Editing Benjamin Roden (section)

== Early religious adherence ==
Details of Roden's early religious views are as sketchy as those of his secular life. However, an obituary says that he joined "the Christian Church" in the same year that he married, although his journey to that church and the extent to which it involved change is uncertain. Kenneth Newport, a professor of Christian Thought, notes that "like many other converted Jews&nbsp;... he carried with him into Christianity a good deal of his Jewishness", giving as an example of this the importance that Roden later attached to the Jewish festivals of [[Purim]] and [[Passover]].<ref name="newport117"/>

By 1940, the Rodens were members of the [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]] (SDA) in [[Kilgore, Texas]]. It is possible that the appeal of the SDA lay at least in part in its similarities to some aspects of Judaism, such as practising the [[Biblical Sabbath|sabbath on the seventh day]] and abiding by the [[Food and drink prohibitions|dietary laws]] of the Old Testament, but in addition the couple had been given ''Bible Readings for the Home Circle'' as a wedding present by Lois's mother. That book was a publication of the SDA and it is probable, although not certain, that somewhere in Lois's family there was already an involvement with that church.<ref name="newport117"/>

The Rodens later moved from the church at Kilgore to that at Odessa, where Ben became a head [[Elder (Christianity)|elder]]. Somewhere around this time, in the early- to mid-1940s, the couple became influenced by the [[Shepherd's Rod]] movement, which had splintered from the SDA, and probably visited its base at the [[Mount Carmel Center]], near [[Waco, Texas]], even if only briefly. They were [[disfellowshiped]] from their SDA church, which caused them offence because they had helped to finance the church building and felt that they therefore had a right to use it. Various accounts exist of a stand-off between Lois and the church, with her occupying it for several days and receiving supplies from Ben and their son, George.<ref name="newport117"/>