Opinion of the churches of Christ

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

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.

The New Testament never contains a reference to musical instruments being used in the early church and the use of musical instruments in religious services was uncommon in the United States until the early 20th Century. 

So?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Correct! That's my position for reasons of maintaining a certain aesthetic to the liturgy, though I'm by no means opposed to other acoustic instruments as long as they don't become the primary means of musical expression in a church, which I think should remain the traditionally ecclesiastical keyboard instruments. Clearly there's no Biblical reason why this should be so, why an organ should be appropriate and a two-necked axe with a ton of reverb not, but that is the way the culture of Western Christianity has developed.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

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).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Why don't they believe the latter (majority of people going to hell)?

Because we dare hope.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Why don't they believe the latter (majority of people going to hell)?

Because we dare hope.

But look at the stats. A majority of people are not Christians, using the loosest definition possible. And what about those guys like the Ancient Babylonians/Egyptians/Chineese/Indians/Mayans/Aztecs/Incans/Greeks/Persians/ anyone else I missed that died long before Jesus was born?

What we dare hope is, among other things, that the Church Invisible exists and the Harrowing of Hell occurred from eternity.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

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

Probably. I know our priests do, and most of us believe in some form of Real Presence, so it'd be kind of weird if many of us rejected the Virgin Birth and Resurrection. We have an older congregation and people in this area who are religiously observant are usually much more traditional on these issues than they are on ones of what we might call political theology. Even our UUs are more Christian stylistically than ones in most places.

Spong is to be quite honest something of an embarrassment these days, particularly among the kind of liberal-but-Incarnational theologians who hold sway at places like EDS.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

We have an older congregation

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

The average age is around fifty, but there are some young families. I'm the only young adult most weeks but there are kids around and most age and generational groups over say mid-thirties or so are pretty well represented. It's not a growing church but it certainly isn't shrinking; Amherst actually has a very vibrant faith community relative to what its politics might lead one to expect. For instance it's also home to what I think is the only mosque Westa Woosta, unless they fixed that place in the Springfield area up since last I checked, and there's a Hasidic rabbi who's a very beloved local personality. Aside from Grace Episcopal where I go, the Catholic, UU, and Congregationalist churches, as well as the Newman Center at the university, are all quite well attended. There's also Motown Man, a street performer who does a capella Motown covers (they're really good!), hosts a local-access talk show that people actually watch, and runs a ministry to the poor out of the motel where he lives, apparently by choice.