Career Ex-member

I was at the INFORM conference last weekend. One of the more interesting papers was from two researchers who were considering different categories of members of New Religious Movements and former members of same.

One of these categories was 'Career ex-member'. They used a disparaging tone when they talked about this category which made me feel bothered so I spent some time thinking about this.

At the end therefore I spoke. I said:

"I think you would put me in the category of Career Ex-member though it is not so much my choice but feels like something that has been foisted on me. Be that as it may I was wondering if this category, which you seemed to talk about in negative terms as if it was something bad. needs more clarification and that maybe anyway it  is all on a continuum and is not categorical at all. If I reflect on why, at the moment, I seem to fall into this category I had these thoughts:

Am I doing this because I want revenge?     Answer: No, not my style
Am I doing this because I want to bring the Exclusive brethren down?  Answer: No definitely not
Am I doing this for money?   Answer:  Fat chance.

Having exhausted all the reasons that people usually throw at me who do not understand why I am doing what I am doing, I asked myself 'so why do you do it' ,
My answer is very simple - it is because I have a strong sense of social justice and there have been so many injustices perpetrated by this particular NRM. Just maybe my research can help put things right. 

I then suggested that they might like to reconsider their classifications.

They did not really reply but I could see that they took what I said on board. And afterwards several people came up to me thanking me for my comments.

I am not after revenge  - I am not that kind of person. I do not want the brethren to implode because that would be 45000 people who would suffer too much with the change. But I do want social justice and the brethren have conceded that they have made mistakes and will make amends.

It is simply not right, not just, not christian for families to be kept apart, for former members to be prevented from knowing when their relatives die and from attending the funerals, or for children to be denied access to higher education to follow the careers they wish to pursue. That is my opinion.