Response to "Whatever Gods May Be"

Cool story, Kody!  This was a story about a guy named Thomas who became a pastor, but through reading certain passages in the Bible, ended up questioning his faith.  The desires of the character are a littler unclear until he reads the passage about Abraham which is the verse that shakes his faith.  He seems to want to resolve this crisis so he can go about his life but doesn't do much to pursue the resolve.  The conflict is obviously his crisis of faith.  At the end of the story, he resigns from his position after talking to his wife and coming up with no belief.  He doesn't seem to want to lie to himself about what he does and does not believe.  I think this story is trying to convey the idea that some people don't believe simply because they just can't force themselves to.  It must be natural and in Thomas' case, it was not natural. 

I like the subject matter.  The crisis of faith tends to be a popular subject in each person's life and in conversations (or debates).  I think the fact that you use a preacher as the main character is a good choice. Preachers do lose their faith and the conflict is larger since you made his profession directly tied with Christianity. 

To me, the main problems with this story are the lack of depth in character and scenes.  I feel like the relationship between Thomas and his wife was overly-perfect.  A lot of this came from the shallowness of the wife I think.  When Thomas was thinking about changing careers, she didn't object at all.  When he confronted her with his new disbelief in Christianity and the Bible she said, "Everything I believe comes from you." She kind of seems like a bland sidekick.  These scenes are good opportunities for conflict and deepening the character of Bethany.  I also think the part where she tells Thomas about her pregnancy went to smoothly and too fast.  The fact that they had money problems should have brought forth some tension.  Other than this stuff, I think you've got a lot of good stuff to work with.