The Life After Leaving Podcast: An Ex-Christadelphian Podcast

Today we’re chatting with Craig! In today’s episode, Craig shares his memories of his time in Christadelphia over forty years ago. Craig joined his local ecclesia as an adolescent and enjoyed the community, the studious environment, and spending time with Christadelphian families. He quickly became baptized, started preaching at his ecclesia, and traveling to other ecclesias in Australia. But over...

In today’s episode, Keturah and Bec return to the podcast for Part TWO of our GAYEST episode yet to discuss and challenge how Christadelphians justify bigotry against LGBTQ people. In part two, we focus on the cultural issues that the rampant homophobia causes in the Christadelphian community, the reality of LGBTQ members' lived experiences, and discuss the data that was gathered in 2023 in an LGB...

In today’s episode, Keturah and Bec return to the podcast for our GAYEST episode yet to discuss and challenge how Christadelphians justify bigotry against LGBTQ people. As queer ex-Christadelphians ourselves, we share our stories and re-examine the bible verses that featured prominently during our lives in lectures given by the “Brothers” who claimed that they knew that God hates gay people. One b...

In today’s episode, Chloe joins me as we examine the Christadelphian doctrine of the Kingdom of God on Earth! We start by reviewing the different phases of this apocalyptic doctrine and discussing what it was like to be raised as children to believe that we were in the “end times” where our parents might be taken away by angels at any moment. We also explore what makes the “kingdom” doctrine so un...

Today we’re chatting with Steve to explore what the Bible actually says about the future “Kingdom of God”! Join us for heathen “Sunday School” as we explore the evolution of some of the ideas in the Bible that are necessary to believe in an eternal “future kingdom” including- the messiah, the resurrection, and the idea of a kingdom itself. In this episode, we also look to answer whether the Christ...

Today we’re chatting with Andy! In today’s episode, Andy shares his experience of growing up as a Christadelphian in the UK. Ever since he was a young boy performing in Sunday School, Andy was uncomfortable in the spotlight. He shares his memories of anxiety around traditional Christadelphian expectations for men including being baptized in front of large crowds and being asked to do the readings...

Today we’re finishing our investigation of the medical qualifications of “Doctor” John Thomas, the founder of the Christadelphians. In this history episode, we’ll follow John Thomas’ career during his time in the United States from the 1830’s into the 1850’s. We once again debunk persistent myths that have been repeated by Christadelphians for generations. Instead of accepting these myths, we crit...

Today we’re chatting with Katie! Katie’s story is an eye-opening account of the harms and pressure of sexism in Christadelphian culture on young girls. As a child, Katie was pulled out of the public school system in order to spend her time primarily caring for her brothers and taking care of the household tasks. As she grew older, was pressured to find a husband and begin to follow a “timeline” wh...

Today we’re chatting with Bec! In this episode, Bec shares her experience growing up as a “Logos” Christadelphian in Australia and trying to follow the ‘straight and narrow’ path until she made the difficult decision to leave her marriage and embrace her identity as a lesbian! Bec shares some vulnerable stories of life inside the ecclesia. From trying to be a good daughter and getting baptized as...

Today we’re learning about the history of hands-on energy healing in the early Christadelphian community! In this episode, Zinnia discusses the founding of an ecclesia in Edinburgh, Scotland that quickly became interested in practicing hands-on energy healing. These new believers were radical free thinkers who offered sassy -but scriptural- retorts to the demands of Robert Roberts and John Thomas...

Today we’re chatting with Rebecca! In this episode, we hear from a former Christadelphian who had no intention of leaving the community until the day she walked out the door. Rebecca shares how she was raised in a small ecclesia in a rural area with the expectation that she would get baptized, become a wife and mother, and play piano for the Sunday memorial services. Despite asking a lot of questi...

Today we’re chatting with Kate! In this episode, Kate begins by discussing her childhood in religious education where she grew up attending a Seventh Day Adventist School before later commuting over an hour to a Christadelphian Heritage College in Australia. We also discuss her family’s religious split over a relatives’ divorce and about the high expectations for “appropriate dress” for a “sister...

