 |
| Don't let the "hard-liners" push you around |
Disfellowshipping by the Christadelphians is a way of life. Their life. They have to dot the "i`s" and cross the "t`s" of how they see their life in the "Truth". You really have to be in Christadelphia, or rather have been in Christadelphia, to understand what goes on.
The insistence, in many Ecclesias, that sisters wear hats; that they do not speak; that any discussion which veers away from "accepted Truth" will be frowned upon and dismissed; that the reading of books which challenge their understanding of "Truth" is actively discouraged. The list goes on.
So it is that members who stray from the party line are most likely to be cast out, disfellowshipped, and only on bended knee with special pleading are allowed back in. And once back in are looked upon as second class brethren or sisters.
These hard-liners which go along with this, what a bunch of uninformed, unintelligent, misguided hypocrites they are, without as much as a little finger tip`s worth of love in their bodies. Some of the others seem quite nice. Why don`t they rise up and challenge what goes on in their midst? If you are a one of the "nice" ones, why don`t you decide to try to see more clearly what you are in to?
It`s incredible to those of us who have either been thrown out or have left by our own decision, that you can`t see the real truth of your situation.
Gird up your thinking-cap loins, for goodness sake. Shake off the shackles of untruth. Be brave. Be real.
Hi there.
ReplyDeleteI was disfellowed 20 years ago for non attendance. at the time I didn't think my lifestyle was compatible with a life in Christ. This Sunday I will be attending a Christadelphian meeting and I intend to to break bread and wine. I will not be told by man what my relationship with the Lord Jesus and God should be.I will answer to my maker on the day of judgement, not to any man.I will tell the A.Bs my position and will insist on eating the body of Christ and drinking the blood of Christ, disfellowed or not. Can I be forcefully evicted from an eclesia for taking this stand? as far as I am concerned, I had an adult baptism, I am still a Christadelphian; therefore I answer to no man on earth just the Lord God in heaven.
Hi John,
DeleteYour comment seems rather extreme (and bitter if I'm honest). You asked if you can be forcefully evicted from an ecclesia, and the short answer is yes. Most Christadelphian halls are private property and they have every legal right to evict you, especially if you are deemed to be causing trouble.
It seems a little hypocritical for you to be worried about them forcefully evicting you while you don't seem concerned in the least about forcefully imposing yourself on them.
My question to you is, why bother? If you answer to no man (as you say), then why attend a Christadelphian hall at all? What would be the point? If you want to worship God (which one?) then just do that.
But if you want to settle your disagreement with Christadelphians (from 20 years ago!) then why not do that in a mature way as an adult? Contact one of the ABs and arrange a meeting to discuss your situation and tell them you'd like to seek refellowship. Personally I would not recommend that anyone join the Christadelphians, but that is the process you should follow if you want to go down that path. Demanding that they accept you is not likely to get you very far. The Christadelphians are an organisation with a codified set of rules. If you want to become a member, you need to accept and abide by those rules. If you disagree with the rules, don't join. It's simple.
If you don't mind, could you please tell us which Christadelphian meeting you plan to attend this Sunday? Thanks.
Thom,
DeleteI think we should wait for a comment from the author of the article on this one, however I have found some video footage of his former Ecclesia and their reaction one of the other Brethren who tried to return after being disfellowshipped.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yXwu1O49Uk
Whilst we await Mancott's thoughts on the matter, I've been contacted (by means of a vision, contained within a dream, so it must be true), to the effect that the ecclesia that disfellowshipped John was in fact Rugby in the UK. The informant has stated ( in the dream/vision) of course (so it must be true) that amongst the thousands of videos uploaded by the ecclesia, that this one that shows Br Don Pearce disfellowshipping a brother for believing that the world was older than 6000 years, and that dinosaurs were not contemporaneous with humans.
ReplyDeleteThe video (allegedly) shows Don receiving messages from God, interpreting them correctly, and acting as directed by the angels. Don is wearing white make-up and a rather dashing bowler hat in the clip.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fz85FE0KtQ
Joseph, I don`t have many thoughts about John B`s breaking and entering attempt, other than to be interested in what happens.
ReplyDeleteNor do I about my own disfellowship, other than to record that I had little to do with it, but am glad that it happened.
The process of my disfellowshipping may be of interest. It was done by a group of sisters, by means of consulting tealeaves. The Disfellowship Sister`s Group met, put water in the kettle to boil, reached for the big urn (not to be confused with Big Ern the Rec Bro), and after spooning in seven heaped teaspoons of leaves, gathered around a round table. One said we musn`t use the strainer (not to be confused with a sister who trotted out unusual and hard-to-believe explanations of Revelation), another said, as they passed around cups, We mustn`t use the cracked one (at which a little sister left the table and sat outside the group).
They drank their tea, exchanging news, views and gossip, and anxious to get to see the leaves at the bottom of their cups.
Having drunk the tea they passed their cups to the Reader, a sister who wore a bucket shaped hat, coming down so low over her face that only her lips could be seen. She looked into each cup, rejecting each in turn, until she came to the last one, into which she peered intently.
She said the leaves indicated that I should be made to travel on the Birmingham Inner Circle 8 bus route for seven circuits. There was a cry from the other sisters, that this would be like going to hell, and as they didn`t believe in Hell, this should not be the punishment for my long continued absence.
After more peering at the leaves, the Reader said she`d made a mistake, and it was the Outer Circle 11, not the number 8. One of the two hour forty-five minutes circuits of that would be enough to bring me to my senses.
Naturally, I rejected this demand, as the route would take me too close the ecclesias where I had sat through endlessly boring and ill-thought out lectures, and so I opted for disfellowship.
Why "By the Ghost of Mancott"?
ReplyDeleteThis goes back a long way into the blog, when after some less than useful exchanges (though fun) with John Bedson, either he or I caused my "demise", and I remained out of the blog for some time.
When I returned John Bedson created a cartoon of me coming out of the tomb. It`s lurking somewhere on the blog still (?).