I Don't Care What They Say--The COC Is a Denomination

-
OK, I'll concede that the COC doesn't have the formal structure of a denomination. There is no national or regional council or synod that determines what goes on in the congregations. Individual congregations do not have to report their budgets or anything like that to an overseeing body of any kind. However, there is an informal network of preachers, deacons, and elders that meets and shares ideas on how to run things. I call them the COC Cabal. Furthermore, nowadays most congregations like to hire preachers who've had at least a little formal training, and since all the preachers go to the same Bible colleges and are taught by the same professors, they're all pretty much guaranteed to preach the same things, whether they're in the upper Midwest or the buckle of the Bible Belt. Every COC I've ever attended, no matter where in the United States, has used the King James Bible, the Sacred Selections song book, and has conducted its service in the same way. It's uncanny.

The COC also engages in some practices that mark it as a denomination. For example, if you move from one area to another and need to switch churches, you need to get a letter of recommendation from your current elders/deacons to give to the elders/deacons at the new church. They have to vouch for you and confirm that you're a member in good standing or you won't be allowed to place membership at the new congregation. No mention of any such practice appears in the Bible, which the COC claims to follow to the letter.

If you have gotten into trouble at your current COC congregation, that trouble will follow you everywhere. Once you're disfellowshipped by one group, you'll be disfellowshipped by all of them because either your current elders will send a letter to other churches denouncing you or the news will just get around through the grapevine. Either way, if the churches were truly independent of each other, this wouldn't be an issue.

Finally, another denominational practice of the COC is insisting that congregations call themselves "the church of Christ." They point to a verse in Romans 16 as justification for using this name. There's nothing wrong with the name, but the early Christians didn't name their churches at all. Paul's letters usually referred to churches by the names of their city or by the name of the person in whose house the church met. There was no formal name for any congregation. But according to the COC, if you don't use their name, your congregation can't possibly be biblically sound.

The COC may not be a denomination de juris, but it's certainly one de facto--no matter how much they scream and yell to the contrary. The evidence just doesn't support their position.

Comments

Karl Stern said…
That's because you're 100% right. The Church of Christ IS a denomination. I told my dad one time, if I bought a building in the middle of town and did everything exactly like you do it but the sign out front said "The Lord's Church" then not a single person from the CoC would ever walk through the door. He had to concede that I was right.
August 02, 2007
Little Miss Weirdo said…
HA! I like that you called your dad on the contradiction. And thanks for the comment!
August 05, 2007
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discrepancies and Contradictions in the Bible

-
One of the primary doctrines of the church of Christ is that the Bible is perfect, with no contradictions or discrepancies, and that every word of the Bible is literally true and able to be proven scientifically. I believed this when I was young. But when I started reading the Bible for myself, word for word and not just the passages I needed to read to fill out the workbook for my Bible class, I saw that there are indeed discrepancies in the Bible. Here are a few examples. 1. Job 26:7 says that the earth hangs upon nothing. Psalm 104:5 says that the earth sits on a foundation (some translations say "pillar") that can't be moved. If we must view these verses literally, instead of poetically or metaphorically, then one of them must be wrong because their assertions contradict each other. 2. There are a few discrepancies in the accounts of Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus. Acts 9:7 says that Paul's companions could hear the voice that was talking to him bu...
Read more

The Church of Christ and Marriage

-
The COC is obsessed with heterosexual marriage. In all my years in the COC, I lost count of all the sermons and classes we had on "the family." Typically, such classes and sermons were just a rehashing and reinforcement of the strict gender roles described by Paul's letters: the husband is the head of the wife, and she's supposed to be obedient to him, and the kids in turn are supposed to obey the parents. If it was a ladies only class, you can bet we studied the "godly woman" described in Proverbs chapter 31 , ad nauseum. The COC's doctrine about the family isn't complicated, but we had to go over it again and again and again. I wondered why at the time, but now I realize that the church and its patriarchal structure were threatened by the rise of feminism in the 1970s. Thus, they felt compelled to harp on this one subject endlessly, to prop up their gender hierarchy. This emphasis on strict gender roles means that the ideal in the COC is that e...
Read more

Scientology and the Church of Christ

-
Recently, I read Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright. It's a fascinating look at a secretive religion that many people claim is a cult. After reading this well-researched book, I would have to agree. It certain fits the generally agreed-upon definition of a cult . I've said before on this blog that I do NOT think that the COC is a cult , but rather a sect with cult-like tendencies. However, as I was reading this book, I did see some disturbing parallels between Scientology and the COC. First, they both claim to have specialized knowledge of an ultimate truth that no one else in the world understands. Second, they strongly discourage members from associating with people outside the group. The COC is especially adamant that you have to marry within the church, lest your "unbelieving spouse" be a bad influence on you and lead you away from The Truth. Third, it's really hard to get out of both groups without losing your ...
Read more