Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

Hello,

I was raised CoC and was very involved in the church until the last few years when I went to boarding school and college. Following school I (in private) began to mostly identify with agnosticism because God seemed far away, cold, and judgmental to me. However, I now believe that God wasn't the problem, it was the group I was worshiping with. Going to college I was exposed to many other denominations and have been looking around to find the way that I can worship God that doesn't make me hate myself or others, I want to feel the love and support that God is supposed to lend to his people. This website (among other resources and friends) has given me hope that I can be happy in my faith outside of the CoC instead of demoralized for being sinful and choosing to worship God "incorrectly." Thank you all for your support, and the resources found here, they are tremendous.

Welcome! We are glad to have you here.

Welcome! I know how you feel, as the coc is very good at creating confusion because of all their loopholes found in their doctrine. Glad you joined.

The coc is probably not unique in this - but it is very good at making members think 'god' and 'the church' are equal and the same - so that leaving 'the church' is also 'leaving god'. Don't go there if you can avoid it. The coc is not god, no matter how much it might like to make it seem that way.

You have gone to college, so you are probably used to doing some research and reading - carry that over, and do some research and reading on religion and Christianity. You'll find - as we have - that the coc is a minor twig on an outlying branch of the whole tree of 'Christianity', and barely a blip on the whole array of 'religion' worldwide. Tiny, out of the mainstream, and quite frankly, not even terribly interesting.

WELCOME

Change can be difficult ... especially when you finally decide to run like mad from a church that saps your spiritual vitality, then puts a guilt trip on you when you decide to leave. Hope you can find something useful here that will help you.

Welcome, UMStudent!! So glad you found us.

Just had a couple of comments r/t Agri's post, if you don't mind.

agricola wrote:The coc is probably not unique in this - but it is very good at making members think 'god' and 'the church' are equal and the same - so that leaving 'the church' is also 'leaving god'. Don't go there if you can avoid it. The coc is not god, no matter how much it might like to make it seem that way.

You have gone to college, so you are probably used to doing some research and reading - carry that over, and do some research and reading on religion and Christianity. You'll find - as we have - that the coc is a minor twig on an outlying branch of the whole tree of 'Christianity', and barely a blip on the whole array of 'religion' worldwide. Tiny, out of the mainstream, and quite frankly, not even terribly interesting.

Amen, Agri....well stated. This thought especially cracked me up:

You'll find - as we have - that the coc is a minor twig on an outlying branch of the whole tree of 'Christianity', and barely a blip on the whole array of 'religion' worldwide. Tiny, out of the mainstream, and quite frankly, not even terribly interesting.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

On a more sober note.....what a burden they placed on small, vulnerable children by saddling us with
their crippling, suffocating world view, and threatening us with eternal death if
we dare to escape from it.

agricola wrote:the coc is a minor twig on an outlying branch of the whole tree of 'Christianity', and barely a blip on the whole array of 'religion' worldwide. Tiny, out of the mainstream, and quite frankly, not even terribly interesting.

Yes, that's an important observation that I'm keen to forget. When you grow up with everyone believing the same heavy ideas you begin to believe that everyone thinks that way, when it's really a very small minority.

and thanks everyone for responding, you're all very kind and supportive.

UMstudent wrote:and thanks everyone for responding, you're all very kind and supportive.

Now you know that is why we call it a support board.

Ivy wrote:Welcome, UMStudent!! So glad you found us.

Just had a couple of comments r/t Agri's post, if you don't mind.

agricola wrote:The coc is probably not unique in this - but it is very good at making members think 'god' and 'the church' are equal and the same - so that leaving 'the church' is also 'leaving god'. Don't go there if you can avoid it. The coc is not god, no matter how much it might like to make it seem that way.

You have gone to college, so you are probably used to doing some research and reading - carry that over, and do some research and reading on religion and Christianity. You'll find - as we have - that the coc is a minor twig on an outlying branch of the whole tree of 'Christianity', and barely a blip on the whole array of 'religion' worldwide. Tiny, out of the mainstream, and quite frankly, not even terribly interesting.

Amen, Agri....well stated. This thought especially cracked me up:

You'll find - as we have - that the coc is a minor twig on an outlying branch of the whole tree of 'Christianity', and barely a blip on the whole array of 'religion' worldwide. Tiny, out of the mainstream, and quite frankly, not even terribly interesting.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

On a more sober note.....what a burden they placed on small, vulnerable children by saddling us with
their crippling, suffocating world view, and threatening us with eternal death if
we dare to escape from it.

Yeah - and you know what? they don't even do THAT well! I mean, look at Jim Jones! Or that Waco crackpot. Or the Westbury loonie tunes. The coc can't even do EVIL MINDF**K properly!

Sheesh.

I mean, it's certainly bad enough, it just isn't bad enough to entice a bunch of blockbusters or pulitzer prize winning exposes, or ANYTHING.