Introducing myself

[Moogy]

That divorce/remarriage rule was common in the non-institutional COCs in my past. The cruelty with which it was applied was one thing (out of many) that convinced me to leave.

[KLP]

Welcome and yes I too found the DoC lone piano playing during certain points like LS to be very nice and calming.

[cathym]

klp -- that's what made it odd; it happened at a nominally-mainstream church, but one that was functionally more conservative than the nominally-NI church I was attending at the time.

[ena]

To ena -- Thankfully, my CoC experience was not as abusive or traumatic as that of some people. The churches I've attended have not been cultish, IMO. There were moments toward the end at the NI church I was attending, but I wasn't falling for it; I left. The divorce issue that got my parents kicked out of the church in their town was one of the really dumb ones -- whether a person who had been divorced and remarried before becoming a Christian needed to end that second (allegedly adulterous) marriage to become a Christian. Dad said no, the preacher said yes, Dad wouldn't take it back, they got kicked out.

I don't blame your father. Two wrongs don't make a right in spite of what the preacher thought. He is better off in another group. The problem is we cannot ask the author questions? Just automatically assuming one extreme may be taking it to far. The problem is that with nearly a 50% divorce rate even for the Church of Christ, I guess their population will dwindle. It is interesting how they accept some divorcees.

[Hildegard]

Hello and welcome! Thanks for sharing your story. There are a number of people, myself included, who migrated to the DoC after leaving the CoC. Some of us stayed, some of us moved on, to other churches or to being religion-free, as GH mentioned. My stay with the DoC was short, but it was a very welcoming one. I might have stayed but I sensed it was not the right church atmosphere I needed to recover from my own CoC experiences, and everyone was okay with that.