Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

This is a question/answer rating system to evaluate how 'cultlike' an organization (especially a religious one) is. Just skimming through it, I think most coc's would rate middling-low. But I've seen here on this board a wide variation in congregations, especially smaller ones.

Want to rate YOUR coc? Visit the site and give it a try and see how your coc rates!

(for comparison the Westboro church rates around 160-170, which is very high),

There are 18 questions and a full blown, out and out cult would get a score of 180.

h**p://www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.html

My old COC rated 75, then 83. I did the test twice, because I was surprised how low it scored.

I do believe that very few of the traditional CofCs rate as cults - they're usually too hands-off about a number of things to exert the kind of control that true cults do. That's not to say that don't try to control certain aspects of the members' lives, but not their finances or giving themselves permission to determine who will date or marry whom. Most of them will disfellowship you rather than attempt the sorts of control true cults evidence.

Just what I've said before - coc's can't even do 'cult' right! It would be too much trouble!

Advice on the quiz is to use '5' for those topics where you aren't really certain.

I gave my childhood NI COC congregation a score of 94. I scored it low on the violence and sex stuff but very high on dogma and hypocrisy.

I gave my childhood COC a 149. I perceived our main leader as incredibly domineering while others just thought he was a strong leader. But, maybe that's why I left and they are still there.

agricola wrote:Just what I've said before - coc's can't even do 'cult' right! It would be too much trouble!

I think it's really a general difference of opinion in the traditional, conservative CofC. With the exception of a few lunatics and a few control freaks, the trad CofCs tend to be pretty laissez-faire about most of the areas real cults tend to focus on with laser-like precision. They don't generally try to control your out-of-church time (even if they insist that you should be at the building for services), don't generally attempt to coerce financial adherence like cults do, and don't generally demand that members be involved in constant discipleship situations. Essentially, as others here have noted, you can do what you want if you're discreet about it, give lip service to the basic doctrines, drop something in the collection plate on Sundays, and show up for pretty much all services. If you're willing to give time to administrative church matters or helping out in SS or maintenance or something, they'll usually be pretty relaxed if you don't give your dollars and cents "sacrificially" to the congregation.

Now, they'll gossip about you, for sure, sometimes horribly, and may condemn you behind doors (or sometimes to your face), but the overall gestalt is fairly laissez-faire. The trads generally seem to operate on the idea that once you know "the Truth", you're responsible for yourself, salvation included, and they'll leave you to it. Your success or failure as a church member is really your own; you must work out your own salvation, and hope the Lord will help you stand, not fall. And, of course, not falling in with the congregation's doctrine may leave you out of the group.

Too lazy - or too self-centered, to do 'cult' right. But seriously, how on EARTH is that kind of attitude (and I agree with margin overa's post (above)) considered a proper Christian community? Answer - it isn't. Really. Because if they REALLY cared about their 'fellow members' salvation, they absolutely would NOT be so 'laissez faire' and 'work out your own salvation' about it, now would they?

I'm beginning to see why the 'discipling' (ICOC) movement had so much traction: people WANTED (and want) more out of 'church' and more out of 'community' than is provided by a typical coc.

agricola wrote:Too lazy - or too self-centered, to do 'cult' right. But seriously, how on EARTH is that kind of attitude (and I agree with margin overa's post (above)) considered a proper Christian community? Answer - it isn't. Really. Because if they REALLY cared about their 'fellow members' salvation, they absolutely would NOT be so 'laissez faire' and 'work out your own salvation' about it, now would they?

I'm beginning to see why the 'discipling' (ICOC) movement had so much traction: people WANTED (and want) more out of 'church' and more out of 'community' than is provided by a typical coc.

In regards to your post that I italicized, that was certainly a part of the discipling success of the ICOC, particularly in the late Sixties to mid-Seventies, when even a part of the counterculture movement began to espouse elements of traditional Christianity. The very cultish elements later became a significant part of what had been, at least in the beginning, an attempt to move around the mainline Protestant mindset that relegated church to a set of behaviors centered around showing up for set services instead of a genuine community. It isn't hard to see why people who had rejected mainstream American life would then reject mainstream American religion, in an attempt to connect more closely to other like-minded people. All very understandable, in many ways.

But yes, as far as the trad CofC goes, it's not much of a community. More a set of doctrinal structural co-religionists, interested in conforming to an idea of what church is than anything else. Correct doctrines, correct worship, correct administrative structure, correct preaching - check, check, check, check.