.