Definitions
The church from which I escaped is the Church of Christ. We're not talking about the United Church of Christ--that's a liberal mainstream denomination. I wish I'd been brought up in a church like that. Maybe I wouldn't be such a mess. We're also not talking about the International Church of Christ. They're closer to an outright cult.
The church into which I had the misfortune to be raised is the nondenominational church of Christ. Within that group there's a wide spectrum of beliefs. Most CoCs are fairly close to the mainstream and do things that normal churches do: they have food pantries and community outreach programs, they have Christmas and Easter programs for the kids, and they support institutions that help people in need (such as orphanages and homeless shelters). Churches like that account for about 80% of the CoCs. I grew up in one of the remaining 20%: the "anti" churches. They're called "anti" because they're against everything. They don't use instrumental music in their worship services, they don't support institutions such as orphanages, they don't feed poor people (unless they're also members of the CoC, and even then they'd better be "deserving" of help), and they don't celebrate Christmas and Easter. They also don't accept other Christians as being legitimate. They believe that they're the only ones who have the truth about God and the Bible and that if you go to any other church, you're going to hell.
I'm not going into an exhaustive list of the CoC's beliefs and practices here. There's an excellent Wikipedia article that covers pretty much all of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_christ. The one thing I want to emphasize here is that they are fundamenalist in their approach to scripture. They believe that every word of the Bible is literally true and that any other interpretation is not legitimate. Anyone who has read the Bible knows that it's full of contradictions and discrepancies, but since the CoC believes that there can be no contradictions (because it's all literally true), they expend an incredible amount of energy in trying to reconcile and explain away those discrepancies. My theory is that the preachers and elders emphasize this approach to scripture to keep people busy, so that they don't have the time or opportunity to ask uncomfortable questions--such as, "Why does all our money go to support the preacher, who drives a Caddy, instead of helping the poor?"
The church into which I had the misfortune to be raised is the nondenominational church of Christ. Within that group there's a wide spectrum of beliefs. Most CoCs are fairly close to the mainstream and do things that normal churches do: they have food pantries and community outreach programs, they have Christmas and Easter programs for the kids, and they support institutions that help people in need (such as orphanages and homeless shelters). Churches like that account for about 80% of the CoCs. I grew up in one of the remaining 20%: the "anti" churches. They're called "anti" because they're against everything. They don't use instrumental music in their worship services, they don't support institutions such as orphanages, they don't feed poor people (unless they're also members of the CoC, and even then they'd better be "deserving" of help), and they don't celebrate Christmas and Easter. They also don't accept other Christians as being legitimate. They believe that they're the only ones who have the truth about God and the Bible and that if you go to any other church, you're going to hell.
I'm not going into an exhaustive list of the CoC's beliefs and practices here. There's an excellent Wikipedia article that covers pretty much all of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_christ. The one thing I want to emphasize here is that they are fundamenalist in their approach to scripture. They believe that every word of the Bible is literally true and that any other interpretation is not legitimate. Anyone who has read the Bible knows that it's full of contradictions and discrepancies, but since the CoC believes that there can be no contradictions (because it's all literally true), they expend an incredible amount of energy in trying to reconcile and explain away those discrepancies. My theory is that the preachers and elders emphasize this approach to scripture to keep people busy, so that they don't have the time or opportunity to ask uncomfortable questions--such as, "Why does all our money go to support the preacher, who drives a Caddy, instead of helping the poor?"
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