I grew up in a cult, so my whole life.
Does that affect how you feel when people refer to now as the end days?
I feel equal parts pity and exasperation that they’re ignoring critical crises like global climate change to focus on superstitious nonsense.
Can we hear more about this?
Well, I grew up in what is known as the non-institutional church of Christ. There are different branches of the coC, ranging from the relatively liberal to the downright draconian.
What made this particular branch of the coC “non-institutional” is that they are independent of each other congregation, so the leadership of each group is separate from every other.
The way it actually shakes out is that every congregation gets super deep into the weeds about arcane interpretations of an ancient text about which they are unqualified to explain while making overconfident proclamations of certainty. Other congregations disagree with a fairly minor point in this reading, and they will become effectively dead to each other. Ultimately, the different churches (they would hate me calling them that) would form a loose confederation across the region with various groups they could live in uneasy peace with.
Within the congregation itself was a religion that taught that the world is a wicked place from which we should set ourselves apart. Evolution was a lie spread by the devil to make us doubt God’s power. Women were not allowed to speak or wear pants during the church service. We did not use instruments to make music during the service, as that was not mentioned in the Bible. Any disagreement with doctrine could get one removed from good standing, and we left two churches (forced out, really) based on the Elders’ strict views on baptism and musical instruments: my father would not agree that immersion was strictly necessary to save one’s soul, or that it was sinful to exceed the Bible’s authority and use instruments.
It is a bit of a weird duck as a cult, but they’re extremely controlling, patriarchal, and reactionary. They’re in most towns, but people usually think they’re an offshoot of the Baptists (of which certain types also dip into cult status in my opinion). I’d place them between the Baptists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses on a fundamentalist belief scale. I think the BITE model is a useful one (but not perfect) for defining cults:
- Behavioral control
- Information control
- Thought control
- Emotional control
The coC did all of these things: they wanted members to live apart from society where only those in the church were acceptable social peers, to limit exposure with “subversive” ideas and science, to make people so afraid of going to hell that you’ll blindly accept the teachings. You were expected to attend every service: Sunday morning & night and Wednesday night.
In short, they wanted to control people’s lives by love-bombing newcomers and then suffocating them until they fit into their assigned tiny little box.
And yes, we were in the end times. Even though nobody knows when Jesus will return. Wink.
Thank you for sharing! I have a friend who grew up in Amarillo and she’s told me about the big church split there over instruments. It’s crazy how these cult-like religious groups are able to exist in plain view with so much control over the followers. That’s the kind of stuff that makes people think all religion is crazy. They create an us-them situation and either don’t know or don’t care that they’re on the wrong side of that.
the big church split there over instruments
I’m suddenly now coming to grips with the sheer cinematic realism of the film Footloose.
This. Every word. I couldn’t agree more.
Oh yeah, Amarillo is a big city for the NI-coC. Abilene, too.
The us-or-them situation is exactly what they’re aiming for: isolated people are easier to control. But yeah, I’m not sure if it’s an intentional strategy or just what happened to work out for their purposes.
I like to pull this list up whenever someone starts talking about how the signs are clear that the end is near: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events
People have been saying this shit in the 500s and before
Christian apocalyptic belief has been poisoning right wing politics in the US for ages now. Things like relations with Israel have been heavily warped by it.
Since I learned of the existence of Jehovah’s Witnesses, nearly 40 years ago.
As genx, we all thought we would die like war games, but i don’t remember anyone calling it end times.
I was born in 1984 so 40 years.
I was also born in ‘84; the 90’s were pretty rad though for a kid so the doom and gloom didn’t really start until around 9/11 for me.
Hey, me too!
Even the ancient Greeks used to complain that society was devolving. They talked about earlier generations being gold and now they’ve devolved to iron.
I don’t recall anyone ever saying that, unless it was to make a joke.
I envy your lack of this particular childhood trauma.
We don’t have many apocalyptic christian churches in my country.
Every time an event reminds us nukes exist.
Every time I start a new game in Zomboid.
People who say this is the worst of times (US) and I have to remind them of things like the civil war, ww1, the great depression, ww2, the red scare…
My entire life. I grew up attending Christian schools where we were taught that we’re living in the end times.
Since my parents said it the day I was born.
Half a century and counting
