Jon Ronson on the Alpha Course (UK)

[malbui]

When she lived in London, the future Mme Malbui shared a flat with a young lady who turned out to be very active in the Alpha thing and her (and my) experiences of them were entirely in line with what dlorde and Fiona have posted above. This lady's group of fellow organisers were some of the most unpleasant people it has ever been my misfortune to meet and in the event my wife moved out in quite a hurry to avoid having any further contact with any of them.

 

[Eddie Dane]

Sorry to have made this very long post but I found the whole thing disgusting

Don't apologise, I find your post very interesting.

You seem to have quite a handle of the process that cults use.

Have you been professionally involved with cults or group psychology? Or are you -like me- just curious about how the hell this is possible?

 

[cj.23]

Well It persuaded me to do an Alpha Course. The free food was the deciding factor. I had to go out and onlu caught the first ten minutes, in which a rather trite version of the tiring Trilemma - Lord Lunatic or Liar? Was put forward by the course guide, but anything ny Jon Ronsom is absolutely worth watching. I fear the Alpha Course is simply too bland, being a very simplistic sales attempt for a certain type of Evangelical theology, to really make good TV, but my ex-wife said it was excellent. She group up in ye olde US Bible Belt and knows a thing or two about religious loons, having resea5rched with me on a project on the Religious Right as well, and though she is a hard atheist now - I'm not, being a Christian - she said it was very entertaining and I'd enjoy it!

cj x

 

[dlorde]

Sorry to have made this very long post but I found the whole thing disgusting

An excellent summary and analysis. I saw the programme too, and found it disturbing. It brought to mind The Stepford Wives...

 

[Arthur ASCII]

Thanks to Worm for the heads-up on this. I managed to catch it last night and found it really interesting.

One of the highlights for me was when one of the course attendees almost turned the female Christian group leader agnostic. His comments forced her to think about whether god would create anyone with the inability to believe in him. A recent forum post made precisely the same point and is, I think, quite persuasive.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Well It persuaded me to do an Alpha Course. The free food was the deciding factor. I had to go out and onlu caught the first ten minutes, in which a rather trite version of the tiring Trilemma - Lord Lunatic or Liar? Was put forward by the course guide, but anything ny Jon Ronsom is absolutely worth watching. I fear the Alpha Course is simply too bland, being a very simplistic sales attempt for a certain type of Evangelical theology, to really make good TV, but my ex-wife said it was excellent. She group up in ye olde US Bible Belt and knows a thing or two about religious loons, having resea5rched with me on a project on the Religious Right as well, and though she is a hard atheist now - I'm not, being a Christian - she said it was very entertaining and I'd enjoy it!

cj x

I only see one smiley. Care to try again because I don't understand what point you are trying to make. Other than the fact that you are a believing Christian and that I knew already.

 

[cj.23]

I'd do the course if i get free coffee and biscuits. And I would argue every single thing I saw I think - but one thing disturbed me about the narration. It was the suggestion there were "rights "answers - I thought the alpha course was about not having "right answers", but exploring stuff?

cj x

 

[Filippo Lippi]

"Goddidit! What was the question again?"

 

[ponderingturtle]

I'd do the course if i get free coffee and biscuits. And I would argue every single thing I saw I think - but one thing disturbed me about the narration. It was the suggestion there were "rights "answers - I thought the alpha course was about not having "right answers", but exploring stuff?

cj x

Wait, you believed their marketing?

 

[SusanB-M1]

My question would be, how do they get the agnostics to come to the course in the first place?

Having heard about it from a member of the Humanist group I belong to, I decided I could not criticise unless I knew what I was talking aboutCoincidentally, I bumped into an ex-colleague I hadn't seen for about ten years and her (evangelical) church were just about to start one. I wrote a report and sent a copy to the BHA. I'm not quite sure where it is on the BHA web site now, but when I googled it came up as the first item on the page - very exciting! - and this is it

There has been a discussion on the BBC Christian Topic too and in case anyone's interested in having a look, this is a link to the topic ... and I am SusanDoris there. And I expect quite a few people here know this blog link

 

[Darat]

I'd do the course if i get free coffee and biscuits. And I would argue every single thing I saw I think - but one thing disturbed me about the narration. It was the suggestion there were "rights "answers - I thought the alpha course was about not having "right answers", but exploring stuff?

cj x

How did you come to that conclusion?