Today we’re chatting with Ben! In this episode, we explore how Ben went from a youth role model as the son of a renowned conservative Christadelphian preacher to pushing the limits of even the most liberal Christadelphians before leaving. Raised in a conservative branch of Christadelphia, Ben was told that some of their family had “left the faith” but was surprised to discover that there were actu...

Today we’re chatting with Steve about one of his favorite topics, Biblical Studies! In this episode, we learn about the Bible from a former Christadelphian brother who left behind Christadelphian dogma for an open-minded scholarly approach to the Bible. In this episode, Dr. Steve reframes and explores many topics that we thought we knew about to see how context, translation, and history play a par...

In today’s episode, Zinnia and Pete discuss six more historical examples of criminality among the Christadelphians that were not covered in our first true crime episode- from investigations into meat pies and hate speech, to missing charitable funds, and even murder! Let’s get into the spirit of spooky season as we discuss childhood medical neglect and speculate on why religious communities are so...

Today we’re chatting with Tim! In today’s episode, we hear from a survivor of the movement of a small group of Christadelphians who traveled to Israel because of an article in a Christadelphian magazine in order to meet Jesus, who they believed had returned but was living “in cognito” as an Israeli politician. Tim tells us about when his family prayed to a literal burning bush they believed was a...

Today we’re chatting with Peter! In this episode, we hear from a former brother about the difficulties of growing up in a family perpetually changing ecclesias, of struggling to build friendships within the Christadelphian community, and of trying to meet the complicated standards for public prayers and bible readings. Peter shares how he had felt so mentally immobilized by fear that he had never...

Today we’re chatting with Sarah! In this episode, Sarah answers all of my questions about the subgroup of Christadelphians called the “Bereans”, shares her experience of growing up in a small ecclesia as a victim of child m*lestation by Christadelphian brothers, and the story of how the Berean Christadelphian community discovered and responded to the abuse (Surprise! NOT WELL!) We also learn about...

Today we’re investigating the medical qualifications of “Doctor” John Thomas, the founder of the Christadelphians. In this episode, we’ll debunk some questionable claims allegedly recorded in mysterious letters, examine damning evidence hidden in plain sight regarding Thomas’ medical education, and explore the shocking reason why John Thomas really left England to pursue a medical career in the Un...

Today we’re chatting with (another) Vanessa! In this episode, we interview our first ex-Christadelphian raised in the “Old Paths” sub-group of the Christadelphian sect. Vanessa shares some stories from their community such as their caravan tent version of Bible School, the strict rules baptized members were required to agree to such as never going to the movies, and about how her family refused to...

Today we’re chatting with Mako! In this episode, Mako shares his experience traveling the world as a (white, male) Christadelphian before spending the years following his baptism serving in Jamaica as a missionary. After marrying his (Jamaican) wife and settling in America, his eyes were opened to racism & sexism among the Christadelphians when it became directed towards his family and as Chri...

Today we’re chatting with Chloe! In this episode, Chloe shares her experience being raised to be homeschooled by Christadelphians and sent to a Canadian Christadelphian Heritage College before being discouraged from pursuing higher education and having to learn how to navigate the “outside world” once she hit adulthood. We also discuss mental health issues she experienced while she was a Christade...

Today we’re chatting with Sylvia! In this episode, Sylvia tells us about growing up in a family that read (and debated) the Bible together every day as ‘a little hippie kid’. She discusses her ‘radical’ experience as a Christadelphian starting in the 1960’s and ‘70’s in Canada where she helped found a new ecclesia, create a new bible school, and push for women to teach. She also turned heads in he...

In today’s episode, Zinnia does a deep dive on the history of Christadelphian “prophecies” and apocalyptic predictions! She starts with the origins of the “prophetic arithmetic” methods by a rather infamous American in the 1840’s, follows the early prophecies by John Thomas and Robert Roberts, and leads into conversations around prophecies, high control groups, and cognitive dissonance in the mode...

Today we’re chatting about Bible Prophecy! In this episode I’m joined by Rob, a Professor of Statistics & Statistical Forecasting, and Steve, a Professor of Biblical Studies to explore the prophecies they learned (and even taught!) from their time as Christadelphians. Now as ex-Christadelphians, we discuss what they’ve learned about history, statistics, and biblical literature to explore non-C...