I have an audiobook of The Pilgrim’s Progress Retold - a much simplified version of the original Pilgrim’s Progress. It has the same quaint language and earnestness as the original, and I find that amusing (John Bunyan’s probably turning in his grave right now…).
I listened to it again recently, and one scene hit differently from before: Their imprisonment in Doubting Castle by Giant Despair.
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Bottom line, it's about faith or not having faith. About swallowing what you've been spoon fed in traps like Christadelphianism, and living in a safe, imaginary world, or stepping outside of that world -- alas, only to find despair and doubt and suffering.
ReplyDeleteYet we know despair and doubt and suffering exist aplenty even in "safe" cocoons like Christadelphianism. In trying to get my sister to leave the sect, she finally told me she could not leave, despite having a crisis of faith and doctrinal doubts, because CDism was her "community, culture, and comfortable environment," as poorly as it sometimes admittedly performed in those capacities.
One of the reasons why I personally departed was because of the deficiencies even in those capacities. The sect/cult fails many of us, and then we're stuck in sad positions because "the 'Truth' is more important than human needs in those regards." (That is a second quote from my sister.) It's ironic, considering some of the human wreckage coming out of CDism. I have noted the death of one Clarence Lovell Wade Jr., who was a Christadelphian for his entire life, and worshipped for 75 years in the very same building with the same sect (CDism) with the same people. He died, at the age of 92 or 93, and I went looking for his obituary and whatever condolences might have been extended by his "community." There were three obituary sites that I could locate. In not one of them was there a single memorial comment or condolence posted by his religious community. It was as if his religious life had no meaning at all to the people for whom it should have meant the most.
It confirmed my conclusions that even as a source for community or human interaction or social/cultural involvement, CDism is often a big, fat nothing burger.