Ex-Christadelphian Christadelphians

 Contributed by John Bedson - January 1, 2012 

bedson@pacific.net.au

I frequently receive emails from Christadelphians who berate me for leaving their faith and who encourage me to “return to the fold.” Then they invariably conclude their emails by giving me a list of the Christadelphian teachings that they themselves reject, not realising that they have already become Ex-Christadelphians. Often the teachings that they reject are fundamental doctrines and by rights they should be disfellowshipped. The writers then conclude “Please keep this confidential between us” and often sign off "anonymous" fearful that Christadelphian "Big Brother" might get to know of their heresy.

I conclude that they must be so dissatisfied with their faith that they have been Googling “Ex-Christadelphians” with half a mind to resign from fellowship. They then find this blog, read my articles and write to me in a confused state of mind saying that I have gone too far in rejecting the faith, even though they themselves have rejected parts of the Christadelphian teaching.

They have a “conditioned response” to defend their sect just like humans have a conditioned response to defend their local football team, or the school that their children attend, or the new car that they have just purchased, or the political party that they vote for. But in their hearts they know that something is wrong. That is why they write to me. But I can’t help them. They have to make the decision to leave on their own.

Christadelphianism seems to have evolved into a sort of “take-away” shop in which believers can pick and choose what to believe and what to reject. With many Christadelphians, Christadelphianism is all about “God’s grace” and other nonsense and is indistinguishable from the faith of Evangelical Churches. Only a small number of right-wing, xenophobic, often Australian Christadelphians remain, who actually believe what the founders of the religion taught and what is written in the Statement of Faith.

So what is Christadelphianism these days? I have no idea. I don’t even know what it means to be an “Ex-Christadelphian” anymore because in reality the majority of Christadelphians appear to me to be Ex-Christadelphians. Indeed many of them do not appear to have been Christadelphians in the first place. They were baptised in Christadelphian Churches believing things that were foreign or even abhorrent to the founders of the faith. The religion has become diluted in the quarter of a century since I left, to the point that I find it to be almost unrecognisable to the faith that I mistakenly joined in 1967.

This is one of the main reasons why I rarely write on this blog any more. There is not much left for me to fight against, because Christadelphianism is slowly fading from view like the smiling Cheshire cat in Alice’s Wonderland. The religion is morphing into the background noise of Evangelicalism. My attacks on Christadelphianism are constantly blunted and frustrated by people writing back to me saying “I don’t believe that part of the Christadelphian faith anyway” and “I never read any of the founding works and I disagree with the writings of John Thomas and Robert Roberts” and “My faith is grounded on something else” etc.

I am one of the few people left on the planet with a deep and comprehensive understanding of the original Christadelphian faith. I totally reject that faith, but I do understand it. I taught it for the eighteen years that I was Christadelphian until 1985. I’ve met people like John Carter and Islip Collier. I read “Eureka”, “Christendom Astray”, “Elpis Israel” and many other foundation works when I was eleven years of age. Many modern day Christadelphians will not even recognise those names or the titles of those books which formed the foundation of their sect. But to me, this thing that passes for “Christadelphianism” in the Twenty First Century is not the religion that I left. That is why my articles on this blog are so ineffective. I’m fighting against something that exists largely only in my memory of early Twentieth Century Christadelphianism.

You people who call yourselves Christadelphians mostly don’t believe “The Truth” as it was taught in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century. Those people would have refused to fellowship many of you. The rushed Christadelphian baptisms in Russia, Eastern Europe and Africa are a further mockery of what Christadelphianism once stood for. These new converts have no idea what Christadelphianism originally meant.

How can I write on an “Ex-Christadelphian” blog when Christadelphianism itself has mostly become “Ex-Christadelphian?” The common sense of science and the gullibility of Evangelical Christianity have picked apart the Christadelphian faith until nothing of substance remains. It is a “Do it yourself” religion where everyone believes something different and yet everyone is afraid to stand up and say in their ecclesia what they say to me in private – “I don’t believe sections of the faith anyway.”

Thank you everyone for being so honest with me. I will keep your secrets.

The Christadelphian faith is not really evolving into anything. Instead, like water poured into the desert sand, it is evaporating into nothing. Or like water poured into soup, it is losing its flavour and its identity. Increasingly it tastes like all the other Churches. “The Christadelphian” magazine should be renamed “The Ex-Christadelphian” magazine because that is more or less what it has become.

I am NOT obsessed with Christadelphianism. I have not written on this blog for about a year. I feel guilty and stupid that I ever believed that stuff and I feel a responsibility to help Christadelphians to see the error of their ways. An ex-Christadelphian can help much more constructively than an outsider who does not know the faith. But in truth I find Christadelphianism to be boring. It is a silly minor faith and it make me shudder to think that I joined all those years ago. I am deeply embarrassed that it took me so long to wake up to the fact that everything that I believed was absurd and that I wasted the first thirty five years of my life in a cult. It was a complete waste of my time and effort and I say to the Christadelphians reading this that sadly they have also totally wasted the time, money and effort spent in that sect.

