A survey launched last month by researchers at Elon University, a nonsectarian private university in North Carolina, seeks to understand those who have left the Adventist Church. “Our goal is to learn and document what led those who call themselves ‘ex-Adventists’ to leave the Adventist movement,” the research team writes on the website for the “Eighth-Day Freedom” project.
I just took the survey - only about 10 minutes, and well worth the time. The questions were thoughtful and there were many opportunities to elaborate; I like the fact that this is being done with other denominations as well, and also is not done by the SDA church.
I wonder what are the reasons why 2/3 believe that the SDA church is a cult? Maybe they use the term loosely, meaning that the church wishes to control the behavior of members? Perhaps they are disappointed that if they accept Christ by faith, they are then required to obey 27 other beliefs, some of which they may disagree.
I also thought the questions were thoughtful. However there were two series of questions that I found puzzling. The first was the group of questions asking about changed behaviors that were the result of “acting out” against the beliefs and customs of the church. Of course, there are changed behaviors after no longer claiming membership, but I would not say that my changed behaviors were resulting from acting out against the church. “Acting out” implies a negativity that either I didn’t feel or was not predominant, Mine was more like making a transition from one stage of my life to another stage. The second puzzling group of questions was about psychological abuse from particular Adventist leaders. It is difficult to understand what is meant by psychological abuse. There were inconveniences, certainly. And as an employee I knew the limits of openly communicating about them, but if anything rose to a level that some would claim to be abusive I would assign responsibility to the religious system rather than to an individual. Perhaps I was reading too much into the questions.
Well it certainly beats the Adventist survey which would consist of;
A) Did you leave because you are angry? Y/N
B) Did you leave because someone hurt you? Y/N
C) Did you leave because you want to eat bacon? Y/N
D) Did you leave to sin? Y/N
E) Are you under the influence of satan? Y/N
F) Did you study wrong? Y/N
I totally agree about the use of the term “acting out”. I noted that on the survey in one of the comment sections. It was used several times, and it was such a bizarre way of asking about a change in your choices as an adult.
When I think of psychological abuse, the first thing which came to mind was: when I was in the 6th grade, we were pressured to join the Preparation for Baptism class. All of us. Over and over and over. Admittedly, most of us never gave it a second thought, just joined in. There was one kid particularly though, who withstood the pressure even though he was taken out of the classroom on several occasions to receive “counsel”. His parents were called, and to their everlasting credit, deferred to their 12 year old son’s decision not to give in.
Your recollection of the boy who resisted pressure to join a baptisimal class brought back a childhood memory. As an adolescent I was a fan of Mad magazine whose ficticious mascot was a slightly goofy looking boy named Alfred E Neuman. Alfred could calmly resist potentially troublesome situations that came his way without a bit of anxiety. His motto was: “What? Me worry?” I hope your friend refused to be phased by the applied pressure.