Heyoo! It’s me, your old friend Heather.
As usual, I’ve got 27 different things going on, but one thing I want to share is that I’ve been helping my friend Zinnia get her podcast off the ground. It’s called Life After Leaving – An Ex-Christadelphian Podcast.
Zinnia also grew up Christadelphian—in the same ecclesia (church) as my family! I am 13 years older than her, so she was a cute little toddler when I was a teenager and my family moved to Vermont. I don’t think our paths crossed again after that until she found me on Goodreads, of all places, and reached out to connect. We’ve been connected on social media for the last 6 years or so and are both in a group for ex-Christadelphians on Facebook.
Long story short, Zinnia decided to write and host a podcast by ex-Christadelphians for ex-Christadelphians (and anyone who is Christadelphian-curious!). She asked me to be her first interview since my experience growing up and leaving was relatively non-traumatic, and since I’ve already shared much of it in this blog anyway, I was happy to do so.
In addition to my interview, I’ve been editing some of the episodes and helping to set up the podcast on various platforms. I also co-hosted an episode about women in Christadelphia and interviewed Zinnia for another episode.
A couple of weeks ago, I met up with Zinnia and Keturah (another ex-CD who was involved in the podcast). We had lunch in Farmington, CT, then went for a little hike at Hill-Stead. It was a gorgeous fall day, and it was so easy to chat and connect because of our shared experiences.
The podcast is a fun and interesting way to hear the stories of others who have left the Christadelphians. Zinnia’s history episodes are also quite eye-opening. For those of us who grew up Christadelphians, we were taught to revere the founding fathers (John Thomas and Robert Roberts), but Zinnia dug into their life stories, and, well, it turns out they weren’t as saintly and pure-hearted as we may have been told.
You can listen to the podcast on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Amazon or Podbean. Here’s the show page with links to all the platforms: https://lifeafterleavingpodcast.podbean.com
I’d really appreciate it if you could go check it out and subscribe, and if you like it, please rate and review it, too! I’d love to hear what you think if you listen to it.
Uncommon Heather 
I’ve been listening to this podcast and am finding it to be fascinating. Your humor and insight demonstrate how full your life has become after leaving – you’ve come a long way! Thank you so much for sharing.
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Thanks Melinda! I’m glad you’re enjoying it. 😊
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It is very very strange that you were required to revere the founding fathers (John Thomas and Robert Roberts), because one of the ground rules Dr Thomas himself gave was never to consider him as someone to be revered, and that only god was the person to receive all glory and honour.
We only may praise God as the Most High and worship Him.
It is quite normal that those two men turned out they weren’t as saintly and pure-hearted as you may have been told, because they were just ordinary human people, like every one of us having their particular faults and being sinners.
I am curious why you and she went away from the Christadelphians. We are afraid you came out of a very conservative group. Certainly Zinnia saying we can not read novels is totally absurd.
A pity you both, with also other ex-Christadelphians did not go to look outside your ecclesia and finding other Christadelphians with more open views than presented in the podcast!
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If you listened to the podcast you would know that we both traveled to many different ecclesias throughout North America. You would also learn why we left the Christadelphians.
Simply put, it’s not for everyone. You can try to defend it all you want but there’s nothing you can say that is going to change my mind.
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Shame to hear so many sayings we seem to recognise from brought up conservative Christadelphians who live in remote arias. Please come to learn other Christadelphians who moved up into the 21st century.
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No thank you.
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