Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

"Church of Christ" is a proper noun, identifying a specific religious organization. But "the church that Christ founded" is different -- we capitalize the name of Christ of course, but here the world "church" is what your English teacher would call a common noun, and therefore ordinarily not capitalized.

So . . . if I had a little johnny-come-lately, two-bit sect that I wanted to pretend was, in toto, to the exclusion of all other religious bodies, the church founded by Jesus, I would start lower-casing the "C" on the word "church" in the name of my organization, and try to get everybody to print it like this: "church of Christ". As in, not just one of many, but simply THE church. Get it?

Well, isn't that clever ! (sarcasm dripping . . . )

And those other religious organizations that refer to themselves as Christian churches? Well, they simply are NOT; they're just "denominations" (that is, branches) of something other than the one, true church, which is the sole possession of me and my like-minded companions. (Always wondered: what are they denominations of ?)

Anyway, if you believe that, I've got some ocean-front property in Kansas you might be interested in.

I try not to be too hard on my CoC parents, who grew up in another era, when communication, transportation and social interaction were limited -- very limited by today's standards. Dad was looking to join a church and visited the 3 or 4 that were available to him. Sadly, the CoC had the most engaging (or perhaps most rabid) speaker, and the family was doomed for several decades. Parts of it still are, but it's surely getting harder and harder for the younger ones to justify staying in, with information (especially history) being so readily available now.

I escaped, thanks be to God, albeit scarred and disfigured emotionally. In the words of Minnie Pearl (dating myself here), "I'm just so glad to BE here!"

FWIW, I have seen in some Catholic literature where they refer to themselves as 'the church of Christ'.

That is a valid name which is sometimes used by Catholics, both Roman and Orthodox.

I always use the capital C when referring to the Church of Christ denomination. Which pisses them off twice in a shot.

Of course, it is indeed yet another insufferable arrogance by the Church of Christ, which refuses to recognize anyone but themselves (and not all of themselves, as we all know) as even being Christians. The lower-case C is just another element of that hubris.

Which is really laughable anyway, since the Church of Christ is small, ever shrinking, irrelevant and unimportant to society as a whole, and lacking any real influence of any kind in the daily life of those outside its open-only-three-hours-a-week buildings. I didn't realize what a joke the Church of Christ denomination is until I got the hell out. And it would be a funny joke if it didn't ruin and pervert the lives of those it holds captive with its toxic legalistic theology.