03-02 Plymouth Brethren

It was pretty hard growing up to figure out the differences between Plymouth Brethren, Exclusive Brethren, and Open Brethren. These religious sects were continually splitting and reforming. But as a teenager it meant no movies, no TV, no radio, no high school dances, no football and all kinds of other rules that seemed nonsensical.
But it was a form of Christian fundamentalism that eventually drove me to atheism.
The conflicts started in high school when I had to deal with Brethren who preached that the world was created in seven days about 6000 years ago. Our teachers, in contrast, were talking about dinosaurs that lived 200 million years ago
And then I had trouble with the story of Noah and the flood from the Book of Genesis, where the animals that were saved were those aboard the Ark. Again, those evil teachers were telling me about all the animals on the continent of Australia that were unique to Australia. Noah must have missed those creatures. Or more likely, he did not know Australia existed.
No wonder so many fundamentalist Christians want to “home school” their kids to keep them away from teachers who want their students to learn to think and reason.
Love the cartoon taken from Christianfunnypictures.com.
My parents wanted us to be exposed to a Christian faith so we would have a moral underpinning in our lives. But my experience with Brethren and their leader at the time, James Taylor Jr. was not only disconcerting but grossly immoral.
He was found with a naked married woman in a hotel room. And apparently was telling women that sleeping with him would be doing God’s work. Sounds like a godly Harvey Weinstein.
Gender equality was not an issue I gave much thought to as a teenager, but it became important as I matured as an adult. My family heroes were all strong women, especially my grandmothers. Holding back women seemed biblical to fundamentalists, but seriously stupid from just a practical perspective.
But the real family crisis came when I was married and adopted a boy, who was gay. The brethren believed he had chosen a sinful lifestyle, but we knew he was different as a small child. It was something he was born with.
Mother paid for him to attend the People’s Church Christian school, where he would be exposed to strong fundamentalist biblical influences. But three of the five boys in his class were also gay. He loved that Church.
It was a difficult family time. Peter died of HIV-Aids at age 35, and so did most of his friends.
It might be unfair to blame Christian fundamentalism for driving many of their followers into atheism. But from my perspective, blind faith bypasses reason and I have learned, as a result, to distrust all forms of religious fundamentalism.
That’s the way I see it anyways