Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

Interesting. Growing up in Tennessee, the heart of CoC-ism, as a child I never really argued with what I was taught, that the CoC was big and important and the real true first century church etc. It was only when I got out of the hothouse, and saw the world outside, that I discovered how provincial ...

found quote: The late anthropologist Clifford Geertz defines religion as a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factu...

You guys - it was about 50 years go - I was single, skinny, and a baby grad student without even a date in sight. Then. Sigh - not my first apartment, really, but my first by myself. It was a converted single garage without heat or ac, or locks on the windows either, for that matter. But it was affo...

Shy and Quiet. That was then. This is now. I got better.

It was definitely a surprise (and I was buck naked too). There was my daddy in a suit and tie and mama in a church dress complete with (I think) her fox stole! (hey, it was the 70s). Of course, I'd been in Tuscaloosa for several months by then - SEVERAL - but I had not attended church even ONCE. How...

Before I let my parents figure out that I wasn't exactly a regular church attendee - that is, while I was away at grad school and no longer living at home - I was 'saved' once by the sheer ROUTINE of every typical CoC - because one Sunday morning, when I was still sleeping around 8 AM, MY PARENTS tu...

zeek's right. Seriously, if the CoC were even REMOTELY logical about things, they'd just drown people DURING baptism, so they would go straight to heaven, instead of chancing 'falling away' as soon as they got up. I mean, that is certainly the SAFEST thing!

If I recall correctly - back in the day (that is, a long time ago) the solution was to have weddings on any day BUT Sunday, and they would bring in a piano or small organ for the wedding, no problem EXCEPT NOT ON SUNDAY. So weddings were Saturdays. Because, you know, the church is not the BUILDING. ...

She wasn't acquitted. Yes, apparently it is better to murder your husband than to divorce him. But there was also an issue of financial problems - Mary had got herself deep in debt and was afraid to tell him about that. She was sentenced to three years (but served just under a year, I believe, with ...

Growing up, there were no huge issues about Halloween - but it was a Halloween FAR different from today! You bought a pumpkin about a week in advance, at most, carved it at home on Halloween afternoon, stuck a candle in it, and handed out candy that evening to kids in costumes, often homemade. A nei...