Fear

[Scott]

Everyone's statements here just ring so true. Helps me realize leaving was the correct decision. It's nice not being alone in this decision.

[KLP]

Everyone's statements here just ring so true. Helps me realize leaving was the correct decision. It's nice not being alone in this decision.

Yes, the company is great on the broad way where everyone is laughing and having a good time until they are eaten by Morlocks.

[Scott]

Everyone's statements here just ring so true. Helps me realize leaving was the correct decision. It's nice not being alone in this decision.

Yes, the company is great on the broad way where everyone is laughing and having a good time until they are eaten by Morlocks.

True but on the other hand highly possible Coc is just Satan disguised as an Angel of light.

[margin overa]

Well, he is always seeking whom he may devour.

[B.H.]

Maybe, just maybe, it's the Church of Christ telling it's members what their itching ears want to hear.

[Aarin]

Looking back I can see clearly that the control comes from instilling fear and guilt. At the time, growing up in the coc, I never saw it that way. I didn't think I was being controlled. I didn't think an unrational fear of hell was keeping me from questioning the church. I didn't think shame was keeping me from inviting my friends or in sharing the gospel with others.

The one thing that dogged me most though was that I didn't understand why I felt so inadequate as a Christian. It's all interconnected.

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That's just it: the irrational fear (being taught) felt normal. I felt that something wasn't quite right, but took years to connect the dots.

[Struggler]

I can still hear one of my old biddy relatives whining about how we're "s'posed to fyur (how she pronounced it) th' LARD."

[GuitarHero]

I was mortified by the church. I honestly did not want anybody I knew at school to know that I was a Church of Christ person. I was actually relieved to go to Freed-Hardeman so that I didn't have to hide it anymore.

My best friend and my girlfriend knew. I took her to church with me exactly once. She attended a gospel meeting with me, and the poor thing made the mistake of wearing a spaghetti strap top on a hot day. She wasn't showy or anything. Just looked like a 15-year-old should look on a hot day. Oh the words that came out of people's mouths. Also, she was a Baptist, and I was not to be unequally yoked. I'm pretty sure those fuckheaded rednecks turned her off for religion forevermore that night. I know it killed our relationship.

Though I am happily married with a kid now, she and I still keep touch and are great friends. I often wonder how it would've turned out, had we not been from such different religious worlds.

[Aarin]

It's really sad sometimes to look back on all of the relationships that God destroyed because of how influential the CoC/teachings were.

[Ivy]

Well, he is always seeking whom he may devour.

and roaming to and fro.