The Church is Under Attack!

[Ivy]

I remember on numerous occasions being told that, at any moment, police could come barging in our back doors and drag us all to jail because the world “hated” us (the CoC) and wanted to make worship illegal. Talk about terrifying for a kid to hear those things! Of course, like agricola said, once I left the CoC I realized that not only did other denominations not care if worshiped or not, they didn’t care what we believed, many didn’t even know the CoC EXISTED. It was a non-issue to them. While CoC preachers stand up there and bash every other denomination, those people are going about their business not worrying one bit about what the CoC does. The whole “The church is under attack!” BS is just a way they feed their enormous persecution complex.

Precisely. Also helps the leaders maintain control over the ones who remain.

I can't forget all those times I heard someone pray about the privilege of being able to worship "without fear of mo-lestation," as if a bunch of pervs are gonna bust in and do unspeakable stuff. Freedom of religion is important, but that was overkill.

That must have been a standard for all sees of see at one time. I remember that phrase so well. I wonder if it is still used.

[zeek]

Ivy said:

That must have been a standard for all sees of see at one time. I remember that phrase so well. I wonder if it is still used.

I hope not at least in this area. Since the coC church shooting in our area last year (or was it the year before?) the few congregations that I still get news from have started locking their doors when it's time for "services" to start and they have men designated to be armed. It would seem very hypocritical to me for them to pray "we are able to worship without fear..." They are obviously afraid.

[Ivy]

Ivy said:

That must have been a standard for all sees of see at one time. I remember that phrase so well. I wonder if it is still used.

I hope not at least in this area. Since the coC church shooting in our area last year (or was it the year before?) the few congregations that I still get news from have started locking their doors when it's time for "services" to start and they have men designated to be armed. It would seem very hypocritical to me for them to pray "we are able to worship without fear..." They are obviously afraid.

Yes, there was a cofc shooting, and I am glad they are taking some very wise precautions. Having said that, though, zeek.....the violent episode was not about their doctrine, right? It was about something that could have happened in any type of denomination...am I correct about that?

[Ivy]

Ivy said:

That must have been a standard for all sees of see at one time. I remember that phrase so well. I wonder if it is still used.

I hope not at least in this area. Since the coC church shooting in our area last year (or was it the year before?) the few congregations that I still get news from have started locking their doors when it's time for "services" to start and they have men designated to be armed. It would seem very hypocritical to me for them to pray "we are able to worship without fear..." They are obviously afraid.

Yes, there was that cofc shooting, and I am glad they are taking some very wise precautions. Having said that, though, zeek.....the violent episode was not about their doctrine, right? It was about something that could have happened in any type of denomination...am I correct about that?

I guess the "fear of molestation" thing took a really dark turn that they had never dreamed of: gun violence unrelated to their being cofc.

[zeek]

No, the Burnett Chapel shooting had nothing to do with doctrine. The shooter told investigators that he was motivated by a desire for revenge for the racially motivated Charleston S.C. church shooting.

[Struggler]

I can't forget all those times I heard someone pray about the privilege of being able to worship "without fear of mo-lestation," as if a bunch of pervs are gonna bust in and do unspeakable stuff. Freedom of religion is important, but that was overkill.

That must have been a standard for all sees of see at one time. I remember that phrase so well. I wonder if it is still used.[/quote]

I'm sure that in some C of C, somewhere in the US, good ol Brother Turd Ferguson will lead the prayer and utter this most holy of phrases.

[Ivy]

I'm sure that in some C of C, somewhere in the US, good ol Brother Turd Ferguson will lead the prayer and utter this most holy of phrases.

Struggler, you know it!!

[Lerk]

Yup! I still hear it occasionally. But it's nowhere near as common as "separate and apart from the Lord's supper..."

That'll probably go away, too. Twelve or thirteen years ago I attended "chapel" at Florida College when one of my kids was there. One of the students making some announcements, when he was about to change the subject, said "separate and apart from that..." and got a good laugh, so the millennials and younger think it's pretty silly.

[OneStrike_ur_out]

Oddly enough, once you get out of a coc and look around, you find that, not only are 'the denominations' not attacking the coc, most of them have never even heard of it.

Except in the Southeast US. How did that area get so 'lucky'?

Exactly! They flatter themselves with that line because if denominations were in fact, attacking them, then that would mean that the denominations actually knew who they were! They WISH that they were being attacked. Kind of along the lines of "there is no such thing as bad publicity"

[Ivy]

Oddly enough, once you get out of a coc and look around, you find that, not only are 'the denominations' not attacking the coc, most of them have never even heard of it.

Except in the Southeast US. How did that area get so 'lucky'?

Exactly! They flatter themselves with that line because if denominations were in fact, attacking them, then that would mean that the denominations actually knew who they were! They WISH that they were being attacked. Kind of along the lines of "there is no such thing as bad publicity"

Except in the Southeast US. How did that area get so 'lucky'?

Because the South is Ground Zero for the cofc.