Opinion of the churches of Christ

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Horrible Churches for their view that it's wrong to use musical instruments in church and full immersion baptism is essential for salvation (I say this as someone who was baptized by full immersion two months ago of my own choice despite being baptized as a baby.)

I do like the Disciples though, I think I might be closer to them theologically more than any other denomination, except for my weird charismatic tendencies.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yeah the Bible doesn't mention Powerpoint or church web sites either.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Although he does make a valid counter-point against some people like really traditionalist Catholics and some very "high church" Protestants who basically think anything other than a piano or organ is inappropriate and no modern instruments should ever be in church. There's no biblical basis for such a position. I suspect Nathan might sympathize with it but for different reasons.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Not all of them are Acapella Churches of Christ.

This is the denomination I've always attended.

This? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churches_of_Christ_in_Australia

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

In all seriousness, this doesn't seem theologically any worse than snake-belly-Low, charismatic literalist Protestantism usually is, but that is a branch of Christianity that I do not like very much anyway (though I can respect it).

The difference I think is that is a bit less theologically rigid, since after all that's the tradition my church comes from. Plus believe it or not they are even gay Pentecostal churches. But of course the more liberal strains admittedly are a very recent development.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

We had some of these kids at my high school. I remember two girls in particular because they were not allowed to use profanity, which we all thought was a bit silly. I remember one of the girls was reading her copy of an assigned novel from English class, and she would white out the words she found inappropriate.

Haha, what? Wow. I hear people say "f**k" and "sh!t" at church events all the time.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Non-denominational?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

So laid back like the type of church I'd go to? Like he preaches in jeans and in a very down to earth and non-aloof style? And yes almost everyone there would believe in the virgin birth and Jesus raising from the dead, and that's probably true even at Nathan's. The difference between both and the Southern Baptists would be over people believing the Earth was created in seven literal days 6000 years ago and if the vast majority of the world's population goes to hell, and I doubt the Southern Baptists ever give sermons about how God first revealed the birth of Jesus to people from "the 99%" (direct quote) instead of the rich elites and nobles that could've got it more attention.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

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I don't even know what that part means, so I can't address it.

It's a reference to the sermon given at the first Sunday of Advent where the guy giving it (who looks like the "orgcore" guy on that "scenesters" site by the way), compared the shepherds who were told by the angels of the birth of Jesus to us today because they were of "the 99%" and not some rich nobles that God could've just easily revealed this to. I doubt any such quoting happens at Southern Baptist churches, more likely you'll hear some Tea Party rhetoric nonsense.

I just remember it notably because that day I used it to explain to someone else on IM that just because they do faith healing rituals and talk about God sending visions and talking to individual people doesn't mean they're right wing fundies.

Wait, so the churches of Christ, Nathan's church and BRTD's church don't believe that the world was created 6000 years ago in 7 literal days and that the vast majority of the population goes to hell?

The churches of Christ probably do. I'm saying most people at mine and Nathan's churches don't.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

You're just bringing up one theological view, which by the way isn't held by the Catholic Church or very much at all in the mainline churches, and isn't even universal amongst evangelicals, as I'm going to a nominally evangelical church. In the same sermon I mentioned above with the "99%" reference, the same guy covered how the magi who came to see Jesus, the "Three" Wise Men*, were Eastern Religious scholars, not Jews or Christians, and then talked about how God can work through people who aren't Christian and kind of tied into that sermon series' general theme of "Jesus is for EVERYONE". I've never heard any of the pastors by the way talk about hell, or do that whole "Pray this and give your life to Christ right now!" type of thing that people commonly associate with evangelicals.

*As you might already know, the Bible never gives a number to them, people just often assume three due to the three gifts mentioned and assuming a proportionality.

We had some of these kids at my high school. I remember two girls in particular because they were not allowed to use profanity, which we all thought was a bit silly. I remember one of the girls was reading her copy of an assigned novel from English class, and she would white out the words she found inappropriate.

Haha, what? Wow. I hear people say "f**k" and "sh!t" at church events all the time.

I think it's your church that's in the minority on this issue BRTD. 

Perhaps, but primarily because other churches have far more olds.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

BTW Nathan do you think most people at your church believe in the Virgin Birth and that Resurrection?

Because I'm not sure if dead0man thinks they are, but those are obviously hardly held only amongst fundies, by the last poll about 78% of Americans believed Jesus rose from the dead, and any church that denies those things would be edging on Unitarianism...But of course you also have people like Spong.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

We have an older congregation

In Amherst? So you're one of the youngest people there? That's kind of weird.

Churches full of olds make me uncomfortable, even if they're progressive, which is part of the reason I'm not comfortable with most mainline churches, (I know we have some here that have a broad age range like the one I went to on Christmas Eve but the median age was still around middle aged there.)