Break free and join me in the quest to discover what really is true in this wonderful universe. Take responsibility for your own moral and ethical development and seek to influence others to join this noble quest.

Atheism is a substantially more difficult path to tread than Christadelphianism. The challenge is immense. In a World without God we have to act as a beneficent wise God. In a World without a true Bible we have to be the light of the World bringing goodness, morality and admirable ethical behaviour to a dysfunctional society. Believe me; it is a million times more difficult than being a Christadelphian.

All this we have to do for NO reward in the future. No one thanks you and when you die your atoms return to the dust of the Earth throughout the ages of eternity until the Universe eventually reaches its heat death and time itself stops.

I think that it is a wonderful challenge and I rejoice that I am privileged to be allowed to contribute something useful to this Universe. My reward is now - in the face of the lonely old stroke afflicted gentleman who shared our Christmas lunch, in the happiness of my children, in the comfort that I brought to my dog last night as she trembled at the noise of New Year’s Eve fireworks. In all these things I have my reward and it is more than sufficient to me. It is the most fantastic thing that I could ever experience.

Peter said to Jesus "Behold, we have left everything and followed you; what then will there be for us?" In reply Jesus gave a bullshit promise of reward in the hereafter. And that is what it was; pure scam from a fraudster who could deliver nothing but empty promises and platitudes; a promise to scoundrels who were not willing to do good unless there was a generous payoff. Such mercenary behavior makes us enlightened atheists sick.

The only reward that you Ex-Christadelphian Christadelphians are ever going to get is in the here and now, not in the hereafter. So make the break, get over your xenophobia, roll up your sleeves and do some work making this World a better place. Cease your superstitious belief in Christianity and give of yourselves to others.

You don’t need “faith” to do that. You just do it because you know in your heart that it is the right thing to do. On your deathbed you will not have the comfort of an empty promise of ruling the World in the future. Instead you will have the inestimable comfort of knowing that you did the right thing during your life. You will have given more than you took from the Universe. Like me, you will die content.

That is how Christopher Hitchens recently died. He died in agony with a vicious, incurable cancer and pneumonia gave him the coup de grace. But he died knowing that he had done his best to confront religious superstition. He died knowing that he had sought “the truth, by which man never yet was harmed” and he found some of it. He fought manfully against religious lies and deception and cleared ground for real truth to take root and grow. Compared to such a hero for reason, Christadelphians and indeed all religious people are nothing more than witches and warlocks throwing dead frogs and hemlock into the bubbling brew of their mad eschatology. Christopher Hitchens finally proved to the World that there are “atheists in foxholes.” His death is an example and an inspiration to us all.

So I appeal to all you Ex-Christadelphian Christadelphians who are still cowering in your foxholes treating Christadelphianism like some “pick and mix” faith to bring you false comfort. You have started the process of leaving the religion; do NOT drag your heels on the way out, as I did. I am ashamed that I was such a fool that it took so many years for the scales of gullibility to fall from my eyes and the light of reason to flood my mind. But I finally fought my way out of that damnable cult that is Christadelphianism and reached the safer ground of rational thought and understanding. It has brought me a joy, delight and satisfaction that you will never know unless and until you shake off the chains of that sect and start thinking for yourself.

Good luck to you all, but I know that very few of you will make it to freedom. When the overwhelming majority of Christadelphians reading these words reach their final foxhole of death they will be clinging to their fraudulently written Bibles and mumbling a prayer that no “God” will ever hear. If you are weak minded and naïve then that is the best way for you to go. It may bring you some comfort that the morphine cannot provide.

But I want my Christadelphian friends to know that John Bedson is not going to die sheltering behind a lie generated by the corrupt Victorian physician who founded the Christadelphian sect. I am going to die knowing the awful truth that there is nothing beyond the grave. I am going to die with courage, like Christopher Hitchens, staring the total finality of death full on in the face and like Christopher I will not be afraid. I will die knowing that in my small and faltering way I endeavoured to champion truth, defend virtue, promote ethical behaviour, uphold admirable morality and give something more to humanity and to the Universe than I took from it. In that way I shall triumph over death, even though it will irretrievably take me in its unending grasp and never give me back.

You Christadelphians are not going to triumph over death. You are going to die the death of the duped. You are going to die expecting to be reunited with loved ones and fortunately for you, no one is ever going to wake you and tell you that you were as hopelessly mistaken as all of the other billions of humans who fantasized an afterlife.

Will it matter? Yes it will matter; even though you will lie in your grave unknowing of the consequences of your actions. It will matter because you will leave behind a lifetime of error, mistaken beliefs, falsehood and pure nonsense. You will die having contributed to the stinking mess of religious superstition that future generations of atheists are going to have to clean up when they finally set this World right.

Don’t do it. Get out now, while you still have the time to redeem your error.