Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

My least favorite teaching is their obsession with getting baptism right. Outside of the world of American evangelicalism, most churches take baptism seriously: Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Catholic. Then the CoC comes along to crap all over them and act like they are the only church that takes baptism seriously. I've warned my older daughter sometime soon grandma and grandpa are going to start telling her that her baptism wasn't real.

Oh, yes, that one. Your Baptist (or whichever denomination) baptism was "wrong", so you have to redo it. Then, once you're "in" the correct church, you have to be sure your baptism was done in the right way, with the right mindset, right words said, no part of the body accidentally out of the water, repented correctly, etc. I think that kind of fear-based doctrine also drives a lot of perfectionism / OCD / anxiety in c/c members / ex-members.

Remember that song "Did you repent, fully repent"? That one.

Worst doctrine -- We are saved by keeping law, including laws of pardon. Leads to either self-righteousness, anxiety. or despair.

Before being baptized into the CoC I had been trusting in God's loving-kindness toward me as a baby Christian. Two years indoctrination in the CoC, and I was actually upset when I realized that being in the right church, doing the right things, is not what saves us.

I had come to trust in myself more than I trusted in the loving-kindness of God.

Can only remarry after divorce if adultery was shown by the other party and was the actual reason for divorce. Being beaten almost to death, having money stolen from you, a person going to prison for committing a horrendous crime just doesn't cut it.

longdistancerunner wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 7:28 pm Can only remarry after divorce if adultery was shown by the other party and was the actual reason for divorce. Being beaten almost to death, having money stolen from you, a person going to prison for committing a horrendous crime just doesn't cut it.

It is amazing these things weren't taken into consideration back in those days. There are circumstances where it's impossible to stay married.

longdistancerunner wrote: ↑Sun Apr 16, 2023 7:28 pm Can only remarry after divorce if adultery was shown by the other party and was the actual reason for divorce. Being beaten almost to death, having money stolen from you, a person going to prison for committing a horrendous crime just doesn't cut it.

Wow, this one hit me. Hard.
That I was "only sometimes when you pushed me to it" hit or shoved was apparently not enough for a Scriptural Divorce. That I was systematically deprived of sleep, had my tuition grant money stolen from me, that lies about me were told to friends who then became his believers, that I was threatened at gunpoint, that although I was the one who was "active in the Lord's church, all it took was his going to the elders to falsely accuse me of adultery, still that did not matter.
I knew that God loved me, but I wondered what kind of love that was, if I was to wake up day after day, disappointed that I was still alive.
I hate what he did to me. I am glad that I escaped over twenty years ago. I am even more glad that God kept me alive long enough to see that the CoC lies about marriage were exactly that, LIES.

There is currently a political movement to end no-fault divorce laws. If this happens, many people will stay trapped in abusive marriages and may even be killed.

I also noted that many Christians think you should stay trapped in any kind of abusive or bad friendship, that you "have to take the person back" no matter what, if they are a fellow brother or sister in Christ. That's why I stayed trapped for so long in bad friendships.

Wow, this is scary, the idea of ending no-fault divorce. Probably there are people who champion that cause because they believe that it encourages couples to work out their problems, and keep the legal contract of marriage, but wow...
I have not watched the TV series The Handmaid's Tale, but years ago, I watched the movie and i read the book by Margaret Atwood. Both were terrifying.
Ending no-fault divorce sounds like a page out of that book.
I believe in marriage, but when there is abuse, I also believe that the contract has been broken.

(new here, hi!) ok, where can i go to see which doctrine won out to be the worst?