Chapter 5

Racism and genocide

There was always talk of splinter groups and spin-off churches led by those who it was proclaimed had decided to compromise the truth and rebel against God. After I left the cult I discovered that the church was itself a splinter group of a splinter group and no better than those who had decided to set up their own groups, regardless of how right the leaders of my particular church thought they were.

One aspect of the church’s pre-formation history that stayed a strong theme was its roots in the British-Israel-World Federation at the turn of last century. The cult was a strong supporter of the British monarchy although they attributed the demise of the British Empire to the people of Britain and particularly their leaders losing their way and turning away from God.

We endured many sermons on how the various tribes of Israel migrated across Europe to Scandinavia, England and Scotland and the history of the UK which then led to the colonisation of Australia. As Australia was determined as being at the end of this chain it then followed that Australia had been chosen by God to carry the torch of the Gospel throughout the world – although they never did particularly well with evangelising overseas and setting up new churches.

I mentioned in a previous chapter that before even considering leaving the cult I had already rejected their stance on homosexuality. Another part of the church’s doctorine that I had also rejected many years before as outright immoral was their view on Israel’s role in the world, particularly when it came to their migration from Egypt to the Holy Land and how they were commanded by God to destroy everyone currently occupying those lands (and most of the people they came across during their 40-year journey). As if it wasn’t bad enough that tens or hundreds of thousands of people would have died in such conquests the church also translated that commandment to modern times even going so far as to say that the British should have utterly destroyed the indigenous population of Australia during the colonisation in the 18th century! The cult claimed that the early history of Australia was similar to biblical stories such as that of Saul and the Amelekites and so because of England’s disobedience in failing to wipe out the Aborigines we now suffer just as Israel now suffers from failing to wipe out the Palestinians, although without the rocket attacks and suicide bombers. How outrageous!?

Luckily that’s about as far as the cult’s racism went. They didn’t deny people entry to the church based on race – but you would have to accept the church’s British-Israel message and beliefs. All or nothing.

I’m not sure how people can feel comfortable with supporting this belief. I used to be a good little Christian, I was in it for the long haul. Highly suggestible, totally brainwashed … yet even I couldn’t accept God-sponsored genocide.

So, the rest of the story goes that when God returns to Earth on Judgement Day Jesus will reclaim the British throne – yes, the actual throne in Westminster Abbey – because of its history and link back to the Old Testament and King David and various scriptural references that were tied to the passage of the stone that’s under the throne from Israel to Scotland to England, etc.

I bought a book several years before leaving the cult The Meaning of Things by modern philospher A.C. Grayling. Blasphemous, by church standards, but it contained alternative views on various topics and I needed some footholds to try and grasp the truth. The book was one of my most guarded possessions for I knew that discovery of that book would result in immediate expulsion from the church. We didn’t really have a blacklist as such – although a few books and films were explicitly mentioned – but everyone knew the basic principles and the penalties.

I have this same book sitting beside me while I write this article and I just wanted to share a quote from it:

This prompts the question: Why are the churches given a privileged – almost, indeed, an exclusive – position in the social debate about morality, when they are arguably the least competent organisations to have it?

It took years for me to even entertain the possibility that the church might be fallible, but in some places where my moral compass (augmented by such books and reading commentary from my covert atheist friends) was stronger than the church’s teachings and brainwashing, cracks started to appear and I could then wedge my lever in and after that it all tumbled down within the space of a few years. Even now there are parts of that wall that I am demolishing, remnants of lesser or trickier falsehoods.