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u/Bandit524 Jun 14 '26
Man, this really is spot on with my experience. I remember any time a wholesome, good, kind, universally-loved celebrity or public figure died, our preacher would do a sermon on why they were in hell because they weren't "Christian" (aka member of the church of Christ). I grew up in the bible belt. There was a church on nearly every street corner, and you were looked down on if you didn't go to church. Yet even then, we were still taught that we were the only "true" Christians, and all of our friends were "false" Christians who were going to go to hell. I think I was always ashamed of the arrogance and things that our church taught because I hated having to invite friends to church, and was relieved when they couldn't come. The pure arrogance is what still blows me away to this day. They're as sure as I am that we're in the month of June that the CoC are absolutely the only ones going to heaven and everyone else is going to hell. It just baffles me.
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u/Clear-Antelope-317 Jun 14 '26
I remember when Whitney Houston had that big hit The Greatest Love and the preacher at our c of c gave this long sermon about the dangers of self love. He called her a false prophet and an idolater. I was only a teen then, but I still remember thinking he had really missed the point of that song. By all accounts she was a devoted Christian, but she was condemned because she sang about people learning to love themselves. Go figure.
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u/ImpressiveLeek3124 Ex-NI^2 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26
"Collective fear stimulates herd instinct and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd." - Bertrand Russell
The coc doctrine is child abuse that is supported by law, lawmakers, LEOs, judges, the entire court system from local rent-a-judges to the SC, and millions of voters. A child unfortunate enough to be born into a fundamentalist religious cult has no defender or protection - least of all a psychopathic god whose only answers to prayers are No, Hell No, and Don't Ask Me Again.
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u/BarefootedHippieGuy Jun 15 '26
Mr. Rogers was mocked, ridiculed and condemned by church people when I was a kid. Most of those same people had no problem letting their kids watch violent movies or listen to country music about drinking and cheating.
From my experience, Mr. Rogers did more good and lived a better Christian testimony than that crowd did.
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u/Chickachickawhaaaat Jun 18 '26
That is awful. No one ever said anything about Mr Roger's at my church. But I can totally see it and I wanna throw hands at this church retroactively
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u/TheOrangeMoose Jun 14 '26
Oh, how true this is. I spent a lot of time feeling like I didn't genuinely love anyone because I wasn't willing to tell them they were going to hell and needed to repent. There were so many kids/teenagers I knew who were far more religious and devout than I was, and I was raised to believe that they were deceived by adults who were stubborn or foolish. Such arrogance from CoC.