DeWitt grew up in the church, but it was only at 17,
after being “saved” during a weekend visit to Jimmy Swaggart’s church in Baton Rouge,
that he became a passionate Christian. Weeks later he spoke in tongues for the first time...
He and his wife began touring the South, building a reputation for the power of his sermons.
For the first time, he was treated with respect, even awe. “I had this whole prophet persona going on. I wouldn’t really mix with people before the sermon,” he told me.
“All kinds of people were seeing miracles, and I believed it 100 percent.”
Finally he began to feel that his rationalist impulses were alienating and hurting his flock, and he resigned — reluctantly, he said, because he loved the human side of being a pastor, “playing Mr. Fix-It for the community.” He continued preaching part time for a while, invoking an ever more misty and ethereal God....
He preached his
last sermon in April 2011, in the town of Cut and Shoot, Tex. A month later, Natosha Davis called, and DeWitt found himself
unable to pray at all.
src:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/ma...anted=all&_r=0
Jerry DeWitt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia