27 May 08 The Question
As a parent you expect (and prepare for) certain questions.
However, without fail, you will at some point have to field a question you didn’t expect.
I’m not sure exactly why I didn’t expect the question.
It just came as a surprise.
Driving down the road Sunday afternoon (after church) the boy asked: “Dad, why are we in the Church of Christ?”
Maybe a better theologian would have responded with facts and references.
My response was simple: “Because my parents were and your mom’s parents were.“
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What? You’re kidding me, right? You didn’t quote Romans 16:16? You didn’t tell him there is only one true church and you happen to be a part of that true church … that is, the particular sect of over 30 sects of coC that happens to REALLY hold to truth?
You didn’t go over the steps of salvation and the organization of the church to demonstrate to your child that you are the only ones who have all those identifying marks? You didn’t tell your child about Noah building the ark out of gopher wood therefore only non-instrumental music is acceptable to God?
You missed a golden moment, my friend, a golden moment for indoctrination.
What an honest answer! You may be the only Church of Christ preacher in the world that would have given that answer. Even your close friends who will tease you about what the answer should have been will not have the guts to give the same answer. Oh, they will talk about it behind closed doors, but that is as far as it’s going to go. I promise you that if I had given that answer at Central 20 years ago I would have been run out of town (I was anyhow) before the sun set and they might have even burned the parsonage to the ground. Some, if not all of those brethren, have passed on and you are left only with their memory and their children. God bless you for your courage and honesty. Soldier on! Just don’t do anything silly and get run off. You are needed!
You weren’t drinking just before he asked that question, were you?
how did you know he capitalized the “c” when he spoke the question? Maybe he was asking a different question?
Was I “dissed” by Ditmore?
I’m not even sure they use that term anymore and no I don’t think so.
Greg, you always make me laugh, except for when you make me cry.
Clif, I usually don’t start drinking until Sunday late afternoon.
Zman, Very nice, very nice! Just a stand I take when I coin the phrase.
The thing is and this is a huge thing. Though there are some other reasons, it is my respect for my parents that has kept me in this movement so far.
Your answer sounds like the answer Rick Atchley gave at the P-dine Lectures a couple of years ago. Actually, it was his Grandmother I believe when asked by Rick, how did we end up in the acapella churches, she answered, “Because when I was a little girl, our new preacher didn’t like pianos so he made us get rid of it.”
RDW - you make a great & important point about respect for parents & previous generations. Certainly there are many who have left the CofC because what they saw/learned produced anything but respect.
Kind of drives home the point about taking care of my own house and what my kids observe about my life.
That would be the basic point of my answer as well. There’s more to it, and my answer changes all the time.
Currently, there are some tenets of the C of C that I actively disagree with and I’m having some trouble justifying to myself why I’m still there. But, in the end, it always comes back to the people.
(And your wife’s parents are two that keep me hangin’ round.)
i had to think about how i would answer that one (in that circumstance)…there are those complexities wrapped up in both the question and answer.
i think that i too would go with, it feels like home; it was the first to come to mind.
home is not always comfortable. it implies family, so how could it be? it requires my involvement (participation) and my very presence. it implies order, even as it is known to be flexible. it holds traditions (and generations before and after), but makes the life transitions also. …
a thought
@Clif - I think there are plenty of us that would give that answer. I may have added something like “I’ve tried to get out, but I’m not sure how to get a job in another group.”
Brad, isn’t that the truth!