The cofc and neurodivergence?

[Ivy]

I have been hearing and learning quite a lot, of recent, about neurodivergence. Along those lines, I was recently reading through an ex-cofc subReddit. One poster felt there were parallels between the cofc rules based religion and certain aspects of the autism spectrum. I began to wonder...is it possible that some of the earliest cofc pioneers (1950s era or before) could have created the rigid rules for their own feelings of safety and need for order and repetition...rather than based on scripture? Thus, that's the way we always slice the bread? Could there have been some neurodivergence present, as opposed to just cultural norms? For example:

---services three times a week. No more, no less.

---services all the same and within rigid comfort zone.

---demands that all adhere to the rules of the most devout.

---lord's supper, Sunday morning, matzoh crackers and Welch's.

---must say the correct words...ex: preacher not pastor, etc.

Anyone have thoughts? I know we've discussed OCD, depression, and severe anxiety as part of the cofc experience, but perhaps not this.

[agricola]

I don' know if it was designed that way, but I do think it provides comfortable landing spot for people with OCD tendencies, and anxiety.

[B.H.]

I am probably autistic though not officially diagnosed as such My niece and first cousins have advanced psychology degrees and while not ethically allowed to diagnose me as a close relative they tell me I would be . I dont think autism played a big role in the CoC because we are too good at seeing patterns and inconsistencies in what people do and say. COC theology makes no logical sense and its claims are just not true. These are things autistic people detest. Lies, inconsistency , and illogical behavior.

I *DO* think there may have been a lot of pathological behavior and pathological thinking in some of the shit stirrers in the COC wanting to fight over everything. They picked the weirdest doctrines that they knew someone would fall for and alienate them from everyone else in the religious world Paul talked about this about the judaizers. They wanted to alienate Paul's followers from Paul so they could use them for their own support.

[B.H.]

I will give you one example.

When the Church of Christ split from the Christian Church in 1906 ior thereabouts it was not a really even sided split like CoC preachers tried to make it out to be. About a million people stayed in what would be the Christian Church but only about 30 to 40 thousand stayed what would be COC. And all those stories about people having to leave a church because instruments were introduced is not dealt with honestly. Lots of times it was 200 members and the leadership wanting them and only 5 people messed themselves and left. The stories of congregants throwing out elders and huge chunks of a local church membership over an organ are simply in most cases dubious.

[longdistancerunner]

As to services three times a week that came about because of WW2 with people having to work on Sunday so they came up with alternative times for people to attend. I can struggle through one but not three a week!!!!

[Ivy]

In my day (50s, 60s, 70s) 3x weekly had morphed into being a rule. At least in the NICOC, they were not alternate times, and never were, ast least as far back as I remember. So it must have started out as a reasonable WWII accomodation for workers, but turned ugly and rigid with time and habit. Remember the movie about a man with ASD and his brother..."Rainman"? When they were traveling, they had to stop and watch "Wapner" or the man on the spectrum would melt down emotionally. How many of us have had to disrupt a lovely vacation to seek out an acceptable congregation so you could fulfill the requirement. You'd be side-eyed (if not openly confronted) if you routinely missed even a service or two, but were considered a faithful member if you attended all services wherever you were. You were only ok to miss if there was "an ox in the ditch", then you might get a pass.

[B.H.]

I will give you another example of the pathological having a heavy hand in CoC leadership and influencers.

I grew up in the non-sunday school CoC and only went to the class church because my first congregation was closing down.

The "mainline" in their literature branded the non-class brethren as heretics and dividers of the church, disfellowshipping people who used Sunday school. Now, I want to make a caveat here loud and clear. One cuppers are generally no Sunday school too and I do believe they withdrew fellowship over things like multiple cups and Sunday school in many cases . But most of the congregations that opposed Sunday school but used multiple cups never did withdraw fellowship over the issue. And I know this was pointed out over and over but it didn't change anything.

I suspect the Non Sunday school group was an embarrassment to the more mainline groups just for existing and the mainline leaders wanted to do everything they can to distance themselves from an idea that there was just no way they thought the majority of the public could be convinced to follow. They had a hard enough time getting converts over the noninstruments doctrine. It was perhaps good marketing to distance yourselves from such a crazy seeming group but it was pathologically dishonest to say they were splitting the church when they were not.

What saved the CoC in my opinion is that the more mainstream and popular denominations clergy sold out or tolerated liberal theology and by liberal starting teaching in seminaries that Moses was a myth, the flood didn't really happen and so forth. People in those denominations that believed the Bible fled from those denominations to more conservative ones like CoC or Baptist.