I just got door knockers from the Church of Christ.

[LeftyMom]

We seem to get a lot where I live- my area's a bit economically depressed, but not unsafe, so people seem to perceive that they can find people looking for comfort or a sense of family, without worrying about having their car broken into on their search.

A mom and her son, he was maybe ten and was shyly shuffling note cards tucked into the pocket of his nylon bible holder.

Mom wanted to ask if I attended church. I said no, that I'm really not interested and was about to shut the door, and she asked something about my religious affiliation, and I said that I'm an atheist.

Did something turn me away from God, she asked? I was a bit surprised, usually the A word scares them off, since their strategies are usually geared toward nominally Christian but non-participating sorts.

No, I was raised in a Catholic household and I attended plenty of other churches, but I've read the bible and it doesn't seem to accurately reflect reality. For a moment I thought I could see her mentally flipping through her little mental file of apologetics, only to think better of it. Just as well, I think I've heard all of the "good" ones, and I'd probably split a seam laughing at half of them.

Oh, she asked, is it the hypocrisy in churches? Were you raised in a strict household? I got the feeling she's been taught that people leave the church as some reaction to a perceived affront, or because of a failing in their instruction, and not because they genuinely do not believe in the truth of christianity.

No, my family's not devout, let alone strict, I certainly wasn't raised SPX or anything. I attended a lot of churches on my own, I just don't really believe in that sort of thing. It's very freeing, I said, not having to accept convoluted explanations for why the world doesn't seem to reflect religious explanations, and just admitting that it all came about naturally and what it looks like is what it is.

At that point she beat a polite but hasty retreat from my porch. It was like she had a little mental diagram of how to witness, and her conversation with me had run off of the page. I wouldn't be surprised if this winds up being Sunday's adult sunday school lesson "Okay Jill, you be the atheist woman at the door and I'll show you how to evangelize her."

Her son never did look up from his notecards or his shoes long enough to introduce himself or say a word. I don't think he'll be ringing my bell alone in a few years. Maybe he'll even have heard what I said and realize that there are other viewpoints, that it's okay to disbelieve if that makes more sense than believing, that any number of perfectly friendly people do.

[realisticphish]

1. i didn't realize UCC went door to door

I'm a similar kind of non believer.. I had a perfectly good experience with religion, I simply started to become a skeptic, and realized that I couldn't not apply those principles to my own beliefs.

[FloridaJudy]

2. Probably *not* UCC

Those folks aren't into ringing doorbells. Probably just CoC: a much more conservative and aggressive denomination.

[bullwinkle428]

3. Church of Christ and UCC are actually two different denominations...

C of C being the much more conservative, fundamentalist=leaning sect.

[Shakespeare]

5. I grew up attending Church of Christ--it is NOT a fundie denomination.

Not by a long, long, LONG shot. Not aggressive, either--I was very surprised to read that they were out door-knocking, because that group usually doesn't do that. They're sort of like very white-bread, boring baptists. Pretty harmless, though I obviously don't go anymore.

[Redbear]

6. Some Churches of Christ are fundamentalist

I actually grew up in in the CoC as well. It wasn't fundamentalist, but extremely conservative.

But there was one near where I grew up that would probably be considered fundamentalist.

[Shakespeare]

9. They're in the minority, then.

Are you perhaps referring to the offshoot that was often referred to (when I was growing up) as "anti?" I was never sure what they were "anti" to, but they were usually small, odd, insular congregations that wouldn't have anything to do with other churches of christ in town.

The ones I went to (large congregations in Florida, Texas, Georgia and Arkansas) were conservative, but I wouldn't call them "extremely" conservative. I still have friends in the church I grew up with, and my parents still go regularly. They're not bad people.

[Critters2]

10. I tend to use women's ordination as a yard stick.

I have a friend with a PhD in biblical studies, teaching at a mainline seminary but grew up and still belongs to the CoC. They won't ordain her. It just irritates me. Men with less education than her deciding she's not doing ministry or worthy of ordination.

Maybe it's unfair of me, but I tend to think of denominations that don't ordain women as conservative.

[Shakespeare]

17. I didn't say they're not conservative.

I said I disagreed with the other poster who said they're "extremely" conservative, because they aren't.

There are several reasons I no longer attend--that's one of them.

[bullwinkle428]

12. The only real experience I have with the C of C came from the

experience with a pastor that officiated the funeral of a friend that I worked with, a few months back. I guess he wasn't exactly fire and brimstone in his delivery, but I just got the vibe that he took doctrine rather seriously. He had made a comment on the choice of songs the family of the deceased had chosen to play as part of the service, noting that there weren't lots of examples of popular music that accurately reflected the feelings of believers.

My friend was certainly not the "preachy type" in any way; I would certainly know after working with him for close to 20 years! Anyway, this particular congregation is located in small town in Iowa, so I'm sure considerations could be made for differences in regional attitudes as well...

[realisticphish]

7. my bad

:hi:

[Critters2]

4. Almost certainly "Church of Christ". Not "United Church of Christ". BIG difference. nt

[swag]

8. I drank a glass of wine while talking to a Jehovite who drank two double-martinis

during our convo.

My mom is a Church of Christer. She never door-knocks, though.

Not even at my door any more.

[ThomCat]

11. That sounds like the start of a very sad story

that your mom doesn't knock on your door anymore. :(

I barely speak to my own mom most of the time, so I guess that jumps out at me.

:hug:

[Elidor]

13. The big brass kind?

Or the cheap knock-offs?

[Ptah]

14. you sure kicked their asses.

[LeftyMom]

18. No, I didn't.

The lady was really sweet, actually. She just seemed really flustered by the idea that somebody could opt to leave Christianity without some sort of horrible trauma. I didn't know churches were still promoting that idea of being angry at god for something, I was a bit surprised to run into it in person.

[Robeson]

15. Do you live close to Pepperdine University?....

...that's the "Harvard" for Church of Christ members.

[LeftyMom]

20. That's in SoCal, right?

Not at all. I assume she's just from the CoC up the road a bit. We got Baptist flyers before easter, so far not a peep from the two other churches on my street, but I think they're less evangelistic denominations. Now that the weather's nice I'm sure we'll hear from the Pentacostals down the road, and there are Mormonaries out and about most days, but I think they're bilingual and supposed to be working on Spanish speakers because every time I see them they're talking to a latino/a, and this isn't a primarily hispanic neighborhood so that's kind of unlikely to happen by chance.

[ThomCat]

16. Nobody ever knocks on my door.

I've seen cute mormon guys in my neighborhood, but they don't come into the apartment buildings.

It's a damned shame too. I have a large rainbow flag that I sometimes hang in my living room, and I would love a chance to flirt with those cute mormons.
:evilgrin:

[LeftyMom]

21. That sounds like the beginning of a porn.

"How I Converted Two Mormon Boys At Once" A ThomCat production.

[ThomCat]

25. Or a comedy of misunderstanding and overreactions,

inspired by the spirit of Groucho Marks.
:P

[Critters2]

26. ....

(insert obligatory magic underwear reference here).


Now I feel guilty and intolerant. But it came to mind, so...

[Oeditpus Rex]

19. Nice knockers

[LeftyMom]

22. She did have that curvy latina thing going on.

How did you guess? :D

[Oeditpus Rex]

24. Who said I was talking about her?

:D

[Fox Mulder]

23. You made it a lot farther than I would have.

I wouldn't have answered the door.