Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

klp wrote:Have to be careful or that ugly will come out like a shotgun blast.

You are so right.

I may have mentioned this before, and if I did, I'm sorry. At my age, things like that happen....

I remember one Sunday when the teacher we had for the adult class cornered me near the coat rack in the foyer, his face red and his finger shaking in my face. I don't remember what I had said during class, but he was not going to have it. He proceeded to read me the riot act, and kept getting louder and louder. I kept backing away and ended up in a corner, stuck between some overcoats and the table where the announcements and other papers were laid out. Scared the living heck out of me. If it had not been for the preacher's wife coming in and calming the guy down, I don't know what would have happened. Half an hour later, the same guy was standing in front of the congregation, all sweetness and light, asking the blessing for the lord's supper.

I never went back to that bible class. And I had trouble dealing with the creep for several years, until he moved away.

I used to think people were mean because they were insecure.

I don't think that anymore. I think bullies are generally extremely secure. Smug, as a matter of fact. The power feels really, really good.

There are mean people and gossips in all religions but with that being said, I think a lot of what we have experienced is due to the fact that most CofC'ers live in a sheltered/closed society - the congregation is their social life.

Many years ago, I hired of fellow member of "the" Church. One Friday I asked her what she and her husband were doing for the weekend. She replied "not much". I replied, why don't you hang out with your neighbors and cook or go to the movies with them. She replied with a stern voice "Because they are not members of THE Church."

I think rehab'd is right. My world was limited to the CoC for so long. It's really astonishing to me that I was missing out on a whole world out there.

AtPeace wrote: It's really astonishing to me that I was missing out on a whole world out there.

YES!! I am so busy exploring that I need another lifetime to live.......LOVE IT!!

They are some off the cruelest, mean-spirited people I know who habitually corrupt Ephesians 4:15 --"Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ."

Love and maturity. Let's go with those two words.

They need to have more sex. If they had more sex they wouldn't be so uptight and mean.

Elders' daughters have lots of sex. Then they have to get married!

MusicMan826 wrote:I remember we would always go out to eat with a group after church on Sundays. All we would ever do is make fun of and talk about people behind their backs. I was as guilty as the rest of them. For several years after leaving I would catch myself wanting to talk about people when they weren't around, and I know I got that from years of being exposed to it in the CoC. I honestly think for most people their lives are so boring they have nothing better to do than talk about and make fun of other people. Their attitudes towards other people are terrible, and they think they're the only ones going to heaven? Give me a break.

This is a coc tradition. Constant non-stop talk of who did what, who said what, did you see what she was wearing, discuss the attendance, this person has fallen away, the sermon was too long, the prayers too long, so-and-so was singing off key, those visitors took our pew, they go to a denomination, they're going to hell, did you see how much they put in the collection plate, he's fat, she' ugly, they need to repent, but my life's perfect and I'm the only one going to heaven. Sheesh!

I've also found them to be very racist. It might say "go into all the world" but if you're in a Chinese restaurant with a coc member, once he or she gets their belly full, it's insults and ethnic slurs for dessert.