Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

I want to thank people who gave me recommendations on books for CoC history. I read all or parts of several. By far the best was R.T Hughes Reviving the Ancient Faith. Hughes was a professor at Pepperdine but is now at David Lipscomb and claims to attend CoC. I will give you some impressions of what I got from his book.

​1. CoC splintered from Disciples of Christ movement in 1906.
2. Noninstitutionalists (one cuppers, anti Sunday schools, anti missionary/college, etc​) have a history of being associated with various combinations of premillenialism/pacificism/antiinstutional/antigovernment/charmismatic-holy spirit feelings. Pacificism was actually a big thing pre WW2, particularly in nontraditional churches.
3. The minister Foy Wallace played a large role in defeating premillenialism/pacifism and also holy spirit ideas that led to charmismatic worship. He was largely a noninstitutionalist, however he came around to support of Christian Colleges later in his life. He was a very abrasive individual and called out people he viewed in error by name. But he largely killed premillenialism thinking.
4. The noninstitutionalists are largely associated with rural churches with noneducated members.
5. Beginning with WW2 the CoC came to be a big supporter of US military and later extremely anticommunist (I personally remember John Birch Society material being discussed in sermons).
6. Legalistic interpretation of scriptures came in large part from Campbell, although his view of it was different than todays view. He viewed the simplicity of things like acapella music to be a way to get denominations to dissolve differences and unite on a simple worship all could agree on. He did not necessarily view deviation from his legalisms as salvational. His sometimes abrasive performance in debates were primarily just the character of the times when debates had great entertainment value.
7. Alexander Campbell viewed his greatest accomplishment was Bethany College, although he had originally been opposed to churches support colleges but changed. Hughes claims Campbell was what he called an optimistic premillennialist, by this he meant Campbell felt if the denominations came together by adopting a simple worship in the spirit of early Christianity a lot of the hatred and strife in the world world would go away and we would live in a better world.
8. An interesting split of opinion came with the Union Ave CoC in Memphis building. The building was viewed by many as opulent and more in concert with the major demoninations and Catholic churches elaborate buildings.
9. A very interesting section on Pat Boone who was a committed institutional CoC member. Pat wavered and became involved in charismatic Christianity and speaking of tongues. Some CoC member tried to counsel him and get him to try renounce these practices but instead were converted to them by Pat.
10. The material on instrumental music was not very interesting to me and it isn't covered in depth. I didn't see anything about Divorce and Remarriage which seems to be one of todays biggest topics.

LDR, thanks for taking the time to lay all that out. I learned some things I didn't know!!

The minister Foy Wallace played a large role in defeating premillenialism/pacifism and also holy spirit ideas that led to charmismatic worship. He was largely a noninstitutionalist, however he came around to support of Christian Colleges later in his life. He was a very abrasive individual and called out people he viewed in error by name. But he largely killed premillenialism thinking.

Homage to BH, our resident subject matter expert on all things Foy Wallace.

I remember the brouhaha over Pat Boone. He got disfellowshipped, but always said he never left the church. But you know, that's the way it goes.
Glen Campbell was also raised in the CofC and his brother was a CofC preacher. The CofC recognized him as one of their "wayward members" after his death.

SolaDude wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 12:36 pm I remember the brouhaha over Pat Boone. He got disfellowshipped, but always said he never left the church. But you know, that's the way it goes.
Glen Campbell was also raised in the CofC and his brother was a CofC preacher. The CofC recognized him as one of their "wayward members" after his death.

Yes, I remember the Pat Boone "scandal". He dared to grow spiritually and escape their little box...the gall!!

Glen Campbell...."wayward member". So arrogant of them to say that. Maybe it was THEY who were the "wayward members".

Oh!! I just realized that Glen Campbell was a Campbell...perhaps one of the cofc Campbells. My great grandmother was also a Campbell. Staunch, staunch cofc. So I may be related to them as well.

Ivy wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 6:10 pm Oh!! I just realized that Glen Campbell was a Campbell...perhaps one of the cofc Campbells. My great grandmother was also a Campbell. Staunch, staunch cofc. So I may be related to them as well.

Hey that's right about Glen, he was a Campbellite I guess! I believe toward the end of his life he was even going to a Baptist church, yikes.

Ivy, did you know your great grandmother? I bet if you went far back on your ancestry tree you might find out you have many relatives related to the man himself, Alexander Campbell. I remember down at ACC, you could not mention Alexander Campbell's name because it was Christ, not Alex, who started the CofC, you know. Kinda like, "get that through your head if you want to remain a student down here".

SolaDude wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 8:17 pm

Ivy wrote: ↑Mon May 02, 2022 6:10 pm Oh!! I just realized that Glen Campbell was a Campbell...perhaps one of the cofc Campbells. My great grandmother was also a Campbell. Staunch, staunch cofc. So I may be related to them as well.

Hey that's right about Glen, he was a Campbellite I guess! I believe toward the end of his life he was even going to a Baptist church, yikes.

Ivy, did you know your great grandmother? I bet if you went far back on your ancestry tree you might find out you have many relatives related to the man himself, Alexander Campbell. I remember down at ACC, you could not mention Alexander Campbell's name because it was Christ, not Alex, who started the CofC, you know. Kinda like, "get that through your head if you want to remain a student down here".

No, Sola, unfortunately I did not know her. She was gone before I was born. But I would not be surprised if I was related to the man himself, far down the line. And, oh, yes...mama taught me that Alex had nothing to do with us...he's not even a blip on the screen.

Dwight Yokam talks quite frequently about his mother being CoC and going to church at Northland Church of Christ in Columbus, OH. Some other famed CoC late Fred Thompson the actor and senator, Randy Duke Cunningham, US house member convicted of bribery, Holly Dunn late country singer,David Duke presidential candidate, LBJ and James Garfield were disciples of christ. Waylon Jennings grew up solidly CoC but soured on them “Of all the religions I’ve run into, the Church of Christ has probably got it wronger than anybody.” Some others Pat Sajak, Janis Joplin, Clarence Darrow, Lester Holt, Bobby Riggs, Patti Page, Gus Grissom, Buford Pusser, Billy Sol Estes, Jeffrey Dahmer, Amy Grant, Roy Orbison, Billy Joel, Jim Ryun, Sonny James, Woody Guthrie, Kitty Wells, Randy Travis, Loretta Lynn, Don Willliams (CoC elder) and maybe in some ways the most infamous Paula Barbeiri, but the mistress of OJ Simpson.

I think Billy Joel was Catholic first, then CofC, now I believe he is an atheist. That's an amazing list, ldr, how'd you find all of them??

I knew some of them, then I found two websites that list these people and give descriptions of their experience. The websites are pretty easy to find with a google church. Let me know if you can't find them. It seems I hear Dwight Yokam talking about CoC all at the time during interviews. It is interesting to me Kitty Wells attended a CoC in Nashville for over 50 years, however her songs in her early years were controversial like Loretta Lynn's and considered vulgar, some may have been banned from the radio.