There Is No Joy in Church of Christ-Ville

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As you might imagine, I can't help but compare my current experiences at an Episcopal church with the ones I had growing up in the COC because they're polar opposites--and because sometimes I can't believe my good fortune in escaping. This past Sunday, two things happened that reminded me of the joyless rigidity of the COC.

First, right before the service started, a little boy was skipping around the sanctuary, and no one reprimanded him or yelled at him. In fact, everyone who saw him smiled at him. I turned to the woman next to me and said, "Look at that little boy! At the church where I grew up, he would have gotten yelled at or slapped for not showing the proper respect in the church building." I don't think she entirely believed me. Then, during the communion, we sang a lively African-American spiritual, complete with hand claps, and when the song ended, a small child in the back yelled, "Yaaaaay!" and applauded vigorously. Everyone laughed fondly, but I thought to myself, "In the COC, that kid would've been taken out and spanked for that."

We were never allowed to express emotion of any kind in church, unless it was judgmental anger at all those sinners and false denominations out in the world. Of course, you were expected to chuckle politely when the preacher made a bad joke, but other than that, you were supposed to sit there stone-faced and silent through the whole service. I look back on it, and it just seems sad and spiritually dead to me. What makes them think that the god who breathes life into this world wants to be worshiped in that way, without joy or life?

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