Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

cotjockey wrote:They gave people the boot because they had to work every other weekend and because they wore their McDonald's uniforms to worship.

Just to be clear, you're saying that these people were attending church but were dressed in such a way (not immodest, just wearing work clothes) that the church decided to disfellowship them? What possible solution did the church leadership have in mind? Just not go to work at all on "church days"? Change clothes in the restroom (or the car?) before services start? If this isn't a clear application of James 2:1-9 then I don't know what is.

Lev

B.H. wrote:When you think of it we all disfellowshipped the Church of Christ.

My wife and I were disfellowshipped by a small legalistic congregation when we chose to go to a nearby bigger "liberal" congregation. They cited links to "liberal" coc affiliated universities on the second congregation's website and some other equally innocuous things. They claimed the new congregation was in error. Since it implicated them we took the letter to the elders at the second congregation and then began a back and forth of letter writing between the elders where we were worshipping and the "men of the congregation" we came from.

The "liberal" church took us in and treated us like family. It was my first taste of life outside legalism.

Somewhere along the way we recognized that we had--in fact--disfellowshipped them first. In reality we should have ignored the very first letter and gone on about our lives.

Prior to that I had experienced two other instances of church discipline in the congregation where I grew up. The first was legitimate in the sense that it seemed to make sense in doctrinal context, but the second instance was horribly executed and not on a congregational level. It was within a family and not effective or appropriate.

Just for fun I have attached the original letter.

What a bunch of jackasses. Yes, I would have ignored it, too. Or told tem to f*** off. Fortunately, such a letter has no meaning, no impact, no importance, no justification, no influence, and no authority behind it. These clowns are best left far in the distance of your rear-view mirror, still huddling and whispering among themselves in an ever-shrinking little group of mean-spirited misfits.

Interesting letter. Thanks for sharing it.

"Sure, you kicked us to the curb and aren't around here anymore, but please know that we cannot fellowship you...even though aren't around us anymore anyway."

Ascentionist's former coC seems to think they are perfect without error and in full fellowship w/God. All coC's need an independent audit in order to determine if they are practicing 'the Truth'. Like an accounting audit, bring in an outside unbiased firm to compare scripture with the practices of a given church. Then look for gaps and make corrections. If they do not comply to the required corrections within the allotted time then pull them from the approved coC list. Of course, we know that never is allowed to occur.

Since audits are not conducted and all coC's self certify, one must assume that all coC's are in error and we cannot fellowship w/them.

Just as with the seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 & 3, all are missing the mark.

Love the letter!! That's rich.

I can't believe they hated on poor old John Clayton!!!

LOL

Ivy wrote:Love the letter!! That's rich.

I can't believe they hated on poor old John Clayton!!!

LOL

I hope that Church of Christ's toilet backs up and they have to pay a plumber to fix it. And I hope that plumber takes away what they have collected in the collection for that week.

Wow, Clayton is too...I dunno, scientific? for them? I mean, I'm not a fan, but I gave up young earth creationism in college -- the science-majors-only Bible class (Christian View of Science) at Harding pushed me over, after questioning it for some years. Really wish the material taught in that class was taught to all students there.

Pepperdine was generally considered "formerly Christian" where I grew up, but ACU and DLU were fine. Funny that Freed-Hardeman is the most conservative they recognize; pretty sure Florida College is more conservative, but maybe the NI churches don't count in their minds?

I guess that's it - until I started posting here, I had never once heard of Florida College or Faulkner either.

Pepperdine was already too liberal for the coc name back in the 1960's but part of that suspicion was probably because it was in California (that whole state was considered pretty iffy).

The acceptable colleges for my mainstream suburban church were Lipscomb, Harding, and, if you were a bit on the strict side, Freed-Hardeman. But they still didn't send ALL the kids off to coc colleges. A fair percentage went to regular public or private colleges. I can imagine that they and their families had ready excuses, maybe 'scholarships' or 'X university has a fine program in' some major not offered at the coc schools, or some such thing.

I negotiated a deal with my parents to go to an excellent private university - but in exchange I had to live at home and continue attending church 3X a week. It was worth it, but I missed out on a lot of 'the college experience'. Plus my younger siblings both went to Harding, and I don't think that was necessarily their first choice. My sister's 'choice' was apparently a coc in town and live at home, or go away to college but only to a coc school. She chose 'going away to college'. Brother did too. Now he's atheist and she's a pillar of the local church of Christ and an elder's wife and she doesn't talk to me (or very rarely). She doesn't talk to him at all because she doesn't approve of his lifestyle. She just thinks I'm deluded or something.

It occurs to me now that our lack of information about options (even coc options) is part and parcel of the coc's control of information going to church members. A relatively mild example, and I don't think the coc even in the 1960's was exactly vigilant about information - but they certainly didn't go out of their way to provide it, and on some topics would fight a resistance campaign by actively teaching AGAINST some topic (usually evolution), even bringing in teachers and having special classes.